teaching at manchester met

Get teaching experience

Find out how school experience can strengthen your PGCE application.

How can school experience strengthen your PGCE application?

School experience allows you to find out more about teaching by gaining first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be a teacher in a real classroom.

You’ll find out if teaching is the right career for you and discover what kind of teacher you want to be. By observing how teachers work and engaging in the learning process, you’ll gain valuable insights into a teacher’s role before the students arrive and after they’ve gone home.

School experience stands you in good stead for your Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) application, helping you to show your passion and enthusiasm for the career. It also helps you to effectively prepare, communicate and understand what teaching takes.

What to look out for during school experience

Preparing

  • What happens each day before the students arrive? What does the teacher do when they arrive at school?
  • How has the teacher prepared each lesson?
  • How do they include a range of abilities, backgrounds and interests in their classroom?
  • What preparations are made for the following day after the students have left?

Planning

  • Is there a standard format for lesson plans?
  • Are plans they set for the year, term or week?
  • What is needed for a great lesson? What techniques and different media are used to achieve it?
  • Are all the students in the class required to do the same work? If the class is split or separated, why? What effect does it have?

Teaching

  • What happens when the lesson begins? Observe closely. How does the teacher get, and keep, the attention of the class?
  • What behaviour management techniques are used? How is the class incentivised and what are their routines, rules or criteria?
  • How does the teacher interact with their students? What questions are asked? How are the student’s questions answered?

What's in it for you?

Three students walking into the Brooks building on campus

What’s in it for you?

  • First-hand experience on how to prepare, plan and engage in a lesson which you can then evidence in your interview.
  • An enhanced PGCE application personal statement by being able to confidently show you’re committed, enthusiastic and have an understanding of what teaching takes through your experience of a real classroom setting.

Get into teaching

teaching at manchester met

Why PGCE at Manchester Met

View our courses, find out about placements and funding options and discover why you should start your journey with us.

Find out more

Take the first step

Are you thinking about studying a PGCE at Manchester Met? Register your interest below to stay up to date with the latest information and PGCE events we have coming up.

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