Course in brief

Physical Education at Brighton is highly respected both nationally and internationally, with a tradition of excellence going back over more than 100 years. We are also one of the UK’s largest teacher training universities, rated ‘outstanding’ in our last Ofsted inspection. 

We have partnerships with over 600 schools and you will have regular opportunities to work directly with children in schools, in the community and using the university’s facilities, ensuring you will graduate fully prepared to be an outstanding PE teacher: determined, adaptable and keen to inspire and motivate young people. 

Our Eastbourne campus, where this course is based, has excellent sports facilities, which you will share with students from our other sport courses. 

On graduation you will be eligible for Qualified Teacher Status, which will allow you to teach in England and Wales, and have the all-round experience and knowledge to teach the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE). 

Key facts

Location Eastbourne

UCAS code X1C6

Full-time 4 years

Before starting this course you will need to have passed the Professional Skills Tests; if you have not already completed these you are advised to take them as soon as possible.

Book your open day place

Meet our students, see our accommodation and find out more about your course.

Applying for 2017

Places are available on this course for UK, other EU and international students.


Apply now with UCAS

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

A-levels or BTEC
Entry requirements are in the range of A-level ABB–BBC (128–112 UCAS Tariff points), or BTEC Extended Diploma DDM–DMM. You will be considered if your predicted grades fall within this range, but any offer will be made based on assessment at interview.

We will generally make you an offer if your predicted grades are at the top of this range. If your predicted grades are towards the lower end of this range we may still make you an offer if you have a good GCSE (or equivalent) profile or relevant non-academic achievements.

International Baccalaureate
32 points, including English at Standard level 5 or Higher level 4, and maths at Standard level 4.

Access to HE Diploma
Pass with 60 credits overall. At least 45 credits at Level 3, with 24 credits at merit or above.

GCSE (minimum grade C or grade 4)
At least five GCSEs including English language and maths. Students must be in the process of re-taking the required GCSE(s). No equivalent accepted.

Professional skills tests
The Department for Education has introduced Professional Skills Tests in literacy and numeracy for all applicants to teacher training (QTS) routes.

These tests are compulsory, and it will not be possible to enter training without having successfully completed them. Candidates are able to book these tests in advance, and the Department for Education strongly advises you to take the tests soon after you have submitted an application.

The University of Brighton recognises that these tests may present a real challenge to some candidates and we recommend that you prepare carefully before attempting them, as you are limited to only three attempts per test. For this reason we will not insist that undergraduate applicants have passed the tests before they come to an interview and although having already passed the tests may give you a clear advantage, we will be prepared to consider your capacity to pass and potentially make you an offer of a place subject to their successful completion. When we make such an offer you will be given a clear deadline, usually within 2 to 3 months of your interview, so we advise that you plan ahead and book your tests well in advance so that you can organise your preparation.

Details about the tests, including how to register and prepare for the tests, can be found here. Further resources to help you prepare for the numeracy test can be found in the 'Course in detail' section below.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.0 overall, with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

Other
All offers are subject to an occupational health check and Disclosure and Barring Service enhanced disclosure check.

Course in detail

Course structure

Years 1 and 2 are mainly classroom-based, with a two-week secondary school placement towards the end. Years 3 and 4 offer a combination of practical placement experience and classroom- based learning.

There are a range of qualifications and extracurricular activities that you can undertake during your course, including a number of NGB (National Governing Body) awards, sports competitions and the opportunity to perform with the university's KICK-START and FIDGET dance companies. There is also a water sports module and ski trip.

Eastbourne

Year 1

Year 1 focuses on developing your knowledge and understanding of physical education.

Modules

  • Dance
  • Independent Professional Development: Enquiry-based Learning
  • Qualitative Analysis of Human Movement
  • Gymnastic Activities
  • Foundation Games
  • Outdoor and Adventurous Activities
  • Swimming and Water Safety
  • Track and Field Athletics
  • Education Studies 1
  • Teachers as Educators

Year 2

In year 2 you will study learning and teaching methods for teaching PE in secondary schools and will also study behaviour management, assessment and examinations in PE. You'll also have a two-week placement in a school setting.

Modules

  • Education Studies
  • Accredited Physical Education
  • Initial School Experience
  • Creating a Positive Teaching and Learning Environment
  • Research Methods for Physical Education
  • Learning and Teaching through:
    • an Artistic Activity
    • Athletics Activities
    • Games Activities
    • an Aesthetic Activity
    • Adventurous Activities
    • Aquatic Activities

Year 3

Modules

  • Intermediate Professional Semester
  • Research Project
  • Education Studies 3: Inclusive Practice
  • Physical Education and the National Agenda

Options*

Two from:

  • Invasion Games
  • Net Games
  • Striking and Fielding Games
  • Skiing and Snowboarding

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability

Final year

Modules

  • Final Professional Semester
  • Research Project (continued)
  • Physical Education in the 14–19 Curriculum

Options*

Two from:

  • Association Football
  • Martial Arts and Combat Sports: Theory and Practice
  • Dance and Choreography
  • Track and Field Athletics
  • Netball
  • Gender and Physical Culture
  • Coaching for Competition
  • Rugby Union
  • Basketball
  • Hockey
  • ICT in Physical Education

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability

secondary education student

Activities

On this course you have the opportunity to take part in a number of activities to help in your development as a physical education teacher, preparing you to teach a more reflective curriculum based on individual needs and pupil activity choices in schools.

Examples of these activities can be seen below.

Inclusive festivals
As part of your induction programme you prepare a series of activities for pupils with moderate, profound and multiple learning difficulties. Activities will include boccia, New Age Kurling, goalball, parachute games and dance.

Gifted and talented days
You will organise gifted and talented days for school pupils, helping them to overcome challenges of an adventurous nature. This includes activities in which success is judged on how efficiently and safely challenges are overcome.

Outdoor adventure days (watch video here)
You will facilitate a day of on-site outdoor and adventurous activities for pupils. You learn how to teach realistic and achievable onsite outdoor and adventurous activities to secondary school pupils without the need to take pupils off-site or use specialist equipment and facilities.

Active student volunteer programmes
With the Active Student volunteer programme you provide out-of-school-hours activities for local primary school pupils. The activities include swimming, lifestyle activities, trampolining and gymnastics.

Orienteering festivals (watch video here)
As part of the Outdoor Education module you will arrange and manage an orienteering festival for pupils in a local park. You learn how to facilitate and manage a large sporting event while at the same time gaining important professional experience of teaching orienteering skills and techniques to pupils.

Team-building days
You will organise team-building days for school pupils. Pupils will take part in a series of physical challenges and activities that promote communication skills, problem-solving and decision-making through trust games, orienteering, and team building.

Alternative activities
On alternative activities days you teach secondary school pupils a variety of alternative activities including Kin-Ball, street surfing, Rock-It-Ball, goalball and even the Nintendo Wii.

Facilities

The Eastbourne campus has excellent sport and fitness facilities on site which include:

  • Large six court sports hall
  • Artificial ¾ length training pitch
  • Climbing wall
  • 25m swimming pool
  • Two gymnasiums
  • 36 station fitness suite with a designated cardiovascular area packed with bikes, treadmills, and rowers, cross-trainers and steppers
  • Two dance studios
Football coaching

Staff profiles 

Debra Barrett, Course Leader

"I was a mature student who studied on the Physical Education with QTS degree here in Eastbourne during the 1990s.

"I feel very privileged to now be the course leader and am passionate about continuing our long-standing tradition of producing outstanding teachers of physical education.

"My role involves the delivery of both theoretical and practical modules. I am also in charge of admissions and placements."

Fiona Smith, Principal Lecturer

"I was a student here myself and look back at that time with great fondness. Now, I spend my time lecturing, giving tutorials, visiting students on placement in school, writing for professional journals and leading various in-service training activities.

"I am a member of the executive committee of the National Dance Teachers Association and have recently had a book published about teaching dance. 

"I am also the artistic director of our two student dance companies, KICK-START and FIDGET. Last year they performed at a regional festival, worked with a professional dance artist, hosted a GCSE showcase, and then travelled to Switzerland to present their work and teach."

Fiona Smith

Jonathan Binney, Principal Lecturer

“Before joining the university I gained Advanced Skills teacher status and was the lead physical education teacher in Brighton & Hove.

"My school teaching focused on all areas of physical education at Key Stages 3 and 4, teaching GCSE and BTEC examination work in dance and physical education.

“I teach the gymnastics level 4 modules, the teaching and learning through aquatic-based activities level 5 modules and the rugby level 6 modules. I also introduced the nationally recognised 'Alternative Approaches' to physical education."

Jon-Binney-2

Numeracy test 

Support for the numeracy test

If you have not yet passed the professional skills test for numeracy, you may find the following list of support material useful. You are urged to take the tests as soon as possible but you do need to make sure that you are fully prepared. 

Department for Education Practice Materials – You will find a range of support materials on this official site, including online tests.

Passing the Numeracy Skills Test – Book by Mark Patmore, including one practice test (RRP: £9.99). Published February 2013. ISBN-13: 978-1446275160

TES Top 10 tips for the Numeracy Skills Test – Article on ways to maximise your score on the test. Published April 2013

Careers and employability

This course is ideal if you want to start a career as a physical education teacher. The knowledge and experience that you gain on the course will also prepare you for a variety of roles across and beyond the sector.

As well as teaching children and young people, our graduates have found success in such varied fields as sport and leisure development for young people, the armed forces, the police, management, coaching and doctoral research.

100% of our most recent graduates were in work six months after graduating (source: Unistats).

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 9,250 GBP

International (full-time) 13,920 GBP

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2017–18. Tuition fees are payable for each year that you study with us.

Where UK/EU students are subject to regulated fees, the annual fee increase cannot exceed the UK government’s maximum regulated tuition fee limit set for the relevant year. For all other students, ie those not subject to regulated fees, tuition fees are subject to a maximum annual increase of the higher of 5% or RPI.

You can find out more about our fees in the the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full- or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Eastbourne

Eastbourne is known for being sunny, friendly and relaxed, with natural attractions such as the beach and the beautiful hills of the South Downs. Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, is just outside of town and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Arts and culture: Eastbourne is home to the award-winning Towner Art Gallery, one of the finest contemporary art museums in the south-east. The town also has four Grade II listed theatres: the Congress Theatre, the Devonshire Park Theatre, the Winter Garden and the Royal Hippodrome Theatre.

Festivals: Set in the Winter Garden and the Birley Centre – a contemporary performing arts venue – the Eastbourne Music and Arts Festival promotes the study and practice of music, dance and drama. Eastbourne’s Annual Beer Festival meanwhile is the biggest beer festival in East Sussex, featuring 150 real cask ales, a cider bar, a wine bar and live music.

Nightlife: Eastbourne has a great selection of clubs for your night out. Top picks include Cameo – the town’s largest nightclub – and Atlantis on Eastbourne Pier. If you don't feel like dancing, take advantage of the student deals at Hudsons Bar.

Shopping: The town’s main shopping centre is the Eastbourne Arndale Centre. For a more boutique experience, head to Little Chelsea – an independent shopping and dining district specialising in contemporary art, interior design, antiques and jewellery.

Sports: Eastbourne hosts some major sporting events, from Eastbourne Extreme – one of the biggest extreme sports festivals in the UK – to Eastbourne International, an annual tennis tournament where some of the world’s finest players prepare for Wimbledon.

Eastbourne pier   Eastbourne Festival

Campus where this course is taught

Eastbourne campus

Located in one of the sunniest towns in the UK, our Eastbourne campus sits between the hills of the South Downs National Park and the south coast.

The campus has extensive sporting facilities, including a sports hall, fitness suite, climbing wall, swimming pool, three gyms, a dance studio and an artificial training pitch. For sport and exercise students, there are also exercise physiology labs, a human movement laboratory and an environmental chamber.

Podiatry students gain real-life experience in the Leaf Hospital clinic, with its comprehensive range of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, while physiotherapy students are taught in specialist practical skills rooms. The Culinary Arts Studio allows hospitality students to engage in workplace simulations and consumer research.

Accommodation

Eastbourne

Our Eastbourne hall of residence, Welkin Halls, is in the residential Meads area, next to the Hillbrow and Welkin site and within walking distance of Darley Road. The train station is about 20 minutes away on foot.

You can choose between a standard room and a large room. In both cases, the rent covers bills and internet access, as well as breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat, and all are ensuite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers internet and £5,000 of contents insurance but excludes gas, electricity and water.*

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

Find out more on our Eastbourne accommodation webpages, and if you have any questions, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accomeastbourne@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 643810.

Welkin Halls

Welkin bedroom


  

Maps

house Accommodation
campus University building

Eastbourne campus map

 

Unistats

Unistats and key information sets

Unistats is an organisation that collects specific data about university courses in the UK which enables you to compare information that is important in your decision-making when choosing a university. All universities publish Unistats data on their online course pages.

Wherever we can we have provided extra information here to help put the data into context so that it is as useful as possible when you are making decisions.

Programme specification

The programme specification is the official university document for each course. They are updated each year, and give a very detailed breakdown of what your course might look like.

Programme specification

Find out more

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Book your open day place

Meet our students, see our accommodation and find out more about your course.

If you have a question about this course, our enquiries team will be happy to help.

01273 644644
enquiries@brighton.ac.uk

Student views  

 Kelly Jarvis 

"My teachers at school always told me that, if I wanted to go on and be a PE teacher, I should go to the University of Brighton. From the very first minute of visiting, I knew I wanted to go here.

"The course offers a diverse range of module options and opportunities outside of learning time – I went on a ski trip in year one and experienced OAA adventures and camping. I was also given the opportunity to coach and teach gymnastics, dance and trampolining outside of university time in local secondary schools and have gained lots of coaching qualifications such as rugby level 1 and trampolining levels 1 and 2. All of this helped when applying for jobs and coaching roles while studying as well as for when I graduate.

"The tutors were so supportive throughout my whole four years, whether for theoretical, practical or teaching knowledge. There was always someone to talk to if I had any concerns or worries. I was not just a number at a university studying a degree – I was an individual, someone they cared about and wanted to succeed.

"Gaining excellent subject knowledge and high-quality training in all areas of PE will allow me to be the best and most successful teacher I can be. Following graduation I am going to teach physical education and dance in a mixed state school back at home in Kent. I got the job before I had event graduated!

"This is the best thing I have ever done. Not only have I developed into a well organised, skilful and ambitious teacher, I have grown as an individual. I have had the time of my life and if I could I would do it all again."

Kelly Jarvis

 Liam Turner

"Being able to say that you are a University of Brighton QTS graduate is worth its weight in gold. Schools see Brighton graduates as the cream of the crop and you have an upper hand even before they read the rest of your application.

"I have loved every single minute of my time at Brighton – from the friends I made to the facilities, to the extra-curricular opportunities, to the lecturers whose support was above and beyond anything I expected it to be.

"The two long, block placements were a real selling point – they allowed me to get stuck into and make a difference in both of my placement schools. You teach on a 50% timetable and are observed every lesson by that class's normal teacher, who will then provide you with feedback. Both schools had different challenges and set me up perfectly for when I start full-time employment at a mixed secondary academy after graduation.

"If being a PE teacher is what you want to do as a career, then 100% this is the course for you."

Liam Turner PE with QTS sasm

Caroline Thomas

"I chose to come to the University of Brighton as it was a place of familiarity to me and within close distance of my home. The school also has a prestigious reputation and is a level-one learner provider, so with this all in mind the university was my number one choice.

"During my first year I was part of the university dance squad and this year have joined the Fidget dance company. I also play an active role in the volunteer programme that the university runs and have used it to teach sports to young children.

"The opportunities at the university are endless: it really is such a great place to study. The facilities are all very modern and the lecturers are all very friendly. One of the best moments was when I was presented with a scholarship; I never thought in a million years that I would achieve something as great as this."

Caroline Thomas

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