UDPRIEDU - Primary Education (two-year accelerated degree) BA (Hons)

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.

The programme does not offer QTS, instead it prepares students for progression to a PGCE 3 to 7 or 5 to 11 or 7 to 11 in a further third year, where their QTS is gained. As such the two-year course 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 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, regular module feedback and other opportunities for effective dialogue and exchange at both course and modular level.

The approach to teaching and learning places the learner and their 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 learning spaces that are emerging across LondonMet’s Holloway Campus.

The course aims:

To provide an appropriate balance between academic approaches for the educational field and professional approaches to practice in Primary Education

● To encourage students to explore the problematic nature of educational theory, policy and practice with reference to those foundational debates and disciplines that have informed educational discourses;

● To provide a fund of experience that has been interpreted and rationalised with respect to a set of core competencies that support student entry to a range of professional identities, practices and careers in Primary Education;

• 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;

• educate students for employment as critical professionals within educational and other cognate settings;

• to understand the issues around professionalism, teaching and the primary curriculum, with a focus on inclusion and learner identity

• to prepare students for transition to formal programmes of teacher education leading to QTS or further postgraduate study.

• to ensure that these aims are accomplished within the accelerated 2-year timeframe.

• To fulfil the aspirations and hopes of our students;

• To offer a globally attuned degree that has portability.

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 and apply theories and concepts to a range of real-world educational contexts

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

Education Studies (2019) https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/subject-benchmark-statements/subject-benchmark-statement-education-studies.pdf?sfvrsn=3ae2cb81_5

Students are assessed via a range of assessment modes including presentations, reflective journals, podcasts, case studies, 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.

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.

There are other opportunities in several other modules to go on field trips, visit and observe in schools to carry out a case study and a small- scale research report.

Students require a DBS before the course in order to visit and work in placement in schools.

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.

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 two extended periods of work based 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.

While the BA Primary Education degree prepares you for a wide range of careers in education, Tit is also designed tohis two-year degree prepares you to progress in quick time to a PGCE and Qualified Teacher Status, meaning you will be a fully-qualified professional classroom teacher in just three years.

We have structured the design of this 2-year programme to allow students to fully focus on their academic study without also having the pressure of also trying to meet teacher standards a 3-year BA QTS programme would demand of them. We believe that gaining QTS is best done in a specifically designed and focussed PGCE course after completion of the 2-year BA Primary Education. We provide support for the preparation and application for PGCE in the first and second year of the programme.

Many students combine study on this degree with part-time work in schools or early years’ settings and can use their own workplace for their work placement modules in the first and second year. Placement support will be provided to help students find a suitable work placement if they do not already have their own.

Our two-year Primary Education BA is primarily designed to allow you to progress on to the role of classroom teacher for children aged between three and 12 years old. This can be achieved once you’ve gained Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), which can be acquired through a PGCE that you can do here at London Met. Alternatively, you can also progress onto a master’s degree in a related field.

Upon completion of this degree you will be confident in your knowledge of primary education theory and practice, and therefore in an ideal position to progress to a PGCE course to achieve QTS. Gaining QTS through a PGCE means you will gain 60 master’s-level credits, which can be used towards a master’s in education at a later point in your career if desired.

This course also supports those wishing to enter alternative professional roles specialising in children and their well-being. Education graduates have gone on to careers as teaching assistants, support workers and teachers in nurseries, primary and secondary schools.

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:

• Get into teaching with one of our Primary PGCE courses
• Education - MA
• Psychology - MSc
• Youth and Community Work (with JNC Recognition) - MSc
• Safeguarding and Security - MA

If you've already studied your undergraduate degree with us, as a graduate of London Met, you'll be entitled to a 20% discount on any further study with us.

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)*
• an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check for any placement in a school

*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.