Subject overview

Teacher training

We provide high-quality teacher training via our PGCE and Graduate Teacher degrees and are ranked 3rd in the UK for getting secondary trainees employment in schools (Good Teacher Training Guide 2010). We have always prided ourselves on our partnerships with schools, with local education authorities and with other universities. We strengthen the practice of school-based teacher training, which has existed in Sussex for over 40 years,
through a consortium of partnership schools and the University of Sussex.

Programme outline

Those studying for the PGCE learn to teach within schools in East and West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. School-led teacher education is provided by experienced mentors and professional tutors and is supported by University tutors throughout the year.

There are three elements of the PGCE:

1. Professional Knowledge for Schools

The focus of this module is to encourage the development of key professional attributes. This module develops your understanding of:

• broad educational issues

• national priorities

• whole-school policies, and

• teachers’ duties, legal liabilities and responsibilities.

This module is delivered in partnership between school-based professionals and University faculty. Topics include personalised learning, special educational needs, interprofessional work, safeguarding, active learning, equal opportunities issues, assessment for learning and behaviour management.

2. Curriculum Studies

The central focus of this module is subjector age-specific curriculum knowledge and pedagogy. University tutors and school mentors co-teach this module, extending knowledge and understanding both of the curriculum and how pupils learn, enabling teachers to explore a variety of teaching and learning strategies and to teach differentiated and creative lessons. Through school-based research, we encourage teachers to develop their own understanding of their subject’s and pupils’ specific pedagogy.

3. School Experience

On this module, the focus is on the practical application of professional skills. Experience of placements in two schools gives you the opportunity to develop your teaching skills with the close supervision of a subject mentor. This includes:

• developing your knowledge of the school curriculum in different phases and subjects

• planning lessons and schemes of work, with clear learning objectives

• managing the classroom, ICT and other resources

• organising a range of well-paced activities to suit different learning preferences

• presenting topics and using effective questioning strategies, and

• monitoring and assessing pupils’ work.

Assessment

All teachers are prepared to meet, and are regularly assessed against, a set of national professional standards, achievement of which is recognised by the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). In preparation for QTS, teachers prepare a portfolio of evidence of achievement, which charts progress over the academic year and includes evidence of lesson observations, engagement with professional development and self-designed teaching and learning materials.
As an academic award, the PGCE also provides opportunities to acquire up to 90 Masters-level credits through two written assignments and the presentation of directed tasks in a viva at the end of the degree. At all stages, assessment is shared between school-based professionals and University tutors.

Timetable

The degree runs on a full-time basis from September until late June. Winter and spring vacations are fixed by the term dates of partnership schools.

PGCE award levels

All trainee teachers register on the Postgraduate Certificate in Education and are assessed at Masters level. Successful students will obtain a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, while students who do not obtain enough M-level credits are able to exit with a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education.

Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

Teachers in state-maintained schools must have QTS. QTS is awarded to teachers who meet nationally agreed professional standards. The standards are specified to ensure that all teachers have the appropriate professional knowledge and skills. Further details are provided by the Department for Education’s (DfE) Teaching Agency (TA).

PGCE fees and financial support

The current fee for a PGCE is £9,000. Student loans are available to cover tuition fees in full. Most trainee teachers can borrow up to £9,000. A maintenance loan of up to £5,500 is also available to help with accommodation and other living costs. Trainee teachers may also be eligible for an annual means-tested grant of up to £3,250. In addition, home/EU trainee teachers are currently able to draw on a tax-free non-repayable training bursary of up to £20,000. Bursary amounts vary depending on degree classification and PGCE subject or phase specialisation. The nature of financial support is reviewed annually by the DfE. For current details, visit Department of Education: Get into teaching.

If you are offered a place on any of our PGCE degrees, you will be sent all the information you need on how to apply for any of the above-mentioned loans, grants or bursaries.

How to apply for the PGCE

You should apply through the Graduate Teacher Training Registry. Please do not apply directly to Sussex. You must provide an appropriate written reference on your application form, which should be an academic reference if you are at university or college.

If you finished your studies in the last five years, your principal referee should be a tutor or lecturer who can comment on your academic achievements and your personal qualities.

If you finished your studies more than five years ago, your principal referee should be a responsible person who knows you well enough to write with authority about you, such as an employer.

No candidate will be offered a place without being interviewed. Interviews serve not only as a selection device, but also as an opportunity for further explanation and questions. Unfortunately, we are unable to reimburse travel and other expenses incurred in attending for an interview.

Trainees with disabilities

We welcome applications from students with disabilities.

Working with children

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) provides, through a disclosure service, access to records held nationwide by the police and the DfE. As initial teacher education modules involve working with children, all prospective trainees must be checked by the CRB before starting an initial teacher training course. The current fee for a CRB Enhanced Disclosure is £44.

Mental and physical fitness to teach

All trainees must be screened for mental and physical fitness to teach by the University’s Occupational Health Department. A charge is made for the service.

Employment-based routes

The University also offers the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), an employment-based route to qualifying as a secondary-school teacher. It is aimed at graduates who already have some experience of teaching, training or working with young people. The GTP trains you to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) while you are employed by a school as an unqualified teacher and earning a salary. Trainees also have the opportunity to study for a PGCE (GTP) at the same time.

The degree content, timetable, assessment modes and support structures match those of the PGCE route. Common entry requirements are shared with the PGCE but application procedures are considerably different. Trainees on the GTP do not pay tuition fees nor do they receive the same financial support or bursaries but instead are paid a monthly salary directly by their school. Visit Department of Education: Graduate Teacher Programme.

Withdrawal of offer

The University will make all reasonable efforts to provide the degree as set out here. However, it may be obliged to withdraw an offer of a place if it cannot obtain sufficient placements for the school experience component of the degree, where trainees are placed in a school within a 50-mile radius of the University or of the student’s home. Refer to Terms and conditions and further information for more details. This information may be revised as a result of changes to Government regulations and recommendations.

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements and application details

In order to qualify for admission to the PGCE degree, you must be a graduate of an approved institution of Higher Education or validating body from a course that is recognised as being equivalent to at least a second-class undergraduate honours degree. You must also have passed GCSE (or equivalent) in English and Mathematics with at least grade C in each.

All PGCE applications are submitted via the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR) and not direct to the University of Sussex. Please apply online via the GTTR website. You must provide an appropriate written reference on your application form, which should be an academic reference if you are at university or college. If you finished your studies in the last five years, your principal referee should be a tutor or lecturer who can comment on your academic achievements and your personal qualities. If you finished your studies more than five years ago, your principal referee should be a responsible person who knows you well enough to write with authority about you, such as an employer.

No candidate will be offered a place without being interviewed. Interviews serve not only as a selection device, but also as an opportunity for further explanation and questions. Unfortunately, we are unable to reimburse travel and other expenses incurred in attending for an interview.

All candidates offered a place must also pass a satisfactory Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check and a mental and physical fitness check. A charge applies for both these checks.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column B on the Overseas qualifications.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Related programmes

• Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation MA
• Childhood and Youth Studies MA
• English Language Teaching MA
• Environment, Development and Policy MA
• Gender and Development MA
• Human Rights MA
• Media Practice for Development and Social Change MA
• Migration Studies MA
• Social Development MA

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: £9,000¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £9,000²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

The research interests and areas of supervisory expertise of our faculty are listed below. For more information about the research conducted in the Department of Education, including information about the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER), Centre for Inquiry and Research in Cognition, Learning and Teaching (CIRCLETS) and Centre for International Education (CIE), visit the Department of Education.  

Childhood and youth studies

Professor Robin Banerjee Social and emotional development of pupils, self-conscious cognition and emotion, self-presentational behaviour.

Dr Janet Boddy Parents and families, parent and child health and well-being, parenting and family support, children in or at the edges of care, social pedagogy, cross-national research.

Professor Suzy Braye Social work practice and the law, policy implementation and professional practice, community care provision. 

Professor PennyJane Burke Widening access to and participation in Higher Education; critical and feminist pedagogies; gender and identity formations; challenging inequalities in higher education; participatory methodologies.

Dr Rachel Burr Social work, child rights, international aid, international social work, ethnographic-based research methods, Vietnam. 

Dr Anne-Meike Fechter Indonesia, South East Asia; corporate expatriates, transnationalism, development practitioners.

Cath Holmström Admissions and selection for social work education, experiences of younger students on qualifying social work courses. 

Barry Luckock Social policy and social work with children, social work practice and education, adoption, fostering and permanency planning. 

Dr Tish Marrable Children with ‘additional needs’, interprofessional working and professional supervision in integrated teams. 

Professor Rachel Thomson Childhood and youth studies, young people’s transitions to adulthood, sexuality and sex education.

Dr Jo Westbrook Learning to read, comprehension, wider reading, teacher education in the UK and developing countries, action research.

Dr Benjamin Zeitlyn Access to education, dropout, development, migration, transnationalism, childhoods, ethnic minorities, Islam.

Initial teacher education

Dr Andrew Chandler-Grevatt Science education: teaching and learning, progression of key concepts in science.

Duncan Mackrill Music education, ePortfolios, technology in music education, transition, spirituality in music education.

Dr John Parry Education for sustainable development, role of ICT within citizenship, experiential learning, special educational needs.

Robert Rosenthal Development of professional learning communities, school improvement, the role of trainees in developing in-school research culture, Geography in the school curriculum.

Simon Thompson Teachers’ professional knowledge, Initial Teacher Education in the UK, history of education.

Dr Jo Westbrook Learning to read, comprehension, wider reading, teacher education in the UK and developing countries, action research. 

International education and development

Dr Kwame Akyeampong Global, regional and national analysis of teacher education and impact on learning, curriculum and assessment reforms, impact evaluation of education interventions and programmes in low-income countries.

Professor PennyJane Burke Widening access to and participation in Higher Education; critical and feminist pedagogies; gender and identity formations; challenging inequalities in higher education; participatory methodologies.

Dr Mairead Dunne Sociological education studies of quality, equity and identity in the UK and low-income countries, curriculum practices.

Dr Naureen Durrani Teacher education, curriculum and textbooks, mathematics education, schooling and identity construction and South Asia.

Professor Valerie Hey Feminist theory, postmodern methodologies, ethnography, identity, affects, social difference, gender.

Professor Keith Lewin Educational planning, economics and finance of education, access and equity in education and development, teacher education, science and technology education policy in developing countries, educational aid and project evaluation.

Professor Colleen McLaughlin Head of the Department of Education. Action and practitioner research; educational reform; vulnerable children, counselling and care; sexuality education, including HIV/AIDS; school-university partnerships for reform and research.

Professor Louise Morley Sociology of Higher Education, national and international Higher Education policy, widening participation, identity.

Dr Mario Novelli Education and conflict, global governance of education, education and globalisation, foreign aid and education. 

Dr Ricardo Sabates Education and social outcomes, links between education and health, education and crime, adult education.

Dr Yusuf Sayed Education assessment and rights, quality, education governance and leadership, education financing, international aid.

Dr Jo Westbrook Learning to read, comprehension, wider reading, teacher education in the UK and developing countries, action research. 

Dr Benjamin Zeitlyn Access to education, dropout, development, migration, transnationalism, childhoods, ethnic minorities, Islam.

Teaching and learning in UK schools and related education contexts

Dr Sarah Aynsley 14-19 education and training, transition from further to Higher Education, qualitative approaches and practitioner research.

Dr Louise Gazeley Social and educational (dis)advantage, education policy, exclusion from school, teacher education.

Professor Valerie Hey Feminist theory, postmodern methodologies, ethnography, identity, affects, social difference, gender.

Professor Colleen McLaughlin Head of the Department of Education. Action and practitioner research; educational reform; vulnerable children, counselling and care; sexuality education, including HIV/AIDS; school-university partnerships for reform and research.

Professor Louise Morley Sociology of Higher Education, national and international Higher Education policy, widening participation, identity.

Dr John Pryor Educational ethnography, international and intercultural education, identity and equity, pedagogy and formative assessment.

Dr Julia Sutherland The use of collaborative talk to develop secondary pupils’ higher cognitive thinking.

Dr Jo Westbrook Learning to read, comprehension, wider reading, teacher education in the UK and developing countries, action research. 

 

 

 

 

 

Careers and profiles

Both the PGCE and GTP offer a direct progression route on to the Master of Education (MEd). Successful candidates can transfer up to 90 M-level credits on to the MEd. Most of our graduates go on to work as qualified teachers in either primary or secondary schools, or sixth-form colleges.

School and contacts