Program Overview

About this course

This PGCE course prepares you to teach your specialist subject, alongside your relevant EBacc subject, in either the 11-16 (with post-16 enhancement) or 14-19 age phases. It is a very practical course with around two thirds of the time spent in schools, mostly working with teachers and pupils, and around one third spent on directed study, with partnership training in the University and school. It is an integrated academic and professional preparation for teaching, combining study at either postgraduate or professional level with practical training to meet the Teachers’ Standards.

The route gives you the ability to teach in both subjects and develop insights in the pedagogies required to be successful in these disciplines. While on teaching placement you will predominantly teach PE and will only be assessed against the Teachers' Standards in your PE lessons, but you will also teach your second subject. The strength behind this teaching route is that it offers a greater level of flexibility in your teaching employment and it gives schools something more than you just having the ability to teach PE.

The BGU secondary Physical Education PGCE is run by professionals who have worked within a range of secondary schools and continually trained the next generation of Physical Education teachers. The design of the course so that you will fell equipped to train with confidence but also become an outstanding secondary teacher.

You will consider the broader aspects of teaching, contexts for learning, the latest government initiatives and contemporary issues in teaching, learning and assessment. You will also work alongside trainee teachers of other subjects to consider cross-curricular aspects of education. These topics will introduce you to your career in the teaching profession.

Throughout your year of study, you will explore all aspects of your subject. This includes those areas that are your strengths, as well as areas you may need to improve upon. You will study how pupils learn in your subject area, how you need to assess them and how to keep abreast of new developments within your subject. You will learn how to plan and deliver topics in ways that include all types of learners in meaningful ways.

You will spend two thirds of the year in partner schools and other educational settings gaining rich and varied experiences designed to support meeting the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Working with peers, tutors and school-based colleagues, you will develop your abilities to promote effective learning among 11-16 year olds. You will also have opportunities to gain experience of the key stages before and after the ones in which you will qualify.

This course is demanding and stimulating. We aim for you to be prepared to take responsibility for your own learning, be open to creative and innovative ideas, and be competent, reflective practitioners both in your training year and beyond. Success on the course means you will have completed a postgraduate (with 60 credits at Master's level) or professional graduate qualification, have met all the Qualified Teacher Status Standards and be ready to start the next year as a Newly Qualified Teacher.

During a recent Ofsted inspection in 2015, it was noted that key strengths of the course are:

This Secondary PGCE course is available through both Core and School Direct routes.

Any applicants to the PE with EBacc route must have achieved a standard equivalent to a grade C or better at A level in the relevant EBacc subject.