Questions about Games/PE teachers

Hello everyone,

I am a 26 year old wanting to retrain into teaching. I am currently very torn between history and games, and I have a few questions if anyone could help me.

-If I were to stick with the academic subject that I am doing for undergrad (Classics/history), but want to participate with rugby and football, I assume that is commonly accepted and doable? I seem to remember a lot of history and geography teachers who took Games, although I don't know if they did an academic or sport PGCE.

-Would someone who has done Classics/History even be eligible for a sport/PE PGCE? Would you have to have done something like sports science?

-In terms of the teachers I had at school there seemed to be a difference between the "PE" sessions we took once or twice per week for niche sports such as basketball and badminton vs "Games" which were traditionally rugby, football, and cricket. In my experience teachers taught either one or the other not both. However in terms of PGCE qualifications I can only see "PE". Does anyone know if there is a way of being a "Games" teacher and not taking "PE" lessons if I do want to go for a sport based PGCE and career?

Thanks in advance!

Reply 1

ChammyFTT

I've never heard of a "games" teacher, only ever PE teachers who teach everything you've listed separately as games. Yes, you'll need an undergraduate degree with at least some aspects of physical education, or similar such as coaching/PT courses; you'll be expected to teach GCSE and above in sports-related subjects.

One thing to take note of is that there is NO demand for PE teachers. at the moment. Often the PGCE courses are over-subscribed for PE teachers and you'll be up against many, many applicants for roles. I think the percentage of PE PGCE students taken on last year was something like 170% above what was actually required.

As an example, for my subject, I've not had any more than 3 other applicants go for my roles (I was the only applicant for my current job), yet a recent PE role at my school had about 15 applicants at the interview - and many more who weren't shortlisted. Quite often, PE teachers will be expected to be able to teach more than one subject, which is where many will do history and geography or even some of the sciences.

However, if you are interested in teaching/coaching specific sports in a high school, there will be afterschool clubs and school teams who would probably jump at the chance of having you help with that - obviously, that's outside of regular teaching hours (but you'd be expected to do anyway as a PE teacher).

TLDR: Go for history!