Secondary Education - (MFL) PGCE

Course Summary

The PGCE Secondary is the first phase of a career-long process of personal and professional development, which will equip you to become a secondary school teacher. The PGCE Secondary is a course in Initial Teacher Training which is accredited by the DfE, the successful completion of which will accord you Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Our course has recently been inspected by Ofsted which resulted in an “Outstanding” grading for all aspects of our provision.

Students who have successfully completed the PGCE at Durham in the previous academic year have the option to use 90 credits they have accredited towards a part time MA Education. These students only need to do the core modules, Education Enquiry and the Dissertation over two years, to complete the course. Subject pedagogy is explored in curriculum groups, examining techniques for making each subject accessible and stimulating in a classroom environment.

The Modern Foreign Languages course will introduce you to the teaching of languages in secondary schools for young people aged 11-16. The course lays emphasis on language as a form of communication and on the value of language learning as a way of understanding other cultures and backgrounds, as well as developing cognitive and literacy skills. We address the challenges of teaching languages and how to promote their value in a predominantly monolingual part of the world.

Our popular Modern Foreign Languages programme aims to:

• Empower you with the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills needed to become an effective and innovative teacher of Modern Foreign Languages
• Extend your awareness of the range and scope of Modern Foreign Languages as a subject in schools today
• Provide opportunities for you to experience and explore a variety of approaches for teaching.

During the practical seminars we will introduce you to how people learn languages and, correspondingly, how best to teach them in schools. You will also study the outcomes of research, theory and the application of these in the classroom and beyond. Throughout the course, there will be three main opportunities for you to gain practical ‘hands on’ experience of the school environment: a week in a primary school and two separate periods in our partnership secondary schools. In the first placement, you will discover what life is like for children before they reach secondary school age; you will observe and consider different ways of organising learning, which you can then apply to the older children you will meet. You will also begin to consider education from a professional point of view. In the secondary school placements you will explore how to teach a language in a way consistent with the aims and processes of foreign language learning.