Any PGCE students offer any advice?

[Hulla]

My step-brother is looking at doing a pgce next year. He is waiting to hear back from a couple of schools about shadowing some teachers and after that wants to apply asap.

Can anyone tell me what makes a good application? I assume a lot of weight is given to the personal statement, is that right?

Is there anything he can do to help his application? He's looking at secondary ICT (school based).

Also, how manageable is it with 2 dc?

Any info much appreciated!

Has he checked out the TES website? He can register as a PGCE student and go on to that forum or any others to get lots of tips and advice on everything 'teaching'. I almost applied to do the GTP last year and almost all info I neeed was on that site - so many helpful people willing to tell you what happened in their interview etc.

There is quite a focus now on having had some work shadowing experience so that they can talk about this in the application and at interview.
The PCGE is demanding and he will certainly have to work quite a lot in the evenings, but hopefully the holidays will make up for that.

Not just work shadowing but also hands on volunteering is all good experience. Although it's hard to get voluntary experience at secondary level as most schools just don't want to offer it or don't need it, he could try volunteering with either top end of primary school.

Otherwise voluntary work with youth clubs, after school clubs etc all looks good on an application.

I work with student volunteers, many of who are looking for school experience over and above the standard requirements.

Thanks so much everyone. He's spoken to one of the organisations (TDA?) about shadowing and a couple of schools near him so hopefully that will help.

Thanks for the tip about volunteering and the website, thats fantastic. I'll pass it all on.

Thanks again for helping!