Teacher training at Sussex

Find out about our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses. We have PGCEs in Primary and a range of Secondary subjects, as well as other routes into teaching.

Training the next generation of teachers

Our teacher training courses have a history of innovation. We pioneered the model of school-based teacher training over 50 years ago, which has now adopted by all training providers in the country. 

Through the Sussex Consortium of Teacher Education and Research, our partnership with over 200 schools has seen us select, train and assess generations of new teachers. This long-established relationship ensures that you’ll receive unparalleled support – both from your placement schools, where experienced teachers provide models of excellent practice, and from your university tutors. We review the quality of our teacher education courses every year and they’re also quality assured by external examiners.

Routes into teaching

Our courses combine pedagogy, theory and practice. Across all our teacher training routes, trainees will study together, gaining practical and academic training opportunities.

Undergraduate

On our innovative BA in Primary and Early Years Education (with Qualified Teacher Status) you’ll train to teach children in the Primary age range. You’ll get personalised support from established classroom practitioners across a range of professional practice placements.

Find out how to apply for the Primary and Early Years Education (with Qualified Teacher Status) BA.

Postgraduate

You can take a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at primary or secondary level, or our Early Years Education (with Early Years Teacher Status) MA. 

We also offer two routes into teaching that allow you to apply to a school directly – Sussex School Choice PGCE and Postgraduate Teacher Apprenticeships (PGTA). You’ll still receive the same training, support and assessment as the ordinary PGCE. However you’ll undertake a shorter second placement period (six weeks) in another school before returning to your main school. 

Our partnership schools decide the subjects or phases they wish to train new teachers in, and then work in collaboration with us in the selection, training and assessment of Sussex School Choice PGCE and Postgraduate Teacher Apprenticeship (PGTA) trainees. 

• Sussex School Choice PGCE

  The Sussex School Choice PGCE course is a postgraduate level course funded by the tuition fee (currently £9,250) which is paid by the trainee. You may be eligible to receive a bursary from the Department for Education (DfE) depnding on your specialist subject.

  This course allows you to apply directly to your chosen school, and means the school can select their own trainee teachers. As with the regular PGCE courses, you will be introduced gradually to teaching by your mentor – an experienced teacher in your specialist subject or phase – who will help you to build up your teaching time over the course of the year as you grow in confidence and competence.

• Postgraduate Teacher Apprenticeship (PGTA)

  The Postgraduate Teacher Apprenticeship is an employment-based programme for experienced professionals and graduates for which apprentices must be employed full-time by a primary or secondary school while they train. Apprentices are paid on point 1 of the unqualified teachers' pay scale (£21,731)

  PGTA courses are generally aimed at graduates with three or more years’ worth of career experience. They demand a greater level of responsibility and teaching time from much earlier in the course than for regular PGCE or Sussex School Choice PGCE trainees. No fee is payable by the trainee as tuition fees are covered by the school employer. In some eligible subjects, schools benefit from a grant to help fund trainees' salary.

  The course is for 12 months and is 80% school-based training (Mon - Thurs) and 20% directed study at the University of Sussex (Fridays). On successful completion of the course, apprentices earn Qualified Teacher Status and 60 Masters level credits.

  The PGTA at Sussex will run from September 2026 and you can apply through DfE Apply from October 2025.

You’ll benefit from a programme of lectures, seminars and workshops, involving presentations, group work, role play, classroom modelling and peer teaching. You’ll explore ideas and approaches, and reflect on your own experiences, enhanced by visiting speakers and our research-informed academics.

You’ll also undertake two periods of professional practice in two different schools to give you valuable practical experience in the classroom.

Across all our teacher training courses, you will learn to:

• express the values, virtues and expectations of successful professionals, challenging you to fulfill your potential
• secure a strong subject knowledge and critical appreciation of the curriculum
• plan, teach and reflect upon successful teaching and learning strategies, and their impact on pupil progress
• anticipate and respond to the different learning, motivation and personal abilities and needs of individuals, groups and classes
• develop effective classroom management techniques which promote good behaviour
• assess the progress pupils make, and the ways in which this can be enriched
• establish an understanding of a range of whole-school issues, the values and assumptions that underpin them, and their application to school and classroom practice
• meet the professional requirements for conduct and practice as set out in the Department for Education's Teacher's Standards.

Learn more about teacher training

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You may also be interested in:

• teacher training bursaries and scholarships
• support and advice from Get Into Teaching.