PGCE with QTS Secondary Physical Education

Introduction

Study a PGCE that enables you to use your passion for sport to shape the lives of secondary school children. After graduating as a qualified PE teacher, you'll design your own lessons that bring sport and physical activity to life.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Secondary Physical Education is a one-year course that leads to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). You'll train to become a Physical Education teacher for the secondary age range (11-16). You'll gain 60 academic credits at master's level as part of the course. 

Teaching is both a challenging and a rewarding career with a high level of job satisfaction. It is a great privilege, as well as a great responsibility, to play such a key role in young people's lives. We focus on supporting our trainees to thrive, and we do this alongside teachers and mentors in school. We also facilitate you to collaborate with your peers, and to graduate with a ready-made, supportive professional network.  

All our courses are future-facing and underpinned by a strong values base. Our provision directly addresses education for sustainable futures. We equip you to be able to work thoughtfully, creatively and successfully with your learners. At UWE Bristol, we're committed to training reflective, innovative, and adaptable teachers for the future.   

As time spent on campus is limited, many students choose to commute from further afield.

Structure

Content

The PGCE Physical Education course includes many learning opportunities led by experienced professionals to develop students' subject expertise.

To develop expertise in your specialist subject area you'll:

• learn through doing - integrating theory with practical experiences to unpick what meaningful Physical Education experiences truly entail.

• become innovatively responsive to evolving youth cultures, comfortable in challenging both your own and others' beliefs and teaching practices to make Physical Education relevant to every young person. 

• reflect critically and constructively on national and regional priorities, policies and cutting-edge educational research. 

• acquire subject knowledge on how to effectively plan and teach engaging Physical Education learning experiences that nurture pupil motivation, confidence, competence and knowledge and understanding. 

• explore critical and inclusive pedagogies through instructional models in Physical Education to promote engagement and improve pupil progress.

• study a physical literacy-informed Physical Education Curriculum - 'learning to move' and 'moving to learn' to develop lifelong participation in physical activity. 

You'll study the following modules:

• Curriculum, Pedagogy and Practice (Secondary)

• Becoming a Transformational Teacher (Secondary)

• Professional Practice A (QTS)

• Professional Practice B (QTS).

PGCE Physical Education with EBacc 

We also welcome applications from candidates who wish to specialise in Physical Education but have a real interest in an additional subject at Key Stage 3 (Year 7-9). This route offers you the opportunity to cover everything within the standard Physical Education programme, whilst developing additional skills and experiences in your chosen EBacc subject.

You'll be required to do a small amount of teaching in your EBacc subject, although this is not formally assessed. The EBacc route offers you a greater level of flexibility in your teaching and could be very beneficial in securing future employment.  

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved, we'll inform you.

This award leads to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The focus for achieving QTS is particularly in the practice modules. UWE Bristol has chosen Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) as our accredited provider for the QTS elements of the course.

We work with SHU to provide high-quality courses and share excellent practice. Together, our teacher training will help you shape the future of children and young people. 

Features

Placements

As a trainee teacher, you'll complete 120 days in school placement practice blocks in at least two different schools, plus further focused teaching experiences. You'll practise as a subject specialist teacher for the secondary age range (11-16), and gain experience of the 16-18 age range. 

The schools and settings within our Initial Teacher Training partnership are geographically diverse, with placements in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and Wales. We work hard to match placements to trainee teacher needs, experience and locations. 

At UWE Bristol, we'll support you to become an authentic, effective, thoughtful teacher. Towards the end of your course, your progress review will enable your entry to the teaching profession and your ongoing development as an Early Career Teacher (ECT).