Education (Postgraduate Certificate in Education)

The Primary PGCE team is very much looking forward to welcoming you to The University of Manchester for the start of what will undoubtedly be a very rewarding year of training and teaching! 

You will be able to register onlinefrom Wednesday, 21 August and your university teaching timetable starts on Monday, 2 September, 10am.  

Before the start of the courseyou received a pre-programme handbook containingthe 2024-25 timetable, key placement dates, reflective activities to help you prepare for your training and initial course information. 

The main course handbook and PGCE curriculum document will be available for you to download from the VLE Blackboardafter registration. 

If you still have any outstanding documents to complete or send in, please do so as a priority as this can delay your registration in August and also delay subsequent access to the VLE Blackboard, email and could prevent you from going into schools on placement. Therefore it is vital that all registration activities are completed in good time before the start of the programme.  

All our university-taught course curriculum sessions will be in-person, on campus with the exception of a few whole cohort lectures which may be online. Most of the teaching is very practical and hands-on so attendance in every session is important to ensure that you engage with the full training curriculum.  

The first week includes some crucial sessions such as an introduction to assessment and assignments, safeguarding in schools, professionalism, your trainee portfolioand an introduction to the PGCE curriculum.You will also have your first teaching sessions in maths, English, and science. Core trainees will meet their university professional tutor and tutor group colleagues. Trainees on the Lead Programme Partner programme will spend some time in their alliances.  

The first lecture for all trainees will start promptly at 10am on Monday, 2September, Samuel Alexander building, room SLG.12. If you are not familiar with the University campus, please click here for the interactive campus map which you can find online.   

Please arrive in good time for the first lecture and sign the paper register on arrival. The timings for individual lectures in the first week and beyond will be provided during the first lecture. Lectures will finish at approximately 4pm every day. 

You have an amazing and exciting year ahead of you and we cannot wait to work with you. 

 
Kindest regards  

Rebecca, Liz and Karen 

I am delighted to welcome you to the Secondary PGCE course here at The University of Manchester Institute of Education (MIE), a vibrant and diverse community of staff and students working on educational research projects in classroom pedagogies, inclusive education, mental health, disadvantage and poverty, educational leadership, as well as in teacher education and development. 

Much of the research and scholarship that goes on in MIE is with and for teachers and trainee teachers. 

The course is embedded in practice and is part of a successful, energetic, and committed academic and postgraduate community. 

Before the start of the course you received a pre-programme handbook containing the 2024-25 timetable, key placement dates, and information regarding the Primary School Placement.  

The main course handbook, your subject handbook and PGCE curriculum documents will be available for you to download from the VLE, Blackboard, after registration. 

You will be able to register online from Wednesday, 21 August and the coursestarts on Monday, 2 September. 

Core PGCE trainees should aim to organise a five-day primary school placement for this week, and complete the Primary School Placement assignment. 

If you find this placement difficult to arrange at this time, it can be completed at the end of the course, or sometimes during one of your vacation weeks. 

Lead Partner trainees will be contacted by your lead school, with details of arrangements for this week. 

This is the first day of the University course, and you are expected to attend all sessions. This is the beginning of a focused period of just over three weeks of preparing for your first main placement. 

Much of the Secondary PGCE course is organised around subject groups. 

You are training to be a teacher with a particular specialism, working with your peers and with specialist staff in that subject - but you are also training to be a teacher with wider professional responsibilities, and so another important strand of your training, Educational and Professional Studies (EPS), will take place in cross-subject groups. 

Your subject leader will be sending more details of the subject specific session shortly. 

You will find information and suggested pre-reading for both your subject and for the EPS strand available on the VLE. There you will also find subject knowledge audits to help you focus your subject knowledge development (you may have received this already). 

To become more familiar with the course, its requirements, and the timetable, please read through the PGCE Secondary pre-course handbook. 

The specific subject handbooks will be available for you to download from the VLE, Blackboard, once you have registered for the course. 

For information on how to use Blackboard, you can watch this video. 

I look forward to seeing you on Monday 9 September. 

Dr Rosa Archer 
Course Director, PGCE Secondary 
rosa.archer@manchester.ac.uk 

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