Course Summary
This course leads to the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) for the 11-to-16 age range, which qualifies you to be a teacher in secondary schools in England and Wales. Where possible, we also give you the chance to gain experience in the 11-to-18 age range.
Religious Education (RE) helps to develop young people’s religious literacy so that they will develop an understanding and appreciation of the diverse beliefs and practices found in religions and worldviews today.
Training to teach RE in London offers you the chance to tackle challenging, thought-provoking topics with young people.
You can use your creativity and passion for the subject to develop lessons that help your pupils discuss and answer the most fundamental questions – from belief in God to the meaning and purpose of life.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
As well as learning about children and child development, you will learn how to be a specialist teacher of religious education.
Subject sessions will support your understanding of the current key issues in religious education. This will include debating the aims of RE pedagogy and current issues.
The subject studies element of your training provides an introduction to RE as a basic curriculum subject - what the aims of RE are and how RE is important for young people.
Sessions will offer theoretical perspectives on how to teach RE in both community and faith schools - in particular looking at differing and competing pedagogies as well as the aims of religious education, the principles of syllabus design and evaluation, and the assessment and recording of children’s progress.
Time will be given to exploring RE teaching in practice, including how to create a respectful classroom ethos with the sensitivity that RE, in particular, demands.
By training as a religious education teacher, you can help your pupils become compassionate young adults, respectful of religious and cultural differences.
We are proud of our longstanding practice of supporting non-traditional students. Although many of our students will have a degree in religious studies, we welcome applications from those with a degree in other disciplines, provided applicants can demonstrate a genuine passion for understanding the religious world, and sound subject knowledge of religious and secular traditions.
HOW YOU'LL LEARN
We will support you to become an outstanding teacher of religious education. You will learn how to devise and deliver engaging lessons that enthuse all pupils.
Subject sessions will support your understanding of current issues in religious education and worldviews and will enable you to develop the appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding for teaching religious education in the secondary school context.
Sessions will offer theoretical perspectives on how to teach RE in both community and faith schools. Time will be given to exploring RE teaching in practice, including how to teach RE in a rigorous, thoughtful and meaningful manner and create a respectful classroom ethos with the sensitivity that religious education demands.
The RE training is organised so that it feels like a school. Your subject tutor will be like your form tutor at school. We believe that we should model good practice to you so that you can learn by example.
This is designed to further develop your enthusiasm for teaching RE as well as enabling you to develop the skills to devise and deliver lessons that excite and intrigue pupils.
Our ethos is based on collaboration, not competition. We encourage you to work collaboratively just as you will when you qualify and start working in a school.
You will undertake two long placements in contrasting schools, totalling 24 weeks. We work in partnership with over 100 schools and colleges to provide a high-quality programme of support.
You will be on placement from week three, so right from the beginning of your training you will have a strong link between theory and practice.
While an experienced teacher will be in the classroom with you, it is you who will be planning the lessons and teaching the lessons. You will start by observing the teacher, then helping. By the end of the Secondary PGCE course, you will be teaching 60 per cent of a normal teacher’s timetable.
You will have the opportunity to visit additional schools and settings. For instance, if your first placement is in a mixed comprehensive school in Barking & Dagenham, then you might go to a single-sex faith school in Havering for your second one.
Our tutors and subject mentors will advise and support you throughout each placement as you learn to teach.
YOUR FUTURE CAREER
The Secondary PGCE course at the University of East London was designed in 2001 in conjunction with the local authorities to address the secondary education teacher shortage in east London.
The partnership works with input and support from the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Redbridge.
It means that our graduates are represented in virtually every secondary school in east London. Some are now deputy heads or in senior management roles in schools that are taking our current trainees for their placements.
Across all subjects, from maths to modern languages, our teacher training graduates are acting as mentors to those following in their footsteps.
The partnership means that you have a head start when it comes to securing a teaching post in east London at the end of your training.
Both local authorities and individual schools visit our campus regularly to meet our trainees and advertise available vacancies.
You may also decide to undertake further study at the University of East London, either at the end of your course or after gaining teaching experience, perhaps specialising in Special Educational Needs or taking our MA Leadership in Education.
We also offer the opportunity for doctoral study to further develop your teaching knowledge and expertise.
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