Primary teaching, the PG way.

#15

Hi, I'm a final year arts student and I am consdiring becoming a primary teacher. Unfortunately, I wish I had decided this earlier as I had more than enough CAO points to do the B.Ed anywhere I wanted to.

Will this count for anything when I apply for the postgraduate course?
The selection process seems pretty tough and I am worried I may not get selected.
Also, do they take outside achievements into consideration or is it purely academic?
I am a 19 year old male, play numerous sports and have all-ireland medals in one of my sports.
For the past 5 years, I have coached boys and girls from the ages of 5 to 13 every week.
I have also been a coach at summer camps for the last 4 summers, where I had responsibility for large groups of children.
I am wondering do they take this into account during the selection process, because I did not do as well as I could have in my exams last summer. (I got a 2H2, but was capable of more, IMO).

If anyone can provide any help, I would be very grateful.
Thanks a lot.

Trotter

#15 wrote:

Hi, I'm a final year arts student and I am consdiring becoming a primary teacher. Unfortunately, I wish I had decided this earlier as I had more than enough CAO points to do the B.Ed anywhere I wanted to.

Will this count for anything when I apply for the postgraduate course?
The selection process seems pretty tough and I am worried I may not get selected.
Also, do they take outside achievements into consideration or is it purely academic?
I am a 19 year old male, play numerous sports and have all-ireland medals in one of my sports.
For the past 5 years, I have coached boys and girls from the ages of 5 to 13 every week.
I have also been a coach at summer camps for the last 4 summers, where I had responsibility for large groups of children.
I am wondering do they take this into account during the selection process, because I did not do as well as I could have in my exams last summer. (I got a 2H2, but was capable of more, IMO).

If anyone can provide any help, I would be very grateful.
Thanks a lot.

So you have a 2.2 honours degree? They certainly do take your background into account and its up to you to get all of the above info into your personal statement. The personal statement is the place in the application process for post grads that you get to "sell" your own personal qualities.

Vince135792003

I was just wondering does anyone who has successfully gotten the PG course have any advice on the steps to becoming successfully accepted into the programme?

With substitute teaching difiicult to get into at a primary level its hard to figure out what practical things you can do to be successful.

Is it a case of looking at the curiculum or reading books on teaching?

Any general steps on the best way to go about it would be great.

Trotter

Vince135792003 wrote:

I was just wondering does anyone who has successfully gotten the PG course have any advice on the steps to becoming successfully accepted into the programme?

With substitute teaching difiicult to get into at a primary level its hard to figure out what practical things you can do to be successful.

Is it a case of looking at the curiculum or reading books on teaching?

Any general steps on the best way to go about it would be great.

Im doing a post grad now. Theres already a huge amount of info on the teaching forum so feel free to have a search around. I've typed up loads of stuff on it. The basics are:

- Suitability to teach i.e. have you worked in youth clubs, sports clubs, drama groups etc.

- Academic ability

- Basic Irish language ability

- Teaching experience - What classroom experience if any do you have

Vince135792003

Thanks for the response. Just two things, on teaching experience firstly. Since remedial teaching is hard to get, is it still expected that you have teaching experience? Also can your personal statment be greater than the space they provide to write it or is it best to stick within their guideline?

From my perspective, I really want to give teaching ago. But at the same time going in to do remedial teaching is somthing that I'd feel a little reluctant doing given that I'd have no training and that my knowledge of the curriculum would be poor at best.

Put it simply, without a little bit of training I'd feel out of my depth.

Trotter

Vince135792003 wrote:

Thanks for the response. Just two things, on teaching experience firstly. Since remedial teaching is hard to get, is it still expected that you have teaching experience? Also can your personal statment be greater than the space they provide to write it or is it best to stick within their guideline?

From my perspective, I really want to give teaching ago. But at the same time going in to do remedial teaching is somthing that I'd feel a little reluctant doing given that I'd have no training and that my knowledge of the curriculum would be poor at best.

Put it simply, without a little bit of training I'd feel out of my depth.

Do you mean substitute teaching? Remedial teaching is not something that unqualified subs would usually do. It may not be fully expected, but with perseverence, you can get the odd day or two here and there. Thats worth a lot. First time subs usually just keep the children busy with worksheets or colouring in etc. When you get more confident you can try different things.

Most people just had to jump in and sink or swim really.

On the personal statement, I was always told to keep in the space unless told otherwise.

GAA widow

Vince135792003 wrote:

With substitute teaching difiicult to get into at a primary level its hard to figure out what practical things you can do to be successful.

Subbing at primary level isn't hard to get into. All you need is at least a C3 in honours Irish at Leaving Cert. level. Drop into a few schools and let them know you're available.

Trotter

A lot of the subbing that was available dried up following the directive from the Minister for Education that primary principals do everything possible to get qualified subs when needed.

However, there are still some areas where subs are often hard to come by and the principals will allow unqualified people to do the work.

GAA widow

Trotter wrote:

However, there are still some areas where subs are often hard to come by and the principals will allow unqualified people to do the work.

"Unqualified" is actually quite a misleading term - students who are trainee teachers or those with Montessori teaching qualifications come under this category.
There is huge irony in the fact that "officially" if you are training to become a teacher you actually are not allowed to go subbing!. Obviously this isn't the case!

Trotter

GAA widow wrote:

"Unqualified" is actually quite a misleading term - students who are trainee teachers or those with Montessori teaching qualifications come under this category.
There is huge irony in the fact that "officially" if you are training to become a teacher you actually are not allowed to go subbing!. Obviously this isn't the case!

I agree with you here. Its a bit ridiculous to stop trainee teachers from subbing where possible. Thanfully theres enough scope for principals to get around this when required, or in reality, where practical.

tanyad

I didn’t get enough points in my leaving cert to get a place in college to study to be a primary school teacher, so I decided to go about it the long way and I decided to get a degree first, my degree was in European studies, in my 3rd year I had to go on Erasmus to Spain, it was the worst year ever, my grandfather died and I had to come home early, basically I failed my Erasmus year, the only way for me to go on to 4th year was for me to go back to Spain and re-do the year, my GPA was 3.6 in 2nd year but they still wouldn’t let me do anything to make it up, firstly I couldn’t afford it and secondly I knew if I went back I would be so depressed, Because European studies is a straight degree even if you complete some years u don’t get any qualification.

So here I am iv just gone back to college at ngt part time, im so determined to become a teacher im willing to do another 4 years and then the 18mts full time, im doing business management, I really like it, but im just glad to be back at college because my brain felt like it was going to mush.

I went to an all Irish primary and secondary school so I know this will be an advantage to me

Anyway the reason why im writhing this is because I would really appreciate it if anyone had some information on the application process for the higher diploma in education, mainly what I am unsure about is

1. Do you need teaching practice before you apply for this, will it go against you if you don’t? If so how do you go about this, im in full time employment and have a mortgage, I don’t see how I would be able to do this?

2. Should I volunteer with some youth groups in the mean time to show I have some experience interacting with children?

3. There are 3 colleges that do this course, do you just apply to one or all three, or to the one you want to attend?

4. Could it go against me that I failed my first course-European studies?

I would really appreciate it if anyone knows the answer to these questions,
Sorry for going on a bit of a ramble

cheers

Trotter

tanyad wrote:

I didn’t get enough points in my leaving cert to get a place in college to study to be a primary school teacher, so I decided to go about it the long way and I decided to get a degree first, my degree was in European studies, in my 3rd year I had to go on Erasmus to Spain, it was the worst year ever, my grandfather died and I had to come home early, basically I failed my Erasmus year, the only way for me to go on to 4th year was for me to go back to Spain and re-do the year, my GPA was 3.6 in 2nd year but they still wouldn’t let me do anything to make it up, firstly I couldn’t afford it and secondly I knew if I went back I would be so depressed, Because European studies is a straight degree even if you complete some years u don’t get any qualification.

So here I am iv just gone back to college at ngt part time, im so determined to become a teacher im willing to do another 4 years and then the 18mts full time, im doing business management, I really like it, but im just glad to be back at college because my brain felt like it was going to mush.

I went to an all Irish primary and secondary school so I know this will be an advantage to me

Anyway the reason why im writhing this is because I would really appreciate it if anyone had some information on the application process for the higher diploma in education, mainly what I am unsure about is

1. Do you need teaching practice before you apply for this, will it go against you if you don’t? If so how do you go about this, im in full time employment and have a mortgage, I don’t see how I would be able to do this?

2. Should I volunteer with some youth groups in the mean time to show I have some experience interacting with children?

3. There are 3 colleges that do this course, do you just apply to one or all three, or to the one you want to attend?

4. Could it go against me that I failed my first course-European studies?

I would really appreciate it if anyone knows the answer to these questions,
Sorry for going on a bit of a ramble

cheers

Hi Tanya,
The answers to most of your questions have been gone through in lots of detail on this forum before. If you use the search facility you'll be able to find a whole lot of info including plenty to inform you about your options.