PGCert Secondary Education (Computer Science and Information and Communications Technology) with recommendation for Qualified Teacher Status

About the Course

The Brunel PGCert (Secondary) course in ICT equips you with the skills to teach this specialist subject. It includes a focus on implementing and improving the recently developed National Strategy for ICT at Key Stage 3. It also allows you to gain an understanding of teachers' work in Special Educational Needs and includes a varied strand of General Professional Studies. Throughout the main ICT programme, theory and practice are integrated and full use of practical school experience is made.

Aims

• teach and use ICT applications in a variety of educational context;
• understand the nature and role of ICT in the National Curriculum;
• develop the ability to plan, teach and evaluate ICT lessons and to assess pupils' work in KS3;
• appreciate schools' management and co-ordination of ICT;
• work collaboratively with other teachers using ICT;
• know the range and requirements of ICT courses at KS4 and post-16, with a particular emphasis on the 11-16 age range for the purpose of QTS assessment;
• develop your own special interest and skills in ICT;
• develop as a reflective, committed professional educator, able to handle the problems and challenges of teaching and of educational change.

Enquiries

Information on available funding.

All applications for PGCert programmes have to be made online through the Graduate Teacher Training Registry. Details are on the GTTR website at www.gttr.ac.uk/students/apply.

Further Information

Taught Programmes Office
School of Sport and Education
Brunel University
Uxbridge UB8 3PH
Tel +44 (0) 1895 267156
Email sse-pgtcourses@brunel.ac.uk

For an informal discussion about training to teach ICT, please contact:
Dr Nic Crowe
Course Leader
School of Sport and Education
Tel +44 (0)1895 267146
Email nick.crowe@brunel.ac.uk

Related Courses

• PGCert Secondary Education (Mathematics) with recommendation for QTS

Special Features

The course is planned and taught in partnership with Heads of ICT and a Professional Tutor in local schools. Serial and block school experience take place in partnership schools selected for the quality of teaching and learning and the support offered to trainees by experienced subject mentors.

What the Ofsted inspectors say:

• “Subject tutors’ research and professional interests, both nationally and internationally have a positive impact on the course.”
• "Placement schools are selected carefully to ensure that students observe and work with good teachers.”
• "The University tutors consciously model good teaching practice through sessions which are lively, varied in organisation, briskly-paced, challenging, meticulously planned and supported by good documentation.”
• "The training in schools is of high quality, mentors are clear about their role and responsibilities and consequently provide good guidance.”

During the course, opportunities may be offered to enhance your learning experience, which may incur a cost.

Course Content

Students talking about their experiences on the PG Cert Course.

The main ICT programme integrate theory and practice throughout, and makes full use of practical school experience. The ICT programme enables you to:

• teach and use ICT applications in a variety of educational context;
• understand the nature and role of ICT in the National Curriculum;
• develop the ability to plan, teach and evaluate ICT lessons and to assess pupils' work in KS3;
• appreciate schools' management and co-ordination of ICT;
• work collaboratively with other teachers using ICT;
• know the range and requirements of ICT courses at KS4 and post-16, with a particular emphasis on the 11-16 age range for the purpose of QTS assessment;
• develop your own special interest and skills in ICT;
• develop as a reflective, committed professional educator, able to handle the problems and challenges of teaching and of educational change.

Modules (all core)

General Professional Education
Main topics of study: professionalism; reflection; the reflective practitioner; education; pedagogy; action research and evidence based practice; schools and their learning communities; the curriculum and the hidden curriculum; teaching and learning; continuing professional development

Planning, Teaching and Assessment
Main topics of study: philosophical rationales underpinning different assessment strategies; the deployment of a range of strategies for assessment relevant and applicable within trainees’ subject areas; how assessment data can be recorded, analysed and reported; how assessment outcomes can be used for planning future learning and teaching.

Subject Knowledge ands Understanding: Inclusive Practice
Main topics of study: pedagogical, sociological and psychological theories related to the construction and learning of their subject; official policies and sources of guidance materials for the teaching of their subject; teaching strategies relevant to their subject.

QTS Skills Test
In order to gain the award of Qualified Teacher Status, all trainees are required to pass the skills tests in ICT, Numeracy and Literacy.

School Experience (two modules)
Trainees normally spend eight weeks in school for the first School Experience module and the final synoptic module is compulsory for all trainees (usually of eight weeks).

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) requirement

This course involves regular access to children and/or vulnerable adults. Where this is the case, students will be required to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) application, previously known as a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check. The application will cost £51.86 (this amount may be subject to change) and the University will send further instructions as part of the admissions process. For further guidance please email dbs@brunel.ac.uk.

Assessment

Coursework is designed to enable the trainee to reflect upon and synthesise the underpinning knowledge about ICT teaching that they develop during the PGCert year. In order to gain the PGCert qualification and be recommended for Qualified Teacher Status, trainees must meet the Standards set out in TTA publication 'Qualifying to Teach', including three national online skills tests in Numeracy, Literacy and ICT skills. Successful candidates develop a Career Entry Profile, which provides the basis of the trainee's induction year as a Newly Qualified Teacher

Careers

Information and Communication Technology has been taught under various names in secondary schools since the late 1970s, originally as Computer Studies - with a strong emphasis on programming and technical knowledge - then with more and more focus on computer applications, and their uses in most subjects in the curriculum.

In 1989 Information Technology (IT) became part of the Design Technology subject area in the National Curriculum but in 1995, after the Dearing Report, IT was given foundation subject status in its own right, its basics being seen as core skills and an integral part of good practice in most subjects. For some years it has been known as Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

ICT is a GCSE and A level as well as a vocational examination subject.

ICT is a designated shortage subject because schools find it difficult to recruit well qualified specialist ICT teachers.

Fees for 2013/14 entry

UK/EU: £9,000 full-time

International students: £12,000 full-time

Fees and Finance: Full Time PG Cert Education Students 2012/13

TDA Training Bursaries

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements

Pre-professional Course Attributes

Essential

• The ability to communicate effectively in both spoken and written English. If selected for interview, you will be expected to interact effectively with university tutors and school colleagues and demonstrate the potential to form positive and productive relationships with colleagues and pupils in schools and in professional learning contexts.

Desirable

• An awareness of the Professional Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). These are outlined on the Training and Development Agency (TDA) website in the document 'Qualifying to Teach' (TDA, 2007). They are the national expectations that all trainee teachers have to meet in order to qualify with QTS. Familiarity with them would be useful for you.

• An enthusiastic and energetic approach which communicates clearly your commitment to teaching and working with young people.

Pre-professional Course Knowledge

Essential

• An undergraduate or postgraduate degree in the field in which you intend to teach. Normally this should be a 2.2 classification or above in preparation for Masters level professional study.

• Maths and English grades A* to C or equivalent at GCSE level.

Desirable

• Modules within your pre professional degree course should provide a foundation of preparatory knowledge for the subject you are applying to teach.

• An informed personal philosophy on the aims of your subject area, drawing on relevant reading and research.

• An understanding of statutory requirements for your subject area within the state school sector as outlined on the following websites: www.newsecondarycurriculum.com and www.qca.org.uk/curriculum.

• An awareness of recent government policy or initiatives in education and your subject area.

Pre-professional Course Skills

Essential

• Recent and relevant experience of state school education in England, either team teaching or observing with experienced teachers. This should normally be pre professional teaching experience where you have had the opportunity to develop relationships with a group(s) of pupils over a sustained period of time. If selected for interview, evidence should be provided on school headed notepaper and signed by relevant members of staff at the school(s) in question.

• Skills Tests - via the main GTTR application cycle, Brunel University will accept applications for PGCert courses within Education prior to completion of the Teaching Agency Skills Tests. If you are offered a place on one of the courses and have yet to meet the requirements of passing the Skills Tests then your offer will be conditional on passing these tests by the 30 June 2013. See more information on the Skills tests.
  

  Clearing applications will be dealt with on a case by case basis, however if you are in clearing from the 1 July 2013 the expectation is that you have already passed the required tests at the point of application to Brunel University.

Desirable

• Ideally pre professional preparatory school experience should be across two phases of education ie Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.

• Evidence that you have planned, delivered and reflected on teaching or coaching episodes to pupils or young people in either educational contexts or within a learning community.

The Application Process

Following receipt of you application form from the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR), there are three stages:

• Initial screening by the Admissions Office for status, degree classification and GCSE requirements. In the case of some overseas qualifications, Brunel International may be consulted about the equivalence of these with British qualifications;

• Applications will then be passed to Admissions Tutors for the PGCert course you are applying to. The form will be scrutinised according to the criteria set out above. In addition, your application may highlight any questions or areas that Tutors may ask or explore if you are invited for an interview;

• If you are invited for an interview, the criteria set out above will again be used to assess your application. The interview will involve: documents checks by Admissions Office staff; an introduction to the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCert) course with the Brunel Secondary Partnership; Individual oral presentations or a group discussion; a written exercise and/or subject knowledge audit as appropriate to the subject; an individual interview with two University and school-based staff. For PGCert Physical Education interviews, instead of the oral presentations or group discussion there will be a practical movement assessment using the context of gymnastics and a teaching episode where you will be required to teach a small group of fellow candidates a skill of your choice.

Following the interview we will consider all components of the process and will inform you of our decision as soon as possible.

It is important to realise that the above criteria are the ones we will use in assessing your application. Judgements, using these criteria, are based on our considerable experience as secondary school teachers and University-based teacher trainers, judgements from school-based colleagues who are part of the Secondary Brunel Partnership and are validated by regular quality enhancement procedures from Brunel University, the Brunel Secondary Initial Teacher Training Partnership Management Group, the South West London Teacher Education Consortium (SWELTEC) and by the cycle of rigorous Ofsted inspections carried out on a national basis.

English Language Requirements

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.