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Current educational issues?!?

So I’m in the process of writing my Personal Statement for my PGCE and I’m trying to find a good educational issue to bring in to it! I know we need to be aware of these for interviews too so I’ve been keeping up to date; however I feel like the current education based news are not anything they would view as important enough for me to talk about?!?

Can we literally just pick out anything and talk about it? And how current does it have to be?

Does anyone have any good ones that are worth looking into??

I found an article in the education news about children being labelled as problematic - I found this extremely interesting and I agreed with the views in the article so I actually linked this in my Personal Statement but I’m not sure if this is what is meant by educational issue or if it’s the more curriculum policy based stuff etc. Which I’ve come across none in current news!!!

Also at interview can we choose our own to talk about or do we get given something? How the hell do we make sure we know about the topic they will bring up!!!!!!
Reply 1
They'll most likely frame discussions on things included in your Personal Statement so make sure you know everything you've written extremely well and in a lot more depth.
Having said that, there's nothing stopping them from asking you something out of the box, as part of assessing how well you cope with sudden situations and whether you are just chatting wham or whether you do know your subject.
Interview questions vary a lot from uni to uni, so you should make sure you're keeping abreast of educational news. You may be able to choose your own, but sometimes you will be asked about a specific issue.

Current issues I think you would need to be aware of:
- The new 9-1 GCSEs, especially the changes relating to your subject if you are secondary. Even if you are primary, you should probably be aware of these as it's such a big thing.
-Budgetary/financial issues facing schools.
-Teacher recruitment and retention issues (this can be quite hard to talk about at interview, and I wouldn't recommend bringing it up in your PS, but you should be prepared to potentially talk about it in interview).
-How wider societal issues (e.g. poverty) effect children and their education.
Reply 3
Original post by Shiv7
They'll most likely frame discussions on things included in your Personal Statement so make sure you know everything you've written extremely well and in a lot more depth.
Having said that, there's nothing stopping them from asking you something out of the box, as part of assessing how well you cope with sudden situations and whether you are just chatting wham or whether you do know your subject.


Yes that’s why I’m trying to include the issues I actually particularly find interesting and agree with but just wasn’t sure if the β€˜problematic children’ one was on the right track. And I want to know of more but can’t seem to pick out any that could be relevant and good etc!! I heard that it’s usually in the group interviews where everyone is asked to discuss a educational issue so I’m assuming they give a chosen topic of their own. This worries me as I wouldn’t know which topics to look into and be aware of particularly!
Reply 4
The whole point of the interview process is to put you in an uncomfortable situation and see how you cope. Not telling you what the discussion would be on and watching you talk about it - that would be too easy.
Reply 5
Are you applying for primary or secondary?
Reply 6
Original post by SarcAndSpark
Interview questions vary a lot from uni to uni, so you should make sure you're keeping abreast of educational news. You may be able to choose your own, but sometimes you will be asked about a specific issue.

Current issues I think you would need to be aware of:
- The new 9-1 GCSEs, especially the changes relating to your subject if you are secondary. Even if you are primary, you should probably be aware of these as it's such a big thing.
-Budgetary/financial issues facing schools.
-Teacher recruitment and retention issues (this can be quite hard to talk about at interview, and I wouldn't recommend bringing it up in your PS, but you should be prepared to potentially talk about it in interview).
-How wider societal issues (e.g. poverty) effect children and their education.


That’s amazing. Thanks for that!! I actually knew of these but didn’t even think of them as didn’t see anything when looking at news that shows daily articles etc!!! I am doing Primary but I’ll still keep in mind all of them regardless.

In the Personal Statement does it have to link to something I’ve spoken about or can I literally just start a paragraph talking about one or more of these etc?

The societal issues one might be a good one for me as I have a degree in Sociology maybe I can bring that in where I speak about my degree towards the end! As I did actually include a bit about how my sociological knowledge can be linked to Teaching.
Reply 7
Original post by georgem93
Are you applying for primary or secondary?


Primary!
Original post by AH91
That’s amazing. Thanks for that!! I actually knew of these but didn’t even think of them as didn’t see anything when looking at news that shows daily articles etc!!! I am doing Primary but I’ll still keep in mind all of them regardless.

In the Personal Statement does it have to link to something I’ve spoken about or can I literally just start a paragraph talking about one or more of these etc?

The societal issues one might be a good one for me as I have a degree in Sociology maybe I can bring that in where I speak about my degree towards the end! As I did actually include a bit about how my sociological knowledge can be linked to Teaching.


Admissions tutors do understand the limitations of the PS, and know that it won't always flow perfectly. I do think bringing in wider societal issues and linking it back to your degree would be good.

Maybe try doing some google searches for "education in the news" or "current issues in education" as some of these things e.g. exams only make the news once a year, but for educationalists, they are still very current.
Reply 9
Original post by Shiv7
The whole point of the interview process is to put you in an uncomfortable situation and see how you cope. Not telling you what the discussion would be on and watching you talk about it - that would be too easy.


I know I know! But that system just worries me because if I don’t get a place just because I for example couldn’t speak much on a particular topic whereas I have all the other experience, skills etc to be a good Teacher that would just be so disheartening.
Reply 10
Don't worry, just try to read around as much as you can. If the rest of your application is fairly strong then they should overlook interview performance if they think you're good enough which I'm sure you are. Good Luck.
Reply 11
Original post by AH91
Primary!

Lack of science!
Reply 12
Original post by Shiv7
Don't worry, just try to read around as much as you can. If the rest of your application is fairly strong then they should overlook interview performance if they think you're good enough which I'm sure you are. Good Luck.


Thank you!! That’s what I’m going to do! Will read up on as much as I can and hope for the best haha
Reply 13
Lack of music!
Original post by Le5pau1
Lack of music!


Good point - and here is the counter argument

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-45483930
Hi, this is really interesting could this link in with issues regarding cross-curricular??
Original post by ByEeek
Good point - and here is the counter argument

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-45483930
Original post by Sambrina6
Hi, this is really interesting could this link in with issues regarding cross-curricular??

Of course. In the current state of affairs where maths and English rule, every teacher should be a teacher of English and Maths. But I drop in topics of all types wherever I can. After all, that is what makes subjects more interesting.

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