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PGCE Secondary Spanish / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course description

PGCE Secondary (Spanish) will train you to teach Spanish across the 11 to 16 or 11 to 18 age range.

It will prepare you to teach the National Curriculum, GCSE and A-level.

Completion leads to a postgraduate qualification and recommendation for qualified teacher status (QTS).

University-based sessions will enable you to reflect on teaching methods.

We are dedicated to developing your expertise and we believe passionately in the benefits of creative, motivating and engaging language lessons to create the next generation of lifelong language speakers.

Our sessions are all interactive and good pedagogy is modelled by skilled and highly motivated University Tutors and guest speakers. Your University Tutors combine experience as outstanding teachers with academic knowledge of innovative, current and relevant educational research.

We have strong partnerships with schools and colleges, many of which are involved in research projects with the University. We work with a large variety of schools, comprehensives, grammar schools, special schools and sixth form colleges, allowing us to personalise your placement experiences to your individual needs.

Find out more about your Modern Languages tutors  Joanne TabernerKaren Roberts  and  Claire Forbes .

Aims

You will:

  • Develop a critical awareness of lesson and curriculum planning, spending time on each with school-based mentors and University tutors.
  • Develop skills and knowledge in inclusive language teaching.
  • Develop pedagogy and gain an understanding of a range of different teaching strategies in the ML classroom, and also in activities beyond the classroom.
  • Develop subject and curriculum knowledge for KS3, KS4 and KS5 languages.

Special features

  • Our PGCEs are rated 'Outstanding' by Ofsted (2019), and we have been judged best university provider of initial teacher training in the North of England (Good Teacher Training Guide 2017).
  • We have links with more than 200 schools, academies and colleges, and you will benefit from significant school-based teaching experience.
  • Our leading experts in education have trained more than 5,000 teachers in the last 15 years.
  • Our students come from all over the globe and a variety of backgrounds - from recent graduates to mature learners.
  • Our research improves the quality of education across the world, with 78% of our activity defined as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' (Research Excellence Framework 2014).

Teaching and learning

The structure of our PGCEs includes both school-based and university-based learning.

On our secondary PGCEs, around two-thirds of your time will be spent in secondary schools, academies and colleges on placements.

The course is run in partnership with schools and colleges drawn from a wide area, including Bolton, Bury, Cheshire, Deeside, Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Staffordshire, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Warrington and Wigan.

The University's partnership schools are highly committed to giving you the best experience while on your school placements, providing you with the opportunity to put into practice all the knowledge you have acquired from sessions held at the University.

When on placement, you will observe and teach classes under the guidance of an experienced teacher. You will have a mentor to help you to plan lessons, deal with marking and assessment, and improve your teaching skills.

Peer observations of lessons will enable you to participate actively in yours and your fellow students' development as teachers.

You will be provided with significant responsibility to develop your own teaching style, set targets, take your own initiatives and evaluate your own work in planning, teaching and assessing.

Your remaining time will be spent at the University, for example in lectures and seminars, and subject-specific groups.

We will support your training to become a secondary school teacher by providing:

  • a quality teaching experience in our partner schools and colleges;
  • a study of current, challenging educational issues;
  • careers planning and early professional development;
  • guidance and support from experienced tutors and mentors;
  • opportunities for reflective practice and research.

As a guide, you should anticipate that time in university-based learning combined with school-based placements will roughly equate to a full-time job, with additional time required in evenings and weekends for background reading, lesson planning and completing written assignments.

Coursework and assessment

Your school and University experiences are formally assessed. Both your mentors and tutors will help you to record your achievements and set targets from week to week and from placement to placement.

During each placement, a University tutor will observe you teach and discuss your progress with you and your mentor.

At the end of each school experience, you will receive a progress report from your mentor. The report will provide clear feedback and targets in the following areas:

  • subject and curriculum knowledge;
  • planning and teaching;
  • assessment;
  • wider professional responsibilities.

These reports, together with your record of achievement and development, facilitate your progression as a teacher.

The written assignments will allow you to gain a maximum of 60 master's-level credits, and guidance and support to complete these assignments will be available from your University tutors.

What our students say

I always thought I would enjoy teaching, but even my first term of the PGCE has confirmed this more than I had imagined. You get so much more responsibility than you imagine, the classes become yours and you become the teacher, a role I didn't think would be fully achievable until the NQT year. It's hard work, but it is extremely rewarding and at Manchester, we are lucky to receive such high-quality training and support.

Read more about  Naomi's experience  in her student profile.

Facilities

The course is taught by the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE), with most PGCE University days based there in University's Ellen Wilkinson building, centrally located on the University's Oxford Road campus, close to the Main Library, Alan Gilbert Learning Commons and the Students Union.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk