Secondary Science: Physics with QTS - PGCE - 2025/26 Entry

Overview

Are you passionate about helping young people to explore the fascinating world of physics? Do you want to be key in enabling them to understand how physics is fundamental to everyday life and isn’t as hard to understand as its reputation might lead them to believe? If so, our PGCE Secondary Physics is for you.

This course is open to International students.

What's covered in this course?

Our aim is to help you become a committed, confident and creative teacher so we’ll train you in the essential tools you need to kick-start your career in education. You’ll look at strategies and techniques to make the subject accessible, whether you’re leading practical experiments in electricity or introducing topics like astrophysics and nuclear physics.

As you progress, you’ll increase your ability to handle the ever-evolving teaching environment, and by the time your course is complete, you’ll be in a position to continue developing your understanding, knowledge and skills throughout your professional life.

After interview you may be advised you need to take a Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course, which we offer over 8, 12 or 16 weeks, before you start your PGCE.

Taught modules, assignments and School Based Training are structured around the development of your Progress Journal which demonstrates your progress against the our ITE Core Curriculum. Our ambitious curriculum incorporates the ITT Core Content Framework (DfE, 2019) and the nationally agreed competences - the Teachers’ Standards, which all teachers must meet throughout their career.

The Progress Journal also maps your development as a subject specialist with reference to identified subject priorities appropriate to the needs of secondary teachers entering the profession. A system of continuous review and assessment of progress within the Progress Journal will support your growing ability to take responsibility for your own professional development and ensure that you approach QTS with a sound understanding of research-informed pedagogies and practices.

Why Choose Us?

We are a key source of new teachers to schools across the West Midlands region; a destinations survey of our 2021/22 Secondary Teaching graduates showed they were employed in nearly 100 West Midlands schools as Early Career Teachers.
Our curriculum is designed by research-active subject experts to be integrated between university and school-based training with input from our partnership schools, ensuring you’re equipped to meet the needs of the teaching workforce now and in the future.
We have partnerships right across the West Midlands and beyond so you can benefit from training in a range of schools and early years settings, preparing you for work in a wide variety of schools when you qualify. A destinations survey of our 2021/22 Secondary Teaching graduates showed that 76% of their employing schools were from within our BCU partnership.
You will complete at least 120 days across a minimum of two placements, in line with Department for Education (DfE) requirements, supported by a subject mentor in your school and a personal development tutor at the University.
Should you wish to take your development further, you'll gain Master's level credits gained as part of this course that you can then use towards a full Master's degree.
You may be able to obtain financial support to help you during your studies. For more information visit the Department for Education's Get Into Teaching website.

OPEN DAY

Join us for a Virtual Open Event where you'll be able to learn about this course in detail, meet our subject academics and learn more about postgraduate finance, all from the comfort of your own home.

Next Event: 5 February 2025

Book your place

Entry Requirements

Essential requirements

UK students

Please note: If you are a graduate and wish to train as a Science with Physics teacher but your degree did not provide any or enough physics content for you to gain automatic entry on to a secondary Science with Physics teacher training course, you may be required to complete an appropriate Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course.

Essential
You must have a Bachelor’s degree (normally a 2:2 above) or a Master’s degree in a relevant subject from a UK higher education institution or equivalent.
Applicants for this course also need GCSE English Language or English Literature and GCSE Maths at grade C/4 or above prior to enrolment. We accept a range of qualifications in lieu of GCSEs for our Initial Teacher Training courses. Please see a full list of GCSE equivalencies for Initial Teacher Training.
Successful candidates must meet Department for Education requirements for Initial Teacher Training prior to enrolling on this course. This includes obtaining a satisfactory occupational health check and an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, as well as prohibition and children’s barred list checks in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance.

Selection Interview

The selection interview will assess your subject knowledge and personal qualities such as the potential to relate well to secondary age students, enthusiasm, sensitivity, communication skills and robustness and resilience for teaching.

You will also take a written test to assess your standard of English.

International qualifications

A minimum IELTS score of 7.0 is required with no individual component less than 6.5. Candidates who have undertaken IELTS will also need to successfully pass our GCSE English equivalency test.

If you have a qualification that is not listed, please contact us.

Fees & How to Apply

Please select your student status to view fees and apply

UK Student
International Student

UK students

Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.

Award: PGCE

Starting: Sep 2025

Full Time
1 year
£9,535 in 2025/26 ^{✱ Important note for this price}
Apply

(↩Back to price) *

The Government is proposing to increase the cap on full-time regulated tuition fees to £9,535 for 2025/26 and the University is planning on increasing fees to that maximum level once legislation is enacted. Part-time fees are charged pro-rata, where applicable.

International students

Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.

Award: PGCE

Starting: Sep 2025

Full Time
1 year
£17,690 in 2025/26
Apply

Access to computer equipment

You will require use of a laptop, and most students do prefer to have their own. However, you can borrow a laptop from the university or use one of our shared computer rooms.

Printing

You will receive £5 print credit in each year of your course, available after enrolment.

Field trips

All essential field trips and associated travel costs will be included in your course fees.

Access to Microsoft Office 365

Every student at the University can download a free copy of Microsoft Office 365 to use whilst at university and for 18 months after graduation.

Key software

You will be able to download SPSS and Nvivo to your home computer to support with your studies and research.

Key subscriptions

Subscriptions to key journals and websites are available through our library.

DBS check

If you are required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for this course, the cost for your first DBS check is included in your fees.

Occupational health assessment

You will need to complete an occupational health assessment. The cost for this is included in your course fee.

Placement expenses (mandatory)

Placements are a compulsory element of this course. You'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst living or working away from home.

Excess printing (optional)

Once you have spent your £5 credit, additional printing on campus costs from 5p per sheet.

Personal stationery and study materials (optional)

Based on the past experience of our students, you might find it helpful to set aside about £30 for each year of your studies for your personal stationery and study materials.

Memberships (optional)

You may wish to join a union or professional body related to this course, such as Subject Association Memberships (see individual association websites for cost) and Charted College of Teaching Membership (student membership is free)

Subscriptions (optional)

You may wish to purchase subscriptions to additional journals and websites connected to the above memberships.

Accommodation and living costs (optional)

The cost of accommodation and other living costs are not included within your course fees. More information on the cost of accommodation can be found in our accommodation pages.

The way you apply for postgraduate teacher training has changed. The Department for Education (DfE) has developed a GOV.UK application service called ‘Apply for teacher training’, which you must use to submit your application.

Course code: 32XR

We would like all applicants to make a fully informed decision about joining the teaching profession. As part of that decision making process, spending sometime in a school and considering the role of the teacher will prove to be invaluable.

Personal statement

You’ll need to submit a personal statement as part of your application for this course. This will need to highlight your passion for postgraduate study – and your chosen course – as well as your personal skills and experience, academic success, and any other factors that will support your application for further study.

If you are applying for a stand alone module, please include the title of the module you want to study in your Personal Statement.

Not sure what to include? We’re here to help – take a look at our top tips for writing personal statements and download our free postgraduate personal statement guide for further advice and examples from real students.

Financial support

You may be able to obtain financial support to help you during your studies. For more information visit the Department for Education's Get Into Teaching website.

Prior Experience

It is not a requirement to obtain work experience in a school or education setting before applying for a teacher training course, so if you are unable to obtain work experience, this will not affect your application. However, if you would like to gain some experience to help prepare you for your course, The Department for Education offers a school experience service that you might want to consider.

DfE School experience service

References

You will need to provide the details of two referees as part of your application. If you're still studying, or graduated in the last 5 years, one of your references should be an academic reference (for example, from your University tutor). Make sure you provide a professional email address (i.e. the email address for the referee at the organisation they work at), not a personal email address for each referee.

DfE References

Postgraduate funding

The Department for Education provides support for those training to teach.

Full details about funding for teacher training

There are three types of funding available for PGCEs. Depending on your circumstances, you could receive all three:

Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance Loan
Additional financial support if you’re a parent or have a disability
Tax-free bursary or scholarship

Postgraduate teaching bursaries and scholarships are available for specific subjects. Bursaries are reviewed each year, and the courses included and amount of money available varies. The latest information is listed on the Government’s Get into Teaching website.

Visit Get into Teaching

In addition, some subject associations offer scholarships for the most gifted trainees in their subject area. You can also find details for these on the Get into Teaching website.

Scholarships

Course in Depth

Modules

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 60 credits):

Download course specification

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Course structure

This postgraduate course takes place over one year full-time. Note that all PGCE with QTS courses commence teaching in the first week of September.

Your PGCE Secondary Physics aims to explore, test and develop the links between Science and Physics in education theory and its practice. The University workshops and seminars facilitate a space for learners to conduct this, which is then supported by school placements.

This relationship, between theory and practice, alongside a variety of contrasting school experiences, ensures that you are offered a well-rounded teacher education. We believe that we are training Physics teachers to work in any school setting. Your course will feature a range of modules and the opportunity to get plenty of hands-on practice in local schools with support from colleagues in the school partnership and experienced University tutors.

Accreditation or professional associations

As a provider of Initial Teacher Education, you can be reassured that we are regularly inspected by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

Ofsted reports directly to Parliament and is independent and impartial. It inspects and regulates services which care for children and young people, and those providing education and skills for learners of all ages.

Ofsted inspections of ITE providers provide an expert and independent assessment of how well a university is performing and the quality of teacher training offered. Information in the inspection report can help you to decide which university best suits your career needs.

Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP)

In line with DfE requirements, we are currently piloting our Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP) experiences for current students, which will roll out to all of our teacher education courses from September 2024.

The purpose of ITaPs is to strengthen the links between evidence based and classroom practice and to enable you as an Associate Teacher to focus on specific and pivotal areas of the ITE curriculum in an intensive way, and so develop the skills and knowledge to be able to strengthen the link between evidence-based theory and practice.

Our ITaPs have been designed based on the work of Pam Grossman (2018), and a framework for effectively integrating evidence-based theory into practice. ITaPs will be in a variety of areas such as transitions, assessment, planning and adaptive teaching.

Employability

Enhancing Employability Skills

We believe we promote a strong sense of belonging to a genuine learning community, which results in the development of professional confidence. This is enhanced by our excellent school partnerships.

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 school and or a post-16 setting where appropriate. This all helps you to see how teachers are working in practice and gives you a wealth of experience.

You will have subject and professional mentors in school who will guide and support your studies and provide you with feedback.

More about our placement opportunities

International

Birmingham City University is a vibrant and multicultural university in the heart of a modern and diverse city. We welcome many international students every year – there are currently students from more than 80 countries among our student community.

The University is conveniently placed, with Birmingham International Airport nearby and first-rate transport connections to London and the rest of the UK.

Our international pages contain a wealth of information for international students who are considering applying to study here, including:

Details of the entry requirements for our courses
Some of the good reasons why you should study here
How to improve your language skills before starting your studies
Information relevant to applicants from your country
Where to find financial support for your studies.

Facilities & Staff

Benjamin Zephaniah Building Level 2 classroom

Our facilities

This course is primarily based at our City Centre Campus, in the Benjamin Zephaniah Building (formerly University House), however, for some practical activities, such as sport, cookery or science lab sessions, you may be based at our City South Campus in Edgbaston, or the Alexander Stadium and Doug Ellis Sports Centre in Perry Barr.

About Benjamin Zephaniah Building

This freshly renovated building provides a dedicated teaching and learning space for our Education and Communities students and staff.

Spaces in the building include:

Primary and secondary science labs
Innovation and Lego teaching room
Flexible space for Design and Technology
Art room

As well as general teaching rooms.

Our staff

Kerry Taylor

Senior Lecturer

Kerry is currently leading the PGCE Science routes teaching on both the Professional Studies module and Subject Pedagogy module where she specialises in biology education.

More about Kerry