Program start date | Application deadline |
2025-09-01 | - |
2026-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
Overview
This course is designed to provide high-quality education and training, enabling students to become outstanding teachers. The program is committed to inclusivity, well-being, and safeguarding of children, and aims to nurture teachers who are passionate about the development of their own and their pupils' learning.
Study Options
- Full-Time at Exton Park, Chester
Level
- Postgraduate
Start Date
- Sept 2025, Sept 2026
Duration
- 1 year
Location
- Exton Park, Chester
UK Fees
- £9,535 per year for a full-time course (2025/26)
International Fees
- £14,450 per year for a full-time course (2025/26)
Course Leader
- Mark Sibson
International Application Closed
Please note, international applications for this programme closed on 27th May 2025.
PGCE Open Day
If you're looking to study a PGCE course with us and would like to visit us, book your place at our PGCE event running in conjunction with our Open Day on Saturday 21st June.
Accreditations
Course Contents
- Course Summary
- What You’ll Study
- Who You’ll Learn From
- How You'll Learn
- Placements
- Entry Requirements
- Where You'll Study Exton Park, Chester
- Our Facilities
- Fees and Funding
- Your Future Career
Course Description
In an environment where almost every sphere of business, leisure, and day-to-day activity relies on the use of computers, it is an exciting time to get involved in teaching the next generation of computer scientists. Teaching is an extremely rewarding and challenging career. Our course is designed to provide you with the knowledge, understanding, and skills that you need to be an outstanding teacher.
We aim to nurture teachers who are passionate about the development of their own and their pupils' learning.
Computers are a part of our everyday devices; from mobile phones, the gaming industry, to the huge possibilities the internet has created, the digital environment is constantly expanding. With developments in technology changing so rapidly, the above areas are experiencing a sharp increase in the demand for skilled staff to keep ahead of developments, and to pave the way for the future.
The Government, early in 2012, recognised this fact and dramatically changed the school curriculum so that ICT was replaced by a Computer Science curriculum. This shift presents a challenge to schools and their staff which this course seeks to address.
Based upon the curriculum developed in 2012 by Microsoft, Google and The British Computer Society, trainees on the course will engage with the current suggested curriculum, and investigate how to develop lesson content that inspires and identifies the possibilities within Computer Science.
The course is designed to ensure you are confident in all basic national curriculum requirements. If you have any questions about the course, please contact the Subject Leader, who you will find under the Staff section of this course page.
Module: Becoming a Teacher: the Professional Transformation
Module Content:
This module explores the nature and aims of the National Curriculum and/or Early Years Foundation Phase, depending on the age-phase in which you are training to teach. You will consider these documents in relation to breadth, balance, and ambition and how pupils and children can be supported to make links between subjects, disciplines, and associated areas of learning to ensure that the curriculum is greater than the sum of its parts.
You will also develop an understanding of legislative and statutory frameworks relevant to teaching, education, and the professional responsibilities of teachers. Additionally, you will explore important aspects of inclusion, the definitions and categories of different pupil needs, including the 4 categories (social, emotional and mental health, sensory and/or physical, communication and interaction, cognition and learning).
Through guided observation, you will develop knowledge of how to generate motivation, autonomy, mutual respect, and positive relationships with staff and pupils of all kinds and how important a consistent whole-school/institution-wide approach to managing children and pupils' behavior is to this.
Module Aims:
The module aims to develop:
- Your commitment to inclusivity, well-being, and safeguarding of children.
- Your understanding of the nature and aims of the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage, depending on the age-phase in which you are training to teach.
- Your understanding of legislative and statutory frameworks relevant to teaching, education, and the professional responsibilities of teachers.
- Your knowledge and understanding of inclusion in all its forms.
- Your knowledge of how to generate motivation, autonomy, mutual respect, and positive relationships with pupils.
- Your understanding of the principles of professionalism and professional behaviors of teachers.
- Your knowledge of Citizenship and PHSE, where relevant, and their relationship to the notion of a healthy and socially responsible school/ institutional community as well as the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of pupils and children.
- Your understanding of how to manage your workload to ensure there is a productive work/life balance and the management of your own on-going learning.
- Your knowledge of how to communicate with lay stakeholders, parents, and carers and others in promoting professional cooperation and the engagement of pupils.
Module: Becoming a Teacher: Meeting the Teachers' Standards
Module Content:
This module builds on the previous module and further develops your understanding of the nature and aims of the National Curriculum and/or Early Years Foundation Phase, depending on the age-phase in which you are training to teach. You will explore the practical implications of these documents in relation to breadth, balance, and ambition and how pupils and children can be supported to make links between subjects, disciplines, and associated areas of learning to ensure that the curriculum is greater than the sum of its parts.
You will also develop your understanding of statutory frameworks and legislation in relation to safeguarding, Special Educational Needs, Fundamental British Values, etc. Additionally, you will extend your knowledge of planning and particularly your understanding of how all pupils learn (in general and within specific subjects) and the range of concepts and theories which underpin it.
Module Aims:
The module aims to develop and extend:
- Your management of your own professional learning, your ability to plan for inclusion, safeguarding, respect for the diversity of pupils, and demonstrate professional behaviors of teachers.
- Your ability to establish a positive learning environment which generates motivation, autonomy, mutual respect, and positive relationships with pupils.
- Your understanding of the nature and aims of the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage, depending on the age-phase in which you are training to teach.
- Your understanding of legislative and statutory frameworks relevant to teaching, education, and the professional responsibilities of teachers.
- Your knowledge and understanding of inclusion and ability to plan for how pupils of all kinds can be supported to develop positive relationships and to access an empowering curriculum.
- Your ability to use different types of assessment to ensure planning is responsive to pupils' needs and learning.
- Your knowledge of curricular planning and your ability to plan coherent and balanced sequences of learning which promote engagement for all pupils.
- Your knowledge of Citizenship and PHSE, where relevant.
- Your confidence in communicating with lay stakeholders, parents, and carers and others in promoting professional cooperation and the engagement of pupils.
Module: Professional Knowledge in Secondary Education
Module Content:
This module covers important legislative and statutory frameworks which teachers must know and understand (e.g., safeguarding, SEND, the promotion of Fundamental British Values, the Equality Act, etc.). You will also explore issues of race and gender identification, how teachers can promote good behavior and a positive orientation to learning from pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds or who have diverse needs.
Module Aims:
You will be able to know and understand:
- Sensitivities and respect associated with all aspects of inclusion and the principles underpinning a positive environment for learning respecting diversity.
- Legislative and statutory frameworks (e.g., safeguarding, SEND, the Promotion of Fundamental British Values, the Equality Act, National Curriculum, etc.).
- Principles of professionalism and professional behaviors of teachers along with establishing professional relationships with staff and pupils and the importance of reading policies, following them, and taking appropriate initiative.
- Citizenship and PHSE and their relationship to developing a healthy and socially responsible school community as well as the Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural development of pupils.
- Cross-curriculum linking (for example, in the development of pupils' literacy, reading, writing, oracy, and an enjoyment of engaging with text).
- Legal and ethical principles behind data security and communication with lay stakeholders, parents, and carers and others in promoting professional cooperation and the engagement of pupils.
- How to manage workload to ensure there is a productive work/life balance and that proportionate amounts of time are set out for planning, teaching, and assessment activities. You will recognize the importance of your contributions to the wider life of the school.
Module: Enriching the Teacher
Module Content:
You will involve yourself in a variety of activities aimed to develop your professional perspectives on teaching and introduce you to broader horizons in the practice of education. These projects involve work with young people and, for example, could entail learning outside the classroom; understanding of diversity in the classroom; developing pupil engagement among those in vulnerable groups; involvement in research and curriculum development initiatives; work with other adults or in non-formal/alternative settings involved in the education of children.
Module Aims:
This module aims to:
- Enrich your knowledge, understanding, and skills to work effectively in schools, leading learning for all children.
- Further your insights into inclusivity by broadening your understanding of the width and variety of learning experiences that could be incorporated into a creative curriculum.
- Develop your understanding of issues affecting pupils' engagement and how you, as Associate Teachers, might support pupil progression.
- Enable you to develop the skills, knowledge, and understanding needed to devise and deliver your own effective enrichment activities/projects.
- Enable you to reflect on your involvement in enrichment and to analyze the impact of these modes of working on pupil development.
Module: Building Knowledge for Teaching
Module Content:
This module enables Associate Teachers on ITE programs, and their tutors, to establish, track, and develop their fundamental knowledge for teaching in English, Maths, and (for Primary and Early Years ATs only) in Science.
Module Aims:
The module aims to:
- Audit your fundamental knowledge for teaching in English, Maths, and (Primary and Early Years only) in Science.
- Signpost you to resources to develop your fundamental knowledge for teaching in English, Maths, and (for Primary and Early Years only) Science.
Module: Learning to teach: Developing Critical Perspectives on the Teaching of the Specialist Subject
Module Content:
This module introduces you to study habits, conventions, writing, and communication at Level 7 and initiates you to the principles of professional enquiry as part of your learning journey. It will serve as an initiation to developing the critical perspectives necessary for interactions between theory, research, and practice within the specialist subject.
Module Aims:
This module aims to develop and challenge:
- Your own underpinning philosophy of teaching and learning, and understanding of the principles of professional enquiry by engaging in research and theory that inform effective and inclusive approaches to presenting the specialist subject.
- Your understanding of how all pupils learn (in general and within their specialist subject); the range of concepts and theories which underpin it and the principles underpinning inclusion in all its forms.
- Your understanding of curriculum planning and the range of concepts and theories which inform it and how coherent sequences of learning can promote learning for all pupils.
- Your engagement in professional dialogue with colleagues, peers, and carers, in order to meet the needs of pupils.
- Your understanding of how to generate motivation, autonomy, mutual respect, and positive relationships with pupils of all kinds.
- Your development of responsive approaches to planning in the light of pupils' prior learning.
Module: Subject Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Professional Enquiry
Module Content:
This module straddles two contrasting placements and as such provides an arena for exploring contrasts between curriculum and pedagogy within the specialist subject and between institutions. Throughout the content articulated beneath, you will develop your commitment to inclusivity in all its forms, safeguarding, and well-being of children. and establish a positive learning environment that respects diversity, and the dignity of all children.
Module Aims:
This module aims to develop and critically examine:
- Contrasts and similarities between different placement settings and the culture and practices evident within them.
- Inclusive approaches to teaching which allow all children to access the specialist subject and an empowering curriculum.
- Alignment between your aspirations for your pupils and the learning evident in classrooms through ethical methods and methodologies of practitioner research and enquiry.
- Your professional knowledge, and participation in a Professional Learning Community in relation to subject pedagogical and curriculum expertise and thus provide insight into the contribution of the specialist subject to an engaging whole school curriculum.
- Your critical thinking and reflective capacity by ensuring interactivity between theory, research, and practice.
- Your understanding of pedagogical and curriculum concepts and the teacher/school’s role in enacting them.
- Your understanding of the philosophical, historical, and socio-political influences upon the curriculum and how curriculum intention is mediated by teachers and pupils.
- Your planning of sequences of lessons, including purposeful homework activities, which fit into broader curricular frameworks and objectives.
- Your understanding of the contribution of your subject to the development of pupils’ literacy, reading, writing, and oracy.
- Assessment practices and the data they yield including from the use of dialogue and questioning and what this means in terms of giving pupils a voice and understanding their perspectives and identifying barriers to learning.
Who You’ll Learn From
- Mark Sibson, Senior Lecturer
How You'll Learn
Professional and academic learning takes place within the University and partnership settings in lectures, seminars, practical workshops, and tutorials. School-based learning is assessed holistically against the Teachers’ Standards, and through assignments and directed activities.
Placements
While studying here at Chester, you will have a placement in one of our partner schools, with 120 days of school-based learning.
School-based learning will enable you to apply what you’ve learned at university to your placement. You will progress from observing teaching and learning to team planning, teaching, and observation; and finally, to independently planning and teaching the whole class. Critical reflection on your practice is a key component of the course, which is assessed holistically against the Teachers’ Standards.
Entry Requirements
- Home Students:
- Hold or be expected to gain a minimum of a 2:2 honors degree
- Have GCSE grade C/grade 4 in English and Mathematics
- International Students:
- Hold or be expected to gain a minimum of a 2:2 honors degree
- Have GCSE grade C/grade 4 in English and Mathematics
- English Language Requirements:
- IELTS 7.0 overall (with no less than 5.5 in each band)
- UK degree with a 2:2 or above (studied and completed in the UK)
Where You'll Study
- Exton Park, Chester
Our Facilities
- Modern learning resources and library
- Fitness facilities
- Student Services
- Chapel, chaplaincy, and multi-faith spaces
- Accommodation
- Catering
Fees and Funding
- Home Students: £9,535 per year for a full-time course (2025/26)
- International Students: £14,450 per year for a full-time course (2025/26)
- Additional Costs:
- Books, printing, photocopying, educational stationery, and related materials
- Specialist clothing
- Travel to placements
- Optional field trips
- Software
- Bursaries:
- The University of Chester supports fair access for students who may need additional support through a range of bursaries and scholarships.
Your Future Career
The University has an award-winning Careers and Employability service which provides a variety of employability-enhancing experiences; through the curriculum, through employer contact, tailored group sessions, individual information, advice, and guidance.
Careers and Employability aims to deliver a service which is inclusive, impartial, welcoming, informed, and tailored to your personal goals and aspirations, to enable you to develop as an individual and contribute to the business and community in which you will live and work.