PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages

Overview & facilities

The PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages course prepares you for a career as a specialist teacher of Modern Languages in secondary schools. The course aims to extend your subject knowledge application in Modern Foreign Languages, enabling you to teach across the 11 to 18 age range. We are looking to train French, German and Spanish language teachers.

The Modern Foreign Languages course has a strong emphasis on the use of ICT in the teaching of languages and encourages you to develop innovative approaches to teaching languages in schools; it is practical in nature and there are strong links with partner schools where mentors become involved in the University based studies. Students on the Modern Foreign Languages course generally come from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures and this adds to the richness of the provision.

Our PGCE Secondary courses were graded Good with Oustanding features in March 2010. Key strengths that Ofsted idenfitied include:

• Good quality trainees who exhibit strong professional attributes
• The inclusive nature of Middlesex
• High quality pastoral care for trainees

The course provides a fast learning curve moving from theoretical ideas to practical teaching and learning strategies that can be applied in the classroom. As a trainee, you will need lots of enthusiasm to match that of the pupils they teach and university tutors that they work with. 

The course will:

• Develop your knowledge and understanding of pupils and their learning
• Equip you with the pedagogic knowledge, understanding and skills to teach effectively across the 11-18 age range
• Develop your understanding of the secondary curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages
• Enable you to understand, critically evaluate and respond to the needs of children in multicultural, multilingual and multifaith settings and schools in an international, urban environment
• Train you to be able to meet the teaching standards in the stated age range of the secondary school
• Enable you to critically understand current research and advanced scholarship in secondary education
• Enable you to demonstrate expertise in highly specialised professional skills in contexts needing initiative and take personal responsibility for decision making in complex and unpredictable situations.

Content & modules

Subject studies: A structured programme of subject teaching methodology and application workshops and seminars.

School-based studies: You are required to spend two-thirds (120 days) of the programme in school. We have developed a partnership scheme with 150 participating secondary schools situated throughout the North London boroughs, Essex and Hertfordshire. In each school you will be assigned a personal mentor who is a subject teacher. You will experience two consecutive secondary school placements. The objective of the school experience is to develop your generic and subject teaching skills to at least the level of competence expected of a newly qualified teacher.

Professional studies: This is a programme of lectures and seminars focusing on contemporary issues in education and professional development. This part of the programme takes place partly at the University and partly at school by lectures, workshops and seminars to mixed subject groups.  

Subject studies are assessed by a portfolio of coursework and a school-based special study (a teaching resource). Progressive developments of teaching skills are recorded using criteria referenced assessment proforma. Professional studies are assessed by a range of written tasks. Observation of the students, teaching and evaluative discussions with course tutors and school based mentors and teachers.

You will find this an intensive 36-week, five-days-a-week programme, during which you will also have directed work to carry out during the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.

After you complete the course, you can gain QTS following a successful probationary period as an employee in a school, combined with the Training and Development Agency (TDA) tests in numeracy, literacy and ICT.

The programme complies fully with the current requirements of the Training and Development Agency.

Modules

Studies in your Specialist Subject (two modules, see individual subject descriptions for details, includes Professional Studies)
You will develop the knowledge and skills required to teach your chosen subject. You will be able to identify and evaluate effective strategies for assessing children's learning in the selected subject, through formative and summative assessment strategies. You will critically evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of resources and your own lesson plans. You will understand the importance of literacy, numeracy and ICT in delivering an effective curriculum and as transferable skills. You will analyse research data and critically evaluate how research has contributed to the knowledge and understanding of how to teach your subject effectively.

School Experience 1
Through this School Experience, you will apply the knowledge, understanding and skills you have gained through study, to practical situations. Your experience will develop your powers of organisation and methods of control. You will develop your ability to plan, implement and evaluate schemes of work and lesson plans. You will also identify targets to be achieved in the second placement. You will consider the school as an organisation and discern the various roles of the teacher. You will monitor the lessons and activities that school students experience in a school day and work alongside subject specialists in a learning partnership role.

School Experience 2
You will be advised of your second placement at the end of placement 1. You will be assessed by Subject Mentors to determine your readiness and confidence. You will then be introduced to your classes and take a few days for class observation. You will be required to maintain a Trainee’s Progression File. Your Subject Mentor will review this file during their day visit, during which time they will also observe you at work and develop a suitable work timetable. You will do approximately 60% of the contact time of a qualified teacher. Some time will also be reserved for limited observation of teachers of other subjects outside your own specialism.

Entry & applying

For PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages, you need a first degree in a related subject at 2:2 or above.  As schools are looking for teachers who can offer two languages, competence in a second modern foreign language is desirable. You are also required to have qualifications in English and mathematics equivalent to GCSE grade C.

If you don't have a first degree in a language, then you may still be eligible to be considered for the course, subject to completing a Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course in Modern Foreign Languages with us, which begins in the preceding May.

We may make offers subject to completion of an SKE course if you have the following:

• At a minimum, an A-Level in French, plus
• Relevant, subsequent experience which may involve living in the country or an honours degree in another subject but with a module in French or MFL1
  
• An honours degree (at 2:2 or above) is still required. Ideally you should hold a degree in another Ebac subject

We also require you to have completed at least two weeks in a Secondary school setting in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland prior to applying.

How to Apply

Applications are made through the Graduate Teacher Training Registry.

Fees & funding

For PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages, the tuition fee for the 2012/2013 academic year for UK/EU students is £9,000.
For PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages, the tuition fee for the 2012/2013 academic year for non-EU students is £10,600.

Find out about our flexible payment plans for UK/EU students, and how they can help you spread the cost of your course.

The TDA offers generous bursaries for selected PGCE Secondary MFL students. Plese check the bursary page of the TDA website for further details.

Careers & placements

Our Careers Service offers you a range of support both while you’re studying with us – and after you’ve graduated.

Placements

Work placements are integral to the PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages degree. Our course is well-known for having a strong and committed partnership with local schools, whose mentors and class teachers train with the University. As a student, you will have the opportunity for rich and varied placements in the multilingual, multicultural and multifaith schools.