The quality, the ambition and dedication of the students we’ve worked with has been really striking
Professional placements
All PGCE students spend at least 120 days (24 weeks) of the course in Partnership schools, undertaking four key placements (in a minimum of three different schools), in order to develop their teaching skills in a closely monitored environment, and to gain experience of many of the important tasks and responsibilities teachers take on outside the classroom.
Summary
- 120 days – 24 weeks (at least) in Partnership schools
- Two extended placements (11 weeks each) in two different, contrasting schools
- Additional visits to at least 10 other different school settings
Additional settings
In addition to the two extended placements, PGCE students will experience at least 7 further settings, which include schools with identified curriculum specialisms and areas of interest.
An integral part of the Primary PGCE course are 3 Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP) experiences which focus on specific key areas of student learning. Each one provides opportunities for students to visit different schools, including those that offer specialist SEND provision to see how theory and theoretical frames are enacted in practice.
A variety of contrasting environments
Partnership schools reflect a variety of contrasting environments: rural village schools, inner city schools in Peterborough and Cambridge and urban schools in towns such as Harlow, Stevenage, Ely, Huntingdon, Bury St Edmunds and March. During the course, every attempt is made to provide students with a contrasting placement in order to broaden their professional development.
Daily travelling distance
The Primary team spend extensive time to ensure that students are placed in appropriate settings where they will be welcomed and receive high quality mentoring. No PGCE student is placed in a school which is beyond daily travelling distance, and those who live at distance are, where possible, placed in Partnership schools nearer to their homes.
The allocation of placements
When allocating extended placements, we consider information that might affect the location of your placement, e.g. disabilities, health conditions, family responsibilities.
The support from school mentors and university tutors is excellent. PGCE students appreciate the experience the mentors bring and are reassured by the excellent relationships between the partnership schools and the Faculty.
Extended placements
Student teachers work in at least two different schools/settings during extended placements on the course.
The first, 11 weeks long, takes place across Terms 1 and Term 2; with at least two students placed in each school.
A student is based in one class with some opportunities to work with other classes / age-groups across the primary age phase. Students progress from supporting the learning of small groups of children, teaching individual whole class lessons to teaching whole days.
This placement will be allocated before the course begins, and students will be given details soon after the Faculty course begins in September.
The final 11 week placement, taking place at the end of Term 2 and throughout Term 3, provides the opportunity for PGCE students, working in a class on their own with their mentor, to gain further classroom experience and to confirm that they have reached the required level for the award of Qualified Teacher Status. The training programme builds up gradually to include 80% whole class teaching for the last five weeks of the placement.
There is also opportunity for involvement in a wider range of school activities and extending the experience and education of pupils beyond the conventional classroom context.
This placement is undertaken in a different contrasting school from the first extended placement and is allocated after the first placement in order that each student is placed in an appropriate setting that will support their ongoing professional development.
We really value the strong partnership between the Faculty of Education and the school. Having employed 5 teachers who trained at the Faculty, I recognise and appreciate the level at which they commence their teaching career’. (Employing headteacher)
Partnership Schools
The benefits of becoming a Partnership School
- Funded, high-quality, highly evaluated in-person and online professional development for school staff involved in the placements
- Expert, responsive support from the team of experienced Faculty tutors – 6 tutors visits undertaken for each student during the year
- Opportunities for experienced mentors to gain professional recognition
- Opportunities to develop subject expertise alongside subject specialist Faculty staff
- Employment of Primary PGCE student teachers that have undertaken a placement in their placement school (approx. 45% of our students stay in Partnership schools for their first appointment)
- Advertising ECT vacancies to Primary PGCE student teachers
- Become a valued member of the Partnership, including opportunities to feed into course development
- Become involved in Faculty-based research projects
- Participate in the admissions process to select appropriate candidates for next year’s course
- On occasion, contribute to the Faculty-based teaching
- Become aware of CPD opportunities and new resources shared across the Partnership network
- Additional benefits of supporting beginning teachers for schools
- For the school and individual mentors to receive a certificate to say they have been involved in mentoring Cambridge Primary PGCE students.
- Develop mentoring skills which support and refine the practical teaching competence of Primary PGCE student teachers and could be applied to other mentoring contexts to support other school colleagues
- Develop leadership skills
- Opportunities for school colleagues to reflect on their own practice and learn from student teachers
- Increased capacity in school to enable colleagues to undertake additional roles e.g. subject leadership
How to become a Cambridge Primary PGCE Partnership school/setting
To become a Cambridge Primary PGCE Partnership school is very simple. Relevant schools /early years setting offering education in the appropriate age ranges (3-11) will receive an invitation from the Faculty of Education, issued annually, to submit a bid for participation in the Partnership.
Schools selected as Primary PGCE Partnership schools will:
- be state schools
- teach as diverse a range of pupils as possible given their catchment, bearing in mind differences in prior attainment (including pupils with special educational needs and disabilities); home background (including pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds); ethnicity (including pupils from black and minority ethnic cultures)
- show commitment to supporting PGCE Student and mentor mental health and wellbeing
- normally be engaged in implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage and/or National Curriculum and statutory assessments
- provide high quality education for its pupils
- identify expert colleagues as mentors teaching staff who have appropriate teaching experience and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and have successfully passed their ECT induction
- demonstrate the capacity and expertise to provide whole-school and class-based mentoring of PGCE Students
- usually be located within the typical geographical range for Partnership schools
- support PGCE Students with the completion of the specified personal training activities relevant for each placement and share best practice in managing workload
- ensure, whenever possible, that relevant school colleagues engage with Partnership events, such as mentor conferences
- be prepared to meet the requirement of current legislation and statutory guidance relevant to ITE such as:
- The Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework
- The Equality Act 2010, Section 26 and 29 of the CTSA 2015 (“the Prevent duty guidance”)
- Keeping Children Safe in Education and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001Disability (SEND) Regulations 2014
- In addition, indicate an acknowledgement that the school is willing and able to fulfil the terms of the Partnership Agreement (which is agreed by the Partnership Standing Committee)
Further information on how to be a Partnership School
We are always pleased to hear from schools and early years settings across the Eastern Region that would like to become involved in the Cambridge Primary PGCE Partnership. Further details about how to do this can be obtained from the Placement team by contacting: primarypgce@educ.ac.uk . We would be more than happy to discuss this in more detail over the phone or arrange a visit to your setting.
Support in School
'Mentors facilitate the pathway into the teaching profession as they allow you to see the role of the teacher from the inside out'.
Mentors have experience of working with PGCE students and many are former students themselves; they have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the requirements and demands of the Cambridge PGCE.
PGCE students have regular meetings with their mentor before and throughout every placement. Mentors support PGCE students in all aspects of teaching and learning and will help them to reflect on and analyse their practice through constructive dialogue and target setting. Mentors observe PGCE students teach, give feedback on lessons and offer encouragement and advice. Faculty tutors also visit PGCE students in each placement to observe teaching, offer support and monitor progress.