Welcome to the Secondary PGCE course
We will be updating the site throughout the year so please check back for updates. Some of information is for 2023 entry and is here for guidance until it is updated for 2024 entry. For 2024 entry there will be significant changes to information, so whilst you may be interested to look at the information here, our advice would be not to invest lots of time until June 2024.
Key date for 2024 entry
The PGCE course starts on Wednesday 28 August and you will need to be in Nottingham, in person, from that date.
I am pleased to welcome you to the PGCE applicants' pre-course website. This site includes information that will help to prepare you for the course, we hope you will find it very helpful.
In these pages you will find details relating to the start of the course. There are also specific pages for each subject, including a series of tasks that must be completed before the start of the course. It is therefore vital that you work through your subject section carefully.
For the past few years, students on the course have had the opportunity to be trained as a Youth Mental Health First Aider through the MHFA England accredited course. We are hopeful that this opportunity will be available at some point in your training year and more details will be shared at the start of the course.
In the meantime we would encourage you to do some of the following:
- work through all tasks in the ‘To Do List’ section of this website
- gain as much experience as you can in a school setting
- read about current issues in education, for example in Schools Week or TES magazine
- enhance your understanding of school and the role of a teacher by engaging with these resources
- talk to people who are experienced teachers or have recently qualified about teaching and learning
- think about your own teaching and learning experience and your own philosophies about education
- think about how you will build skills and practices that will help you build resilience in your teaching career, engaging with the BRiTE materials will help with this
If you have any concerns or queries then please do contact us.
Best wishes
Claire Clemmet
PGCE Secondary Course Leader