Department of Primary Education
The department works in partnership with local primary schools to provide three routes to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) - undergraduate, Postgraduate Certificate of Education full-time and part-time. These programme support our commitment to offering a diversity of provision to meet a broad intake profile.
The department works in partnership with schools in London, Kent and Essex and can offer a varied teaching experience to students ranging from the inner city to the rural and suburban context.
Our teacher education programmes provide students with the skills, knowledge and understanding to enter the profession with enthusiasm and confidence as a newly qualified teacher, so that they are able to motivate and inspire young learners. A measure of our success is the very high employment rates shown on completion of our primary teacher training programmes.
In our inspection of May 2011, Ofsted graded us as 'good' identifying the following key strengths in provision:
- High quality pastoral, academic and individual support, and intervention which contributes well to trainees’ good progress
- Well-planned opportunities for trainees to learn about and to experience a range of diverse and varied teaching contexts
- The contribution of school partners in ensuring high quality school-based training and in shaping and steering improving provision
- The good contribution of the provider in supplying teachers who are retained and enhance the quality of teaching in the local area
- Professional, reflective trainees who are prepared to take risks in planning lessons that interest and enhance the enjoyment of learners resulting in positive working relationships between them and their pupils
- The modelling of effective strategies by trainers and the coherence between the school- and centre-based training which enables trainees to make good links between practice and theory.
Training to be a primary teacher takes place through taught sessions at the university’s Avery Hill Campus and periods of school based training undertaken in primary schools who work in partnership with the university. Ofsted (2011) noted that overall, trainees are very positive about the centre based training and highlighted, ‘the good contribution made by primary school partners to improving the quality of training and assessment across the partnership’ as a particularly strong feature of the programmes.
Staff in the department are well-qualified and experienced primary practitioners. Staff are enthusiastic about their teaching and received 93% satisfaction rating in the latest National Student Survey. During our latest Ofsted, May 2011 the staff were found to be ‘generous with their time and very accessible.’
Staff profiles
Find out more about our department’s teaching staff.