PGCE Secondary

Course description

All of our PGCE courses are made up of both campus-based sessions - which will give you a grounding in the principles of good teaching practice - and school-based placements, giving you the chance to apply your knowledge and experience to a wide range of classroom situations. These placements will be in contrasting schools to provide you with a broad range of experience; they could be in city, suburban or rural schools, in the independent or state sector.

You will be taught by academics who are leaders in their field and have years of experience themselves as teachers. We believe that teaching inspired by research both within and beyond the School of Education, and backed up with extensive teaching experience, provides excellent opportunities for our trainees to grow as teachers and reflective practitioners.

By the end of this course you will meet the required processional standards for Qualified Teacher Status, and will be awarded a University of Leicester PGCE. Our strong ethos of reflective practice will prepare you well for your future career in teaching.

Teaching and learning

Your learning will consist of a combination of university-based classes and school-based teaching placements where you will get hands-on experience of teaching a class. Our course has been praised by external examiners for its focus on reflection. You will be encouraged to evaluate your own teaching and share your learning with your peers.

Throughout your PGCE course you’ll have the support of a range of tutors and the confidence this brings. We’ll make sure you have the right support at the right time – whether that’s at university, in school or within your own specific discipline.

Careers and employability

We will support you in applying for teaching posts. The mock interviews we include as part of the course have directly resulted in job offers for our students.

We foster your continued relationship with Education at Leicester once you become an NQT by supporting your career development in a number of ways.

We offer a range of professional development opportunities for practicing teachers, and we offer Masters courses with a focus on Learning and Teaching, Educational Leadership, TESOL and Applied Linguistics.

Our PhD opportunities are very popular with those wishing to pursue a particular research interest at doctoral level. We are committed to training excellent teachers during the PGCE and beyond, and we are proud that so many of our students return to Education at Leicester for further study once qualified.

Students need to have: 2:1 degree for English, Geography, History or Social Science; 2:2 degree for Maths, MFL, Sciences or RE; GCSE Grade C or above in English Language and Maths; A-levels (or equivalent) in relevant subjects. Although not essential, you may find it useful to have recent experience working with children and/or observing teaching in a school setting, ideally relating to the age range/subject you wish to teach. When writing your application you should try to reflect on your experience and tell us what you learnt.