I completed my PGCE in Business Education at Manchester University in summer 2018. The course was well structured and provided a rigorous training program that prepared me for a Head of Department role. I was lucky to get a placement at Macclesfield College where I got free reign to develop my individual teaching style. I had a very supportive mentoring team that guided me and helped me improve my teaching practice. I have brought many of these strategies to my classroom at my new school.

One of the biggest successes was a quick method of finding out areas of weakness in the class. The ‘wonder wall’ is a board on my wall, at the end of a challenging topic I play Oasis’s track wonder wall and give students a post it note. The students then stick their post it note on the wonder wall. This helps them identify what they have learned about tricky topics, great for small steps learning and boosting confidence.

One of my most successful strategies that has allowed me to get even my most troublesome students on board with the subject is through my weekly Apprentice tasks.  The students are given a task such as undertaking market research, making adverts or designing products. They always have a worksheet that gets them to apply their learning to the GCSE specification. One of my more challenging students has started engaging with the subject as he is more practical. The PGCE at Manchester University prepared me for being in a classroom environment on my own.

The biggest thing I learnt in my placements was to ‘sweat the small stuff.’ I make regular phone calls home to parents regarding student’s progress, behaviour and most importantly praise. This has resulted me having very few behavioural problems. The PGCE course allows you to reflect on your own practice, I did this through giving my students regular student voice appraisals of my teaching. It not only allowed me to improve my teaching but made nice reading throughout the year.

I’d recommend the PGCE in Business Education to anyone.  It’s a rigorous training programme designed to get you ‘teacher ready’ so that you can start your first teaching post with confidence.

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