The BEd (Post-Primary) course qualifies you to teach within the 11-19 age range and provides opportunities to develop transferable skills for employment in other educational/training settings. The programme is currently under review in order to take account of recent curriculum initiatives in the post-primary sector.  The proposed new programme comprises the inter-related strands as shown above and offers a wide range of flexibility so that progress through the BEd is largely self-directed.

Years 1 and 2 of the course will be foundation years in which you will study common, compulsory modules in Education Studies and Professional Studies.  You will specialise in an academic subject (or combination of subjects), in Learning for Life and Work and in Literacy and Numeracy.  In order to help you to embrace successfully the challenges of study at undergraduate level, one module will have a Study Skills focus.

In Years 3 and 4, you will continue to specialise in your chosen academic subject (or combination of subjects) and choose from a range of additional specialist modules including the opportunity to select options from the post-primary KS3 Areas of Learning.  This flexibility aims to give you an opportunity to specialise in a particular chosen area, for example, in the area of Pastoral Care, Special Educational Needs, 14-16 Occupational Studies or Essential Skills.

Specialist Academic Subject(s)            

You will study one, or a combination of, the following specialist academic subjects:

Business and Enterprise

Mathematics/Science

Religious Studies

Technology and Design

Education and Professional Studies

Education and Professional Studies is offered in each year of the post-primary degree programme.  Students are taught using innovative methodologies in tutorials, workshops, seminars and lectures, where they critically consider evidence from a range of media such as visual media, electronic journals and library texts.  Each module has a particular focus (such as Assessment for Learning or Children with Special and Additional Needs) but throughout students are made aware of the primacy of the learner.

Professional Placements

Practical experience in classrooms is essential to any programme of teacher preparation; therefore, you will spend a considerable portion of each academic year on placement. The aim of the school-based programme is to enable you to develop the basic skills, attitudes and insights required to become a competent teacher.  We have a large number of successful partnerships with primary, post-primary, special schools, regional colleges and other education related contexts making it possible to offer you a wide range of experiences.  The first school placement is organised so that a college tutor closely supports pairs/groups of students.  Individual placement occurs as you progress in your studies, where the college tutor is both critical friend and assessor.

We are very conscious that students who arrive in the College can have a rather narrow range of experience of education and we are keen to introduce you to a variety of schools from the outset.  You will have opportunities to visit a range of schools with your peers in order to explore examples of good practice in relation to dealing with diversity in schools and in relation to subject teaching.

In addition, during your final year of study, you will have a placement in an alternative educational setting where you will have opportunities:

• To liaise competently with a wide variety of agencies in the field of education.
• To engage with a multi-disciplinary approach to educational issues.
• To respond to the issues and challenges inherent in working with young people in schools and colleges.
• To further develop and enhance a range of transferable personal, intellectual and study skills.
• To explore platforms for professional/career development.