Education and Development FdA with Specialist Pathways

Program Overview

Education and Development FdA with Specialist Pathways

Overview

The Foundation Degree in Education and Development offers pathways of specialisation in Teaching and Learning, SEND, or Outdoors Learning. This programme is designed for people who are working in, or who aspire to work with children as a teaching assistant, special needs assistant, cover supervisor, HLTA, or outdoor learning practitioner.

Key Features

• Opportunities to develop key skills and knowledge to prepare for further study and/or employment to improve practice and gain promotion.
• Opportunity to combine studying and learning on the job. Students are expected to spend at least 10 hours a week in a setting, either as a member of staff or on a voluntary basis.
• Further optional vocational training opportunities, which may incur an additional fee, are available that would support continuing professional development depending on the chosen pathway.
• Diverse and rich range of settings in Somerset Authority incorporating visits, as appropriate within the delivery schedule relative to the specific pathway.
• Step towards acquiring a full honours degree in the future, with top-up options available in Worcester and the Southwest.

Entry Requirements

• 32 UCAS Points
• The normal minimum entry requirement for Foundation Degree courses is the possession of 4 GCSEs (Grade C/4 or above) and 1 A Level (or equivalent Level 3 qualification).
• For mature students (i.e., 21 or over), without formal qualifications, a non-standard entry route is available.

Course Content

Year 1

• Mandatory modules:
  • Understanding our Academic, Professional and Personal selves
  • Keeping Children Safe in Education
  • Learning and Development
  • SEND: Inclusive Practice
  • Introduction to Carrying Out Research
• In addition, you will study one of the following mandatory modules relevant to your individual pathway:
  • Teaching and Learning Pathway: The Creative Curriculum
  • SEND Pathway: Identification of Special Education Needs – the Graduated Response
  • Outdoor Learning Pathway: The Benefits of Outdoor Learning

Year 2

• Mandatory modules:
  • Reflective Journal
  • Partnership Working
  • A Systematic Approach to Answering a Research Question
  • Behaviour for Learning
• In addition, you will study the following mandatory modules relevant to your individual pathways:
  • Teaching and Learning Pathway: Teaching and learning in the primary phase – the core curriculum
  • Teaching and Learning Pathway: Planning, Assessing and Evaluating Learning
  • SEND pathway: Barriers to Learning – Lived Experience
  • SEND pathway: Assess, Plan, Review, Do in Practice
  • Outdoors Learning pathway: Applying the Principles of Environmental Science – Biodiversity and Interdependence of All Living Things
  • Outdoors Learning Pathway: Perspectives in Outdoor Education – Forest School and Beach School

Teaching and Assessment

• Location of teaching: The delivery of sessions will take place at SCIL’s new venue Broughton House in Taunton TA12PR.
• Teaching and learning: You are taught through a combination of interactive workshops, lectures, seminars, and practical activities.
• Contact time: On average, students will have 19 study hours per week incorporating 9 direct contact hours of teaching and 10 hours in a professional placement setting and 18 hours independent study.
• Independent self-study: In addition to the contact time, students are expected to undertake 11 hours of personal self-study per week.
• Assessment: The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of ‘formative’ assignments.

Careers

• Completion of the Foundation Degree will enable you to progress to our BA Hons in Professional Practice (BAPP) which takes one year to complete leading to the award of an honours degree.
• Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Fees and Funding

• Full-time tuition fees:
  • UK and EU students: £9,535 per year
  • International students: £16,700 per year
• Part-time tuition fees:
  • UK and EU students: £1,190.83 per 15-credit module, £1,587.77 per 20-credit module, £2,381.66 per 30-credit module, £3,175.55 per 40-credit module, £3,572.50 per 45-credit module and £4,763.32 per 60 credit module
  • International students: Not specified

How to Apply

• Applying through UCAS: UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.
• UCAS Code: X316, X317, X318
• Get in touch: If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

Program Outline

What will you study

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative.

How will you be taught?

Location of teaching

Location of teaching

There is an agreement between UW and SCIL to deliver the course leading to a foundation degree. The partnership between SCIL and the University of Worcester is reviewed on a scheduled basis. The partnership review was last reviewed in the academic year 2020 to 2021, with an agreed six year partnership.

The delivery sessions Take place at Dillington House, near Ilminster. As a training venue, Dillington is hard to beat. Set in glorious parkland, it combines first-rate training facilities with beautiful surroundings. Training rooms are housed in the historic stable courtyard, or in the award-winning contemporary Hyde building. For students on the Outdoor Learning route, some sessions will take place at the local authority’s outdoor learning centre at Kilve.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning

You are taught through a combination of interactive workshops, lectures, seminars and practical activities etc. Interactive lectures take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

SCIL in partnership with the University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help you to flourish and be successful.

Contact time and duration

Contact time and duration

In a typical week you will have around 6 contact hours of teaching. The duration of this course is 2 years full-time.

Independent self-study

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 30 hours of personal self study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations.

Timetables

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week; and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings and some Saturdays.

Assessment

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of ‘formative’ assignments.

Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, portfolios, blogs, presentations, reflective diaries and independent research studies and projects in year 1. There is an increased word count in year 2 and an increased expectation in relation to depth of analysis, assessments include: essays, case studies, reports, portfolios, blogs, presentations, reflective journals and independent research study projects.

You will receive feedback on assessments and undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Teaching staff

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes academics and professional practitioners with industry and occupational experience

Programme Specification

Programme Specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment please download our

programme specification

Where could it take you?

Employability

Completion of the Foundation Degree will enable you to progress to our BA Hons in Professional Practice (BAPP) which takes one year to complete leading to the award of an honours degree. Typically 95% of FD students at SCIL carry on to undertake a BAPP after completing their Foundation Degree.

Once they have completed FDED and BAPP, students are able to apply for routes to gain qualified teacher status. Our graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in variety of roles within the children and young people’s workforce such as social care.

For those students who do not wish to top-up their foundation degree, we have consulted with Somerset Country Council, schools, multi-academy trusts and private, voluntary and independent settings, who have acknowledged that this foundation degree would be accepted and recognised as a continuous professional development opportunity counting it towards their sector professional qualifications.

Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential.

Employability

Completion of the Foundation Degree will enable you to progress to our BA Hons in Professional Practice (BAPP) which takes one year to complete leading to the award of an honours degree. Typically 95% of FD students at SCIL carry on to undertake a BAPP after completing their Foundation Degree.

Once they have completed FDED and BAPP, students are able to apply for routes to gain qualified teacher status. Our graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in variety of roles within the children and young people’s workforce such as social care.

For those students who do not wish to top-up their foundation degree, we have consulted with Somerset Country Council, schools, multi-academy trusts and private, voluntary and independent settings, who have acknowledged that this foundation degree would be accepted and recognised as a continuous professional development opportunity counting it towards their sector professional qualifications.

Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential.