Rejected for PGCE

[Needadoughnut]

I just got rejected. It didn't even take them 20mins to say no. The feedback implies that I'm almost need to be a "semi" teacher to be successful next time. I'm sure it was a misunderstanding on my part as I would have thought that was the point of the degree.

Have you some experience in a school setting? Is it for primary or secondary?

It was through a SCITT. I understand the selection process is different in comparison to a university led one.

I've had three days experience. It was secondary for MFL.

Not sure what process is like now but it certainly used to be the case that you needed at least a weeks experience to be considered but you could show that you would get that before starting course even if not undertaken yet... 3 days isn't a lot to know that is what you definitely want to do .

Could be for all sorts of reasons, especially in a school-based course - it could have been down to the mix of languages you offer compared to what they're looking for. What tasks did they have you complete?

I assume you've applied to three choices? I'm doing my PGCE this year and never heard back from my school-based choice.

icklekid unfortunately it's game over for me this year. They knew from my application I had only had 3 days experience. It still baffles me they mentioned things like "pedagogy" and subject knowledge demands when I'm fully trilingual.

Because if where I'm located I only had that choice. The languages that I'm fluent in are the ones they offer. Rapport was terrible and that didn't help. My lesson was only for 5 minutes, which is definitely not enough time for showing my skills.

I get the impression that there are some schools-based providers who are not looking for trainees so much as cheap staff they can stick in the classroom and leave to get on with it from the off. This means that they are looking for candidates who need the least training possible.

The government was a bit short-sighted and didn’t take this into account when trying to get rid of uni-based PGCEs and are now trying to plead with providers to not reject perfectly suitable candidates who have the qualifications to train to teach, but aren’t ready to teach.

If the rapport was terrible then that probably shows you that it would be quite a miserable year. Where is your nearest university based course? They would probably be able to find you placements closer to your home.

I got onto my PGCE with no secondary experience, but it was a condition of my offer that I had to complete 5 days to start the course. However I had lots of experience in primary already.

Knowing your subject is not the same as knowing how to teach a subject. The five minute presentation gives you an opportunity to show that you can appropriately tailor delivering a topic within a limited time, it is enough time if you plan accordingly.

Sorry to hear you weren't successful, but use the feedback constructively, don't just write off what they say because you disagree.

I think my closet is two hours away. Almost three on the train. I also corrected which didn't help either and questioned why Spanish teaching was so Eurocentric. But I thought those were fair questions.

Also agree with bombardier, the whole training year is about taking feedback and acting upon it!

I genuinely thought the lesson was ok. I saw them teaching something in a similar way at the secondary I attended. I was teaching vocabulary for meals in French.

show that you can appropriately tailor delivering a topic within a limited time

But that’s what teacher training is for. I’d have been fucked if I’d had to teach a lesson during my PGCE interview.

What was their feedback about the mini lesson?

noble, you must have shown greater aptitude than you give yourself credit for 😉

There's not an expectation that you can teach a perfect lesson, but that you can put across a simple concept in a relevant way.

The only feedback was that the quality was not up to scratch. I had flashcards with the different words and some smaller versions of the same ones so they be able to classify them between breakfast / lunch / dinner.

A few things strike me. First, SCITTs may be quite small - especially compared to a PGCE set up. If they are the only provider for miles around, they are probably getting a lot of applicants for each space. It’s possible that they only have one or two places for MFL - many school departments are small and can’t accommodate a student- so if have a number of applicants they can afford to be very choosy.

Also, when I interviewed PGCE candidates we were absolutely not looking for a fully formed teacher but we were looking for someone who could respond positively to feedback and would be keen to learn. We would always point our something that could be improved from the lesson alongside the positives and it was a real eye-opener to see how candidates responded. We often rejected those whose first attempts at teaching were more confident than others because they were very upset in the face of constructive feedback or tried to argue the toss with us rather than taking our advice on board and reflecting on improvements. It sounds like you may have been a little like this, but of course I don’t have the whole story and you may have been very receptive. As others have said, we were very keen to see as much prior experience as possible so we could see if you knew what you were letting yourself in for. It wasn’t essential and we would allow people to get it after the interview in the case of excellent candidates but people who had spent a lot of time observing or volunteering were often much more impressive at interview. Too many people relied on their own experience as a pupil to answer our questions.

A friend who has a PGCE read the feedback she thought it sounded like BS and possibly the lack of rapport was my biggest downfall.

I want given any feedback in situ. The only thing that they asked me was "how do you respond to feedback?" Which I replied with "my entire professional career was built-in it, from above, below or even side departments".

Bombadier for my PGCE interview I had one day experience in a secondary school and I wasn’t asked to teach anything. When I read on here about how potential trainees are being asked to plan and teach activities to a bunch of kids (or even adults) I’m horrified because I’d have probably bottled it. I needed those weeks at uni before starting in the classroom.

When you say lack of rapport, do you mean with the students or the people interviewing you?

Lack of rapport with students is a pretty big issue unfortunately, regardless of how academically qualified you are. Have you thought about trying to get a position as a TA/Graduate TA for a year to build more experience?

I got rejected the first year I applied, I went back to volunteering in school 2 days a week and learnt a language, the year after I got 3 offers from 3 unis.

There were no students involved just a board of three members of the SCITT.

Oh FGS we’ve got a critical shortage of MFL teachers, we can’t afford to be needing people to take a year out to work as a TA before training. This is ridiculous!