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PGCE Applications 2015

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Original post by sandervc01
History :smile: Red Kite looks really good- YSJ didn't have History down as their PGCE when I was applying but if it had I would have probably applied as everyone speak so highly of it!
Got an interview for Hull on Monday :smile:


No they only do Secondary RE for the uni based route but when I interviewed it was with lots of school direct people (but for Ebor Alliance). Three or four history people actually! Good luck for Hull


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Original post by luciecraven
So I got into UEA ☺️☺️☺️ so relieved! Felt like I was waiting for ages! Is anyone else going there? Or looking to house share for September? Xx


Hey congratulations! I got my acceptance letter for the UEA Pgce course today! Where abouts are you from? Im debating moving to Norwich so will be looking to house share in September :smile: x
Got accepted to Hope (english secondary) anyone else?? Even for other subjects?


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Anyone else get an offer from IOE and still not have the official offer letter? They sent an email on the 9th December saying they should get it out by the next week!
Reply 3224
Original post by Domitella
Anyone else get an offer from IOE and still not have the official offer letter? They sent an email on the 9th December saying they should get it out by the next week!


Same here, no letter as of yet, got my offer on the 4th said letter would be sent next week,due to the UCL merger, track has updated, so I know the offer is real. I have rang them, but they said nothing will happen now until after Xmas :frown:. btw big grats on getting an offer.
(edited 9 years ago)
Hey, okay so I have a few questions regarding my PGCE Secondary RE application and I would really appreciate some help on this.

1) I've had one of my references sent off but my other reference, which was supposed to be filled in by my placement supervisor (secondary RE teacher) has not yet been completed. I was wondering I have her number, would it be appropriate lets say for me to call her on Monday and ask her about the reference or is that seen to be inappropriate.

2) I had my STA literacy skills test yesterday and I failed as i needed 15% more to pass. I was wondering what are some good ways to revise and practice my literacy and numeracy skills test. - Also how long do you guys/girls suggest that I study before taking the tests? 2 weeks? 4?

3) For those who have had interviews, How hard are the PGCE Interviews.

4) On my UCAS application, my welcome page has this written on it:

"You have entered some European characters that are not in the English alphabet. Not all training providers can view these characters correctly, so a version with substituted English characters is also made available to them.View the list of European characters we allow.

Before you can send us your application you will need to view and agree to the substituted characters version of each section in which you've entered European characters. You need to go to the 'View all' section on the left hand navigation to do this."

I'm not sure what this means so I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could help.

Thank you for reading.
Original post by Simply93
Hey, okay so I have a few questions regarding my PGCE Secondary RE application and I would really appreciate some help on this.

1) I've had one of my references sent off but my other reference, which was supposed to be filled in by my placement supervisor (secondary RE teacher) has not yet been completed. I was wondering I have her number, would it be appropriate lets say for me to call her on Monday and ask her about the reference or is that seen to be inappropriate.

2) I had my STA literacy skills test yesterday and I failed as i needed 15% more to pass. I was wondering what are some good ways to revise and practice my literacy and numeracy skills test. - Also how long do you guys/girls suggest that I study before taking the tests? 2 weeks? 4?

3) For those who have had interviews, How hard are the PGCE Interviews.

4) On my UCAS application, my welcome page has this written on it:

"You have entered some European characters that are not in the English alphabet. Not all training providers can view these characters correctly, so a version with substituted English characters is also made available to them.View the list of European characters we allow.

Before you can send us your application you will need to view and agree to the substituted characters version of each section in which you've entered European characters. You need to go to the 'View all' section on the left hand navigation to do this."

I'm not sure what this means so I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could help.

Thank you for reading.


1) No it's the Christmas holidays, the teacher is having a well deserved break I would definitely NOT call her. It's Christmas at Unis too so it's not like rushing the reference will make the blindest bit of difference anyway, nothing will happen with your application till Jan 5th onwards.

2) What is your degree in? If you are writing essays all the time the literacy should be fairly straightforward so which parts let you down? If it's spelling there are lists online you can google and revise. Numeracy I would just say do the practice tests until you can pass comfortably. I started off getting about 5 right and just carried on practicing until I had it. You could also try the revision guides available on Amazon.

3) I only interviewed at one of my choices, I turned the other two interviews down because I was offered a place at my first choice uni. All universities structure the day differently and if you read through this thread you will see the types of task people had to do. I think it's safe to say all providers will expect you to do some kind of lesson or presentation though. The interview I has was quite a long day (0845-1700) but the other candidates were lovely and it was good fun. If you know your subject and have plenty of school experience to draw on it shouldn't be difficult.

4) You have obviously typed something in your application using European characters. You need to go through it and figure out where/what you have used and then check it against the link they have sent you.

Good luck with the application, hopefully you will hear about interviews in the New Year and once you get specific details on what is expected at each interview it will be easier to plan. Try not to worry too much about it and enjoy the holidays!

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(edited 9 years ago)
If a school offers school direct places but not in your subject, does anyone know if theres a possibility if you ask if they would consider your subject or are they not allowed to do so? x
I'm still working on my UCAS application and should be able to submit it soon. Had problems on doing the personal statement as it has to be 4000 characters/ 43 lines. I started with a little less than 4000 characters but getting them all in the 43 lines was a problem. Ended up deleting 10 lines and down to about 3500 characters. I still had so much to include but the space was limited.

Did you have a similar problem?
Original post by Simply93

3) For those who have had interviews, How hard are the PGCE Interviews.


I've had two interviews, one for Oxford and one for UEA. Both had multiple parts to them with group discussions, written tasks and individual interviews and both took about 3/4 hours all together (2pm-6pm). They were quite long, but I never felt like the interviewers were trying to catch me out or anything.

The interview questions were all really straightforward - why did I want to teach, what was a good lesson I observed, things like that. There was nothing particularly unexpected, but Oxford did ask me what kind of school I would like to be placed in, which was something I hadn't ever really thought about.
Original post by SJD88
Same here, no letter as of yet, got my offer on the 4th said letter would be sent next week,due to the UCL merger, track has updated, so I know the offer is real. I have rang them, but they said nothing will happen now until after Xmas :frown:. btw big grats on getting an offer.


Ah, thanks! Congratulations to you, too! I don't mind too much about not getting the official letter, but as I'm pretty sure I'm going to choose IOE I kinda want it before I withdraw from my other choices. But it's nice to get the email reassuring us that it's a firm offer! Hopefully these teething problems will be sorted by the time we start!
Original post by Krisses
I'm still working on my UCAS application and should be able to submit it soon. Had problems on doing the personal statement as it has to be 4000 characters/ 43 lines. I started with a little less than 4000 characters but getting them all in the 43 lines was a problem. Ended up deleting 10 lines and down to about 3500 characters. I still had so much to include but the space was limited.

Did you have a similar problem?



I had the same problem with the characters/lines - even worse as I wrote it before we could access the form, so I couldn't see how it would be formatted! It was exactly 4000 words, and 46 lines, but when I copied it into the form I had to cut 9 lines-worth of writing!

Just remember everyone else is in the same boat - I tended to cut some of the more basic bits about my current job and included that instead in the 'work experience' section.

I also found a super useful thing was to use one of those websites which makes a Word Cloud, because it showed really quickly which words I was over-using, and a lot of them could just be cut and it still made perfect sense. My word was 'particular' :P
Hi all,

If any females with children under 16 could spare 10minutes to complete this survey it would be greatly appreciated:

http://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=insmlua6ythmwi2469986

Thank you!
Hi, tried to do this for you but couldn't open the links Q17 onwards, just getting 404 error messages sorry



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Hey,

Anyone doing Secondary PGCE history at IOE? I've just been given my interview date of 8th January and I'm so nervous! I'm 29 and work full time so I don't have the time before the interview to spend 5 days observing a History lesson. I have plenty of experience in delivering training in schools, just not in a particular History class. I'm nervous that they will automatically reject me on this alone.
Can anyone give me some tips for the interview?? Thanks Lauren
Reply 3235
Withdrew my application to Chester on Thursday and received a letter today off them offering me an interview haha


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I interviewed last Tuesday for a PGCE primary with PE that starts in February. They said they'd tell me by Friday and then when I rang up on Friday afternoon they were like 'yeaahhh, it probably won't be until next week or January.' It's not like I need to know what I'm doing with my life or my job next year or anything :rolleyes:
Original post by SJD88
Same here, no letter as of yet, got my offer on the 4th said letter would be sent next week,due to the UCL merger, track has updated, so I know the offer is real. I have rang them, but they said nothing will happen now until after Xmas :frown:. btw big grats on getting an offer.



Well I don't have any email from them at all. The offer was updated on track, but they haven't sent me anything, not even an offer email. UCAS sent me the final offers through the post, but that's about it.
Original post by SJD88
Same here, no letter as of yet, got my offer on the 4th said letter would be sent next week,due to the UCL merger, track has updated, so I know the offer is real. I have rang them, but they said nothing will happen now until after Xmas :frown:. btw big grats on getting an offer.



but i most prob had my interview much later than you both, and therefore got my offer much later than either of you (last week Wednesday), so I'm not sure if that's the reason.

Also I have to pass the skills test..so I'm not sure if that has any bearing on it.
Oh my god been offered an interview from Uni of Chester! Only been waiting a bloody month since I applied! And it's on Weds 14th Jan the day before one of my school direct interviews so all 3 of my interviews are within one week! And so far I've had no time to prepare for the two I already knew about as I'm a waitress I've been working 50 hours the last few weeks, 10/11/12 hour long shifts most days absolutely knackering myself out and I only have 3 days off for Christmas which is hardly a massive amount of time. Plus I have the skills tests booked for 29th Jan which I've done little to no preparation for either and I'm awful at maths! I'm major panicking now I just don't know how I'm going to find time to prepare confidentally for all 3 plus the skills tests :-(
(edited 9 years ago)

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