Secondary Religious Education PGCE

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

Select year

PGCE

  • PGCE Secondary Religious Education, home applicant, full time

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • Pound 9250 per year
    Applications are closed
  • PGCE Secondary Religious Education, home applicant,

    • Home Applicant
    Applications are closed
  • PGCE Secondary Religious Education, international applicant, full time

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • Pound 14820 per year
    International applications are closed for 2024

What makes this course different

Rated Outstanding by Ofsted

Our primary and further education provision has been rated outstanding by Ofsted highlighting that we provide exceptional teacher education and training.

100 partnership schools

We work with 100 schools across East London and into Essex in which our students undertake full placements. When they gain employment, most of our students secure jobs within our partnership schools.

University of the Year for Teaching Quality

We are proud to be the University of the Year for Teaching Quality in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025.

Course modules

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

The Secondary PGCE course at the University of East London was designed in 2001 in conjunction with the local authorities to address the secondary education teacher shortage in East London.

The partnership works with input and support from the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Redbridge.

It means that our graduates are represented in virtually every secondary school in east London. Some are now deputy heads or in senior management roles in schools that are taking our current trainees for their placements.

Across all subjects, from maths to modern languages, our teacher-training graduates act as mentors to those following in their footsteps.

The partnership means that you have a head start when it comes to securing a teaching post in east London at the end of your training.

Both local authorities and individual schools visit our campus regularly to meet our trainees and advertise available vacancies.

You may also decide to undertake further study at the University of East London, either at the end of your course or after gaining teaching experience, perhaps specialising in Special Educational Needs or taking our MA Leadership in Education.

We also offer doctoral study opportunities to further develop your teaching knowledge and expertise.

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

Education and Communities building
UEL was the perfect place for me to begin my journey into teaching. Both the subject and whole school lectures provided me with the in-depth knowledge I needed to prepare me for the classroom and the wider school environment. My journey from classroom teacher to senior leader all began with a PGCE at UEL."
Neil Tobias

Assistant Head Teacher, Barking and Dagenham. UEL PGCE Graduate

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, and 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.

Our Mental Wealth programme

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

As well as learning about children and child development, you will learn how to be a specialist teacher of religious education. 

Subject sessions will support your understanding of the current key issues in religious education. This will include debating the aims of RE pedagogy and current issues. 

The subject studies element of your training provides an introduction to RE as a basic curriculum subject - what the aims of RE are and how RE is important for young people.

Sessions will offer theoretical perspectives on how to teach RE in both community and faith schools - in particular looking at differing and competing pedagogies as well as the aims of religious education, the principles of syllabus design and evaluation, and the assessment and recording of children's progress.

Time will be given to exploring RE teaching in practice, including how to create a respectful classroom ethos with the sensitivity that RE, in particular, demands.

How you'll learn

We will support you to become an outstanding teacher of religious education. You will learn how to devise and deliver engaging lessons that enthuse all pupils.

Subject sessions will support your understanding of current issues in religious education and worldviews and will enable you to develop the appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding for teaching religious education in the secondary school context. 

Sessions will offer theoretical perspectives on how to teach RE in both community and faith schools. Time will be given to exploring RE teaching in practice, including how to teach RE in a rigorous, thoughtful and meaningful manner and create a respectful classroom ethos with the sensitivity that religious education demands.

The RE training is organised so that it feels like a school. Your subject tutor will be like your form tutor at school. We believe that we should model good practice to you so that you can learn by example. 

This is designed to further develop your enthusiasm for teaching RE as well as enabling you to develop the skills to devise and deliver lessons that excite and intrigue pupils. 

Our ethos is based on collaboration, not competition. We encourage you to work collaboratively just as you will when you qualify and start working in a school.

You will undertake two long placements in contrasting schools, totalling 24 weeks. We work in partnership with over 100 schools and colleges to provide a high-quality programme of support.  

You will be on placement from week three, so right from the beginning of your training, you will have a strong link between theory and practice. 

While an experienced teacher will be in the classroom with you, it is you who will be planning the lessons and teaching the lessons. You will start by observing the teacher, then helping. By the end of the Secondary PGCE course, you will be teaching 60 per cent of a normal teacher's timetable.

You will have the opportunity to visit additional schools and settings. For instance, if your first placement is in a mixed comprehensive school in Barking & Dagenham, then you might go to a single-sex faith school in Havering for your second one. 

Our tutors and subject mentors will advise and support you throughout each placement as you learn to teach.

How you will be assessed

To pass your PGCE and be recommended for Qualified Teacher Status, you have to demonstrate that you have met the Teachers' Standards.

While the course is modular, the emphasis is on the whole process of your development as a teacher. So, rather than a fragmentary approach, there is ongoing assessment, charting the often subtle transformations in your knowledge and understanding, and your practical skills.

Campus and facilities

Water Lane, Stratford

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by School of Childhood and Social Care

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.