We offer our students an exceptional training experience – if you’re looking for a lifelong, challenging and exciting career, teaching may be for you.
During the training year you will engage with and be exposed to a range of pedagogical approaches to enable you to become an outstanding teacher. As a part of our distinctive and ambitious curriculum you will understand and apply your knowledge of:
- Enquiry Based Learning
- Scholarship
- Initial Stimulus Material
- Cultural Capital
The PGCE will provide you with the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of key stage 3, 4 and 5 and will prepare you to adopt a range of assessment and behavioural strategies to support pupil progress.
Your subject knowledge workshops will support you to expand your history knowledge and develop a teaching toolkit to support effective learning which develops curiosity about world history amongst students. You will master skills to be able to teach key historical concepts such as: change and continuity; cause and consequence; interpretation and source analysis. As history curriculums tend to be bespoke to the schools in which they are taught, we will cover a broad range of historical topics to provide a foundation for further study. You will also consider methods to bring the teaching of History to life in the classroom – through music, plays and the use of multimedia to support students learning. We will also cover contemporary issues such as decolonising the history curriculum. You will also be encouraged to reflect on up-to-date research on the latest pedagogy, making critical evaluations and considering how it might influence your ongoing practice.
Emphasis is placed on strategies such as learning through enquiry, fieldwork, and historical scholarship to ensure you are well prepared to successfully teach and motivate pupils in the contemporary classroom. You will explore all areas of the History National Curriculum, considering transitions between phases. You will be encouraged and guided to become confident with designing your own ambitious History curriculum to prepare students for the changing world in which we live.
You’ll be supported by a range of experienced professionals, both during school placements and by academic staff at the university. The programme aims to help you become an engaging and effective teacher within the 11–16 age range, and provides the input and opportunities that could enable you to teach post-16. Successfully completing this PGCE course will enable you to teach at Secondary age, as well as Primary and A Level.
We were founded as a teaching college 175 years ago, and following the introduction of new quality requirements, our Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), have successfully achieved reaccreditation in 2022 by the Department of Education.
Our ITT courses have also recently been rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted, with inspectors highlighting their ‘unique’ emphasis on sustainability and the University’s strong partnership with schools.
A brand-new campus
It’s planned that this course will be taught at UoG’s new campus in Gloucester city centre from September 2025.
The vibrant campus will be at the heart of the regeneration of Gloucester city centre. It will bring an iconic building back to life as a modern centre for teaching, learning and community partnerships, through placements, research and outreach activity, and provide cutting-edge facilities for your course.
Study style
During the Developing Phase of the curriculum, trainees will attend centre-based lectures and be introduced to Curriculum Key Themes;
- Behaviour Management and High Expectations
- Subject Knowledge and Curriculum Design
- Adaptive Practice and Inclusion
- Children’s Learning, Classroom Practice
- Assessment
- Professional and Ethical Practice.
During School Experience 1, trainees will be immersed in Adaptive Practice and Inclusion in a special school setting. During School Experience 2, trainees will start to apply their knowledge from the centre-based taught programme. During school-based training, trainees will revisit specific Curriculum Key Themes and attend centre-based training once a week.
During the Broadening Phase, trainees will build upon and extend the knowledge, skills and experience from School Experience 1 and 2 and the centre-based taught programme. During the Broadening Phase, trainees will be expected to revisit and broaden their knowledge and practice of the 5 curriculum areas and Curriculum Key Themes introduced at the Developing Phase, and will engage with new Curriculum Key Themes, such as:
- Curriculum Design
- Subject Knowledge
- Sustainability
- Employability
- Research Informed Practice
During this phase of the curriculum, trainees will be supported to take on wider responsibilities as a part of the role of a trainee teacher and have opportunities to discuss, analyse and observe expert colleagues to support their progression through the Broadening Phase. Trainees will broaden their knowledge and experience of the primary phase, decolonising the curriculum, sustainability for education and other contemporary issues in education.
During the Enhancing Phase, trainees will enhance and extend the knowledge, skills and experience gained during School Experience 2 and the centre-based taught programme. During the Enhancing Phase, trainees will be expected to revisit and extend their knowledge and practice of the 5 curriculum areas:
- Behaviour Management
- Pedagogy
- Curriculum
- Assessment
- Professional Behaviours
During this phase trainees will plan and deliver an enhancement project such as a ‘Primary Sustainability Project’ which will promote a love of learning and intellectual curiosity. Trainees will enhance their knowledge across the curriculum and demonstrate their ability to be:
Graduate Ambassadors of Education
Leaders of Learning
Outstanding Teachers
Subject Experts
At the end of the secondary programme, our highly employable trainees will be able to further enhance their professional development and draw upon their essential ECT Toolkit gained during the course.
What we offer:
- Subject specialist Lecturers with a wealth of experience in classroom practice and ITT.
- Smaller group sizes to offer bespoke during the taught content and whilst on placement.
- Opportunities to be involved in cross-curricular activities with other subject strands e.g. Geography.
- Subject lectures that focus upon Ofsted and the Historical Associations ‘best practice’ in history teaching.
- A specific focus upon delivering controversial topics, such as terrorism
- Expert input on teaching the Holocaust.
- Opportunities to learn from organisations such as English Heritage, whose sites have structured key stage 3 / 4 educational visits.
- Opportunities to gain a deep understanding of subject knowledge content and subject pedagogies across the age phases including primary and post 16.