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Prep Qualified Teacher Status and PGCE

School of Education
  • See the entry requirements below
  • Sep 2024
  • Full-time
  • 37 Weeks
  • Postgraduate
  • PGCE
  • Online
  • The Prep Postgraduate Certificate in Education with QTS is a training course tailored to teachers in preparatory schools (ages 7 to 14) in England. You must be employed as a teacher in a preparatory school and be teaching within four consecutive school years to pupils aged 7-14 for a minimum of 50% of a full timetable. A requirement of this course is that you should have some involvement with Key Stage 3 (age 11-14) either in your school or in the second school placement.

    Trainees will be expected to undertake a teaching placement in a second school which must be a state school. The duration of this teaching placement is determined upon the interview and is usually 15 days.

    Every year, some of our applicants arrange to work in a prep school for the specific purpose of gaining this training, others have worked in the school for a year or more already.

    You will be expected to have the following qualifications:

    • UK degree. An ENIC statement of comparability is required for qualifications that have been awarded outside of the UK. For equivalent qualifications, contact qts-edu@buckingham.ac.uk to confirm that your qualification meets the University entry requirements.
    • GCSE in English, maths and science or a science at grade 4 or above or equivalent. For equivalent qualifications, contact qts-edu@buckingham.ac.uk to confirm that your qualification meets the University entry requirements.

    In addition, you must:

    • Attend an interview.
    • Demonstrate competence in literacy and numeracy
    • Provide a reference from your headteacher supporting your application to undertake a PGCE.
    • Obtain the commitment from your school to release you for the second school placement and to provide a suitable mentor.
    • Provide a satisfactory criminal record check and show the physical and mental fitness to teach.

    The employing school must be able to fully support a candidate through the course, enabling them to demonstrate all of the Teachers’ Standards across the full age and ability range of training, and cannot be graded as inadequate.