PGCE recommendations

[PGAccom]

Hi. Can anyone recommend PGCE courses (secondary)? DC will consider countrywide including Oxbridge but may prefer NW England universities.

That’s interesting @Fifthtimelucky I think the idea of feeling so connected to a particular school may appeal.

I'm a support role in a school, attached to one department.
We currently have 2 trainee teachers in - both funded.
The student doing a SCITT seems to have a really good balance and build up of responsibilities.
The student doing TeachFirst has really been thrown in the deep end. Not recommended.

I'd seriously look at the options to do a school based training scheme.

So apart from the benefit of being attached to a school what is the advantage compared to the PGCE? It feels like most posters don’t rate the PGCE route?

I’d recommend the apprenticeship route if something comes up at their school. Could be paid by the schools apprenticeship levy and they can earn on the job rather than starting in debt and having to find a job at the end

It depends on the subject. Subjects like maths and computing attract massive tax free bursaries of around £30k for doing a PGCE so you'd be daft to do an alternative route for those subjects.

It makes it easier to find a job I think, though that might not matter if you teach a shortage subject of course!

My daughter’s school had two history trainees last year. It only had one job to offer but wanted to keep both trainees, so offered them both a job, and each teaches history alongside a second subject (one geography and one RE, not maths or physics)!

They’re not doing a subject which attracts a bursary @noblegiraffe

My DS is doing a History PGCE at the Institute if Education at UCL. He’s finding it a good course with good placements - although it’s very hard work. He has a job lined up already for September from his first placement school. Good luck to your son - it’s a good path to take but hard work

I know, it was a general comment.

Good to hear @Keepcominghome

For experience, I moved for PGCE to a completely new location. I’d always advise against this. It’s a hard year and you have to hit the ground running, acclimatise to your new surroundings and create a whole new support network at the same time. Either a course in my home or undergraduate cities would have made far more sense.

i did make it through the year but didn’t go on to teach (secondary). I sometimes wonder if a different location would have meant a different path.

Sounds like a tough year @Shangrilalala so yes, anything to make it easier is sensible.
I think an apprenticeship is out of the question because you need 2 years experience in a school to qualify.

@PGAccom I know loads of people who have had to move for training because they don’t live near a university. They cannot commute.

My big tip would be to train where the schools are good. A friend trained at Southampton university and teaches at a big 6th form college in Hampshire. It’s worked out well. So I would look for similar training opportunities and very good schools as a no 1 priority. Grammar counties have lots of great schools.

I was shocked to hear from a newly qualified teacher that 200 people started on her PGCE course and only 70 completed it. And of that 70 not all went into teaching jobs.

They are working in a school where a lot of the children have challenging backgrounds. They are enjoying working in this type of school because they feel like they’re making a difference. I don’t think it’s a priority for them to work in a private or grammar school.

@PGAccom. When they are utterly disillusioned and worn out they might think differently! I didn’t suggest private. However being all “making a difference” usually means making a swift exit from teaching.

@PGAccom. I have been a governor of 3 schools. Two of the schools had many challenging DC and many teachers struggled after having the idealistic views you are talking about. Many teachers do actively avoid such schools. It is also unbelievably hard to recruit the best slt into schools and the best heads are like gold dust. By all means carry on with the ideals but don’t have a personal go at me along the way. I’ve actually seen the problems of teaching in challenging schools and staff turnover. I’ve also seen these schools stabilized by a brilliant head but they move on too.

Therefore anyone coming into teaching should consider all these points because no teacher, on their own, makes much of a difference. It used to be our advertising slogan “make a difference” but the head makes the most difference.

Worcester is excellent for teacher training

I didn’t know this. They have played sport for their university against Worcester in the past. I’ll mention it to them. Thank you.

Apparently now among the best in the country for teaching and nursing!
Lovely city too.
My boyfriend did his PGCE there. My mum too but that was many moons ago.

I did a SCITT for primary teaching and it was excellent. I was part of the school community from the beginning and got to see the whole picture of school life. It was also invaluable to see how the class teacher settled a class at the beginning of the year (this is probably more relevant for primary than secondary) and how she established routines and rules. I think I would have been a bit lost when the following year when faced with my own Reception class if I hadn't seen how it was done the year before.
If you do a normal PGCE your first placement might be towards the end of the first term (depending on the university you go to) and the routines are already established.
Also I got a lot of extra experience by doing the SCITT compared to friends who did a PGCE because I was involved in a whole pile of other activities going on in the school.
Your DC should definitely consider SCITTs as well as traditional PGCEs.

I also second what others are saying about trying to get somewhere near home for support or choosing somewhere in the area of the country you wish to teach in.
Certainly in the area I worked in, information was shared between schools about the various students. So if you did well in a particular placement but the school didn't have a job they'd often share that information with a school they knew was looking for someone.
A friend of mine got his job because he applied to the school I was working at and just missed out. A couple of weeks later another head from a nearby school was looking for someone to fill a position quickly and phoned our head and asked if there was anyone who had applied for our job who had made a good impression so our head phoned my friend and told him to apply to the second school. He's been there ever since.