(Secondary) Art and Design PGCE

Top reasons to choose this course

• You will train to teach with an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ provider.
• 2nd in the UK for education courses – Guardian University Guide 2025.
• Placement opportunities with schools in large, small, urban and rural settings.
• Enrichment opportunities to teach ages 16–18.
• Learn in our specialist classrooms that replicate those used in schools and our curriculum centre with its 30,000 resources for student teachers.
• Brighton has an expert team who have their own successful experience as education practitioners.
• Our teaching graduates benefit from excellent employment rates that are consistently above the sector average.
• We have a dedicated team to help you after you qualify through our Early Teacher Career support programme.

Plus, our student art and design teachers also benefit from:

• field trips to art organisations, galleries and alternative educational settings
• workshops delivered by visiting lecturers to expand your subject expertise
• opportunities to get involved in projects with our partners, including Glyndebourne
• specialist art facilities which include a kiln room, dark room and D&T workshop. 
• professional development opportunities with the University of Brighton Art Teachers Organisation.

Course structure

Two-thirds of your year will be spent teaching under supervision in schools. Our tutors and mentors will advise and support you throughout each placement. You will receive comprehensive feedback during this time, enabling you to see what you are doing well and where you might need to improve.

The university works in partnership with schools and colleges to provide a high-quality programme of support, ensuring a sound relationship between theory and practice. You will benefit from undertaking two placements in two schools or colleges, with the opportunity to visit additional schools or colleges as part of the peer observation programme.

The school has excellent multimedia training materials, giving you the opportunity to develop your confidence and competence in the use of information and communications technology (ICT). Our multimedia suites are regularly updated to keep up with technological advancements in classroom teaching provision. 

Areas of study

Course content is kept up to date with changes in local and national initiatives and legislation, so you will be confident that your working knowledge is based on current theory and practice.

The areas of study are made up of three strands.

The subject study/subject education strand builds upon your existing expertise in art and design and provides you with the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of art and design in the secondary school context. You will consider the learning and teaching strategies that are relevant to the specialist subject. 

The subject education module is specifically related to teaching the specialist subject in school, while the subject study module enables you to take your subject specialist studies to an increased depth.

The education and professional studies strand will give you a thorough understanding of the learning process itself, including an appreciation of individual differences. The study of the principles and practices of learning and teaching is through both school and university settings, allowing you to develop practical competencies, supported by analytical skills. By the end of the course you will:

• refine your understanding of pedagogy, including an appreciation of current and emerging educational theories and debate

• understand how to use and adapt a range of teaching, learning, management and assessment strategies in order to meet the varying needs of learners

• understand how the progress and wellbeing of learners is affected by a range of influences and know how to take account of the principles of equality, inclusion and diversity.

The school placements/professional practice strand is intrinsically linked to all key strands of the course and is designed to enable you to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive as creative, informed and critical professionals.

You will engage in target-setting and action-planning, and reflect upon your learning in order to make improvements as you progress through the emerging, embedding and enhancing phases of trainee teacher development towards meeting the Teachers’ Standards and the award of Qualified Teacher Status at the end of the course.

School-based training

Ofsted identifies our approach to training in schools as a key strength of this course, with an excellent balance between university tuition and school-based training.

You will spend at least 120 days on school-based activities, with training shared between the university and the partner schools. 

Your school-based training will take place in two carefully selected schools and will include observing teachers, working with pupils, team and independent teaching, completing specific subject tasks and learning about school policy and effective practices.

You will also write lesson plans and evaluations for classes, carry out formative and summative assessment of pupils’ learning and performance, and maintain an e-portfolio which will be evaluated as part of your overall assessment.

Key aims:

• develop your professional attributes, skills, knowledge and understanding and help you gain confidence in your teaching ability
• provide a variety of practical and specific experiences that enable you to critically analyse your professional practice and take responsibility for your own professional development
• enable you to work collaboratively with colleagues in order to develop an understanding of the ways in which the attainment, development and wellbeing of all learners can be achieved with a unified support and teaching system
• provide opportunities for you to adopt a creative and constructively critical approach towards your practice, supported by appropriate reading and research

• make valuable contacts which will help when looking for your first teaching role.

Throughout your placements, university tutors and school mentors will support and assess your progress, providing regular feedback to guide your professional development.

You’ll be encouraged to critically review your work, set appropriately challenging targets, and work with your tutors to create an action plan that identifies your strengths, development needs and next steps, ensuring your practice continually evolves.

Organising your school-based training

Your training will be organised by our Partnership Office which sets up over 2,500 placements annually with our 600-plus partnership schools and organisations. These are in a mixture of large, small, urban and rural settings in south-east England, mostly in East and West Sussex.

When you start your course, you will complete a placement information form and we’ll use this information to match you to a suitable placement – we work hard to ensure your placement gives you valuable and varied experiences in the area of you’re interested in. We will consider your previous experience, travelling distance, the age ranges you wish to teach and your current needs.

Once we have matched you with a placement, the Partnership Office team will confirm with the school or organisation as quickly as possible and contact you with the details.

We will ensure you are well prepared before you start and you will have all the support and guidance needed to make the most of these placement opportunities.

Facilities

Our facilities include a curriculum centre which contains more than 30,000 specialist resources for trainee teachers including books, DVDs, games and an online catalogue.

Our Falmer campus also houses specialist classrooms that replicate those used in schools so you’ll feel at home when you go on your school-based training and start your career.

Teaching facilities include:

• science labs
• art classrooms
• kiln room
• dark room
• design and technology workshop
• performance studio.

Ofsted ‘outstanding’

Graded ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted for primary and secondary in our 2024 Initial Teacher Education inspection.

Ofsted commended us on many aspects of our courses, saying:

• Trainees shine at Brighton’s long-established and highly impressive teacher training programmes.
• The care and dedication shown by staff towards trainees is superb.
• Trainees are at the heart of everything. They are valued and expertly supported throughout the course.
• The curriculum skilfully equips trainees in safeguarding, behaviour management and supporting pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• Trainees impress the placement settings they work in because of their professionalism and aptitude to apply what they have learned.

Staff profile

Julie Howard, senior lecturer and route leader

Julie has an Art and Craft Studies BA(Hons), an Art and Design PGCE and over 20 years’ experience of teaching in different school settings throughout Kent and East Sussex.

She started lecturing part-time for the School of Education in 2019  while continuing to run ARTsCOOLuk, the art school she founded offering extracurricular art classes for ages ranging from two years to adult. She became route leader for (Secondary) Art and Design PGCE and School Direct routes in 2022.

Julie teaches across a range of courses at the university, including working with the undergraduate primary education routes.

With an abundance of teaching experience, Julie has worked in various school settings including secondary, primary, adult education and sixth form colleges. She has taught art and design, photography and textiles, as well as being a tutor, mentor, head of department and head of creative arts faculty.

In addition to teaching responsibilities, Julie has been a GCSE moderator for 15 years with Edexcel. She has also worked as a self-employed practising and exhibiting artist and has led training sessions for teachers as a primary curriculum specialist.

Julie’s current research interests are concerned with art, creativity and wellbeing. She is passionate about developing the artist-teacher model and continued artist practice.

She is an active member of the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) and is on the steering group for Southeast Art Educators Network (SEATEN).

Julie is also the founder of the University of Brighton Art Teachers Organisation (UBATO) where she works to develop links and share expertise amongst art teachers within schools and other organisations.

Features

We offer a range of course features to enhance your learning experience.

Field trips
We collaborate with art-related establishments to provide field trip opportunities throughout the year which support development of your knowledge and skills. Previous visits have included:

• Glyndebourne Opera House, Lewes
• Artist teacher residential to St Ives, Cornwall
• Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
• Pallant House, Chichester
• The National Gallery, London
• ITE conference, connecting with art and design trainee teachers from other institutions.

Guest speakers
You will have the opportunity to expand your personal subject expertise through curriculum workshops led by visiting lectures. These have included:

• Photoworks – leading workshops on photography.
• Specialist schools delivering workshops on utilising iPads in the creatives arts.
• Steam workshops
• Guest speaker to discuss the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD)

Alternative school settings visits
We have connections with schools offering art education in alternative provisions. On the PGCE you will have the opportunity to visit a further education college, a special school, a pupil referral unit and a primary school where there will be a specialist art teacher.

PGCE open evening
As part of final assessments you will exhibit your work with other students, tutors and mentors at the PGCE open evening. The annual event provides an opportunity for you to share and gain ideas and inspiration before undertaking future classroom teaching.

School Connect PGCE and School Direct Salaried

School Connect PGCE and School Direct Salaried are alternative routes to gaining Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The University of Brighton works with a number of schools to deliver this programme across a range of secondary subjects as well as in the primary phase. 

To train as a teacher through the School Connect PGCE or the School Direct Salaried programme you need to apply directly to a school for a training place. Schools advertise their vacancies on the Department for Education’s ‘Find Postgraduate training courses’ website. 

Find out more about School Connect PGCE and School Direct Salaried.

Course fees

As a postgraduate trainee teacher there is a range of funding available which you could be eligible to receive while you are studying:

• Tax-free bursaries and scholarships – these depend on the subject you are training to teach and your highest relevant academic award. 

On our website you will find information about other funding, including:

• the student finance package from Student Finance England – tuition fee loans and maintenance loans
• Parents’ Learning Allowance
• Childcare Grant
• Care leavers’ bursary
• Disabled Students’ Allowance.

If you are not a UK citizen, you are unlikely to get help funding your training unless you have permission to live permanently in the UK.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

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