Education Studies

Whether working in a school, family learning setting or in the community, you can play a vital role in helping people to succeed. And our Education Studies degree will help you get started.

Your future could involve coaching and mentoring others, helping children or adults who have special educational needs, championing reading or maths projects, supporting vulnerable teenagers, or running outdoor activities. The possibilities are endless.

You’ll have the opportunity to work across age ranges – right from early years to post-16 learning. And the broad nature of the course means you can keep your options open for future careers.

The programme is split into two core elements. You will study education as an academic subject, where you will explore learning theories, how the education system works and themes such as social mobility and inequality.

Then there’s the practical side, where you’ll develop your skills through projects and by building a portfolio of work experience. In your final year, you will produce a piece of research looking at an education issue or practice.

We will support you every step of the way and help you nurture your passion for helping others to learn. You will also be an integral part of the community, with lots of opportunities to gain real-world experience through our strong links with local schools and organisations.

Resources include our fantastic £4.4 million Woodlands Day Nursery and Forest School on the Stoke-on-Trent campus.

Specialist pathways

Our flexible approach means you can also tailor your degree to your individual interests. Either continue with a more general route, or choose one of the following pathways:

• Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Education for our sustainable world

If you opt for the sustainability route, you could be delving into outdoor learning, how to engage young people using the natural world, home education and other philosophies of education practice.

The SEND pathway could involve working with either children or adults. You might be working with children and young people to promote wellbeing, supporting and designing strategies in different learning environments.

Work placements

As an Education Studies student, you will develop knowledge and understanding of the factors that impact on learner’s holistic development and educational outcomes.

In your first year, you will study three core modules which are shared with the Early Childhood Studies programme. Studying within a multi-disciplinary context, you’ll learn in a collaborative manner and develop a deeper insight into the wider educational sector. You’ll have the opportunity to work across disciplines and age ranges, enabling you to make informed choices about your chosen award and pathway of study at the end of the first year.

In the second and third year of your studies, you will develop specialist knowledge through studying a further four core modules. You can then elect to follow a specialist pathway and increase your knowledge in areas of professional interest. Our pathways include:

• Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) – this pathway enables students to develop a specialist insight and critical understanding of SEND practice and appropriate pedagogical approaches for children and young people with SEND.
• Mental Health and Wellbeing – this pathway enables students who have an interest in promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing to develop an informed understanding of the factors that can impact on mental health and wellbeing and the knowledge, skills and dispositions required to promote and support children and young people.
• Education for our Sustainable World – this pathway enables students who have an interest in developing the knowledge, skills and understanding required to support and motivate learners to act for sustainable development. Students who elect to study on this pathway will have the opportunity to complete activities outdoors and using our Forest School and nature reserve and our local community

The course operates on a modular basis that provides flexibility and choice. Each year, you will study four modules of either 20 or 40 credits. Each credit taken equates to a total study time of around 10 hours. Total study time includes scheduled teaching, independent study and assessment activity. Full-time students take modules worth 60 credits per semester. All students take a total of 120 credits per level and 360 credits for the degree as a whole. Your overall grade for the course and your degree classification are based on the marks obtained for modules taken at levels 5 and 6.  The full-time course has one start point in September.