Life as a primary PGCE student can be summed up in one word… busy. Don’t get me wrong I love what I’m doing but it is the busiest thing I have ever had to do – guess it’ll just make it more worthwhile at the end of it!
If you want to be a primary teacher then it’s the best choice you could ever make, if you’re willing to put 100% of your effort into it.
There are two sides of the course, the lecture side and the placement side and they are VERY different! With lectures, you’re in university 9am-6pm most days attending lectures in all the core curriculum subjects (English, Maths, Science) and then you study a selection of foundation subjects each term (everything else really e.g. history, computing, PE etc).
When you’re on placement things are a bit more full on with having to be at school for 8am (ish!) and staying till 4.30pm at the earliest (you usually stay a bit later if you have staff meetings or lots of planning to get done and organised). You are put with one class (I have a lovely Year 1 class in Hereford) and you stay with them for the whole duration of your placement at that school (between 6-9 weeks depending on which placement it is, you have 3). So both are vital elements of my course but they are so so different!
My life as a PGCE student is FULL of work and stress, both at university, on placement and at home in my own time but if I’m honest, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Worcester Student Life 