Best route into teacher training without A Levels

[Xtrabroken]

Hope someone could help.

Dc1 wants to be a teacher of primary. She already volunteers with Rainbows and also at our local Sure Start Centre.

She is on target to get
English 5/5
Maths 4 or 5
Chemistry 5
Physics 5
History 6
Biology 5
Health and social care pass.

Looking at the entry requirements for A levels at our local college I doubt she will get on the a level courses so just wondered what what be the best way to go on something like a btech or NVQ type course.

She will need a degree to be a primary school teacher so I would suggest she may struggle if she can't do a levels. Might she consider working as a nursery nurse (do a childcare btech) or nanny if she wants to work with young children?

How can she aspire to teach if she's certain she can't cope with A Levels? I'm not being intentionally nasty, but that's not someone I'd want teaching my kids.

How about being a teaching assistant?
Or a sports coach?
A youth worker?
A nursery nurse?
A play worker?

She will need a degree you be teacher.

I didn't say she couldn't cope with A levels as such I said that she was not likely to get a place. Where we live competition is high and I know kids with As who didn't get on their chosen course.

Iamgreyhound you probably have people like that teaching your children already given our local uni accepts people on the Access to HE route with no A Levels and does a 7 week fast track course for those without the right qualifications to see if they can cope and if they can they get a place. I know Salford Uni also accepts people with right skills and wrong qualifications. Not to mention those who do another degree and then PGCE (I took my degree with alternative entry qualifications as a mature student.)

I was asking what other entry routes for younger as most of those I've mentioned are for older.

Teaching assistant is great but there's no jobs and pay is not livable.

Nanny is a good idea thanks.

FE college would accept for a levels with those grades. She would also have a chance of being in a smaller group than in a sixth f college.

I take kids with a clutch of 5/6 grades every year. They struggle but if they work hard they get a couple of D grades which is enough to get onto a primary teaching course. Whether this is an appropriate level of academic ability to teach is a different debate, but that's the current requirements.

Have a look at the CACHE extended level 3 Early Years diploma. It's accepted by unis as an A level alternative for early years degrees and hence primary teaching.
It may be better to have distinction in a diploma type qualification than low grade A levels imo.
But with low grade A levels, it's possible to top up with a Foundation degree and then move onto a degree course.

Thanks Catslife that's the kind of thing I was looking for. She was looking at the early years QTS so only really nursery to the top end of Infants really so that would fit.

Thanks Keira, she's actually quite intelligent but has processing issues so can have problems between head and paper.

@Xtrabroken It's great that she's got experience working with children but for her university application she will need at least 3 weeks of experience within a school setting. I'd recommend looking at doing this towards the end of her first year at college as it can be stressful trying to find a school to take you on at the last minute.

Hello, just a quick one - I'm currently doing an Early Childhood degree (after access course, no A levels here either), and was looking into Early Years Teacher Status - beware this is only accepted at private / independent nurseries as far as I could tell, and to work at a state school you need the official teacher training qualification. Good luck with it all!

@ACubed If you do an Early Years with Primary degree with QTS it qualifies you to teach up to and including year 1.

Yup but an Early Years Teaching Status is a different thing to that.
"The Early Years Teacher Qualification leads to work in the early years' sector with children aged 0 to 5 years. Successful candidates are also permitted to teach in reception classes of free Schools, academies or independent schools."

I'm just mentioning as I nearly signed up for this course thinking I could teach at state primaries with it

I think her old primary teacher would allow her to come in as it's very local and we are still in touch.

Thanks Acubed that's really helpful.

Given the workload for primary teachers is incredibly high including lots of paperwork, she might need to consider whether processing issues that make it difficult/slower to get thoughts onto paper might make the workload impossible to manage.

www.cache.org.uk/our-qualifications/supporting-teaching-and-learning/level-3/qualification-detail/level-3-diploma-in-specialist-support-for-teaching-and-learning-in-schools-157

Can lead onto a Foundation degree or TA/LSA

As others have mentioned she needs to be looking at NVQ or BTEC at level 3. She will need to put in a lot of work and qualify with good grades. If she is offered a place at university she will also need to pass her professional skills tests and most places ask for a minimum of 10 days experience.

I have no A levels either, I am currently doing an access course, and have just accepted a place to study Primary Education with QTS in September.

FE college would accept for a levels with those grades

Depends on how over-subscribed it is. If there are lots of applicants, the college will refuse to accept the excess, and the grades of applicants may well be their deciding factor. Just because a course specifies minimum grades doesn't mean that they'll accept everyone with those grades - if they don't have enough places, then they'll select.

My niece and nephew both met the minimum requirements for their chosen college courses but neither were accepted and both have ended up missing out on their chosen careers because of it.

LIZS something like that looks ideal.

I know she would quite like to work with children with Sen but given that TA jobs are so few and far between these days... Both myself and my Uncle have retrained.

Noble something to consider thanks.

Snape that's helpful thank you.

I am a teacher and I don't have any A levels!
I got decent 'B' grade GCSEs but didn't have the maturity to deal with the freedom of 6th form college and left without taking A levels. I did a BTec in my late teens and then studied with the Open University as a mature student. I then did a PGCE.
So it can be done!

My Dd didn't take A levels. She went to the local college and did a CACHE course and extended diploma. She had no trouble getting into uni and is in her 3rd year studying Primary Education with Qts. She has coped very well and found her college course Prepared her well. She got as much experience volunteering with children and felt well prepared.