The Department of Education has been developing strong links with schools throughout Sussex and its environs since 1965 when the University of Sussex was at the forefront of establishing school-based teacher training.

Placements for undergraduate students

With a variety of potential careers in childhood and youth and an increasingly competitive employment market, graduates need to combine a strong academic grounding with a clear professional focus that prepares them for the workplace. The Childhood and Youth: Theory and Practice BA does this by incorporating practice placements in the first two years of the degree, along with a further opportunity to experience work in children's services during the final-year research project. A variety of practice placements are available to our students and including schools, early years, youth work and family services.

Watch the following video to hear a student’s experience of the placement opportunities on the Childhood and Youth: Theory and Practice BA.

For more details, refer to Practice placements.

Placements for postgraduate students

Students on the Department's PGCE and School Direct Initial Teacher Education courses spend at least 120 days in contrasting school environments working alongside experienced teachers and playing a full part in the life of their schools.

Our partner schools play a central role in providing support to our students, with many of our school-based teacher mentors having trained at the University of Sussex themselves.

The Department also contributes to the Continuing Professional Development of experienced teachers in partner schools through its Masters and Doctorate programmes designed to support teachers in their own school-based research.

For more details, refer to details of individual Masters courses in the Prospectus and/or our Initial Teacher Education web pages.