SKE English /SEN teaching advice please?

[OrangeSpicedBun]

I would be grateful if any teaching staff have insight for Dd 🙏

Dd is set on a pathway of teaching, she has had lots of experience doing agency TA/Cover supervisor work in a variety of settings. She is not sure which age-group (although knows prefers older primary and secondary) she would like to work with and is starting an Ed Studies degree this term which will hopefully give her a headstart on postgrad studies.

She IS sure that she ultimately wants to work in an alternative setting. Was at a PRU today and loved it, has also worked in lots of SEN settings.

Therefore considering PGCE Secondary English with SKE. Hoping it would be a transferable specialism across settings. Our only concern is that she might not be accepted for the SKE pathway. She has English Lit A-Level (only grade C though) and the opportunity to do literacy education modules /join drama soc through her uni.

We just don't know how competitive that pathway is ? Any insight would be welcomed. She thinks it will be ultra competitive due to the bursary available.

If you have purposely set out to work in an alternative setting it would be great to know how you did it.

I'm a bit worried about her going into Teaching but she is determined. Thanks so much in advance if you can offer thoughts.

I did an English PGCE with an Education degree, there were people on my course who had studied media, drama, creative writing etc rather than a straightforward English degree, however I have always felt on the back foot with subject knowledge and have had to work a lot harder to learn the content.

She should contact the University and speak to the ITE (teacher training) department and see what they are looking for.

Thanks Calor. The uni she is going to does PGCE English so she could have a word when she gets there. Didn't consider that. Did you do a SKE course? You'd hope it would be helpful in terms of subject knowledge.

Sorry I'm not quite understanding so she wants to work in SEN, is hoping to do secondary English PGCE. What is the concern about SKE?

She will be able to move into SEN with English PGCE if that's the worry? The SEN shortage is terrible, if she has a passion and has a PGCE there's no problem.

Thanks lammetoday,

The concern is how competitive the English PGCE with SKE will be to get on to. I think she is worried that it will be competitive anyway because there is a bursary attached. Hope that makes sense.

There is a bursary attached precisely because recruitment numbers are not being met. She might nees to have a training g place to be eligible for the SKE. Has she checked that out? Doing a SKE course uses to come with money in its own right but I think alot of them are online these days.

There wasn't the option to do an SKE course the year I trained however the Uni does offer one now which I have taught on - it's just a short course during the summer holidays before starting the PGCE, not equivalent to an English degree but definitely useful to get an overview of the topics you would be likely to teach. It's generally offered to prospective trainees who don't have an English degree as a condition for getting on the course.

I did an English SKE prior to doing my PGCE - it was a condition of completing it before even starting the PGCE. Mine was 300 hours or roughly 12 weeks. Although the SKE was offered and arranged by the university through which I did my PGCE it wasn't a 'pathway' as such - you don't do a PCGE with SKE. The SKE has to be done first and there's no way you could do it alongside the PGCE.

Thanks all. We are having a good chat tonight about it all. Tapping into uni advice and being strategic with placements/ module choices/ extracurricular seems to be a good path. She is determined to be ready to apply for postgrad training from Oct 25 which is only two years away 😳we shall see how she gets on.

Best of luck and all good wishes for the term.

Can I just say that as an English teacher, I would be deeply concerned if your daughter were accepted onto an English PGCE course.

A C grade A Level in English does not - and should not - qualify her to teach English at secondary.

Due to teacher shortages, she may well get accepted onto the course, but she will struggle hugely.

English is a hugely demanding subject to teach, largely due to a horrendous marking load. The only way most of us cope is because we have strong subject knowledge, and so planning lessons doesn't take very long. As an example, if you said to me, you need to plan a unit on poetry for Year 7, I could instantly give you a list of appropriate poems and I would know all of the poetic features I'd need to teach. I can analyse any poem on the spot in class without needing to have studied it or looked it up beforehand. It would quite literally take me 5 minutes to plan a poetry lesson for Year 7. For your daughter, it would probably take about three hours. You can't spend three hours planning one lesson when you might have up to 5 per day.

Secondary teachers need to be experts in their subject. Someone with a C grade in English A Level is not - and will never be - an expert, I'm afraid, and I don't mean that unkindly, it's just the reality. There is a reason why teachers should have as a minimum a BA/BSc in their subject. You really do need to have a solid academic grounding in what you teach in order to be able to teach it well.

If she is interested in SEN specifically rather than an academic subject, then I would say going for primary teaching would be more appropriate to her skills and academic background.