PGCE English Secondary

Just to say hi and good luck to everyone on their PGCE journey.

For weeks and weeks, I was absorbed in all the posts about the application and interview process and it helped me so much. thank you!!

I'd love to help others too. I can explain what happened to me, and what I feel led to the ultimate success of getting offered places by all three providers.

1) Get an adviser and ask for a phone meeting, this really helps you find your feet. They will also take a look at your personal statement twice before you send it.

2) Completely check your eligibility before the interview process regarding qualifications and funding. You will be able to reference this in the interview the providers will sense your commitment.

3) Get as up-to-date on the curriculum as you can. Refresh your subject knowledge and choose an area that you can talk about passionately. Find out what the SKE contains and decide if you are prepared to do it if necessary.

4) Be prepared to work hard on the tasks: Between three providers I had these tasks: a) presentation on 'aspirations for children's learning', b) presentation plus lesson plan on 'effective descriptive writing', c) presentation plus lesson plan on 'an inventive way to share a news story', d) a lesson observation where I needed to make notes of 'stages', 'modelling', 'questioning' and 'outcomes', e) a subject matter audit (I graded myself on my current knowledge), and f) a timed test (mine was analysing a text 15m, and writing a narrative 45m).

5) Prepare answers to these interview questions: Why do you want to be a teacher? What qualities should teachers have? Can you describe when you worked effectively in a team? What are the current challenges teachers face? What are you looking forward to about the PGCE year? What are you daunted by and how would you deal with this?

6) Google 'equity for education' and 'teachers' standards'.

7) Be able to express succinctly 'teachers' duty for safeguarding'.

8) Read educational supplements of newspapers for current issues. This will give support to your other answers.

9) Have to hand really good evidence of your accomplishments:
- if you are a student this can be shown in results and projects and knowledge
- if you are a parent, this can be shown in your understanding of child development
- if you are in industry, then describe training, mentoring or team work


Let me know if I can help further!!

PS In my own experience, Teach First pretty awful, but everyone related to Gov.uk were incredible.

Hiya! Congratulations on your offers! I'm applying for pgce secondary in English too, I'm a bit scared that I've left it too late to apply. What do you mean by advisor?

Hiya! Congratulations on your offers! I'm applying for pgce secondary in English too, I'm a bit scared that I've left it too late to apply. What do you mean by advisor?

Hi everyone! I have literally just applied and been offered 3 interviews since Christmas and I need a little bit of guidance if possible. I am a mature student now pursing a career in teaching after working in finance for 12 years! This is terrifying and I have had less than a week to prepare for my first interview whilst working full time! Anyway! I have to complete a 10 minute lesson (not to students but to the panel) suitable for a mixed ability secondary school English class over zoom and I have no idea if I can use power point or a virtual whiteboard. I have seen, and another interview won't allow me to use powerpoint, on other forums that they don't like the use of powerpoint, but I wondered if anyone had any experience of this? TIA!

Hi Amanda26328, Well done for getting three interviews - you will be fine!! I'm a mature student too!! Powerpoints were all ok for the providers I interviewed with, but why not ask them directly? They should be able to confirm what they accept and expect, and give you an alternative if they don't allow PPT. Ten mins is so short - I found that the major challenge. I had a lot of visuals and I printed the slides just in case the tech went down. Mainly the 'lesson' is just about showing how you would engage students in the content, because that tiny amount of time doesn't seem realistic for actual production. Do you have any time/ contacts that you could use for mock interviews beforehand? That would put your mind at ease if you are anything like me, I practiced the lesson part and gave the mock interviewer the questions to ask me. Good luck!!

Thank you, I am terrified I won't last 10 minutes! The interview is Monday at 9.15am so too late to ask if it's ok, but after your response I'm thinking to just do a slide show and if I'm not allowed I'm sure they'll tell me! I have a teacher friend who I am practicing this with tomorrow and I ran the ideas past my step-daughter (not sure that that's objective though haha).Thanks for our support

Hi Amanda26328, Well done for getting three interviews - you will be fine!! I'm a mature student too!! Powerpoints were all ok for the providers I interviewed with, but why not ask them directly? They should be able to confirm what they accept and expect, and give you an alternative if they don't allow PPT. Ten mins is so short - I found that the major challenge. I had a lot of visuals and I printed the slides just in case the tech went down. Mainly the 'lesson' is just about showing how you would engage students in the content, because that tiny amount of time doesn't seem realistic for actual production. Do you have any time/ contacts that you could use for mock interviews beforehand? That would put your mind at ease if you are anything like me, I practiced the lesson part and gave the mock interviewer the questions to ask me. Good luck!!