becoming a priamry school teacher

[ilikeyourface]

Dd has decided she wants to be a primary school teacher. She is in year 11, passed some gsce including maths english and will do the rest this year , predicted to get a good grade for all. However her next issue is , what does she do in a levels? And in uni will she pick one subject or will it be something along the lines of primary education? Is there anything she can do to help her chances? She did work exprience in a primary school and I have encouradged her to help out at something similar to brownies to get experience. Thanks in advace

Bump

I'm a secondary teacher. When I was embarking on my UCAS journey ten years ago I spoke to some teacher training institutions. Although I decided to go down the bachelors followed by PGCE route I remember being told that one of my A-levels (at least) should be a traditional 'trinity' subject (maths, English, a science). I took English and French to A-level (with three AS levels in Biology, German and Psychology as I contracted influenza in yr 12 which put me out of action for nearly two months). I then read French and History at a good university before embarking on a PGCE. I think the general rule of thumb is that traditional academic subjects leave you with the world as your oyster. Once you are in the door at university so to speak, as long as you can demonstrate the requirements for a course and there is space available most institutions will let you study for lot of different course (so analytical skills from my English A-level let me read History despite having no A-level or GCSE).

*yr 13

If she can take A-level maths, that would really help any primary school applications in the future.

As to post a levels, there are two options. She can either chose to study a degree in Primary Education which is generally 3 although sometimes 4 years or she can study a general degree in any subject but ideally a curriculum subject ( so the basic english, maths, history , geography, science etc ) followed by a post graduate qualification for a further year, the former is probably better if she is definite she wants to teach, the latter if she might change her mind!

Hi OP! I am currently training to be a primary school teacher :)

Your daughter could end up on a general Primary Education course, so she wouldn't have to choose any specific A-Levels. However, it may be advisable to study Maths and/or English Literature or Language.

Alternatively, she could study any A-Level subject and take this to university level before embarking on a PGCE.

Encourage her to carry out as much voluntary work as possible, e.g. Brownies or Scouts. Also, some universities require two weeks of work experience in a primary school setting prior to starting the course.