PGCE Secondary

Welcome to our Secondary Initial Teacher Education Programme. We are delighted that you will be joining us in the 2022/23 academic year, and we very much look forward to seeing you in September.

Please navigate around the website carefully to access key information. 

Will Bailey-Watson 

Secondary Programme Director 

Programme Administration

• pgcesecondary@reading.ac.uk 

Admissions

• teachertraining@reading.ac.uk  

We have put together some pre-programme information documents that contain ideas to help you prepare for the 2022/23 course.

The tasks listed in these documents are not mandatory, but are suggested to help you hit the ground running. Please read the document for your subject area.

• Art and Design (PDF, 0.1 MB)
• Computer Science (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• Design and Technology (PDF, 0.1 MB)
• Drama (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• English (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• Geography (PDF, 0.1 MB)
• History (PDF, 0.1 MB)
• Mathematics (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• Modern Foreign Languages (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• Music (PDF, 0.1 MB)
• Physical Education (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• Religious Education (PDF, 0.1 MB)
• Science (PDF, 0.1 MB) 

In order for your conditional offer to become unconditional, you must address all the requirements of your offer, including: 

• proof of qualifications 
• Fitness to Teach assessment
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. 

You must have these ready for your enrolment in September. Please note that we will not be able to enrol you onto the programme unless all conditions have been met.  

You will receive emails with instructions for how to complete your Fitness to Teach assessment and obtain your Enhanced DBS clearance before enrolment.

You will also receive an email inviting you to come to the campus for one of our Initial Needs Assessment sessions. If you are tuition-fee funded (rather than salaried), you will need to bring the three ID documents required for your DBS check to this session. 

You will need to show the originals of your qualification certificates at enrolment in September. 

Meeting these conditions takes time – in our experience, they often take far longer than expected. Please do not leave it until the summer – you risk running out of time and not being able to enrol.  

You may wish to familiarise yourself with the statutory guidance about Initial Teacher Education. 

The UK Department for Education Teacher Standards

Please download the Department of Education Teachers' Standards guidance (PDF, 0.2 MB). 

You could read and begin to become familiar with the terminology. 

These standards apply to all teachers regardless of their career stage and define the minimum level of practice expected of teachers from the point of being awarded qualified teacher status (QTS) onwards. 

The Teachers' Standards on one page (PDF, 0.2 MB) is a particularly useful document – please make sure you keep it handy. 

Frameworks

You could access, bookmark and begin to become familiar with the Department for Education frameworks. 

• The National Curriculum for your subject. 
• The initial teacher training (ITT) core content framework (PDF, 0.5 MB). The core content framework defines in detail the minimum entitlement of all trainee teachers. Drawing on the best available evidence, it sets out the content that ITT providers and their partnerships must draw upon when designing and delivering their ITT programmes.
• The ITT core content framework aligns with the early career framework to establish an entitlement to a three or more year structured package of support for all new teachers at the start of their careers
• Special needs and disability (SEND) Code of Practice (PDF, 3.2 MB). 

It is up to you whether you wish to use this pre-programme information. We look forward to seeing you at enrolment on Friday 2 September.