PGCE secondary school maths

[lavenderlove]

Hi has anyone done a PGCE secondary maths that can give me their experience? I'm applying in Oct to get on to Sept 2019 course so any tips to help me secure a place would be helpful too

I think they are desperate for Maths teachers so if you meet the criteria, I cannot imagine anything would hold you back. There is a £25,000 bursary I believe - so go for it.

DS of a friend has just completed his first year of teaching after his PGCE and enjoys teaching in a 6th form college. He found teaching in 11-16 schools extremely tough and his personality was perhaps such that he would find his feet with A level students, which he has. I understand lesson prep and everything you need to learn is very hard work but if you can get into a great school afterwards, it’s worth it.

Hope it goes well for you.

DS1 has just completed his training in secondary maths.
There are several different routes to train and he chose SCITT which is school based but linked to a university for the PGCE part. You can also go via a university PGCE course.
He applied to local training providers so he could live at home during training and was offered a job at his training school. It has a sixth form and he will be teaching some A level Further Maths from September.
His course had about 20 trainees in various subjects, mainly new graduates but some career changers.
He was very pleased he went for the school based training as he felt it gave him much more classroom practise.
As Bubbles says there is a bursary, there is also a scholarship available on top of that for selected candidates. All tax free. However from 2018 it will be phased over three years I believe.

As to securing a place if you have a Maths degree and put in some hours of work experience in a school you should have no problem. Are you at uni now? If so you could sign up through the uni volunteer department for a local secondary school. DS also did a couple of weeks W/E at a local secondary school and a sixth form college.

@BubblesBuddy I've heard it is very tough. Some of what I've been reading online sounds awful! Glad he's found his feet and is enjoying it.
And thank you, I'm going to build my experience and hopefully will secure a place for next year!

@Squirrills it has been confusing me when I have been reading about the SCITT, PGCE and the school direct route. I wasn't sure which was best. Great that your son has now been offered a job at his school! I was going to go for the PGCE uni route just because I felt the SCITT might throw me in at the deep end, but now you've said your son is glad he chose that route I might look in to it.
I didn't know the bursary was now going to be phased over 3 years so I will have to look in to that.
I don't have a maths degree, I graduated last year with a psychology degree. I worked as a GCSE maths tutor throughout uni so it's always been an interest to me. I've emailed my local high school (where I went to school myself) and asked if I can come in and get some experience so hopefully they will let me.

Ask your local training provider if a psychology degree contains enough maths to be considered for a maths PGCE. You may need to do a subject knowledge enhancement course.

I know my friend’s DS has a good maths degree from a very highly regarded university for maths. I think you will have to check out your degree’s suitability. . He did the PGCE at university and teaching work experience was not necessary. He didn’t have it and the course doesn’t require it. They believe young people know enough about teaching from being in school for years! However their web site says you must have 50% of your first degree in the subject you wish to teach.

He did find the lesson planning and behaviour management the biggest problem but he had had a very upmarket education with no experience of low level disruption at all. He just wasn’t used to it. Timing of lessons became an issue and he wasn’t covering what he had intended to. However, he pulled it round and is now perfectly ok.

@noblegiraffe Thanks, I will be completing a subject knowledge enhancement course. I've enquired and I can do the short course due to having A level maths

@BubblesBuddy thanks! I'm able to do a short course before or alongside the PGCE to enhance my knowledge on maths due to having A level maths. I don't think classroom experience is a requirement at my university either. I'm not sure how competitive it is getting on to the course so I'm hoping it might help me, especially with my degree not being in the subject.

I can understand that! I'm not sure how I would cope with badly behaved children. I'm not a very authoritative person so I'll have to work on that. Glad he's got to grips with it now.

Ofsted changed the criteria that providers of initial teacher training have to follow in the spring term of this year so you should find that all providers who are working to the new criteria no longer require previous classroom experience.

As they changed in spring part way through a recruitment cycle there are still a fair few old paper prospectuses out there but most have updated their websites.