PGCE Placements

The Teaching Experience

Your teaching experience

The experience you gain on placement is the foundation of your PGCE. Our partnerships with over 500 schools, colleges and education providers across the North West means we can offer you a broad range of placements.

Your placements could be in urban or rural areas, different faiths, or communities with different social backgrounds. This will provide you with a broader experience while you are training, and prepare you for your future career. We work closely with each school to make sure you get the most out of your placement.

Your placements

You’ll do two placements during your PGCE, between October and June.

They help you:

Develop a rounded teaching approach so you can work with the behaviour, diversity, and special education needs and disability status of your students.
Build your knowledge of the curricula.
Understand the role of research in enhancing children’s learning and progression.
Build your skills and confidence as a teacher and contextualise your learning in a real-life classroom.
Become a challenging, inclusive and reflective teacher.

Throughout all my placements I was provided with experienced mentors who were very supportive. My time at Manchester Met has provided me with a toolkit of ideas and philosophies about teaching that have developed my future practice.

Hannah Aldred

PGCE Primary Education

Throughout all my placements I was provided with experienced mentors who were very supportive. My time at Manchester Met has provided me with a toolkit of ideas and philosophies about teaching that have developed my future practice.

Hannah Aldred

PGCE Primary Education

What should I expect from my placements?

What will they entail?

You’ll be required to complete a minimum of 120 days across two different placements.

Your placements will be contrasting, meaning you will gain experience from different age groups, locations or specialisms.

For each phase of your placement, your progress will be monitored against the Manchester Met curriculum.

What support will I get?

Each trainee has a personal tutor from the University whom they are familiar with.

They’ll write your references for employment in the future.

You’ll have a professional mentor who may be a teacher at the school or the individual responsible for trainees in that school.

You’ll have a subject or class mentor who supports you. They will meet with you weekly and set targets for you to help you progress.

You may be at a school with other trainees, where you’ll have a peer group and support network at the school.

Where will I be?

We start with your term-time postcode and match it with placement offers from our partner schools.

Schools are situated across the North West from different economic and cultural backgrounds to provide a diverse range of experiences.

How do I prepare?

You might consider school experience or becoming a teaching assistant before your PGCE, it can help prepare your first time on placement.

Get organised! Buy a diary and stationery and use it. Take notes and ask lots of questions.

Be prepared to get out of your comfort zone and be ready for things when they don’t go to plan. Don’t be too hard on yourself when they don’t, learn and adapt!

Do your research. Read up on your subject and curriculum so you have an idea of what is being taught.

Why PGCE at Manchester Met

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

Take your first step

Preparing for your PGCE placement