PGCE PRIMARY thru SCITT

well what iv looked up , i think it basically follows exact same pattern of teaching and course struture , the same as in a uni., only its based at the school, rather than the uni. i just wanted to know if they are regarded the same as doing pgce thru a universityy.or are uni pgce coursess considered better, when it comes to employment after college.

like in a uni, u would have access to accomdation, and facilities like sports, general living facilities, and societies for meeting ppl etc. would u have have that if u did pgce course thru school basis rather than based at a uni

I don't think it would really matter whether you did your PGCE at a university or through SCITT, since, as you said, you need the same qualifications and experience to get onto one and you come out with the same qualification at the end. If anything, SCITT could be better because you get a lot more hands-on experience in a school. It just depends whether you'd prefer to be 'thrown in at the deep end' in a school or have some time to learn the theory, share ideas etc first.

Does the SCITT programme place you straight in the classroom without any pedagogic theory first? Surely not?

I imagine they'd teach you some theory first, but you'd probably start getting classroom experience earlier than you would otherwise and what I meant was that you'll be in a school environment surrounded by kids from day one, whereas if you did it at university you'd have a while before you actually went into a school.

Most PGCE providers require you to go into schools before you start the course though.

Yeah, but wouldn't that be mainly observation rather than actually teaching?

(Parent of above!)
As a teacher, I would strongly recommend uni/college based training for your PGCE. SCITT courses are only as good as the teacher you are billeted with and in my experience the trainee was often left with little advice and support and then blamed when things went wrong. Teachers receive no personal payment for you to be in their classrooms and the often enormous extra workload having a SCITT trainee is sometimes too much for them. However, those PGCE trainees who came from either of two local unis seemed more prepared and had much more pro-active support from their tutors when sent on TP.