How to become a teacher

Zziggi

Sorry if this is a daft question but i am asking on behalf of a friend and i do not know the answer to the question so i thought i would ask here....

How do you become a primary school teacher?

The background is the person has a BA(Hons) in Spanish, MA in Linguistics and a MA in Jewish Studies, MEd (despite not being a techer) and has done 120 credits of an undergraduate Religious studies degree in evening courses are their local university while working (job is currently office type employment). They definitely DON'T want to do secondary and teach modern languages all day, every day. They want to become a primary school teacher but their qualifications (as far as we understand) aren't in a subject area suitable for them to go straight into PGCE (primary). Is this correct?

Whilst primary school teachers aren't specialists as such, my friends's interest is in teaching RE and with the government wanting to extend foreign language learning into primary by 2010, she thought having already a degree in Spanish would be useful (to teach but no all the time like you would in secondary).

Would she actually need to finish an undergraduate Religious Studies degree before doing a PGCE or would the MA in Jewish Studies be acceptable as R.E. training (despite it being only in her religion and not multi-faith study).

Any advice or comments? She's 35 now if that matters....

The_One_Who

This might help: Becoming a teacher

littlebird22

I'm doing secondary teaching so I don't know too much about primary but I think the best thing to do would be to get in touch with the local university (I presume at 35 she's not looking to move away) and ask about their PGCE course and the requirements.

Is her degree only in Spanish? Or did she do some French modules along the way? She is probably on a much better standing if she can speak French too, even just a few modules of it at university level. I know that at secondary level, just four modules of a subject qualifies you to teach it but this may not be the case for primary. At my university you can do a primary degree with a specialism in French so it is something that primary schools are looking for.

Also, are her A Level choices in core subjects, i.e. has she got any of Maths, English, History etc. These things are important when applying straight from school to do primary education so are presumably ways that she can sell herself even if she left school long ago.

Does she have experience? This is so important, primary PGCEs are so competitive. If she is working full time then she obviously doesn't have time to actually go into a school and do work experience but she can do things like brownies on a night. People applying straight from university to do a PGCE will have lots of voluntary experience with children because they will have the time to do so and have the benefit of careers advisers telling them to do so.

Finally, there are ways to "learn on the job". If a drop in salary is not too important to her then there are ways to become a teaching assistant and then learn whilst in school. I don't know a lot about this or how many years it will take but it is perhaps worth looking into and will perhaps suit her more than a formal PGCE.

Zziggi

littlebird22 wrote: »

I'm doing secondary teaching so I don't know too much about primary but I think the best thing to do would be to get in touch with the local university (I presume at 35 she's not looking to move away) and ask about their PGCE course and the requirements.

Is her degree only in Spanish? Or did she do some French modules along the way? She is probably on a much better standing if she can speak French too, even just a few modules of it at university level. I know that at secondary level, just four modules of a subject qualifies you to teach it but this may not be the case for primary. At my university you can do a primary degree with a specialism in French so it is something that primary schools are looking for.

Also, are her A Level choices in core subjects, i.e. has she got any of Maths, English, History etc. These things are important when applying straight from school to do primary education so are presumably ways that she can sell herself even if she left school long ago.

Does she have experience? This is so important, primary PGCEs are so competitive. If she is working full time then she obviously doesn't have time to actually go into a school and do work experience but she can do things like brownies on a night. People applying straight from university to do a PGCE will have lots of voluntary experience with children because they will have the time to do so and have the benefit of careers advisers telling them to do so.

Finally, there are ways to "learn on the job". If a drop in salary is not too important to her then there are ways to become a teaching assistant and then learn whilst in school. I don't know a lot about this or how many years it will take but it is perhaps worth looking into and will perhaps suit her more than a formal PGCE.

I've just spoken to her and yes she did French as part of her Spanish degree as a subsidary subject for 3 years. She has A-level French and German. She's also been a helper in the primary school her nephew & nieces went to. Listening to children read, helping the children with model making, painting etc, mounting pictures going on school trips and other dogs-body type helping jobs. Her nephew and 2 nieces have all left the school now but as she's on flexi-time she goes in one half-day a week and has done for years. She has done school assemblies & gone into KS2 classes when the topic was Judaism and helps out every year when the school does "Europe Day" and the run up to Europe Day involves the kids learning few words of a European language (counting, say their name etc) and she goes in to do that with each class. I told her to speak to the Head for info as it sounds like the school value her commitment and they might be willing to give her pointers (or reference?) if she takes it further. I said to her about being a T.A. and tbh i think it is a mid-life crisis of wanting to change career before she gets too old.

duchy

To be honest as she has contacts within a primary school I'm quite surprised they can't give her guidence as they will have links with the local university BEd and PGCE courses as they will presumably have students coming in doing teaching practice.

Oldernotwiser

She also needs to have GCSE (grade C or over) in English, Maths and a Science. As long as she has these I can't see why she wouldn't be accepted for a PGCE, as she has equivalent to 1 year of an RE degree plus the MA which would be relevant, as RE is a national curriculum subject. If she has all the qualifications she should contact the university where she would do a PGCE and also ask about the Graduate Teacher Programme in her area.

maman

Would definitely recommend the Graduate Teacher Programme. It's a demanding course but is informative and paid. She may need to find her own school placement so maybe local school would help.

silvercar

You can do the graduate teacher scheme through some of the state jewish primary schools. With her background they would no doubt welcome your friend.

Gingernutmeg

You don't have to have an A-Level or a degree in any particular subject to become a primary school teacher, although it helps if you do have a National Curriculum subject or education experience. When you do a primary PGCE you pick a 'specialism' alongside the standard course. RE is definitely something you can specialise in, and I think some universities offer the primary PGCE with a specialism in Modern Foreign Languages, although I'm not sure how widely offered that is. Best thing for your friend to do is to get in touch with some universities that offer primary PGCE courses and see what their requirements are - school experience is something that you definitely DO need so she's got something in her favour already

I'm only suggesting it because I know the university and I know it has a reputation for good teacher training courses, but have a look at the Roehampton website. There's lots of info on PGCEs here.