Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Religious Education)

For those wishing to train as teachers of pupils aged 11-18 in Religious Education, the programme will lead to the DfE (HM Government) Standards for QTS which are assessed through teaching practice observation, portfolios and written assignments. The PGCE RE does not provide you with specific subject knowledge content on world faiths and belief systems. This is why we require degree-level evidence of subject knowledge. The course is designed to train you in the art and craft of teaching. To this end, the focus is on the professional standards required of you by the QTS standards, which provides the framework for the course.

There are two strands to our course: one focusing on the subject specific work, the other encompassing the generic issues facing all of us in education today.

College based: You will work with other trainees and tutors in your subject area to consider the principles and practice of teaching your subject including curriculum design, the development of materials, classroom management and lesson planning. You will also work with trainees from other subjects in a programme of lectures and seminar groups to examine broad generic issues. During both secondary school placements there are occasional days in college for tutorials to support and monitor progress towards the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). There are cross-curricular research tasks and assignments.

School based: For 24 of the 36 weeks the training takes place in schools, mainly in two complementary secondary schools but with two short primary school experiences. This introduces you to recognising key constituents of good teaching, helps develop your own teaching skills and gain an understanding of how schools work and how children learn. Some trainees undertake part of their teaching practice in France, Spain, Austria or Germany, funded by the Erasmus programme.