Katie discusses the role of NTU in helping trainees achieve their PGCE

NTU, Matt and Jamie, provided the much needed “crash course” to an introduction of different learning theories and reassured a lot of the cohort on the realities of NTU’s role in our teacher training year. Over the three full days we were able to collaborate with one another, share our ideas, work in smaller groups, get to know each other as people and get a good grasp on what was expected on the PGCE side of our training year.

Each day was broken down into 4 seminars with a couple of hours for lunch and a task to prepare us for the afternoon. The days were structured in a way that didn’t overload you and instead provided you with little tasters of the avenues you may want to explore in your assignments. We were presented with a wide range of different learning theorists and it was then up to you to decide which ones sparked your interest and aligned with your own views on education.

These first three days on campus were designed to begin to prepare us for our first assignment, and Matt and Jamie would constantly remind us that we can do this and if we needed help then we would just have to ask for it. By going through the mark scheme, he made passing feel achievable for every one of us and linked the criteria to examples that we felt like we could hit. There was every opportunity to ask questions and you really felt like NTU want you to succeed, they care about your views and are interested in you taking your own unique approach in your assignments.

Katie Staples, Maths trainee



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