Courses

PGCE History 2006-07

The 2006-07 course is now closed.

If you intend to apply for 2007-08 and will be out of the country during the coming academic year it makes good sense to contact the Initial Teacher Training Partnership Office (ITTPO) and explain your situation. It will also be helpful to let us know where we will be able to contact you by phone in order to avoid disappointment.  It may be  possible to interview late returnees but experience suggests that our course will fill quickly.

All students who are invited to interview at Exeter are asked to make a 5 minute presentation on a given topic. This year's topic was A Treasured Object. We shall provide an overhead projector. PowerPoint will not be available. 

Reaffirmed as an 'A' provider by OFSTED in 2003, the PGCE History Course at Exeter is amongst the top courses in the Country. The 2003 OFSTED inspectors praised innovation within the course since the last inspection. They specifically drew attention to the web site and the part played by external contributors to the course. 

The course continues to have an impressive record of getting students jobs. It aims to produce History teachers who are equipped with a wide range of experiences that will allow them to function efficiently from day one of their NQT year.

Those students who are offered places on the course are asked to complete two separate weeks in a primary school and a secondary school, following a schedule that will allow them to contribute to group discussions at the start of the course in Exeter. These visits are arranged by the trainees themselves, not by the School of Education and Lifelong Learning.

The first 10 weeks of the course spent at Exeter are an intensive preparation for two whole term school placements that will give trainees a range of experiences. The emphasis of the History course is to provide practical experience that equips students with a range of activities suitable for classroom use. A variety of teachers, local authority advisors and academics are involved in delivering the course. In addition, there is an ICT course which supports trainees to a level which will enable them to pass the appropriate skills test. The taught part of the course is assessed by a number of practical assignments handed in during the course of the Autumn Term.

Tutorial support is provided for students throughout the course. 

School placements are organised by The ITT Partnership Office, usually before students start the course. It is possible to ask for special circumstances to be taken into consideration, but it is very important to note that for a range of different reasons placements around Exeter are in very short supply. It is much more likely that students will be placed in Plymouth, Torbay, West or East Devon, Cornwall, Somerset or Dorset. The aim is to provide an 11-18 and an 11-16 placement though this may sometimes mean moving at the end of the Spring Term to another area.

In their school placements the students are supervised by school staff, with visits from University Visiting Tutors (UVTs). Students return to Exeter three times each term for Seminar Days at which further professional input is made, and issues arising from school placements are discussed.

Lest the course sounds daunting it ought also to be mentioned that the PGCE History Course at Exeter fully supports participation in student sports such as BUSA. It has also established a reputation for the quality of its social life, organised by the students themselves. 

For more detail you can download the 2005-06 History PGCE Handbook .