Deciding between primary or secondary teaching

hi, i'm applying for university atm and the degree that i would like to do is psychology & education. i'd like to go into teaching (and eventually, educational psychology).

but i'm not too sure on whether i'd like to do primary or secondary. i know each have their pros and cons and are quite different.

teaching secondary would require a pgce psychology while primary would require a primary pgce. teaching primary would mean i'm unable to actually teach psychology which is something i'd like to do. but not many schools actually offer the subject for both gcse and a-level (might change in the future)

i am sure that during my chosen course, i'll be able to find out more about education in general and maybe develop a preference for one of the two either on the course or through volunteering/placements etc

what are the best ways of deciding between the two?

One thing to consider is that it is very unlikely you will get a Psychology teaching post in a secondary school where you only teach psychology. You would be teaching other subjects too (and not necessarily ones you like) in order to fill a teaching timetable, since most schools only offer psychology at A-level. Even at schools offering psychology at GCSE, the number of classes is unlikely to fill a timetable still.

I wouldn't bank on more schools offering GCSE psychology in the near future with the way things are currently going. At the end of the day, it's not an EBacc subject, which limits schools' incentive to offer it.

yes i also read into this. there is the possibility of teaching other 'social sciences', or maybe even english?? i am doing a-level english currently so if i achieve an A or A*...

I think the thing to keep in mind is that school timetabling won't always allow for you to be teaching other subjects that you actually enjoy.

An anecdotal example is that the psychology teacher at my last school taught something like 8 hours a week of KS3 computer science. She didn't have to plan the lessons, as powerpoints were provided by the department, but I know she didn't really like having to do it and didn't feel confident teaching computer science. However, from what she said to me, she basically had no choice as it was the only psychology position in the city when she was job hunting and she didn't want to have to move house or have a really long commute.