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Is it possible for a primary school teacher to become a secondary school teacher

I want to be a primary school teacher so I plan on doing the 5-11 primary education course next year (undergraduate). However it is very possible that I may want to teach at secondary someday. Is there some other qualification I could do on top of this to allow me to teach secondary as well? I would want to teach either biology or chemistry, both of which I am doing atm at Level 3.

Reply 1

bwilliams

There isn’t a qualification to do this. If you want more flexibility I would do a degree in a science and then do PGCE Primary. That would allow you to switch to secondary much easier as you wouldn’t need any additional qualifications. Technically you could teach secondary with a BEd Primary but you would have to prove that your subject knowledge in the sciences is good enough and a level 3 may not be sufficient.

Reply 2

The Beaver

QTS is just a qualification towards being a teacher, it is up to a secondary school as to whether they want to employ someone who trained in Primary. I have met many teachers who trained in Primary and moved to Secondary, however most who did a 5-11 course Primary course, instead of a PGCE after a degree in a subject, I have found often teach towards KS3 more.

EDIT: As the above poster said, Science degree then PGCE is far more flexible if you want to move between Primary and Secondary teaching.

Having the Science course to 18 will be helpful but Biology is not a heavy shortage subject, Chemistry is more, so if things stay as they are that may be easier to get into teacher, but schools are struggling to recruit Scientists in general and KS4 you just teach everything normally anyway. So it is definitely possible, you would want to look into subject knowledge courses for Secondary Science and this can even be helpful with leading on Science in a Primary school when you start.