Primary with SEN (Special Schools) PGCE

This course is in clearing with spaces available

Overview

Course options

Select year

PGCE

  1. PGCE Primary with SEN (Special Schools)

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 9250 Per year
  2. PGCE Primary with SEN (Special Schools)

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 14820 Per year

Course modules

Select year

Active Enquiry and Intervention: Impacting upon Learner Progress

Developing and extending understanding of a specific area/subject (SEN)

School-Based Learning: Reflections on Practice (Mental Wealth)

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Your future career

Your future career

By working alongside schools and local authorities in our region, we are helping to meet the need for teachers in our local area and many of our students are offered posts by our partner schools. Some trainees have been offered jobs at schools where they have spent their placement.

Schools and local authorities have told us that they think our trainees are of a high standard. OFSTED's 2012 inspection report quotes one school as saying, "They arrive in schools ready to start teaching and are well prepared for the rigours of the classroom."

Backed by UEL's excellent reputation, you will have a head start when it comes to securing a teaching post.

When you are in a post and decide that you wish to take your academic qualifications further, we can help you to continue your academic and professional development.

Your PGCE will earn you 60 master's level credits, which can count towards further qualifications on master's courses at UEL.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

Studying at UEL has allowed me to encourage, develop and support moments of creativity in children that I know I will remember throughout my career. Their approach in guiding their students is what has helped and inspired me throughout this year – something that I am eternally grateful for."

Bharat Singh

Primary PGCE student 2014-2015

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

See more details

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support 
  • We are ranked 6th for graduate start-ups 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment 
  • London on our doorstep

What you'll learn

You will learn how to be a primary class teacher. By the end of the year, you will understand how to teach the entire primary curriculum to a class of 30 pupils and be confident and competent in doing so.

You will leave the course with outstanding subject knowledge across the curriculum. You will have an understanding of how to plan and deliver engaging and motivating lessons and how to support your pupils' progress.

You will learn how to identify the strengths and needs of your pupils and make sure that everyone in your class is included and challenged.

You will understand how to assess pupils' learning, how to spot the gaps in their learning and how to plan to fill those gaps.

Everyone on the Primary PGCE learns how to teach the whole curriculum. We will give you the confidence and skills you need to teach every subject. 

You will also have extra sessions that will enhance your skills in meeting the needs of pupils in special schools and develop your understanding of particular Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

You will learn to think critically about what is meant by 'special needs'. You will discuss strategies for teaching and assessing children with various needs and try to find solutions for the challenges you might encounter. 

You will also spend some of your training placement in a Special Needs school.

How you'll learn

You will spend most of the first five weeks at the School of Education and Communities, in our purpose-built education building. Here we will look at pedagogy (how to teach) and curriculum (what to teach).

You will develop your knowledge of all subjects and your understanding of how to support pupils' learning across the curriculum.

There are keynote lectures, with follow-up seminars in which you will discuss aspects of teaching, such as behaviour management and pupil progress, with your fellow trainees.

In addition, you will spend 12 hours over the year developing your knowledge and understanding of SEN. 

Each session will have a specific focus and before each one, there will be reading, tasks and research to complete. 

There are two blocks of full-time school-based training on the course, each twelve weeks long. Your first teaching placement will usually start at the beginning of October.

Your UEL tutors will decide where you go on placement and arrange for it to be as convenient as possible for you.

You will be teaching, not helping, on the placement. You will start off working with groups of pupils, but your role is not to help the teacher - it is to support and increase the pupils' learning.

You will have a school-based mentor (a teacher employed by the school) as well as a professional tutor from UEL who will visit you during each placement. This is partly to moderate and assess the quality of your work, but also to give you support, guidance and feedback.

In principle, your two placements will be in different schools. However, schools sometimes ask for trainees to return for a second placement. 

How you will be assessed

Your course will lead to the recommendation of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). You also have to complete assignments that contribute to your understanding of teaching and learning and carry academic credit, leading to the award of a PGCE.

You will complete two Level 7 (master's level) assignments. For both of these, you will need to read and understand literature about good practice and then think and write about your own practice. The 60 Level 7 credits will contribute to the PGCE award.

Campus and facilities

Water Lane, Stratford

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by School of Education and Communities

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.