Applying for a PGCE

PAGE CONTENTS

1: Initial Thoughts

2: Why I chose a PGCE and meeting the basic requirements.

3: Observing lessons before applying - where, when and for how long?

4: My experience of observing lessons.

5: How to choose a university for taking a PGCE.
6: Getting ready to apply - Referees.
7: Getting ready to apply - Your Personal Statement.
8: After Applying and Before Your Interview.
9: The QTS Tests - A Major Hurdle.
10: The QTS Tests - Preparation.
11. The QTS Tests - Taking the test: my experience.
12. PGCE Interviews
13. Warning! Being British doesn't automatically qualify you for home student status.
14. Final Thoughts

1: INITIAL THOUGHTS

After living in Japan and teaching English for a number of years, the question kept on coming:

“What am I going to do if I go back?”

I enjoy living in Japan, and my current teaching job is a breeze, but the niggling question came up again and again. And after marrying my wife, the subject was raised even more frequently. I hadn’t done anything in the UK since leaving university because I’d moved almost immediately to Japan. If I were to go back, especially with the current economic climate being as it is, what should/would I do?

Having enjoyed teaching English in Japan, and having an undergraduate degree in English, the obvious choice seemed to teach English in British secondary schools. My wife also thought so.

My thoughts – I’ve enjoyed teaching English as a foreign language, and working with kids, so I should be a teacher in the UK.

Her thoughts – You are too stupid to work in business so you should stick to what you know – teaching.

My dad, having been a primary school teacher for most of his life, had his own thoughts:

His thoughts – Never go into teaching.

Dismissing Dad’s warnings, I and my wife decided that teaching in the UK would be the best thing for me to do. My wife, though having less than zero interest in the UK, said it would be a good idea for our future children. Education in Japan doesn’t really foster children’s creativity or encourage critical or independent thought. Owing to this, in theory, we may well want to raise our children in the UK. And if I were already qualified as a teacher, then making a living and having the means to support a family in the UK would be relatively achievable. Alternatively, being a fully-qualified UK teacher would mean I’d be eligible for better teaching jobs in Japan – working in an international school, for example.

This was 4 years ago. The decision was made – I will go back to the UK and study to be a secondary school English teacher in the UK. I already had a first-class undergraduate degree in English under my belt, years of classroom teaching experience (albeit in a different country and teaching a different subject – English as a foreign language) so next I had to find out about applying for a university course that would propel me into a teaching career. How hard could it be?

2: WHY I CHOSE A PGCE AND MEETING THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS.

There are 4 routes into becoming a qualified teacher in the UK. The traditional route is by doing a year at university for a PGCE – post graduate certificate in education. The PGCE route is ‘university-led training‘. You can find the basic information on it here. The others are supposedly more practical rather than theoretical or academic and referred to as ‘school-led training‘ . They are the following:

• School Direct
• School-Centred Initial Teacher Training
• Teach First

You can find information about them here. At least one of the school-led training options gives you an income while you are training. That’s sounds good – train to be a teacher and get paid while you do so. But I haven’t chosen this way. Why not?

After checking around the internet I found forum posts from teachers that had QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) in the UK having done the ITT (initial teacher training), but did not have a PGCE certificate. What you are often told is that any ITT leads to QTS and so the final outcome is the same and that you should choose whichever route is right for you.

Total rubbish. Here are the reasons why the traditional route is the best choice for everyone:

• Not only do you get QTS at the end of the training but you also get a PGCE certificate - something extra to show for your troubles.
• Having a PGCE certificate means that if you wish to do a master’s degree in the future, you have already completed 2 out of the 5 modules you need to get your master’s, and therefore, you’ll save a significant amount of money and time.
• The school-led training is often touted as being more practical than the traditional and more bookish PGCE route, which is just a bare-faced lie. This brings people to believe that a PGCE won’t prepare them adequately for classroom teaching because they won’t have had any experience in the classroom before they start their first teaching job. That’s incorrect. The PGCE is a very practical course and it involves the student spending about 24 weeks in schools. That’s quite a significant amount of time for a course that only takes 9 or 10 months to complete. Factor in holiday time and it’s well over half the course.
• (This final reason was critical for me.)  I have found many cases of fully-qualified teachers with QTS in the UK complaining that when they decided to apply for jobs in international schools abroad, they found that international schools, more often than not, demand that a teacher has a PGCE, rather than just QTS. This may change in the future, but, for now, it seems standard that a lot of international schools only consider (and perhaps wrongly consider) that a PGCE certificate is the only real or proper evidence of QTS status. It appears that many teachers have unsuccessfully tried to explain to these school that they have done ITT, but through an alternative route and that they are as qualified as any teacher with a PGCE and, indeed, have been teaching in British schools. However, their objections have been falling on deaf ears, at least for the present.

So, I decided that the best route for me was the university-led training – the PGCE course.

What did I need to do before applying? Quite a lot.

For every PGCE course in the UK, regardless of whatever university you want to go to, one of the basic requirements is having done at least 5 days observation in a school of the relevant department. This must be completed prior to application. Finding that out stopped me in my tracks.

I am living in Japan. I have a job. I now needed to return to the UK before even applying for the PGCE in order to observe lessons for a week.

The first major hurdle had presented itself. And it was not going to be the only hurdle along the way.

The other basic requirements were no problem:

• Have at least a 2:2 in the subject you want to teach. (I have a first.)
• Have knowledge and understanding of the subject you intend to teach. (Well… see above.)
• Have GCSE C grade in English and Mathematics. (I have A grades – no problem there.)

These were the baseline requirements in 2010. To confuse things, now, there is also another basic requirement you need to fulfill in order to be allowed onto the course - the QTS tests! Every applicant must pass the QTS tests in English and Mathematics, even though they should have already got a C grade in GCSE English and Mathematics. I will blog a lot more about these tests later, but for now, I’ll just say that you cannot take the tests before you have applied for the PGCE course – you are literally unable to apply for the test until you have applied for the PGCE.

Anyway, at this stage of the game – four years ago – I knew what the next step had to be: get back to England and do a week’s observation in UK schools.

3: OBSERVING LESSONS BEFORE APPLYING - WHERE, WHEN AND FOR HOW LONG?

As I said above, it's imperative that PGCE applicants have already done a week's (5 days) observation of lessons in British schools that are relevant to the age range and subject they will be applying to teach.

First, you need to work out where you want to do those observations. Obviously, this is likely to be near to where you are living. However, if you want to do your PGCE in London and don't live in London, it may benefit you in the long run to do your observations in London. I did my observations in 2011 in Cambridge and Oxford - the reason for this was because my wife wanted to go sightseeing while I was busy doing the observations. 2 years later, when applying for the PGCE course and taking interviews at universities in London, one of the universities' tutors at the IOE said the following to me:

"I see you have done your observations outside of London. Teaching in London is quite different to teaching outside of London. This is because of the fact that a huge number of London pupils come from a range of cultural backgrounds. Additionally, if you teach in an 'inner-London' school, the dynamics of the classes you teach are quite unique. This is due to the economic and social conditions that prevail in these areas. If we were to offer you a place on our PGCE course, it would be on the condition that, before you begin the course, you do at least a further 2 weeks observations in secondary schools in London."

Soon after the interview, the formal offer from the institute was a conditional offer and not unconditional and I was informed that I would need to do 2 weeks of observations in a London secondary school. This was a major factor that contributed to me not accepting the offer and accepting another university's offer.

It seemed unreasonable to stipulate such a condition during the interview, rather than make it clear that all applicants will be required to have at least 2 weeks of observations in London schools under their belts on their website or, indeed, in any literature regarding applications for the course. Certainly, at the time of writing (March, 2014) the IOE's website states that 'previous experience of working with children and young people in school or other contexts is a considerable advantage', but that is all it states.

Other institutions such as Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent are clearer in their requirements:

"All [applicants must have] undertaken a recommended period of at least ten days in the year prior to application, preferably in a UK state school, observing the age group and curriculum relevant to the PGCE programme for which an application is being made."

(Correct as of March, 2014)

In actual fact, I hadn't met this requirement when I applied to CCCU - I had only done observations for 5 days and I hadn't done them in the year prior to application. Quite possibly, however, the parameters of this requirement have been updated since I applied because, when I applied I was not aware them,but I was offered an interview and I was successful at the interview. However, I didn't accept my offer from this university either.

During the interview, at CCCU, again, the interviewer began to stipulate that I should do an extra 2 weeks of observations before the start of the course. I managed to negotiate this during the interview by convincing her that the experience I had of teaching children, albeit in a different country and teaching a different subject, would give me a head start while on the course, especially with the area of classroom management. She accepted this position and redefined the requirement she was proposing as a 'recommendation'.

I will write more (a lot more) at my interviews in the future, but, hopefully, my experience will help you to realise that you need to consider where, when and for how long you should do your observations.

Clearly, it is always a good idea to check the universities' website for their own specific requirement - many stipulate 5 days, others (such as CCCU) stipulate 10 days. And some don't stipulate anything!

This means that, in theory, you may need to decide on what university you want to apply for a long time before you actually do, in order to make sure that you satisfy the requirements of the university you finally apply to. That means a lot of forward planning. You can find a list of universities offering a PGCE course in your subject on the UCAS website - rather than referring to them as universities, it calls them 'training programmes'.

If you have the time, then clearly, the more observations you do, the better off you will be. In the applicants who want to study at a London university, it may benefit you doing your observations in London.

Personally, I think it is a little ridiculous to ask applicants who have already satisfactorily met the requirement as stipulated by the university prior to the interview to fulfill a further condition post-interview which can amount to 2 weeks out of their lives. Seriously, who has the time to do that? It's difficult for applicants who are working full time, such as myself, to take time off work to that, and it's similarly difficult for applicants who are in full-time education to do it too - schools are generally closed during university holidays.

Finally, but still importantly, there are logistical problems in doing observation which are caused by the laws surrounding DBS checks. A DBS (Disclosure and barring service) check is the new version of the CRB check. If you don't know what this is, it is a check to confirm that you don't have a criminal record. If you do have a criminal record, you are not allowed to have 'unsupervised access' to children in schools - you are not meant to be left alone with them. Actually, it is not necessary for visitors to schools to have had a DBS check, but, I guess, someone observing lessons is a little more than just a visitor.

You cannot apply for a DBS check as an individual, so, unless have recently had a DBS check recently for a different purpose, you are unlikely to have a DBS certificate and you won't be able to get one either.

When I was contacting schools about doing observations, I was told by a school that, because of regulations surrounding DBS checks and schools, I would be allowed to do observations in their school, but only for a maximum of 3 days.

This meant that I had to do 3 days of observations in one school and then 2 days more in another school. That's a shame because, if you are able to observe the same class more than once, you may be able to observe how an activity done in one lesson relates to the activity in the second lesson, or not just observe a teacher setting up a task in one lesson but see the pupils' execution of the task in the following lesson.

So, it is good to bear in mind that you will probably have to do observations in more than one school.

Let's recap.

Before applying for a PGCE course, it will be necessary to do observations in a school and observe lesson relevant to your subject and the age range you want to teach.

WHERE?

• Due to DBS regulations, you will probably only be able to do observations in a single school for 3 days maximum, so you will probably have to do observations in at least 2 schools.
• If you are intending to apply to a London university, it may help you (and save time later) to do your observations in London, which can be problematic if you don't live in or near London.

WHEN?

• Some universities stipulate that you should do the observations during the year prior to application. I think this makes perfect sense, but it is still a good idea to get it out the way as early as you can in that year so that you can focus on your application and preparing for the interview.

FOR HOW LONG?

• Check the websites of the universities to which you want to apply for confirmation of how long you should spend doing observations. Usually, it's 5 days. Sometimes it's 2 weeks. If the university doesn't make this clear, contact the university to ask.

And finally, a quick story from a friend of a friend who, similarly to me, was living in Japan and wanted to apply for a PGCE.

She was working at a private British school in Tokyo as a teaching assistant. The school follows the national curriculum like UK state schools and the students do the normal assessments like GCSEs. She wanted to apply for a PGCE and presumed that, having been working in a 'British school' albeit in Japan, which functioned like a British school in the UK, she would have more than adequately met the requirement for observations set by universities for PGCE applicants. Not so. When she contacted a university to check she was horrified by their response - observations must be undertaken in a state school with in the UK. I believe that her plans to take a PGCE ended here - she gave up because she did not want to take a week or so off of work to return to the UK to do observations. So, for all of you expats out there, there is no way around it - you are going to have to get back to the UK to do your observations. And, if you are resident in the UK, don't do your observations in a private school!

4: MY EXPERIENCE OF OBSERVING LESSONS.

As I alluded to above, because of DBS regulations, I had to do 3 days at one school and 2 days at another. I shot out emails to a number of schools. Some schools didn't reply, some schools replied but told me they were too busy to accommodate me, and some schools were kind enough to offer to help me out. So, obviously, you want to contact quite a few schools about doing observations because you can't expect all of them to help you out. Email addresses are found on the schools' websites.

As I was (and, indeed, still am, at least for the moment) living in Japan, observing lessons in a UK state school was something that was going to be logistically problematic. I had to plan this well. I was working in a secondary school in Japan, but, luckily, not all Japanese school holidays are British school holidays. So, I had to think about when I could so these observations and not have to take too much time off of work. Never give up on your dream, just because of work commitments. I was able to go back to the UK, with my Japanese fiancee (now my wife), and spend 15 nights there with only having to take a few days off of work. Of course I didn't need to be in the UK 15 nights, but as we were going all the way to the UK and my wife wanted a chance to check out the country, we decided to stay for as long as possible and enjoy ourselves while we were there. I did have to dream up a lie to justify taking these days off of work, and whether everyone bought it or not, it was accepted and that was that. Needs must in these kinds of situations and if you are applying for a PGCE from abroad, you are going to have to make it a priority.

Strangely enough, we were due to fly to the UK about a week after the 2011 March 11 earthquake and subsequent nuclear meltdown. The flight had been booked weeks in advance but there were complications with the flight schedule as British flight crews were refusing to fly to Japan. Finally, our flight was altered to an earlier flight which was great, and, unexpected. The flight, however, was no longer direct as we landed in Hong Kong for the flight crew to change. We had to sit in the plane for 4 hours waiting to take off again, but finally, up we went again and back to the UK we went.

So, if you are going to apply for a PGCE from abroad, you need to get on a plane and go back for observations. It may seem like a lot of trouble, but that is just the way it goes. Anyway, we had a good time while we were there and spent time in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Folkestone and Windsor.

When I arrived at the schools for my first day of observations an English teacher came and met me and gave me a schedule for my observations. I was then left to find the right classrooms. During lessons, I mostly sat at the back, observed and made notes. There were opportunities to stroll around the classroom and take a look at what the kids were doing. On one occasion, a science teacher found out that I was living in Japan and had experienced a country reacting to a nuclear power station meltdown. He was teaching his class about radiation and asked me if I would talk for a little and do a short Q&A session at the end of his lesson about what had happened, so that was a nice opportunity to have a bit of interaction with the kids. I also 'observed' a library lesson in which a number of students read to me - an eye-opening experience! I have some Japanese students of the same age who can read English better than some British kids - shocking!

I highly recommend making lots of notes because at your PGCE interview the interviewers may well ask you about your observations. After your observations I recommend typing up those notes because, depending on when you apply, there may be a number of months between your observations and your interview. Typing up your notes will help you recall what you saw and prepare for your interview at a later date.

Here are a few questions regarding observations that you may want to prepare answers for before your interview:

1. What did you learn from the observations that you did?
2. Did you see anything in a lesson that surprised you?
3. Did you see anything in a lesson that you would say is actually 'bad teaching'.
4. Tell us about a lesson that you found particularly interesting. Why was it interesting?
5. What kind of lessons did you observe?
6. How did teachers get their students to participate in the lesson?

Of course, it's a good idea to see different ages of different abilities studying in different kinds of ways with different content, but the schools will know this and give you a timetable to allow you to observe a range of lessons and class types. Try and get to watch a 'special needs' class if you can - maybe even request it. It is a completely different ball game for a teacher.

5: HOW TO CHOOSE A UNIVERSITY FOR TAKING A PGCE.

So, at this point in the game you should be on the starting blocks ready for applying.

Just to recap, let's make a check list of the things you have, and the things you have done by this point:

• At least C grades in GCSE English and Math. (If you are going to apply for a primary school PGCE you will also need at least a C grade in science GCSE too.)
• You will have an undergraduate degree in the subject you want to teach, or you are in your final year of an undergraduate degree. (Most universities stipulate that you should ideally have a 2:1 or a first, but may consider you if you have a 2:2.)
• You will have done the all important 'observations' in a UK state school (or quite possibly, in more than one UK state school) and have observed lessons relevant to the age range and subject you are hoping to teach. For how long and where you did your observations depends on the specific requirements for the universities where you want to apply.
• Because of the differing requirements for universities' observations requirement, you have, to a great extent already decided which universities you will be applying to. Please remember that when you apply you can choose up to 3 universities to apply to.

The current system allows you to apply to 3 universities and all 3 universities will consider your application simultaneously and decided individually whether or not they want to offer you an interview and subsequently and place on their course. This is a big change as applicants who were applying to start their course in September 2013 had their application forwarded to their first option, and if that university decided they didn't want you prior to interview, or post-interview, then, at that point, it was forwarded onto your second choice.

The current system is, without doubt, more favorable to the applicant - it means applicants can receive multiple offers and decide where they want to go. In the past, not everyone's first choice was the university they most wanted to do to - it was sometimes the university they thought they had the most chance of getting in to.

However, the following fact remains the same with the current system as with the previous system: the later a university receives your application, the more likely it is that the university will have already given away all of the places available on the course and won't have any or much room for you, and so, you are less likely to be offered a place. Universities always encourage prospective applicants to apply as early as possible.

Please consider the following:

For taking a PGCE English for secondary school teaching, as far as I could tell, the following universities had the following numbers of places available:

• Oxford University: Approximately 25
• King's College London: Approximately 18
• Christ Church Canterbury University: Approximately 30
• Institute of Education (London University): Approximately 120 (!)

Let me be very clear. These numbers may not be accurate - they were what I could dig up on the internet, mostly through forums, before applying in 2013, as well as what other applicants told me while at interviews. They are always subject to change year by year. 

For some reason, universities generally don't publish the number of available places on their PGCE courses on their website. However, if you really want to know, usually they will tell you if you send them an email. Of course, that might make you look like a applicant who just wants to 'get in' somewhere and, therefore, isn't really interested in what the university has to offer you. But, I guess, such inquiries are rarely passed along from the admissions office to the course tutors who will interview you, so it can't hurt to ask.

Clearly, looking at the numbers, if you are just playing the odds, you will have a better chance of getting into the Institute of Education (IOE) than King's College London (KCL). But that doesn't mean that the IOE takes any old dross just to fill up their places. It does mean, however, that if you are the kind of applicant universities are looking for, I would imagine that applying to a university with a large number of places available will give you a better chance of be offered a place.

Some PGCE courses (Secondary English, for example) are massively oversubscribed so this is something that you may want to consider when applying for a PGCE.

You can find a list of universities offering a PGCE course in your subject on the UCAS website - rather than referring to them as universities, it calls them 'training programmes'.

Here is a great tip:

When you fill out your application it will ask you to choose a maximum of 3 universities (or 'training providers/programmes'). It appears that the order you enter them into the application is not actually an order of preference. And why would it be? Your application will be sent to all of your choices simultaneously. You may not even have a preference at this time.

However, this is actually not how it looks to the universities.

The universities can not see what your other 2 choices are, but of course, in an interview, they might ask you.

But, apparently, the information they receive actually tells them if you entered in their university's information first, second or third on the application.

During my interview at King's College London, the tutor asked me why there was a '2' next to the name of the university and did that reflect my order of preference. I said it didn't and that King's was my first choice but it just indicated that I had entered the information about King's second on my application and that the application doesn't actually ask you to enter your choices in order of preference.

Actually, KCL was my first choice, but I hadn't entered it in first. I had entered the IOE first because this was where I thought I had the best chance of getting a place due to the large number of places available for its course.

I think the tutor accepted this. It was a new system of application so she was new to it. But, I suppose, interviewers might consider the number next to their university as an indication of your preference, so you may want to consider that when filling out your application.

6: GETTING READY TO APPLY - REFEREES.

Getting your application in as quickly as possible is paramount. If you leave it too late, you might not be offered an interview as all the places may have filled up. Imagine if, in the first 10 days after the application process opened, a university with 20 places received 80 applications, and you submitted your application 2 weeks after the application process opened. Presuming those 80 applications submitted before yours all met the basic requirements, you would have to wait for the university to do 80 interviews before even considering your application, and it's likely the university will have filled all of its places before that!

Don't dawdle. Prepare as much as humanly possible before the opening day of the application process. If you snooze, you will lose.

The application process opens around the same time of year, every year, but every year, recently, it has been pushed later and later. It seems that this has been due to technical issues with the application website - they can't seem to get it up and running on time!

• In 2011, it opened in September.
• In 2012, it opened in October.
• In 2013, it opened in November.

I wonder how long this pattern will continue for. In 2012, it was due to open in September, but they had to close it again to work on their website and start it in September.

The application is made completely online.

One thing you need to get ready is your references. This is the thing that is most likely to delay your application as it is the last thing to be added to your application and completely out of your hands!

All the details about referees is on the UCAS website on the teacher training page. You should take your time reading this information. The referee requirements changed slightly last year so it is important to check them. I'm not going to go into much detail about who should be your referee because that's all on the UCAS website, but I will say what you need to do in regards to preparation.

Here are some very basic details:

• You need 2 referees.

• After you have fully completed your application, you fill in your referees contact details, including their email addresses and they will be sent a link, by email, for them to submit their references securely online.

• You will be unable to view their references if you log on and view your application, only the universities can see the references. The only way you can see the references is if your referees send you a copy of them privately.

• Your application can not be paid for and submitted until your referees have submitted their references.

Here are recommendations regarding what you need to do:

• Decide on who your referees are going to be and contact them very very early to ask them if they will agree to be your referees. So, if the application process opens in November, you need to get in touch with them in August or September, for example.

• Explain the urgency surrounding the submission of applications and when they will be asked to submit their references.

• Ask them to prepare and type up their reference in the next couple of weeks and save it. This will mean that when you are rushing to submit your application (and you do need to rush) they will be able to swiftly submit their references.

• Check up on your referees to confirm that they have typed up their reference and that they are ready, even though the opening of the application process may still be a month and a half away.

• Remind them a week or so before the application process opens that they will receive an email requesting them to submit your reference fairly soon, and, if possible, give them an exact date when you expect them to receive this email. For example, if the application process opens on November 1st, you could tell them that you expect them to receive the email on November 3rd, assuming that November 3rd is the day when you will have fully completed your part of the application. (The application is quite long and, although you are going to be in a rush, you should take a bit of time on it to check, review it, and do it properly.) A hypothetical and disastrous situation could be that your referee has booked a holiday and will be bathing in the glorious sunshine on a remote desert island which either has extremely limited internet connection, or is thousands of miles away from their personal computer where they can access the reference request email, or, being overwhelmed with joy at the prospect of escaping to said far-flung location, they forgot all about your reference and, although they can access their email and the internet, they left their USB memory stick on their desk at home and 'would you very much mind not disturbing my well-deserved vacation and just bite your tongue and have a bit of patience - I'm sure a week or so won't make any difference - until I am back at my desk and have fully inserted myself back into the grind of my monotonous daily life'.

• When you have finally completed your part of the application, have filled out your referees' contact details on it, and pressed the enter key the system will automatically send a reference request email to your referees. At this point, it would be a good idea to send an email privately to your referees just to say that they should have received the reference request email and, if they haven't, please contact you as soon as possible. (The website has often had technical glitches so it is a good idea to do this.)

• Keep checking your application on the UCAS website. When you references have been submitted it will tell you. (It may also send you an email automatically to inform you of this.) If a referee is particularly slow to submit it, badger them. It is too risky to just hope they will finally get round to it. Man up and give them a nudge. When your references have been submitted, grab your credit or debit card and make the payment for your application online, and you are all done.

Well... I guess you aren't done. Far from it. But your application has been completed and send off.

I was able to submit my applications within a week of the opening of the application process and received invitations from all the universities I applied to fairly promptly - within a week or two. Having had a look around internet forums, I did notice whining from applicants who hadn't been so organised or swift - they had submitted their application weeks ago but had yet to hear anything from the universities. That's what happens if you submit your application late.

So, in conclusion, get your referees organised and prepared. Get on their case. They have the ability to hold the submission of your application up so this is a situation you need to be on top of.

Preparation is key. And preparing your referees is not the only thing you need to prepare ahead of time. See the next section of this page!

7: GETTING READY TO APPLY - YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT.

As I said above, getting your application in as quickly as possible is paramount. If you leave it too late, you might not be offered an interview as all the places may have filled up.

One part of the online application form requires you to write a personal statement AND a work experience statement.

Both have a character limit and a line limit.

There is not much to say about these other than the obvious - get them ready months beforehand. I am certainly not going to give you ideas of what you should put in your statements - that's up to you, but I will give you the following handy tip:

You won't be able to begin filling in or access your application until the application process opens. But you could create a 'fake' or 'dummy' account for the previous year's application cycle which remains open up until the day before your application cycle begins.

Months before the application process opens, create a dummy account so that you can at least view the form and maybe even fill it in and print it out. This will help you complete your real application as quickly as possible.

It is important that you check your personal statement and work experience statement will fit into the relevant box without going over the character or line limit. If you do go over the limit, the computer will tell you.

Spend a lot of time on your statements. Get them just right. This is not something you can rush and get done at one o'clock in the morning on the day when the application process opens. I can guarantee, you won't be happy with what you submit if done in this way. I believe I wrote mine during my summer vacation before the application process opened - about 3 months prior!

Type your statements into something like a word document or a Google doc so that you can easily copy and paste them when the time comes.

Proof read your statements. Maybe get someone else to proof read your statements.

Let's recap!

Hypothetically, let's imagine it is now a month or so before the application process opens, but you have already done all of the following 3 things:

1. Met all the basic requirements of application, including having done observations in a UK state school.
2. Prepared your personal and work experience statements.
3. Prepared your referees for the submission of your references.

Take a moment to reflect on these 3 things. Imagine the applicants who are inevitably going to be out there who haven't really looked into the application process in much detail. Depending on what kind of an individual you are, you will pity or mock them. These 3 things are not things you will be able to get done in a night. These things take time. Such applicants have already, effectively, 'blown it'.

You however, have been diligent. You have navigated your way through the bureaucracy and are in pole position.

Sadly, your preparation has not ended here. Next you need to prepare your documents. More importantly you need to prepare for your QTS tests and your PGCE interview. In fact, your preparation for the QTS tests and the interview will have ideally begun months ago... 

8: AFTER APPLYING AND BEFORE YOUR INTERVIEW.

So, at this point, you've submitted your application. You've completed all the required sections; you've been notified that your referees have submitted your references; you've paid for your application and your application has been submitted and sent off electronically to UCAS. You can't update your application now and you just have to wait to hear from the universities you have chosen.

You have now entered 'waiting game' - a stressful time when you wonder if any university will invite you to an interview. And for applicants like me, who are living abroad, you want to know as early as possibly when you will get invited to an interview because you need to 'take a break' from your job and book a flight back to the UK.

In my case, it all worked out just fine - a small miracle.

I was in Japan, checking the UCAS 'track' website and my email 3 times a day and waiting for a message.

Suddenly, after about 2 weeks I got an email from the IOE inviting me to an interview. The interview was scheduled for about 2 weeks later, so I had 2 weeks to get organized, get a flight, and get back to the UK. My wife went into super hero mode and searched for flights. A few days later, KCL invited me to an interview on the day after the IOE's interview. PERFECT!

The worst scenario would have been being offered interviews so far apart that I wouldn't have been able to attend both (or all) of them. If the IOE had offered me an interview on December 5th and KCL an interview on January 9th, there would have been no way that I could have travelled back to the UK twice to take both interviews - paying for 2 return flights would not have been impossible, but it would have been horrifying. And I would have had to take time off of work in December and January - grounds for being fired I'm sure. Luckily this wasn't the case and having 2 interviews so close together was fantastically lucky.

We booked the flight and suddenly I received an invitation for an interview at Christ Church Canterbury University (CCCU). The interview was scheduled for a few days before my flight back to the UK and within about 5 days of receiving the email! IMPOSSIBLE!

I shot CCCU an email asking them if I could take an interview on a list of days when I knew I would be in the UK and had time in my schedule. They didn't reply for a long time. Amazingly, while I was on my way to the airport my wife phoned to say CCCU had sent me an email to reschedule my interview for a day that was good for me. EXCELLENT NEWS!

After receiving my interview invitations for both the IOE and KCL and booking my flight I had one more thing which I needed to schedule. I needed to book my QTS tests.

What are the QTS tests? If you don't know, you really should. I will explain more about these later and tell you all about them - it is rather unpleasant! But for now, I will just say that I needed to log into the relevant website and book these tests.

Finally, when on my way to Narita airport, I had the following schedule:

• Wed - arrive in the UK.
• Thurs - take an interview at the IOE.
• Fri - take an interview at KCL.
• Sat - free.
• Sun - free.
• Mon - free.
• Tue - take the QTS tests.
• Wed - take an interview at CCCU.
• Thurs - free.
• Fri - free.
• Sat - free.
• Sun - free.
• Mon - free.
• Tue - free.

I stayed for 2 weeks because I needed the extra available time at the end of my schedule in case I needed to retake my QTS tests.

I sold some 'cock and bull' story to my boss about having to return to the UK for a couple of weeks. Whether he bought it or not I don't know, but he accepted it - I guess it is something that happens from time to time when you employ foreigners.

As I nestled into my economy class seat on the plane, I could relax for a brief moment - the stress and panic of organizing and scheduling the interviews and the flight was over. The last 2 or 3 weeks had been awful - a period of not knowing. Finally a schedule was in place and I was on my way. The moment of bliss passed as I remembered I now had to take 3 interviews and 2 tests.

So, to recap...

You need to wait and wait and then you have to go for it. Get your flight and make your excuses to your boss. Whatever it takes. Try to get universities to reschedule the interview if it doesn't fit with your schedule. With a bit of luck, you will be offered interviews around the same time enabling you to take all of them in a single trip back to the UK. If you submit your application as early as possible, then this will help you being offered interviews at the same time - probably in the first 2 weeks of December. If you don't submit your application early, you run the risk of getting offered interviews weeks or even months apart - not good for those of you living in far flung places of the globe. Don't forget to book your QTS tests and, if possible, leave some time at the end of your trip to retake the QTS tests if you fail!

As a final note, for those of you applying for a PGCE from abroad, there is no way of getting the university to offer you a place without taking an interview in person at the university - a request to do the interview via a Skype video call is not going to work. Why? Because the interview is not just an interview. You may have to give a presentation, do group work activities, take a timed test and submit copies of some documents and show the originals. So, this will be your second trip back to the UK.

• First Trip - to do observations in UK state schools.
• Second Trip - to take interviews AND take the QTS tests.

Applying for a PGCE from abroad? Costly, isn't it?!

9: THE QTS TESTS - A MAJOR HURDLE

The Qualified Teacher Status Tests (QTS tests) are a major hurdle to overcome and the tests and the process for taking them has changed fairly significantly in the last 2 years. Sadly, the changes are almost entirely bad news as far as applicants are concerned.

If you don't know anything about the tests, and you want to take a PGCE, you really should have found out a little about them. Please be aware that the official name for the QTS tests is 'The Professional Skills Tests' but they are often referred to by people and universities as just the QTS tests. You can read up on them on the UK government's website.

However, here is a brief summary about the tests:

• PGCE applicants must take and pass two separate tests - the math and English QTS tests.
• You have to have passed the tests before you begin your PGCE course or you will not be allowed to enroll.
• You cannot take the tests before you apply for the PGCE course - you have to provide evidence at the test centre that you have already applied for a PGCE course.
• You are allowed 2 resits if you fail a test. However, you cannot book your resit until 48 hours have passed since you failed the test.
• If you fail your resits, you will not be allowed to take the test again for 2 years, and therefore, you will not be able to start a PGCE course that year, or the next.
• Your first attempt at the tests is free, but any resits that you take will have to be paid for.
• The pass mark for both tests is 63%.
• There are taken a Pearson Test Centres, which are all over the country, and you take them on a computer under timed conditions.
• Generally, the math test is the test which most people find the most challenging.
• You still need to have got at least a C grade in GCSE math and English to apply for a PGCE. Everyone needs to take the QTS tests even if you have A grades in GCSE math and English.

As I said, the tests, and the process for taking them, has changed significantly in the last couple of years. Before the changes, PGCE students could take the tests while on their course, they were given an unlimited number of resits and the pass mark was 3% lower. The only good news for applicants since 2013 is that the ITT (Computer) Test has been dropped so you only need to take the math and English test.

While universities often state that you should have passed the QTS tests before the start of the course, if they offer you a place on the course, they often set earlier deadlines for passing the QTS tests. This stops people trying to take them at the start of September, failing all the resits and the university having an empty place on the course that they cannot fill at such as late stage.

So, for example, in an applicant's offer letter a university might say the following:

'Applicants who were offered a place on the course in January, must provide evidence of having passed the QTS tests by March 31st.'

A final note at this stage is for those of you who are thinking of applying for a PGCE from abroad:

Before you travel back to the UK to take your interviews, you need to book your QTS tests for sometime during your trip. It would be disastrous not to do so because, as you can see above, universities often require you to pass them earlier than September. And, imagine if you were able to leave it until the first week of September and failed the tests - your plan for the year would be swiftly flushed down the toilet.

10: THE QTS TESTS - PREPARATION

Personally, apart from doing the online practice tests for the English QTS test, I didn't do any more preparation for it. However, I did a massive amount of preparation for the math test. I literally spent 30 minutes a day for a year practising math in various ways. I was 32 when I took the QTS tests, so obviously I hadn't studied math for a while, so, perhaps, if you are younger, it will not be as challenging for you as it was for me.

Let's have a closer look at the math test and what it involves:

• Part 1 - timed mental arithmetic.

This is probably the most difficult part for most people. There are 12 questions. You are wearing headphones. You hear the questions twice and, after the 2nd question has been read, you have a further 20 seconds to type in the answer onto the computer.

For me, it was really hard. You will not be allowed to use a calculator. You can do working out on a small board with a pen. Once the computer has automatically gone on to the next question, you can never go back and change your answer.

Here are a couple of example questions from the practice tests:

1] A parent's evening was planned to start at sixteen thirty. There were twenty consecutive appointments of ten minutes each and a break of fifteen minutes during the evening. At what time was the parent's evening due to finish? Give your answer using the twenty-four hour clock.

2] All thirty students in a class took part in a sponsored spell to raise money for charity. The pupils were expected to get an average of eighteen spellings correct each. The average amount of sponsorship was twenty pence for each correct spelling. How many pounds would the class expect to raise for charity?

If you didn't get the answers after 20 seconds of reading the questions twice, you are going to need to practise! However, It is easier to do it when you read the questions than when you have to listen to the questions.

If you want to know, the answer for question one was five past eight in the evening, and the answer for question two was one hundred and eight pounds.

Don't expect questions like, 'What is 15 plus 4?' (!)

• Part 2

16 questions. You can use a calculator application on your computer screen. You will have a limited amount of time to complete all of the questions but, this time, you can go back to correct your answers. This part is generally a little less stressful. The questions often involve graphs or pie charts.

Apparently, according to The Mail, only around 80% of people taking the tests passed them first time. And, if you look around blogs and forums on the internet, you will find stories of people who just can't pass the math test.

A friend of mine wanted to become a primary teacher and, in 2012, decided to apply. But, after failing the math test on his first attempt he gave up.

So, my advice regarding the QTS math test is the following:

• Practice a lot.
• Use the online practice tests.
• Use the information on the UK government website to know what areas of numeracy are in the test.
• Learn your times tables!
• If you are applying from abroad, make sure you book your QTS tests for when you a returning to the UK for your interview. (I left some extra days at the end of my trip's schedule so that, if I failed, I could retake the test at least once. Remember, you can only book a resit 48 hours after failing the test.)

Strangely enough, if you pass, you don't know what score you got. But if you fail, you do know what score you got. Go figure!

11. THE QTS TESTS - TAKING THE TEST - MY EXPERIENCE.

You take the test at a Pearson Test Centre - they are all over the place as they act as test centres for a wide range of tests. Most likely a lot of people will also be at the test centre to take their driving theory test.

After showing your ID and proof of having applied for a PGCE (interview offer letter from a university, for example) you wait to be called into a room.

I had to lock all my belongings up in a locker. Then I waited to be called. I had decided to take the numeracy test first to get it out of the way. I have to say that I found the whole experience of taking this test far more nerve-racking than all three of my interviews put together. By the time I had been called and entered the test room I had sweaty palms and my heart was pounding hard. Although you are in front of a computer with dividers separating you from anyone else's test experience there is no way people will get away with cheating with a calculator as there is a camera on you all the time. Anyway, you don't have time to mess around with a calculator when you only have 20 seconds to type in an answer!

Although my adrenaline was pulsing through me at this point I think I did pretty well with the mental arithmetic section - the hard part. The next part where you have a certain amount of time to get through the rest of the questions with the use of an on screen calculator was a little harder for me. I didn't actually finish all the questions - I didn't answer the last two. This sent my heart racing again as the timer hit zero! I just had to hope I had hit the magical 63% pass mark. I felt I had done well on everything I had answered, but you never know.

I left the test room and waited by a desk with a woman and a printer. She printed my results off and handed it to me. As I read the first word - 'congratulations' - I crumpled into a heap of relief.

I took an hour off to walk around outside and clear my head for the literacy test.

The literacy test was easy and I felt much more confident when taking it. Perhaps that is something to do with me being an English graduate though. Nevertheless, I finished the test, got my print out saying I'd passed and left.

Even though I hadn't been told if I'd been successful at the two universities I'd already taken interviews, I emailed them to let them know I had passed the QTS tests, just in case this would be a deciding factor between me and another candidate.

It's strange but in passing the QTS tests I actually felt a greater sense of accomplishment than passing my PGCE interviews. I guess I shouldn't as they are supposed to be 'GCSE level' in nature. Preparation was key for me passing the tests.

As well as the QTS practice tests found online (provided by the examination board - just google it) there are some videos on youtube that can assist you with getting to grips with the kinds of questions you will encounter. I found the video below helpful and all the other videos this person has posted.

Finally, a friend of mine wanted to apply for PGCE primary a couple of years back, and after doing so and failing his QTS numeracy test, he gave up on this career path. He thought he'd never pass the test.

12: PGCE INTERVIEWS

I had all 3 of my interviews within 8 days of being back in the UK. I'll outline what you may have to do on the interview day. Each interview I took was slightly different.

Generally, each interview starts with a 'welcome' speech to you and the other candidates.

At some interviews you will be asked to do a group work task with other candidates. At the IOE (Institute of Education) this involved looking at a pupils' piece of work and discussing it and how you would approach marking it. There were probably around 25-30 candidates in the room so we were split into groups of 4 or 5. The tutors sat at the table silently and observed our discussion and made notes.

At CCCU (Christ Church Canterbury University) the task went on for ages, as did the whole day. The task involved creating a presentation on something like what we, as a group, deemed important factors of learning. I forget exactly, but as candidates present were applying for a range of subjects, it was something 'cross-curricular' in nature.

There was no group work task at KCL but there was a fairly challenging writing task. There were only 4 English candidates there and we were given something like 40 minutes to read a piece of research on English education and paraphrase it into our own words.

KCL and IOE's interview 'days' were relatively short. After the tasks described above we had a 10-15 minute interview with a tutor. It is imperative that you have a solid grasp of your subject knowledge as well as clear ideas about what teaching involves.

Before the actual interview at CCCU everyone had to give a short 15 minute demonstration lesson. This dragged on for a long time as there were probably about 12 people there.

Obviously the interview is going to be the most important part of the 'day' (or 'morning' if not taking an interview at CCCU). I'd advise reviewing your subject knowledge before any PGCE interview. Can you answer the following questions?

• If you could choose a poem written prior to 1820 to teach a year 10 class, what poem would you choose and why?
• What Shakespeare play would you choose to teach a year nine class and what would you do in the first lesson?
• How has secondary education changed since you were at school?

13: Warning! Being British doesn't automatically mean you qualify for home student status.

This section will be of particular interest to those who are applying for a PGCE from abroad. It may come as a shock to you that even though you are British, you might end up paying international student rates. This section will explain why and offer advice on how you can attempt to avoid this happening. Firstly let's try to get our heads around this ridiculous policy.

• If you are looking for the exact wording you will find it at this link.
• You might be British, with a British passport, with British parents, and spent all of your life living in Britain and, indeed, were born in Britain. But if you went to live/work abroad, even somewhere within the EU, and haven't been 'resident' in the UK for the 3 years then you are supposed to pay international student rates.
• Why is this crazy? Because, for some unknown reason, EU nationals can get home status even if they have never been to the UK in their lives!!! That sound ridiculous, but, currently (Feb. 2015) if you check out the link above, that's the way it goes.

Fees AND Funding Implications:

If you don't get home status this has massive implications. Actually, the difference in fees is the least of your worries. I believe that it's currently a difference of £3500 between Home Status (£9000) and International Status (£12500).

The real problem could end up being the funding to which you are entitled - a big fat zero.

Currently, the amount of bursary (FREE MONEY!) the government gives PGCE students is dependent upon their subject and their undergraduate degree - people who got a first get more money; subjects with a shortage of teachers get more money. Sadly, that's not English - the maximum for English is £9,000, not £22,000 like in MFL and Maths. If you are considered an international student you won't get anything. There are additional grants (MORE FREE MONEY!) you can apply for from Student Finance. You could also apply for student loans from Student Finance, but these are best avoided if you can. The amount of grant you can get depends on a range of factors and the form takes an age to fill out. Again, if you are considered an international student you won't get anything.

Also, the government and the university might (in theory) come to different conclusions over your status. The decision the uni makes is relevant to your fees and training bursary; and the decision the government takes is relevant to your funding from student finance.

When you are offered a place on a course, and the university asks you to fill out an assessment of your fees status you need to be PROACTIVE and READY! If you have been abroad for 3 years then, if possible, you need to argue that you have been 'ordinarily' resident in the UK for this time.

What does Ordinarily Resident mean?

If you Google it you'll get a lot of information but essentially it boils down to this:

• You can be ordinarily resident in the UK and another country at the same time.
• Being ordinarily resident means that although you might not be in the UK physically, you retain your connection with the UK.
• Being ordinarily resident in the UK suggests that you are only abroad 'temporarily', and the definition of 'temporary' is not clearly defined by law.

So, what does this mean? What do you need to do to persuade the university that you have been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK.

Prepare the following if you have them, or just refer to them in a letter to the admissions office:

• Contracts for your employment abroad that IDEALLY are for less than a year each, although exactly a year might also be acceptable. This shows that your employment, even if you acquired a sequence of contracts, was temporary in nature, and certainly not permanent.
• Copy of your visa which has an expiry date, thus proving you have been TEMPORARILY resident in the foreign country.
• Stamps in you passport (probably you won't have these if travelling from Europe to the UK), evidencing your regular and frequent return to the UK. Possibly once a year will satisfy the admissions staff.
• Copies of anything that ties you to the UK in the last 3 years with an address on it - bank statements you may have continued to receive at your parents' house, electoral roll letters, etc.
• If you paid voluntary national insurance contributions from abroad you will have received an letter annually asking you to pay the money. Although this will have been sent to your foreign address, it can evidence your intention to return to the UK and maintain a connection with the UK.

All the photocopying of evidence and the cover letter can take some preparation. What you want to do is, when they ask for it, shove a highly organised cover letter and wad of evidence at them so that they realise without a shadow of doubt that you are 'ordinarily resident' in the UK. Remember, they are office staff, not lawyers. I would advise getting this 'pack' ready before your interview. The situation may arise that you are offered a place at 2 universities but only one of them is willing to classify you are a home student. If that situation arises your decision will be easy to make.

Personally, that situation did not happen to me. I applied to 3 universities. I got offers from all three. I was asked to clarify my fees status by all 3. Based on the evidence I sent them, 2 confirmed they would classify me as a home student. I then accepted the place at my first choice. (I hadn't heard back from the third university when I accepted the place at my first choice, so, I guess, at that point they had no need to contact me and tell me what their decision was regarding my status.)

You need a little bit of legal nous to get your message across, and arguing your status as being 'ordinarily resident' in the UK is completely legitimate. The financial implications of not being able to do so are huge, so the preparation time you spend on this will pay off.

14: FINAL THOUGHTS

Right now, at the time of writing this final section, I'm actually coming to the end of my PGCE - I have 5 weeks left on my second placement before my mentor's final assessment of my teaching practice. After that, it's pretty much mopping up the course with bits in uni, bits back in the placement and bits at a primary school. It's been a year of 'to do lists' extending into the distance. And it's gone in a flash.

I could say a lot about my experiences but here's not the time and place for it. Was it worthwhile? Yes, definitely. Was it enjoyable? Not so much. And although I guess my NQT year is going to be quite different to working in the schools I've been placed in this year, it's still going to be a tough one. How am I going to cope with the work load? I'm not sure of the answer to that question, but I'll work it out along the way. I expect there will be a lot of 'that'll do' involved.

So, my final pieces of advice to those of you who have leaped over the hurdles, or barged through the barriers, standing in the way of you securing a place on a PGCE course are as follows:

1. Firstly, well done! It's definitely a challenge getting your place on a course if you're applying from abroad! (Not advice, but worth saying all the same.)
2. Make sure you've got everything you need - windows office (PowerPoint is a must), a printer and a sizable notebook.
3. Google search for your university's PGCE handbook(s) and get reading. This should have been recommended by my university - most people seemed confused about what the assignments were and how we would be assessed. If it is not available via the power of Google then ask your university for the previous year's copy. For my university there are 4 handbooks - an assessment handbook, a school placement handbook, a PGCE programme handbook and an English (subject) PGCE handbook. I only felt like I knew what was going on after wading through the handbooks.
4. Take a good hard look at the Teaching Standards. You can find these via Google too - they are set by the government. These are important too because they are what teachers will use to judge your teaching. Get to know them.
5. Finally, remember, it is never too early to hit those library books. Different universities' PGCE courses have different length assignments. Mine had two 8,000 word assignments. They were time consuming. And, they require a measurable amount of research. Start the research early, and you might end up enjoying a holiday or two later.

That's all I've got to say on applying for a PGCE from abroad. Feel free to ask questions below!

The outlook is obviously bleak for new teachers - 40% quitting the profession at the end of (of before) their NQT year. It won't be easy. But I guess the longer you do it, the easier it gets.

And those summer holidays last forever...