Course specification and structure
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UDPRIEDU - Primary Education (two-year accelerated degree) BA (Hons)

Course Specification


Validation status Validated
Highest award Bachelor of Arts Level Honours
Possible interim awards Bachelor of Arts, Diploma of Higher Education, Certificate of Higher Education
Total credits for course 360
Awarding institution London Metropolitan University
Teaching institutions London Metropolitan University
School School of Social Sciences and Professions
Subject Area Education
Attendance options
Option Minimum duration Maximum duration
Full-time 2 YEARS 4 YEARS
Course leader  

About the course and its strategy towards teaching and learning and towards blended learning/e-learning

The course rises to the challenge expressed by applicants and undergraduate students to acquire those skills, knowledge and understanding to move ahead into careers in professional roles within the primary sector and fields with a common interest in the education, well-being and care of children. These careers certainly include qualified teacher, but also inter alia, high level teaching assistant, mentor, playworker, or a broad range of ‘social professions’, with options to go on to further study and research. It combines extended episodes of practical experience in appropriate settings with critical academic study that enables students to situate and interrogate their learning using critical languages drawn from theory, policy, and professional ethical conduct. It also seeks to inspire and enthuse its students as future educators and enable them to meet the demands and reap the rewards found in educating children and young people.

Students will normally take the course over the specified two year period so that it qualifies as accelerated study; however, there are options to modify or decelerate the normal pattern in light of particular circumstances and these would be decided and effected in discussion with student’s academic tutors and suitably qualified others. Further, students who, for any number of reasons find that they are unable to maintain the pace of accelerated study there are options to transfer to the University’s BA Education Studies programme. Staff will work in collaboration with students to construct a programme and course that works and is responsive to the needs and aspirations of those who register for it. This will be through regular formal Course Committee review and other opportunities for effective dialogue and exchange.

The approach to teaching and learning places the learner and her or his needs at the heart of the programme of study, whilst acknowledging the importance of providing: opportunities to acquire a robust body of professionally-oriented knowledge; effective skills to organise, deploy and critique that knowledge; and, critical professional judgment that will facilitate confident decision making. Students are taught using a range of pedagogic modes that include workshops, seminars, lectures, small group, and on-line approaches in a blended approach that matches forms of knowledge to appropriate pedagogic practice. Students are enabled to make full use of the flexible leaning spaces that are emerging across LondonMet’s reinvented Holloway Campus.

Course aims

The course aims:

• to equip students with the core knowledge and a multidisciplinary understanding of primary education that offers a launch pad for progression to careers in the sector;

• to equip students with vital skills of literacy, numeracy, oracy and enquiry that will enable them to address a range of stakeholder audiences and exercise critical professional judgment with confidence;

• to emphasise the centrality of professionalism and the professional teacher to realising the aims of the primary curriculum, whether in meeting specific learning targets, addressing the specific learning needs and identities of learners, or ensuring an appropriately facilitative school ethos;

• to prepare students for transition to formal programmes of teacher education leading to QTS;

• to ensure that these aims are accomplished within the accelerated timeframe.

Course learning outcomes

The following learning outcomes incorporate and depend on systematic understanding of the key aspects of the knowledge base of Primary Education a coherent and detailed knowledge of some specialist areas in depth.

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1. deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within Primary Education

2. devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Primary Education;

3. describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in Primary Education, recognising the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge;

4. manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to Primary Education);

5. apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects;

6. critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem;

7. communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences;

8. exercise initiative and personal responsibility, including decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts;

9. Demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition and creativity and will act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners and in their discipline

Course learning outcomes / Module cross reference

AE4017
AE4018
AE5017
AE6P06
AE4019
AE4020
AE5018
AE5019
AE6008
AE6009
AE6P06

Covers Learning Outcomes LO1-9

Principle QAA benchmark statements

Education Studies (2015)

Assessment strategy

Students are assessed via a range of assessment modes including presentations, reflective diaries, posters, written critical reflections and formal written modes. These seek to enable students to realise their imagination and lead them enthusiastically into areas of professional and personal interest that will sustain their careers as educators and inspire those they work with.

The strategy includes early assessment and timely feedback that serves formatively to develop students understanding, develop their fluency with key skills and lend clarity to direction and goals of their studies. It also meets the particular requirement to facilitate timely programme planning for students following the accelerated degree programme.

Organised work experience, work based learning, sandwich year or year abroad

Students undertake two extended blocks of work-based learning. These are enframed by the modules:

AE5017 ‘Working with Children and Preparing for Professional Practice’ over the Spring and Summer periods of year one

and

AE6P06 ‘Action Research for Practitioners: placement and project’ over the Autumn, Spring and Summer periods of year two

These modules ask students to spend an extended period in an identified and approved work-place setting with scheduled formal input about appropriate topics, practices, and research methodologies provided at the University.

Course specific regulations

N/A

Modules required for interim awards

All modules are core compulsory and completion of the full programme is required to gain the honours degree award. Students would normally be eligible for the Certificate of Higher Education on completion of 120 credits at level 4 and satisfactory fulfilment of the University regulations for award; students would be eligible for the Diploma in Higher Education on completion of 120 credits at level 4 and at 120 credits at level 5 and satisfactory fulfilment of the University regulations for award.

Arrangements for promoting reflective learning and personal development

Reflective learning and personal development planning and action are braided through the course. The emphasis on professional development is indissolubly linked to the growth of personal confidence in and through competence in practice. The extended periods of learning in settings and reflections upon it – written, oral and through other forms of representation – offer opportunities to engage with those communities of practice and discourse to which the students are committing themselves.

Career, employability and opportunities for continuing professional development

This two-year degree prepares you to progress in quick time to a PGCE and Qualified Teacher Status, so that you can be a fully-qualified professional classroom teacher in just three years.

Career opportunities

Our two-year Primary Education BA is primarily focused on progression to the role of classroom teacher for children aged between three and 12, following subsequent completion of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

This course also supports those wishing to enter alternative professional roles specialising in children and their well-being. Our graduates can go on to be social workers (after completing a master's degree in social work), work in charities and local community projects, plus work in roles that support for specific needs, mentoring, skills coaching and more.

Continuing your studies with us

The School of Social Professions has a wide range of exciting industry-linked programmes available on a full-time and part-time basis in education, health, social and community work. The following courses would be ideal for progression into postgraudate study:

Entry requirements

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:

  • a minimum of three A levels with grades BBC (or a minimum of 112 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC National, OCR Diploma or Advanced Diploma)
  • GCSE English and either Mathematics or Science at grade C/4 or above (or equivalent)*

*If you have not passed any of the required GCSEs at Grade C/4, you can study for them at private centres. Alternatively, you could undertake an equivalency test through one of the following agencies: A* Equivalency or Equivalency.com. They will assess your level prior to undertaking the test, to ascertain how much teaching input you will need in order to pass.
If you do not hold a GCSE at grade C/4 or above in either Mathematics or Science, you will need to gain this or pass an equivalency test in order to be considered for a PGCE. Students graduating from the degree who hold a GCSE grade C/4 or equivalent in English and either Mathematics or Science are guaranteed an interview for a PGCE or equivalent route to QTS at London Met.

The course is designed to equip you to progress to a postgraduate programme offering QTS and therefore the expectation is that you possess the necessary qualifications before commencing the degree.

Official use and codes

Approved to run from 2018/19 Specification version 1 Specification status Validated
Original validation date 02 Aug 2018 Last validation date 02 Aug 2018  
Sources of funding HE FUNDING COUNCIL FOR ENGLAND
JACS codes
Route code PRIEDU

Course Structure

Stage 1 Level 04 September start Offered

Code Module title Info Type Credits Location Period Day Time
AE4017 Understanding Education Policy, Themes and Issues Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR MON AM
AE4018 Succeeding in HE: Criticality in Reading, Writi... Core 30        
AE4019 Curriculum, Learners and Learning I Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR TUE AM
AE4020 Global Challenges: Inclusion in Practice Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR TUE PM
AE5017 Working with Children and Preparing for Profess... Core 60 NORTH SUM MON AM
          NORTH SUM MON AM&PM
          NORTH SUM TUE AM&PM

Stage 2 Level 06 September start Offered

Code Module title Info Type Credits Location Period Day Time
AE5018 Curriculum, Learners and Learning II Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR THU AM
AE5019 From Elementary Schooling to 'Good Primary Prac... Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR THU PM
AE6008 Teachers, Learners, and Schools in the 21st Cen... Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR FRI AM
AE6009 Education and Children's Lives: Social Worlds o... Core 30 NORTH AUT+SPR FRI PM
AE6P06 Action Research for Practitioners: Placement an... Core 60 NORTH AUT+SPR WED AM&PM