We know that drama is at the centre of a strong arts curriculum. It allows pupils to gain confidence in their personal skills as well as challenge their creative thinking through devising and performing physical theatre.
Teachers adept in drama are able to educate and inspire pupils, develop their creativity and shape vital skills that impact pupils' performance across a range of other subjects.
You will be assessed to meet the national standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) with drama as the main subject. The course offers a bespoke pathway depending on your degree specialism and other related experience.
The PGCE Drama (QTS) course offers a diverse and inclusive research-informed programme that allows trainee teachers to thrive in a challenging learning environment. It draws upon vibrant experiences in both university and school-based training, that will prepare you to be a robust early career practitioner. You will be introduced to the broad scope of drama as a curriculum subject across the secondary age range.
We personalise the course based on your interests and needs. We strive to promote adaptive, critical thinkers who can respond to the needs of children in multicultural, multilingual and multi-faith settings.
The course structure facilitates enrichment opportunities to think and learn beyond the classroom and campus. This can include a special school, a theatre and more. Our partnership with Trestle Theatre Company allows trainees to explore their creativity and make strong links between their love of drama and the practical skills they need to teach this subject in school. Partnerships with the National Theatre and British Library enhance your professional practice and reflect our process-based training approach.
Graduates of the PGCE Drama (QTS) course are confident, inquisitive and dynamic teachers. They see their entry into employment as an opportunity to further develop and build on the skills acquired in their PGCE year.
As an enthusiastic drama teacher, you will facilitate a learning journey for pupils where progression is promoted through oracy and performance as well as written evaluation and analysis. Through sustained exposure to a classroom environment, you will learn to exercise initiative and sound judgement when confronted by challenging situations
The diverse teaching placements enable you to understand, critically evaluate and respond to the needs of children in multicultural, multilingual and multi-faith settings and schools in an international, urban environment. Many of our graduates have their first teaching job at their placement school.
In addition to developing the knowledge and skills required to teach your chosen subject, you will also 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 understand the importance of literacy, numeracy and ICT in delivering an effective, all-round curriculum.
The successful completion of this course leads to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), allowing you to work in any state school in England. This means the course is professionally recognised for being of the highest quality, focused on developing the knowledge and skills that schools require.
This degree is accredited by the Teaching Regulation Agency, Department for Education.
The Drama PGCE with QTS offers an ambitious curriculum where you will deconstruct the effectiveness of a wide range of resources and your own lesson plans. You will analyse research data and critically evaluate how research has contributed to the knowledge and understanding of how to teach drama effectively.
You will gain experience of teaching across Key Stages 3 and 4 with an overview of the Key Stage 5 curriculum.
This module aims to introduce the professional secondary school environment. You will demonstrate your progress in developing your understanding and skills necessary to operate as an effective teacher in a secondary school. As such, it supports you to progress towards the achievement of current requirements for the award of Qualified Teacher Status.
This module aims to consolidate your professional practice in a second secondary school environment. It aims to ensure you can demonstrate the understanding and skills necessary to operate as an effective teacher in a secondary school. As such, it supports you in the achievement of statutory requirements for the award of Qualified Teacher Status.
This module aims to develop your understanding and skills necessary to operate as a critically reflective teacher in a secondary school. You will be assessed by undertaking a small scale research assignment that compares theoretical perspectives in education with the reality found in school.
This module builds on the learning and skills developed in the Professional Knowledge and Pedagogy and the Secondary Professional Development 1 modules and aims to deepen your understanding and skills necessary to operate as a critically reflective Drama and English teacher in a secondary school setting. You are summatively assessed through a Monitoring and Assessment assignment. Here you design, resource, teach and evaluate a scheme of work that reflects best practice in Drama and/or English education and assessment.
You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Module and programme information is indivative and may be subject to change.
The course is delivered by our experienced academics and industry partners in person and online.
The course is designed to provide 120 days in schools with two school experiences. Each placement provides a sustained teaching experience over the complete teaching week.
The remaining 60 days of the course are university-based. The course will comprise a range of presentations, discussions and practical workshops where exemplar material can be selected from a specialised subject context.
You can find out more in our teaching guide.
You will be based at our north London campus in Hendon and your school-based placement.
Whether you are studying full or part-time – your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.
We aim to make timetables available to students at least two weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.
In a typical year, you’ll spend about 1200 hours on your course.
Outside of these hours, you will be expected to do independent study where you read, listen and reflect on other learning activities. This can include preparation for future classes at university in addition to preparation for your teaching responsibilities whilst on school placement.
A typical week looks like this:
Learning | Hours per week |
On-campus | 5 |
Online learning | 0 |
Independent study | 10 |
For placement, there may be additional hours.
On-campus: This includes tutor-led sessions such as seminars, lab sessions and demonstrations as well as student-led sessions for work in small groups.
Online learning: This is teaching that is delivered online using tools like Skype or Zoom, as well as work that you do yourself using online teaching resources.
Independent study: This is the work you do in your own time including reading and research.
We have a strong support network online and on campus to help you develop your academic skills. We offer one-to-one and group sessions to develop your learning skills together with academic support from our library, IT teams and learning experts.
There are no exams but your coursework will be assessed.
The two school experiences are assessed against the professional requirements under the Teachers’ Standards:
You'll evaluate your work, skills and knowledge and identify areas for improvement. Sometimes you'll work in groups and assess each other's progress.
Each term, you'll get regular feedback on your learning.
Our library is open 24 hours a day during the term and includes:
We offer lots of support to help you while you're studying including financial advice, wellbeing, mental health and disability support.
We'll support you if you have additional needs such as sensory impairment or dyslexia. And if you want to find out whether Middlesex is the right place for you before you apply, get in touch with our Disability and Dyslexia team.
Our specialist teams will support your mental health. We have free individual counselling sessions, workshops, support groups and useful guides.
Our Middlesex Unitemps branch will help you find work that fits around uni and your other commitments. We have hundreds of student jobs on campus that pay the London Living Wage and above. Visit the Middlesex Unitemps page.
You can apply for scholarships and bursaries and our MDX Student Starter Kit to help with up to £1,000 of goods, including a new laptop or iPad.
We have also reduced the costs of studying with free laptop loans, free learning resources and discounts to save money on everyday things. Check out our guide to student life on a budget.
Our university's postgraduate courses have been recognised for their ability to support your career.
Employment rates are extremely high. Typically over 95% of our PGCE graduates are in employment or further study six months after graduation according to Graduate Outcomes, 2022.
After completing this course, you'll be able to apply for a position as an early career teacher (ECT) in a secondary school setting.
As a newly qualified teacher, your salary will be between £25,714 and £32,157, depending on where you teach.
Teachers can find career progression in both the classroom and the school's management structure. You might aspire to become the head of a department, age group or curriculum. By developing your leadership skills and experience, you could progress to a senior management position, such as deputy head or head teacher.
For more information on salary and career progression, visit the Department for Education's website.
MDXworks, our employability service, will help you make the most of your experience and connections to achieve your career goals. You'll have unlimited access to one-to-one advice and support from specialists in your sector plus 24/7 online support. You can also make the most of events and networking opportunities, on and off campus.
Our dedicated lifetime career support, like our business start-up support programme and funding for entrepreneurs, has been recognised with the following awards:
Our London location helps us connect with over 1,000 industry partners to develop our students’ future employment prospects.
And we have unique work and study opportunities at our campuses in Dubai and Mauritius.
At Middlesex, you’ll study with students from 122 countries who’ll hopefully become part of your global network. After you graduate, we'll support you through our alumni network to help you progress in your chosen career.
*The fees below refer to students commencing in 2024/25:
Full-time students: £9,250 (UK) *
Full-time students: £12,600 (INT) *
For more information and to answer your frequently asked questions, please visit our postgraduate funding page.
UK students can apply for a tuition fee loan which covers your fees and is only repayable after your graduate. In addition, UK students may be eligible for additional grants and loans including those from:
The Department for Education - on the Department for Education website you will find a full list of designated ITT subjects and funding offers.
We cover your costs for the day-to-day things that you need to do well in your studies.
We offer lots of support to help you with fees and living costs. Check out our guide to student life on a budget and find out more about postgraduate funding.
UK students can apply for a tuition fee loan which covers your fees and is only repayable after you graduate. In addition, UK students may be eligible for additional grants and loans including those from:
You may be eligible for one of our scholarships including:
For international students, we also have a limited number of other awards specific to certain regions, and work in partnership with funding providers in your country to help support you financially with your study.
Find out more about our postgraduate scholarships.
1. UK fees: The university reserves the right to increase postgraduate tuition fees in line with changes to legislation, regulation and any government guidance or decisions. The tuition fees for part-time UK study are subject to annual review and we reserve the right to increase the fees each academic year by no more than the level of inflation.
2. International fees: Tuition fees are subject to annual review and we reserve the right to increase the fees each academic year by no more than the level of inflation.
Any annual increase in tuition fees as provided for above will be notified to students at the earliest opportunity in advance of the academic year to which any applicable inflationary rise may apply.
Alexandra is a Senior Lecturer and her other responsibilities also include PGCE well-being tutor and oversight of students registered with the dyslexia and disabilities unit at Middlesex University.
As a former Professional Coordinating mentor at a London school, Gareth is very familiar with training programmes and the needs of both schools and trainees.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: September 2024
Duration: 1 year full-time
Code: Q583
Start: September 2024
Duration: 1 year full-time
Code: X100
