[oliverjames]

Hey

I have just been offered a place on a Creative and Professional writing course that I am really keen on accepting as it seems perfect for me and fits my ambition to write. However I plan to take a one year PGCE on its completion which I will need a degree for to meet the entry requirements. What I need to know is whether a Creative and Professional Writing degree is valid as the degree needed to meet the requirements of the PGCE for primary school teaching?

I know that you need experience working in a school and passed GCSE's in Math, English and Science which I have. I just need to know if the course I want to take is valid for a PGCE. Any advise on this would be appreciated, I cant seem to find much on the web about this. Thanks.

[Shelly_x]

Email a few Unis to ask?

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by oliverjames)
Hey

I have just been offered a place on a Creative and Professional writing course that I am really keen on accepting as it seems perfect for me and fits my ambition to write. However I plan to take a one year PGCE on its completion which I will need a degree for to meet the entry requirements. What I need to know is whether a Creative and Professional Writing degree is valid as the degree needed to meet the requirements of the PGCE for primary school teaching?

I know that you need experience working in a school and passed GCSE's in Math, English and Science which I have. I just need to know if the course I want to take is valid for a PGCE. Any advise on this would be appreciated, I cant seem to find much on the web about this. Thanks.

If this course you plan to take will lead to a BA (hons) or equivalent degree then yes it is fine for a PGCE. Some universities will only accept people with degrees in a national curriculum subject or say that they prefer people with a degree in one, but not all universities do. My degree isn't in a national curriculum subject although it has clear links to several and I haven't had any issues as a teacher - just ensure you do your research and apply somewhere that does take one people without an NC degree.

[Joanne_86]

Hiya,

I did English and creative writing and have just got onto my PGCE course at Manchester university (first attempt) Because my degree had English as part of it I think that helped as they tend to prefer people who have done degrees in core subjects (English, maths, science) although there were loads of people at my interview with degrees in history, politics etc. Creative writing is big now in primary schools and I don't think it will hurt your chances as long as you gets lots of experience in school before you apply and show how passionate you are about doing the course then you should be fine

[bownessie]

One thing it really depends on is if you want to teach secondary or primary. Primary PGCE you can get in with any degree (obviously there is slight variation uni to uni, but generally speaking). Secondary PGCE you need a degree which is in a national curiculum subject or have sufficient cross over with an nc subject that you can teach it. Depending on the nature of your creative writing course, you may well be able to teach english at secondary schools. It really depends on what the degree entails. Also if you want to teach middle years you should (theoretically) be able to teach any subject you have an A-level in. Presuming you have english A-level with a creatinve writing degreee I am sure you would be qualified to teach middle years.

[mhill]

I have just got onto my PGCE at warwick and my undergraduate degree wasn't a national curriculum subject. As long as you can show that it relates to the national curriculum is some way (eg mine was very historically based, but had statistics, connotations of english, demography/geography, and studied 'education' itself) then it should be good.


Also, from 2013, applicants will have to specialise in either English, Mathematics or Science, so you'll be able to clearly demonstrate that you'd be an ideal candidate for an English specialism (Warwick is introducing this one year early hence why I know). Just make sure that you have plenty of up-to-date work expereince, maybe from the start of your final year of your degree do a couple of days a week in a school; thats what I did and it really
helped to show how up to date you are with all the practicalities of new pedagogies