Do you believe that music has a key role to play in every young person’s education? Are you determined to bring the subject alive for pupils? If so, our PGCE Secondary Music course will provide you with access to becoming an inspiring teacher.

WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS COURSE?

If you’re passionate about young people and want to introduce them to the exciting world of music and music making in all its forms then we’re excited to train you to ensure you excel as a teacher.

You’ll explore the skills and knowledge that music as an art form offers at secondary education level; and to train to become a confident, dynamic and creative teacher with the ability to make music accessible to all. You’ll discover how pupils learn and explore ways in which you can plan musical activities that will ensure they progress and develop their musicality.

Exploring an inclusive and rich approach towards music, you’ll prioritise active music making to promote musical thinking and learn how to inspire and enthuse your pupils by taking them on an exciting and stimulating musical journey. Techniques used include links many different forms of music and music making.  These can be used to help pupils to become more self-confident, informed and culturally aware.

This course has strong links with local musical organisations such as the largest Music Service in the country run by Services for Education in Birmingham. The course provides the opportunity to experience music education from a variety of perspectives, including organisations that form part of the Birmingham Hub for Music Education like Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) and mac Birmingham.

A key feature of the course is how we promote technology enhanced learning both in terms of developing beginning teachers and also how music technology can support teaching and learning in schools.

Instrumental route

On the PGCE Secondary Music course there is the option to take the instrumental route. Supported by Birmingham Music Hub, the instrumental route enable you to spend part of the course teaching instrumental lessons supported by specialist instrumental teachers. By following this route, your placements will be split between time spent in a secondary school music department developing your classroom teaching skills and time spent with Birmingham Music Service developing your instrumental teaching skills.

If you are offered a place on the PGCE Secondary Music course, you will have the opportunity to audition for the instrumental route in September. A minimum of grade 8 performing standard is expected for the instrumental route.

Enhanced Employability Skills

Ofsted inspections have confirmed that our trainees “leave their courses with a wide range of knowledge and skills that make them highly employable.

We believe that this is due to the strong sense of belonging to a genuine learning community, which results in the development of professional confidence. This is enhanced with our excellent school partnerships.

This is an 11-16 years course, with post-16 enhancement, which offers a high degree of employability within secondary teaching.

The high demand for our trained teachers and our consistently high employability scores mean that trainees who successfully complete the course to a high standard have very good employment prospects.

PLACEMENTS

Two-thirds of your course takes place in school and we ensure that you are offered a number of placements in a wide range of educational establishments.

You will do work placements in at least two different schools and also visit others – including a primary.  This all helps you to see how teachers are working in practice and gives you a wealth of experience.

You will have the opportunity to do serial and block placements and you will also have trained mentors, who will guide and support your studies and provide you with feedback.