Primary Mathematics Specialist Teacher PGCert

Course in brief

Our Primary Mathematics Specialist Teacher (MaST) PGCert is designed to support your career progression, increase your subject knowledge and help you to make a direct difference to your school and students. It offers modules that will benefit you if you work in professional or voluntary education and training, and want to enhance your skills and knowledge.

The MaST PGCert is a stand-alone qualification and counts as one-third of a masters degree. It has been developed in association with local education authorities as part of a government drive to improve the skills in the teaching profession.

This course is suitable if you are an experienced and practising primary teacher who wants to further deepen your understanding of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning.

The flexible work-based and part-time learning programme allows you to fit studying around your existing work or voluntary commitments.

Teaching and mentoring is delivered by a successful teaching team with an outstanding national reputation and comprehensive research profile that informs and advances course content.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available for this course. Find out if you are eligible in the fees and funding section below.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Falmer

Part-time 1 year
Part-time Flexible and distributed learning

This course begins in January each year.

Apply online

Please make sure that you meet the entry requirements before applying. If you have any questions the course team will be happy to help.

Apply now for your place

Entry requirements

Degree and experience

You will need a good honours degree and experience in an education setting.
To qualify for Approved Teacher Status (ATS) or Approved Professional status (APS), students must have completed two years (or equivalent) as a teacher or educational professional by the end of the course.
All applicants are interviewed in person or by telephone.

Course in detail

Course structure

Commencing from January, the MaST PGCert is a one-year part-time programme comprising of two parts. The first is usually a taught module, and the second is a practice-based module which allows you to put into practice the knowledge you have gained during the course. Alternatively, it is possible to choose two taught modules.

The flexible framework combines academic study with work-based action learning and action research, a process whereby your day-to-day professional activity informs your development through reflection and peer discussion.

The course is designed to fit in with your working patterns and delivered outside of school hours, on Thursday and Saturday evenings between 6pm and 8pm (no sessions during school holidays). It can also be based entirely within your school or organisation, or delivered as a bespoke programme for a cluster of schools.

All the specialist PGCerts are offered at Falmer campus subject to meeting the minimum numbers of participants. They can also be offered off site to an organisation, school or a cluster of schools. Please see contact details for more information in the ‘Find out more’ section.

Areas of study

The Primary Mathematics Specialist Teacher Programme (MaST) is designed for experienced and practising primary teachers wishing to further deepen their understanding of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning.

This programme involves lively workshop style sessions where you will engage in collaborative mathematical activity and discussion with others to analyse underpinning mathematical ideas. This taught component is supplemented by critical analysis of your own classroom practice, reflection on teaching approach and the impact of these approaches on children’s mathematical learning. Additionally you will conduct more detailed analysis of learning with particular groups of children.

The programme will support you to analyse and improve your own mathematics teaching. Enthusiasm and confidence in your teaching is an essential starting point. You must also be prepared to engage in academic study including the writing of academic assignments.

This programme consists of two main components:

deepening mathematics subject knowledge
strengthening and developing pedagogical knowledge through analysis of and reflection on your own classroom practice.

The programme will enable you as a practitioner to:

strengthen and deepen your own mathematics subject knowledge and understanding
enhance your ability to promote learning in mathematics that is challenging and engaging for pupils
analyse children’s learning in mathematics
develop reflective awareness of pedagogical approaches and their impact on engagement and learning
deepen your understanding of theory and research in mathematics education.

Careers and employability

Our MaST PGCert is designed to support your career progression, increase your subject knowledge and help you to make a direct difference to your school and students.

Graduates of the course are well placed to take on subject development and leadership positions.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (part-time) 1,958 GBP

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more.

The fees listed here are for courses beginning in the academic year 2017–18.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, field trips 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, scholarships and other financial support provided by the university as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Brighton has been called the happiest place in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. With five miles of pebble beach, more than 300 pubs and a packed festival calendar, Brighton is the ideal place to spend your student years.

Arts and culture: The Royal Pavilion is the most famous landmark in Brighton, opening its doors to around 400,000 tourists every year. Right next door is the Brighton Dome, the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which holds a diverse collection of decorative arts, textiles and archaeological artefacts.

Festivals: The Brighton Festival is now the largest arts festival in England and a major milestone in the international cultural calendar. Meanwhile, The Great Escape has been established as the UK’s leading event for new music, with over 300 bands playing 30 venues across the city over three days.

Nightlife: Aside from the many nightclubs that line the city’s seafront, student favourites include The Haunt, Concorde 2 and Patterns, which attract leading bands and DJs from around the world. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can take your pick from the many hundreds of pubs and bars that dot the city centre.

Shopping: The quirky North Laine district houses Brighton’s finest collection of boutique shops and independent cafes, while the narrow, winding streets of the South Lanes house collections of jewellery and antiques. Churchill Square is the city’s main shopping centre and serves all of your high street needs.

Sports: Brighton’s seaside location offers the perfect opportunity to try paddle boarding, kayaking and windsurfing. Further into the city, The Level has a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders to practise their skills.

Campus where this course is taught

Falmer campus

Surrounded by the South Downs National Park and just five miles from the centre of Brighton, our Falmer campus has benefited from over £60million of investment over the past 10 years. 7,000 students are based here, studying subjects including English, education, social science, nursing and medicine.

Recent developments include the Falmer Sports Centre – with its fitness suites and sports hall – and the innovative Checkland Building, which has natural ventilation systems and an insulating green roof.

Falmer has also recently installed more than 600 solar panels, which reduce the campus’s carbon emissions by more than 80 tonnes. The renovation has made us one of the top universities in the UK for on-site renewable energy production.

Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Our Grand Parade campus is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance. We have around 300 rooms available in Phoenix Brewery, which are all ensuite and self-catered.

Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus. All accommodation in Moulsecoomb Place is catered, offering breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat.

Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence. The site is four miles from Brighton centre but within walking distance of Falmer train station.

Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field. Great Wilkins offers 150+ self-catered single rooms and one-bed couples flats, while Paddock Field offers 450+ catered and self-catered single rooms only. All rooms in Falmer are en-suite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers all utilities and includes £5,000 of contents insurance for your personal belongings.

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 Brighton accommodation webpages and if you have any questions, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field