(Secondary) Geography PGCE

Top reasons to choose this course

• You'll train to teach with an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ provider.
• 2nd in the UK for education courses  – Guardian University Guide 2025.
• Placements opportunities with schools in large, small, urban and rural settings.
• Enrichment opportunities to teach age 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 geography teachers benefit from:

  • contributions from GIS experts, the Royal Meteorological office, The Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association.
  • a residential field trip at the start of the course
  • opportunities to attend external seminars, conferences and exhibitions
  • access to the OS digital map information system 'Digimap'.

Jacob and Annabelle chat about how the PGCE enabled them to become geography teachers

Course structure

This course offers a number of features that are of enormous benefit to graduates and their continuing professional development. These include: active involvement with fieldwork both locally and in a residential context; opportunities for involvement with RGS/IBG and GA seminars, conferences and exhibitions; access to the OS digital map information system 'Digimap' through university registration; and the use of iPads in the geography classroom.

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.

You'll develop your confidence and competence in using ICT with our multimedia training materials. Our multimedia suites are regularly updated to keep up with technological advancements in classroom teaching provision.

Areas of study

There are four strands to this course: subject study/subject education, education and professional studies, school placements and professional practice.

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 subject study/subject education strand builds upon your existing expertise in geography and provides you with the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of geography in the secondary school context.

We'll support you to use your geographical knowledge and understanding to inspire and motivate learners in the classroom. You'll be provided with opportunities to engage in geographical debates and be part of a geographical community to help with your professional development and teacher identity.

The course focuses on developing pedagogical content knowledge supported by the university sessions and school-based training. You'll develop your geographical knowledge through subject specific activities, such as a residential field trip, and through contributions from GIS experts and the Royal Meteorological office, The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Geographical Association (GA).

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 identify 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 a minimum of 120 days on school-based activities, with your training shared between the university and the partner school. 

Your school-based training will include observing teachers, working with individual pupils and groups of pupils, team teaching and independent teaching. Your training will also entail completing specific subject tasks and developing your knowledge of school policy and effective practices.

You will maintain a professional training portfolio and be supported to review your work critically and analytically as well as to set appropriately challenging targets. We will also develop an action plan with you to identify strengths, development needs and actions, so that your practice is continually developing.

Key aims of the school-based training:

• advance the development of your professional attributes, skills, knowledge and understanding
• 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 well-being of all learners can be achieved with a unified support and teaching system
• provide opportunities that enable you to adopt a creative and constructively critical approach towards your practice, supported by appropriate reading and research.

During your school-based training, university tutors, school mentors and teachers will support you and take shared responsibility for your professional development.

Your progress will be observed and assessed throughout your placement by university and school staff, followed by feedback sessions to discuss your development. Your e-portfolio will also be evaluated as part of the overall assessment.

Organising your school-based training

Our Partnership Office will organise the school-based training for you. Each year we organise over 2,500 placements for our students. We work hard to ensure that you have placement opportunities that will give you valuable and varied experiences in the area of education in which you are interested.

How it works

We will ask you to complete a placement information form when you start your course, and will use this information to match you to a suitable placement. 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 team in the Partnership Office will confirm the placement as quickly as possible with the school or organisation. They will then contact you with the placement details. Almost all of our placements will be with partner schools or organisations in south-east England, most of them in East and West Sussex.

Meet the course leader

Sharon Reilly, Programme Leader

Sharon joined the University of Brighton in 2017 as a Senior Lecturer in geography education teaching on both the Geography PGCE and apprenticeship route. She is practice learning lead for the PGCE secondary team and supports mentors and professional tutors, as well as the trainees to ensure they are successful during their PGCE.

Prior to joining the university Sharon had 20 years’ experience in several secondary schools as a Head of Geography, Head of Humanities, coordinator of vocational education and lead pastoral roles.

She has worked with exam boards and developed geography exemplar material for other schools across the UK through work with QCA. She also held a responsibility as a mentor to trainee geography teachers in schools.

Sharon has a masters in education and her special interests are the development of teacher identity; how this is influenced by prior subject knowledge, pedagogy and prior experiences and how this supports trainee teachers to develop powerful geographical knowledge in the classroom. She has recently had two articles published about decolonising the geography curriculum and has presented these ideas at a conference and in CPD sessions with a local school.

Sharon is an active member of the Geography hub which supports geography departments in Sussex to develop their curriculum, keep up to date with ideas and to research and introduce new teaching models. She has recently presented ideas about incorporating adaptive teaching techniques as part of the hub.

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.

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.

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 Educations '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 whilst 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 leaver’s bursary
• Disabled Students’ Allowance.

If you're 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).

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

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