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PGTA Foundations of Professional Practice (X1060)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

On this module, you’ll gain an introduction to:

• the ¹ú²úÄÚÉä
• the PGTA
• on-the-job and off-the-job learning
• modes of assessment
• safeguarding
• PREVENT
• three foundational themes of lesson planning, assessment and promoting good behaviour.

You’ll cover the skills and knowledge needed for teaching, learning and understanding children’s wellbeing.

The module had two core strands – Professional Studies and Curriculum Studies. Each strand consists of mainly on-the-job learning, with campus-based teaching to support you.

In Professional Studies, you’ll explore the frameworks that schools, early years settings, teachers and fellow professionals operate in. This includes the Teachers’ Standards and the ITTECF. You’ll also cover key themes, such as:

• supporting pupils with curriculum intent and implementation
• SEND
• social justice
• adaptive teaching
• the science of learning
• metacognition
• the management of pupil behaviour
• formative assessment
• pupil wellbeing
• pastoral care.

On-the-job learning is supported by:

• a trained mentor
• weekly lesson observations
• mentor meetings
• the development of an e-portfolio of practice-based evidence.

Through a series of school-based tasks, you’ll apply knowledge learned in campus-based sessions to develop professional resilience, communication and reflection.

In Curriculum Studies, you’ll develop your knowledge of pedagogy and expertise in your chosen subject or phase. You’ll plan and teach sequences of lessons in your chosen phase or subject.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 140 hours of contact time and about 160 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.