King's College London, Postgraduate Certificate, Education

The programme combines the theory and practice of education; college based: students work with other trainees and tutors in their subject area to consider the principles and practice of teaching their subject: curriculum design; the development of materials; classroom management; and lesson planning; students work with trainees from other subjects in a programme of lectures and seminar groups to examine broad generic issues; during both secondary school placements there are occasional days in college for tutorials to support and monitor progress towards the standards for qualified teacher status (QTS); there are cross-curricular research tasks and assignments; school based: for 24 of the 36 weeks the training takes place in schools, mainly in 2 complementary secondary schools but with 2 short primary school experiences; this introduces students to recognising key constituents of good teaching; helps develop their own teaching skills; and gains an understanding of how schools work and how children learn; some trainees undertake part of their teaching practice in France, Spain, Austria or Germany, funded by the Erasmus programme; there are 2 pathways to a teaching certificate and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS): postgraduate certificate in education which gives 60 credits at M level which could be put towards completing an Master's with 1 further year of part-time study; or a professional certificate in education.