PGCE - Current Students Thread

Preparing for my job?? I've only got 2 placements in the UK as I'm doing a placement abroad as I'm doing primary languages.... so my placement B finishes in July. Got one more week in Spain atm

The QTS stuff just repeats itself too much. I really need to sit down and properly put stuff in things as literally mine is empty at the moment.

I did my QTS tests in December when I went home for Christmas. Just banged them all out in a day... I went in for the "lets see what happens" approach so didn't do any work for them in advance other than check out what the format was the day before.

Ooh what job did you get?!

I don't, as of yet! I'm being optimistic

Had my first interview.... there was an internal applicant who'd been teaching the exact class at the school since September, so obviously it went to him. But it was quite nice too in that respect as when he said he'd been working there for 6 months it was obvious the interview was more of a formality so I just relaxed and took it all down as experience rather than worrying about whether I'd get it or not!

You're in Norway at the moment aren't you? Hows it going looking for teaching work? I used to live in Finland and I couldn't imagine even trying to teach there without actually being Finnish!

Ahh ok You got any more interviews lined up? And yeah all interviews are useful, even when you don't get them!

I've managed to get a job as a primary school teaching assistant! I started last week and it's great. I work particularly with one boy in 1st grade (equivalent of English year 2) who has ADHD, I'm loving it so far, but even though I only work to 2.45pm I get so tired most days as I have to speak Norwegian constantly and it's knackering!

I'm planning on staying in this job for quite a while until my UK qualification is ratified (should be about another 4 months until that's done) and until my Norwegian is good enough to take the Bergenstest (stupidly hard Norwegian language test for foreigners) so I can actually be a proper teacher again!

I've got a "professional development" one for a pool, but I had to postpone it until I was back from Spain. Its been so annoying being stuck here for a month! Its a bit odd as I've made it into the pool then I have to go to an interview for them to decide if I am "highly recommended" "recommended" or "not recommended" to add to my file for schools.



That's really good and primary kids are better than secondary Was getting a job over there a relatively "easy" process? I just always assumed that it would be fairly difficult as like I said, in Finland its pretty much impossible if you're not Finnish and teachers all have to have a Masters qualification (as a default of the fact the degree awarded at Finnish universities is a Masters) so you wouldn't get anywhere with only a Bachelors... although I have a Scottish MA so maybe I could lie

What level of Norwegian do you have to be at to work there? do they use the European language scale thing? How long do you think it will take you?

I'm the same with Spain on the language front, working at a Spanish school at the moment and school finishes at 1pm but I'm really tired as I've spent the entire time concentrating on the Spanish!

I don't get that pool thing at all? Is it like a local authority pool of NQTs that schools can pick people out from?

It was quite easy tbh, the only thing stopping me sooner was my language level was too low for me to be able to cope with the application forms and interviews. Also, at first I was using a very British application style, but after doing some research I saw that Norwegians expected very different things from application and CVs. I got some tips from a website on cover letters and got a lot more success!

I've found here that a lot of jobs, even basic admin ones, want you to have a Masters. Seems a bit excessive tbh. Fortunately, you don't need one for teaching! I reckon a Scottish MA would cut it tbh. Norwegians are pretty unaware of how the British system works, so I reckon it'd be the same for Finns.

On 5th April I'm starting the level 6 of 7 levels of language course with the Norwegian Open Uni, and Level 6 is B2 on the European Scale. Level 7 is C1, and they recommend doing that course before taking the test, so I think you have to be a pretty damn good level. I reckon it'll take me at least another year (I have to save the money to pay for it all as well!)

The other problem I've found here, is that even in secondary schools, teachers don't tend to specialise in one subject like in the UK. You generally see jobs for posts as "Norwegian, English and History teacher" or sometimes "English, Maths and Science", so you have to wait a bit to find a post that you could do!

Is it warm in Spain? Are you getting to teach over there like you have been on your UK placements?

Yeah... a lot of the London boroughs have them, I don't know about elsewhere. The process is different at all of them, some are competitive so you apply to them and then they decide whether to interview you and then whether to accept you after then, at others they're competitive to get an interview then you're in the pool and the actual interview is more to deicide how good you are/what sort of school they'd put you in, then at others they just add you onto their list so then head teachers can see it. Then basically schools go through the LA list and decide who they like the look of and call you to ask if you want an interview, then you do everything else as normal through the school.

Always useful to know! I think the CV/application thing is always what throws people... we get some utterly bizarre applications in PS help from international applicants who are used to a different application structure and trying to make them "British" is really important so they'll get considered properly. What do they want from you in an application there then?

You've got good really quickly then!! Isn't C2 supposed to be the sort of level you'd come out with if you did a languages degree? I quite like the language scale, I wish it were more used in the UK... am contemplating doing the Spanish C2 certificate but I'd be scared of failing and I know I can do B1 so I don't see the point in doing that one either.

You'd be offering English and languages I assume?

Its been on and off warm... the boyfriend came this weekend and was annoyed cos I'd made him bring warm clothes as the last 2 weeks have been freezing then it was 26'c over the weekend!! In theory we're teaching, but to be honest its a lot of observing which is really boring as their education system is just crap.... the teacher talks and the kids listen, or she goes over their homework for 2 hours where each kid reads out their individual homework, the others listen and she marks it orally, then we go onto the next child. It'd be better if I were Spanish and coming to the Uk as then you could be a TA and actually engage with the teaching as its more interactive, whereas here you can't even wander round and help the kids as they don't do work... they do work at home then go through it at school.

I've done a fair bit of English teaching as I'm a proper English teacher in the UK anyway, so actually have much better qualifications to teach EFL than their real English teacher... but even then that's really restricted because they don't really want me to go beyond the text book which isn't very interactive and has a lot of "listen and chant!!" stuff. They're some of the worst EFL text books I've seen!

Warning: This is mostly a rant about my personal situation since I've had an absolutely terrible day (and year so far), so feel free to skip it.

I know this thread is generally about the PGCE year and how stressful and full on it is, but I've spent the last 6 months juggling full time work in a crappy call centre just to make ends meet, struggling to find any time to get my head in order about what I wanted to do (PGCE or PhD or find employment), not being able to make any meaningful contact with old supervisors due to working 44 hours a week, not having time or energy to chase up references, do my personal statement, get my application complete, having to cut down hours at work and therefore money which I desperately needed just to get any sort of school experience, losing my job due to having swine flu (also, having swine flu), trying to juggle attending interviews, preparing presentations and general background reading with trying to find a new job as well as set up jobseekers allowance since I live with my partner (which still has not been paid, 2 months later), having the funding for my course cut and being mislead with regards to the amount of student financial support I'd recieve, not being classed as independent despite having about as much financial dealings with my parents as I do with the local stray cat comunity and now not being able to afford to do the course, or pay rent, or eat.

Just applying for a PGCE, literally just getting this far in the process, has been without a doubt the most stressful and tiresome period of my life. I think a lot of people and a lot of universities don't realise how many people out there are willing to walk through fire to get onto a course. It is not always a 'soft option' for people who don't have direction in their lives and who simply fall into it straight out of university. Given the sheer amount of time, energy, dedication and willpower required to even get this far, let alone the absolutely life consuming amount of work required on a daily basis, cutting funding for ITT courses is just another way to ensure that rich, complacent and lazy get an easy ride through life while the rest of us are never able to stop struggling.

Nothing can be worse than this. There has been no part of this that wasn't hard. Bring on the PGCE I say, crippling poverty and all - I'm ready

Ah OK, that sounds kind of odd, but I guess they must get a lot of applicants. Have you applied to all of them?

They want a lot less than a British style! My Norwegian CV is one page long, with job title, dates and one or 2 key words about what I did, whereas my British CV has a lot more detail on each job and is 2 sides long. I learned to "show off" in cover letters, but in Norway they don't like that. State why you want the job, what your skills are that match the job description and that's it. Also, you don't address the letter to anyone, which is bloody weird to me!!

Yeah most jobs here require fluent English as an addition to fluent Norwegian (written and spoken both). However I think their idea of fluent English is different from mine, as I have had emails from people supposedly fluent and the grammar is just terrible!

I've worked pretty hard, and also I'm a linguist, so I've got a lot of language learning experience, but I never know what to say when people at work are like when they find out I've only been living here 6 months! I think you're meant to be C2, yeah - C1 is ridiculously high level - I doubt many native speakers would pass a C1 test!

Do the kids actually behave during all this reading aloud? I can't imagine a class sitting through that day in day out, but I guess if it's what they're used to...

They won't let you use any of your own resources? Here in Norway they love it that I have a lot of my own ideas and stuff and want me to use it!

Wow - I just read this whole thread as I am planning on going into teaching at the end of my third year. From what everyone has said it definitely sounds hard, but it also definitely sounds incredibly rewarding and worthwhile!

I cant wait!

It's not so much that anything really terrible has been going on, it's just been like a million and one little annoying things to juggle, all while trying to apply for the course. I'm sure it'll be better in September when I've got my money sorted and I'm doing something I enjoy, even if it is really hard

God, no, I'd be there all day! I've applied to 3 pools and 2 direct applications to schools at the moment.... I'm on a 50% success rate of applications to interviews. I guess this is where Teach First is a bit better as you just apply, get in, then get your school!

I'll bare it in mind for if I ever move to Norway, which I guess is a possibility with the oil connections and my boyfriend being an oil man. I think the Scandinavians are a lot less pushy than us generally, in Finland it was very taboo to say that you were good at anything! But you got a job above Norwegian people so you must have been doing something right

Really? Although I suppose you could be fluent speaking but not in writing? Like, I used to teach a girl who had the opposite problem - she'd done a MPhil at Cambridge in literature and was amazing at writing/reading English, but her spoken English was really poor and she was so embarrassed about it which made it worse. She was in my upper intermediate English class, yet with her written work you'd assume she was a very very academic native English speaker.

Yeah, having a language background helps.... I picked up Mongolian when I was there for 4 months and I'm probably A level sort of standard which is fine for most situations, but its the most useless language ever as I can't use it when I'm not there! I suppose you've just got to be modest, smile and nod? Is it French and Spanish you did? I think I recall Stu/F1 mentioning you

Behaviour management is awful and the kids run riot, so they're all just messing around and talking whilst other people are reading but the teacher seems okay with it. There have been times where its been so difficult to sit there and watch, as if it were my own class there would be no way it would have got to this stage. The teachers let the kids call out, wander round and generally be annoying.... its as though the louder the child, the more attention they get. Every so often the teacher will go mental at them and say how annoying they are (quite literally) but even then they'll talk over her... there's just so much less fear and respect here than there is in the UK. Its as though the kids have a lot more rights to do what they want and she spends her time going "be quiet please, please can you be quiet" rather than actually showing them who is boss.... but its an issue throughout the school/education system, they're just not trained to behave like we do with our kids!

Not really, as the parents have paid a lot of the compulsory text books and they want to see them used. So we just have to do it exactly out of the book.... I have done some fun teaching using games, mime etc with them, but its hard because the teacher has only ever used 1 teaching style with them (flash cards, come to the front one at a time and repeat each word then an exam) so if you try and do something else the kids just have no idea what to do. They don't even know how to have an A/B role play conversation in pairs as they never work with someone else in school!

You planning on St Martins, PonPon, or somewhere closer to home?

Not sure yet. Im thinking of trying the GTP first actually. If not i have a place at a private school that i can apply for as I know people there. But if i do do a PGCE il probably either stay here, or go back to Canterbury.

Im still undecided! But PGCE isn't my only option at the moment. Too many options!
How is th pgce at st martins?

It's not so much that anything really terrible has been going on, it's just been like a million and one little annoying things to juggle, all while trying to apply for the course. I'm sure it'll be better in September when I've got my money sorted and I'm doing something I enjoy, even if it is really hard

Well done for anyone who finished yesterday

But I still have to go into placement next week and I am now very under the weather.