Is PGCE most respected route for someone who wants to teach but hopes to end up in school leadership one day?

[Stringbean70]

As the title asks really. My DC is doing modern languages and keen to teach at secondary level (we understand there is a government payment for MFL teachers but that is NOT motivation here). Should DC pursue a PGCE or another route into teaching and, ultimately, SLT? Any advice much appreciated

If you want to teach, why would you want to get promoted out of teaching before you've even started?

There are a few SLT at every school who clearly only ever wanted to manage and spent as little time as possible in the classroom, they are every teacher's worst nightmare.

There's a lot of people here saying about how getting into SLT is about hard work. It's definitely a pre-requisite, as it is for all teachers, but actually getting the job is more about whether your face fits and whether you are willing to toe the party line.

I completely agree. I don’t know anyone at all who has ever cared where someone did their PGCE (particularly whether it was Oxford or Cambridge) and I say this as someone who did theirs at the Institute of Education.

I applied for TF when I was in my third year at uni and planning to teach (at the same time as applying for a PGCE). I was the only person on the interview day that I went to who actually wanted to teach. The other candidates were just looking for post graduate study and had no interest in education. I can imagine that they went into management roles quickly with absolutely no interest in actually teaching.

As I said above, there’s nothing worse than an inexperienced teacher whose only ambition is to be out of the classroom. I’d encourage your child to consider one step at a time when it comes to their career. There’s plenty of time to work up to being SLT when they’ve actually qualified…

getting the job is more about whether your face fits and whether you are willing to toe the party line.

Totally agree with the toe-ing the line!

Firstly @Stringbean70 hurrah for your DC doing MFL! fewer and fewer ppl choose it which is very sad (it’s my subject).

I would echo most others here in two ways:

• It really doesn't matter where you do your PGCE (I would personally advise that over TeachFirst as I think you have more control; as others say, it’s not at all about sitting in a uni classroom); I did mine at Nottingham as part of the (now defunct) GTP and no one ever mentioned that fact
• It’s odd indeed to have SLT as an ambition before even teaching. Most teachers IME go into it bc they want to teach; and I know a decent number who have got frustrated that the main way to progress upwards is via SLT – which leads to them not teaching, or teaching a lot less. In fact I know at least two former colleagues who have dropped down from dep/asst head to be a class teacher again.

Agree with the suggestion to spend time in a classroom btw.

@Stringbean70 speaking as a school governor, the fastest way into a leadership role may be at a small school that teaches only one MFL, because there will be less competition for the head of department role. Apart from that, they just need to make themselves indispensable, so the Head won't want to risk losing them by giving a TLA to someone else first.

Either way, if they are strong in the classroom and interview well, there will be plenty of options to move up the ladder by moving schools.

I agree with others that choice of uni is unimportant. When I help with interviews, I do look at the education history, but I've become used to being unimpressed by that and to focus on their teaching abilities instead.