The BA (Hons) Primary Education with QTS course provides a route into primary teaching. A combination of university learning and placements each year means you’ll get all the experience you need to become a skilled primary teacher, ready to enter the profession when you graduate.
Can you picture yourself inspiring a classroom, helping children discover what they’re capable of and making a difference that lasts well beyond the school day?
Our BA (Hons) Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is designed to turn that ambition into a career. Over three years, you’ll combine university learning with extensive classroom experience, developing the knowledge, skills and professional confidence you need to become an engaging, reflective and evidence-informed primary teacher.
You won’t be waiting until graduation to experience life in the classroom. You’ll spend at least 120 days in schools, working with children, learning from experienced teachers and putting your ideas into practice. As your confidence grows, so will your responsibilities - helping you make the exciting transition from trainee to classroom teacher.
What does it really take to create a classroom where every child can thrive? You’ll explore the primary curriculum alongside inclusive and adaptive teaching, assessment, safeguarding, behaviour and classroom leadership. Through focused Intensive Training and Practice, you’ll develop essential skills in areas including modelling, oracy and behaviour management - rehearsing techniques before applying them in school.
You’ll also experience the professional world beyond teaching lessons. Through our simulated learning environment, you’ll use digital platforms typically found in schools and tackle realistic scenarios involving safeguarding, educational visits and pupil progress. It’s a safe space to experiment, make decisions and develop the professional judgement you’ll need in your career.
As you progress, you’ll become more independent, critically reflective and research-informed. You’ll even undertake your own small-scale research, exploring how evidence can be used to create positive change in the classroom.
And when it’s time to take that next step? Employability is built into the course, with professionally relevant assessments, job application guidance and interview preparation helping you get ready for your first teaching role.
Graduate with your degree and recommendation for Qualified Teacher Status, ready to begin your Early Career Teacher journey - and ready to inspire the next generation.
On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award: BA (Hons) Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status
Duration
This full-time course runs for 3 years.
Work placements
What better way to learn to teach than by stepping into the classroom and doing it for real?
Placements are at the heart of your journey to becoming a primary teacher. Across the three years of the course, you’ll spend at least 120 days in schools, putting your university learning into practice, working alongside experienced teachers and, most importantly, making a difference to children’s learning.
Your journey starts in Year 1, with a minimum of 45 days in school. You’ll begin by working with individual children and small groups before building up to teaching the whole class. By the end of the year, you’ll be teaching 20% of the school timetable – an exciting opportunity to start finding your own style as a teacher.
In Year 2, you’ll experience a different school and age group and work with a new mentor. Across at least 45 days, you’ll take greater responsibility for planning and teaching, progressing to delivering 50% of whole-class lessons. You’ll learn to respond to different pupils, adapt your teaching and make confident, evidence-informed decisions in the classroom.
By your final year, you’ll be ready to take the lead. During a minimum 50 days in school, you’ll teach for up to 80% of the timetable. You’ll plan engaging learning, assess children’s progress and draw on everything you’ve learned about inclusive practice, behaviour, curriculum, research and classroom leadership. This is where you can really see how far you’ve come – and the impact you can have as a teacher.
But don’t worry, you won’t be doing it alone. Throughout your placements, you’ll work with school-based mentors and receive ongoing support from your academic mentor and the wider University tutor team. Your experiences are designed to become progressively more challenging, helping you develop from an emerging teacher into a confident professional ready for your Early Career Teacher phase.
Placements will challenge you, inspire you and give you some of the most rewarding moments of your degree. You’ll see children respond to lessons you’ve planned, watch their confidence grow and develop your own professional identity along the way.
This is more than gaining classroom experience. It’s your chance to become the teacher you want to be.
Our partner schools span Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Shropshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire, with opportunities to experience urban and rural communities and first, middle and primary school settings. We arrange your placements for you and use our knowledge of partner schools to match opportunities to your professional development.
We aim to keep travel time to placements to under 60 minutes from the University’s Stoke on Trent Campus, however this may increase to accommodate rural locations or public transport restrictions