Course summary

If you have a passion for teaching children 3-11 years, join us on this degree and gain recommendation for QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). Specialise in the early years phase, teaching children 3-7 years and make significant contribution to their learning and development. This primary early years teaching degree covers the essential skills and knowledge you’ll need for teaching children aged 3-11 with a specialism in the 3-7 age phase. This includes primary schools, nurseries and children’s centres. Whatever undergraduate degree you studied, this course will help you develop your expertise and understanding of how children learn. You’ll study both the national curriculum and the EYFS statutory curriculum, and build up your knowledge in the subjects you will be teaching. Your tutors and school-based mentors will help you to become teachers with a strong sense of social justice, advocating for children’s rights, challenging inequality, and supporting global sustainability. You can study our primary early years education PGCE at our Ormskirk campus, or at Holy Cross College & University Centre in Bury. With your recommendation for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), on graduation you could teach in early years foundation stage (EYFS), key stage 1, and key stage 2. What you'll study There are three key parts to the course. The first is Personal and Professional Attitudes, Values and Beliefs. You’ll learn to take charge of, and reflect on, your own progress as a trainee teacher. And consider what your professional attitudes, values and beliefs are when it comes to your learning journey and the education profession. The second element is Subject and Curriculum Knowledge. This covers the national curriculum at key stage one for every subject, showing you how to plan, teach, and assess primary age pupils. You’ll learn about the early years foundation stage and learning and development areas within this too. Finally, there’s the Craft of Teaching and Pedagogy. You’ll complete a small research project and discover the important theories behind early years education. Discovering the ways children learn and how their needs differ, you’ll come up with strategies for planning, teaching, assessing, and managing classrooms. Intensive Training and Practice You will also undertake Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) as a specific and focused element of our teacher training curriculum. This is designed to consolidate your knowledge of effective teaching, and enable you to rehearse and obtain feedback from experts on your practice. Our ITAPs are designed to utilise the latest research and technology as well as draw on the outstanding mentors, tutors, and teacher expertise from across our partnership. Over the course of your training, you will have the opportunity to participate in several days of Intensive Practice focusing on aspects of pivotal practice such as; behaviour management, scaffolding, professional behaviours and questioning. During periods of ITAP, your timetable may differ and you may be required to attend campus and/or a placement on days outside of the usual pattern. Lead Mentors The Edge Hill lead mentors and mentor leadership team play an important part in your teacher training as experts in their field. They have a deep knowledge of the trainee curriculum and support trainees and mentors to make progress providing guidance and support on aspects of the curriculum and assessment.