PGCE Secondary Postgraduate degree

Overview:

Do you want to inspire young people and help change lives?
Would you like a great starting salary and a rewarding career? Teaching offers all of this. Being able to educate and inspire future generations, seeing young people grow and develop with your help is unlike any other job.

Watch one of our former students talking about her PGCE Secondary year at Roehampton.

As one of the UK’s leading and longest-running providers of teacher education, we can offer you the best foundation for a successful career in the profession. Completion of this Postgraduate Certificate in Education will provide you with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) from one of the highest rated providers in the country.

If you study PGCE Secondary at Roehampton you will be taught by a supportive, passionate and driven team of academic staff. Our experienced team strive to ensure you receive the best training and will encourage you to become a confident and successful teacher. Your placement will be confirmed before the start of term, and your mentors in schools are also trained to ensure you achieve your full potential. In addition to our academic staff, we also have a range of support departments to help you with everything from dealing with money matters, to support with your studies. Your course will provide you with a holistic view of the profession; you will look at the child, the curriculum and teacher.

You will undertake two blocks of school experience. The foundation placement for 6 weeks in one school in the autumn term, then in the summer term a 12-week development and consolidation placement in a contrasting school.

Roehampton offers a wide range of curriculum subject specialisms:

• Art and Design
• Business Management and Economics
• Computing
• Dance
• Design and Technology (specialising in Food, Materials, Textiles or Electronic and Communications Technology)
• Drama
• English 
• Geography
• History (Also taught at Westminster Kingsway College)* 
• Mathematics (Also taught at Westminster Kingsway College)*
• Modern Foreign Languages
• Music
• Physical Education
• Psychology
• Religious Education
• Science (Biology with Science, Chemistry with Science, Physics with Science)
• Social Sciences

In addition to your subject modules, you will also take Professional Studies modules, which will hone your expertise and effectiveness as a teacher. You will learn how to manage a classroom, how planning and preparation contribute to the effectiveness of your teaching, how best to work with parents and other adults, and gain an understanding of children’s behaviour.

Many of our subject rooms are set up to resemble classrooms, ensuring that from your first day at university you will be in a school environment. This is important for your full immersion into the school environment and familiarity with the way classrooms are structured, and the type of resources teachers need on a daily basis.

All our academic staff have extensive teaching experience in schools, and many have served in local authorities or subject associations as advisory teachers, as Ofsted inspectors or as consultants. This means that our programmes are based on the reality of the classroom and the education system. Many work at the cutting edge of research in teacher education, which has a positive impact on the quality of provision for all of our students.

*New for September 2023: For PGCE History and Mathematics, you will have the option to be taught either at the main Roehampton site or Westminster Kingsway College, one of the largest further education colleges in London.