Language is at the heart of everything we do. It sustains thought, it provides clarity of instruction and it develops community. This is your chance to strengthen young people’s English skills through writing, reading and spoken language.
On the English PGCE course, we will equip you with the experience to both educate and inspire secondary English pupils, fully embedding the Core Content Framework. This course will enable you to meet and exceed the Teachers’ Standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
By joining us on this course, you'll have the opportunity to:
Other skills you'll gain include:
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You will critically evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of resources and your own pedagogy. You will analyse research data and critically evaluate how research has contributed to the knowledge and understanding of how to teach English effectively.
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 English 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 English 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 English 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 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 English education and assessment.
To find out more about this course, please download the PGCE English (QTS) specification (PDF).
This course is designed to provide 120 days in schools with two school experiences (Secondary Professional Development 1 and Secondary Professional Development 2). Each placement provides a sustained teaching experience between Tuesday and Friday. After Easter, this will move to an 80% timetable, Monday to Friday.
The remaining 60 days of the course are university-based through lectures, seminars and practical workshops. The course will consist of a range of presentations, discussions and practical workshops where exemplar material can be discussed, scrutinised and applied in practice.
The course is delivered by our experienced academics and partners. Our learning activities include lectures, presentations, webinars, one-to-one tutorials and group projects.
You'll have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to succeed on your course.
Our support services will be available on campus.
You'll have access to one-to-one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts. Our teams will also be here to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.
You will be based at our north London campus in Hendon.
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 teaching hours, you’ll learn independently through reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, and preparing for assessments including coursework and presentations.
A typical week looks like this:
Learning | Hours per week |
On-campus | 6 |
Independent study | 4 |
For school placements, there will 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.
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 on this course but coursework will be assessed.
The two school placements assess your ability to demonstrate you are able to apply the knowledge, understanding and skills of the ITE curriculum to your teaching practice through curriculum priorities.
You'll be able to fully meet the Teacher Standards by the end of your training course:
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 in 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 start at £30,000 (or more in London).
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 the 2024/25 academic year unless otherwise stated.
Full-time students: £9,250
*Course fees are subject to annual inflation.
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:
We cover your costs for the day-to-day things that you need to do well in your studies; however, you will have to pay for travel, stationery and clothing for placement.
You do get:
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.
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 students: 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.
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.
Alexandra is a Senior Lecturer and her other responsibilities also include oversight of students registered with the dyslexia and disabilities unit at Middlesex University.
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: 2N9G
Start: September 2024
Duration: 1 year full-time
Code: 38ZG