Placements

The PGCE Primary programme includes the following periods of school-based work.  They are:

In addition, there are five seminar days where trainees return to the St Luke’s campus – 19 January 2024, 09 February 2024, 08 March 2024, 26 April 2024 and 27 June 2024.

The PGCE Secondary programme includes the following periods of school-based work.  They are:

In addition, there are five seminar days where trainees return to the St Luke’s campus – 12 January 2024, 02 February 2024, 15 March 2024, 10 May 2024 and 28 June 2024.

The majority of PGCE trainees will need to secure accommodation within the private sector.

To assist you to find housing during the autumn term when you are based at the university, the Accommodation Office canvases local residents for information about suitable vacancies and advertises these details via our studentpad site. Please see http://www.exeter.ac.uk/accommodation/students/postgraduatestudents/pgce/ for more information.

For the majority of both the spring and summer terms, trainees will be on placement.  PGCE placements will generally be at a distance from Exeter, thus trainees may choose to move area for their school-based work placements, or arrange to commute daily. Most trainees wait until the Autumn term to arrange their accommodation for their school-based work when they have met other trainees going to the same school or area. To help with this, once you start the course, you will have access to a list of short-term accommodation throughout the region. Although not vetted by the University, the details in this list have been passed to us by schools, private individuals and former trainees and have been helpful in the past in assisting trainees and groups of trainees find accommodation for the spring/summer terms.

It is strongly recommended that trainees do not buy a house or take out a long-term rental agreement for accommodation in any area before receiving placement information from the ITE Partnership Office. Please also be aware that even after you have received information about your placements, they are only provisional as circumstances can change causing schools to pull out of agreed placements well into the PGCE year.

The Partnership Office will ask you to provide details about your circumstances and placement preferences to help them when allocating your placements.  We aim to advise trainees of their placement schools by the end of July. If your circumstances change after you have submitted your information, please do inform the Partnership Office (exeterpartner@exeter.ac.uk) as soon as possible.

Please see Placement FAQs for more information about the placement allocation process.‌

We offer a contribution to some of the travel and accommodation costs that PGCE trainees may incur as a result of the structure of the training year.  The policy is available on the School of Education website here. Please read the policy carefully to see what it does and doesn’t cover.  If you have any questions about this policy in advance of starting the programme, please contact the Info at St Luke’s team on info.stlukes@exeter.ac.uk.

School Direct @Exeter route trainees attend the taught Masters level PGCE programme delivered by the university during the Autumn term, attending taught sessions alongside the Exeter Partnership PGCE trainees.

You are registered with the university and are eligible for student loans and training bursaries (eligible subjects only).

You are based in school in September before the taught course starts and during the two week November placement and also in periods of university non-contact time during the autumn term. You spend your time during the spring and summer terms in either your main home school placement or in your second placement school.  These placements are arranged by your lead school who will confirm details (including dates) directly with you.

You also attend 5 individual seminar days at the university during the spring and summer terms.

You will be allocated a University Visiting Tutor (UVT) who will visit you once in the spring term and once in the summer term. The purpose of these visits is to monitor and support your progress, support school-based staff and monitor school provision.

You will also be allocated a University Personal Tutor (this is usually the same person as your UVT) who is responsible for monitoring your overall progress while you are registered at the University, including academic work and any pastoral support you may need.

School Direct Distance route trainees are based entirely in schools for the academic year (except for one induction event led by University staff in early september).

A programme of phase/subject specific training is designed and delivered by the lead school, and is linked to a Masters level programme provided by the university. This is comprised of two 30 credit modules delivered through the university's electronic learning platform, and supported by 6 university seminar days, tutorials and independent study. These modules are designed to develop understanding of core issues in education, and to support ability to engage with relevant research and link theory to practice. One day a week (or equivalent) is assigned to this distance study.

You are registered with the university and are eligible for student loans and training bursaries (eligible subjects only).

You are based in one school for the majority of your training but have a second school placement of at least 6 weeks.  These placements are arranged by your lead school who will confirm details (including dates) directly with you.

You will be allocated a University Visiting Tutor (UVT) who will visit you once in the autumn term, once in the spring term and once again in the summer term. The purpose of these visits is to monitor and support your progress, support school-based staff and monitor school provision.  

You will also be allocated a University Personal Tutor (this is usually the same person as your UVT) who is responsible for monitoring your overall progress while you are registered at the University, including academic work and any pastoral support you may need.