English
We are delighted that you have accepted our offer of a place on the PGCE English course. This page contains some information and tasks for you to complete before the course begins.
On the course you will develop your subject knowledge as well as your knowledge about teaching and learning. You will also develop your academic skills to help you successfully complete the assignments.
English is a vital subject and we are particularly interested in how teachers can link the English curriculum with the contexts of their schools. We hope that you will join us to help schools achieve this.
We very much look forward to meeting you again when the course starts and hope that you find your primary school experience rewarding and enjoyable.
Your Secondary PGCE English tutors
Fleur McCole
John Perry
Katy Burridge
Pre-course reading
When you start the course we will give you the complete subject guide. For the moment we have uploaded the booklist section so that you can begin some preparatory reading. We recommend that you engage with these texts over the summer to help you prepare for the autumn term. We will be recommending that you buy two core readers about English teaching from a short list.
English reading list (PDF)
You will see that we have included a list of titles written for children and young adults. We ask that students are familiar with a range of these and so recommend that you make a start on this reading as soon as you can. Keep an eye too on progress with the Carnegie Award. The shortlist is announced in the spring each year and the winner in the summer. This is a good way to keep up to date with fiction written for young people.
Pre-course task
Before the start of the PGCE course we would like you to complete a
pre-course task. This will inform the opening weeks of the course and offer a starting point for your thinking about what it means to be a teacher of English. In addition to the compulsory task above, we also offer you a
series of shorter, voluntary tasks. The purpose of these is to help you prepare for the course in September.
Subject knowledge self-assessment audit
The importance of subject knowledge was discussed with you at interview. We hope that you will have already been taking the opportunity to work on any recommendations made at interview. While subject knowledge development is a career-long process, the more preparation you have done prior to the course the easier your workload will be in the autumn term.
To support you in this process we require you to complete a subject knowledge audit. Please follow the instructions and read the suggestions for further development. Please complete the audit and bring with you on the first day of the course.