Should I do secondary PGCE or primary PGCE?

I am due to start a secondary PGCE course in September 2023, however, I have been having significant doubts about whether it is what I want to do anymore. I was a TEFL teacher in China from 2019-2022 where I worked with mostly kindergarten aged kids and I absolutely loved it and it made me want to come back to the UK to do my PGCE and properly qualify. However, since I came back, I mostly have been working as a TA/cover supervisor in secondary schools because I initially thought I wanted to train as a history teacher because it's my favourite subject and I want to share my knowledge with older kids. While I have liked most of my experiences working in secondary education, I don't feel like I got the same fulfillment and sense of vocation that I did working with younger students. I did some volunteer work in a local primary school just before the summer break and it reminded me a lot of the work I was doing in China which I loved. I've drawn up a list of pros and cons for each sector to help me figure out which route I think is best for me:

Secondary PGCE:

Pros:

1) I have a concrete offer on the table from university to begin course in September, which if completed will mean I am a properly qualified teacher (also after doing NQT year).
2) Training to teach history which is my favourite subject and will give me chance to do more intellectually challenging work.
3) Will give me broader choice of career options when I graduate (e.g. being qualified to work in further education as well as secondary).
4) Having QTS will allow me to teach across different age groups in England and Wales so could teach primary if I wanted and if the sector was willing to take a chance on me. Although this is a risky strategy and not one I'm banking much hope on (see cons below for why).

Cons:

1) Not sure I enjoy working with teenagers/young adults as much as younger children.
2) While having QTS would theoretically allow me to teach across different age groups, it's more than likely that primary schools will prefer to hire people who have trained specifically for primary education as opposed to secondary teachers wanting to switch sectors.
3) History teacher jobs are fiercely competitive, so I have to be sure that this is the route I want to pursue before committing a year of my life (possibly two with NQT year as well) to the course.
4) I am worried that having doubts could affect my work efforts and ability to do well in my training year which in turn could hurt my chances of securing work after graduating.

Primary PGCE:

Pros:

1) Love working with younger children.
2) I enjoy the creative buzz and variety of planning different lessons for different subjects, even though it does require more work especially for subjects that I am not particularly strong or indifferent to in terms of knowledge/personal interest e.g. Maths, foreign languages etc.
3) I have more experience of working with younger children as a whole than secondary.

Cons:

1) Deciding to go down primary route instead would mean having to withdraw my secondary PGCE place at the university, and spend next year doing more low paid, precarious supply/TA work.
2) Would have to resit either Maths GCSE or do an acceptable equivalent to meet entry requirements for primary PGCE courses. The university I am due to start at accepted my Functional Skills Maths for the secondary PGCE but would not for primary.
3) Primary PGCE qualification would limit me to teaching primary school students only. Whereas secondary would give me more of a broader choice of options (see above).
4) No guarantee that any of my applications for primary school PGCEs next year would be successful and would therefore mean having to spend another year or two continually applying which would wear me down eventually and would just be more of a waste of my life.

Any help or advice with my dilemma would be very much appreciated. I should also point out that I whatever route I do take, I would also consider going back into TEFL teaching abroad again or just looking for work outside of UK where I'm from. I feel like having QTS would give me the security of being a properly qualified teacher which I didn't have before during the years i was teaching English abroad in China. So that is also an option that I would consider moving forward and I have friends still living abroad who keep me posted about potential opportunities.

Thanks and again would really appreciate advice on what I should do.

Reply 1

Liverpool Hope University

Official Rep

19

Hi there,

There are many options to consider when looking at teaching but I think the main thing to consider is which option you think you would enjoy the most.

Primary teaching will allow you to develop you knowledge and understanding in all subjects and many schools offer training courses for subjects you may not feel confident in to help develop your own subject knowledge.

With primary teaching you will have a lot more contact with parents on a face to face level than you would with secondary and more planning with trips and events (world book days, assemblies etc.)

Secondary can offer you more progress in regards to your personal development such as head of department, head of year etc.

You could still go into secondary even if you did do a PGCE in primary, looking at the SEND route. This would require other qualifications but is something to consider.

I think the main point to consider when making your decision is which one do you think you will enjoy the most. If you enjoy what you do then the students you teach will get the best out of their education.

I hope that helps.

:smile:

Lauren

Reply 2

jrafferty

OP

2

Original post by Liverpool Hope University

Hi there,

There are many options to consider when looking at teaching but I think the main thing to consider is which option you think you would enjoy the most.

Primary teaching will allow you to develop you knowledge and understanding in all subjects and many schools offer training courses for subjects you may not feel confident in to help develop your own subject knowledge.

With primary teaching you will have a lot more contact with parents on a face to face level than you would with secondary and more planning with trips and events (world book days, assemblies etc.)

Secondary can offer you more progress in regards to your personal development such as head of department, head of year etc.

You could still go into secondary even if you did do a PGCE in primary, looking at the SEND route. This would require other qualifications but is something to consider.

I think the main point to consider when making your decision is which one do you think you will enjoy the most. If you enjoy what you do then the students you teach will get the best out of their education.

I hope that helps.

:smile:

Lauren

Hello

Thank you for your reply. I finally decided to withdraw from the course for his year and I'm now working as a TA in a local primary school. So far it's been good, but I don't want to jump the gun before making my choice about which route to ultimately go down. I just wanted to update you since you were the only reply to this question.

Thanks again!

Should I do secondary PGCE or primary PGCE?

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