HDip/Post Grad Dip Offers 2009/2010?

AirmidOg

Don't give up yet Maggie Cork. I'm sorry you didn't get it today but keep going with it.

Regarding schools for teaching practice is it worth contacting all schools in the area even if you don't know they're on the list? I'm guessing you send a copy of your CV and a cover letter etc. and follow up with a call next week when the schools open again, is that how it works?

Avery

Heya

I'll be teaching Economics, Business and CSPE, and I guess one or two other things if they ask me...

I'm kind of not certain how to precede. I'm going to try and find some info from people currently in the course on these boards about teaching practice schools. Whether you are in teaching every day before lectures.. and travel arrangements etc.

I suppose its a case of sending out cvs/ringing schools. I was thinking about asking my old school could they accommodate me, but it is probably at least an hour travel time to ucd, so maybe not realistic.

smcmaths

maggie cork i didnt get it either gutted did u want UCC? fingers crossed round 2 will bring good news

laulabell

Maggie,
Do not give up on it! I was devastated this time last year and I know how awful it feels x
This was my third go and it finally paid off.. Check out GTTR also as I think they are still taking applications, my friend is doing the dip in England this year and loves it! Chin up

thesis86

Avery wrote: »

Heya

I'll be teaching Economics, Business and CSPE, and I guess one or two other things if they ask me...

I'm kind of not certain how to precede. I'm going to try and find some info from people currently in the course on these boards about teaching practice schools. Whether you are in teaching every day before lectures.. and travel arrangements etc.

I suppose its a case of sending out cvs/ringing schools. I was thinking about asking my old school could they accommodate me, but it is probably at least an hour travel time to ucd, so maybe not realistic.

Depends on your course, really.
Yes, ring and write schools, as many as you can. Just to warn you, some are more Dip-friendly than others! On many occasions I rang schools looking for a placement and was told I'd be contacted by the Principal- they never rang back. Be persistent!
It's important to get your name out there as quickly as you can as many schools limit the number of Dips they take on each year.

Postgrad10

I'm kind of not certain how to precede. I'm going to try and find some info from people currently in the course on these boards about teaching practice schools. Whether you are in teaching every day before lectures.. and travel arrangements etc.

Yeah they teach in the mornings and have to be in UCD by 2 for lectures. There's a thread for current UCD students so I'll try there too.

Congrats again:)

Postgrad10

Hi,
Just wondering those of you who have got UCD, which subjects will you be teaching?

AirmidOg

Postgrad10 wrote: »

Hi,
Just wondering those of you who have got UCD, which subjects will you be teaching?

Postgrad10 I'll be teaching History and English. How about you?

Postgrad10

Hi AirmidOg,
I'll be teaching English and French.

wolfyboy555

i had 45 points but still didn't get accepted in maynooth!:(:(:(

Avery

I guess if anyone fails to take up their place, you should have a good shot of being offered it. I had Maynooth down as my first choice but missed it by 1 point.

road_high

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

i had 45 points but still didn't get accepted in maynooth!:(:(:(

Maybe on the 2nd round though? That random selection thing is tough. Did you get offered a place elsewhere?

wolfyboy555

do you think its likely people will not accept maynooth? i got offered ucd but Maynooth is the only place I wanted! How do they choose which people on 45 points get in and which don't?

benji 09

I have been clicking on view status on PAC website for last half hour and it keeps saying code error! Ahhhh am i doing it right! Im freaking out here

road_high

benji 09 wrote: »

I have been clicking on view status on PAC website for last half hour and it keeps saying code error! Ahhhh am i doing it right! Im freaking out here

Did ya try logging in and out of the site?

AirmidOg

benji 09 wrote: »

I have been clicking on view status on PAC website for last half hour and it keeps saying code error! Ahhhh am i doing it right! Im freaking out here

You poor thing! Might sound obvious sorry but maybe try logging out and back in again or give the PAC office a call. I hope you find out soon!

road_high

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

do you think its likely people will not accept maynooth? i got offered ucd but Maynooth is the only place I wanted! How do they choose which people on 45 points get in and which don't?

I think are just drawn at random really by the computer as far as I know. Luck of the draw really if you are unfortunate enough to be at the points cut off.

benji 09

I didnt get it cus the points was 49 + & mine was 48 I am gutted They have went up!

AirmidOg

Maybe I need to go to another thread with this question (not 100% used to these forums yet!) but will anyone else be considered a mature student doing the H Dip? I will be leaving my job but I'm so confused by the whole grants system.

petejmk

AirmidOg and Postgrad, see you in UCD. Absolutely delighted, can't believe it. Nearly made myself physically sick yesterday worrying about it. I'll be teaching History and English too

road_high

AirmidOg wrote: »

Maybe I need to go to another thread with this question (not 100% used to these forums yet!) but will anyone else be considered a mature student doing the H Dip? I will be leaving my job but I'm so confused by the whole grants system.

Same here...well contract ending actually and am very curious as to what my entitlements will be/or not will doing the H.Dip come September.

peanuthead

maggie_cork wrote: »

congrats to all...

I didnt get it

Don't lose hope just yet.

A lot of people who applied for this back in Dec may have changed their minds. Their circumstances may also have changed.

peanuthead

AirmidOg wrote: »

Maybe I need to go to another thread with this question (not 100% used to these forums yet!) but will anyone else be considered a mature student doing the H Dip? I will be leaving my job but I'm so confused by the whole grants system.

This year in Maynooth the course was half and half with mature and young students. You will find a good mix on the course

wolfyboy555

peanuthead wrote: »

Don't lose hope just yet.

A lot of people who applied for this back in Dec may have changed their minds. Their circumstances may also have changed.

I hoping this will happen! So if i decide to wait for second round offers i can't accept my place in ucd?? So if i dont get in on 2nd round i would be left with nothing??

AirmidOg

Thanks peanuthead! I actually think mature student is a bit deceptive, I'll only be 27 when I start this!

benji 09

In the 2nd round offers Do they only accept people with exact points? Like I think mine is 48 I have a masters also which I think gives me 48 and this year the points were 49 does that mean theres is a possibility??

peanuthead

AirmidOg wrote: »

Thanks peanuthead! I actually think mature student is a bit deceptive, I'll only be 27 when I start this!

Ah thats nothin!! Your age group will actually be in the majority if theis year was anything to go by.

peanuthead

benji 09 wrote: »

In the 2nd round offers Do they only accept people with exact points? Like I think mine is 48 I have a masters also which I think gives me 48 and this year the points were 49 does that mean theres is a possibility??

Could be, but to be honest it is unlikely. Unless you have applied to colleges accepting 48 or lower.

peanuthead

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

I hoping this will happen! So if i decide to wait for second round offers i can't accept my place in ucd?? So if i dont get in on 2nd round i would be left with nothing??

I'm not sure exactly how this works, you should ring PAC.

Definitely accept UCD. If you don't that place goes out in second round.

I think if you don't get your 1st choice you will be offered it in 2nd round then you can give up your place in UCD in favour of your 1st.

I think your place in UCD then becomes a 3rd offer place.

Duffbeer

Comiserations and Congrats to all. Heading to NUIG on 1st choice...delighted but lucky.
If you have an offer take it. I wouldnt gamble on 2nd round but that is my opinion. You should count yourself lucky to have an offer!
My advice to those who didnt get a 1st round offer is to keep the head up. You may be lucky in the second round but look to UK as safety net. I will be turning down a place in Aberystwyth for NUIG but I would have gone there for the sake of 9 months and esp for the want of becoming a teacher, and thats coming from a 31year old! Its never too late and dont leave all your eggs in one basket. Good luck!

jaffa20

Got accepted for Maynooth but nervous now and money is a big issue. I can only teach french according to the teaching council. Is there any way that they will hold your place for another year?

Miss Lockhart

AirmidOg wrote:

Maybe I need to go to another thread with this question (not 100% used to these forums yet!) but will anyone else be considered a mature student doing the H Dip? I will be leaving my job but I'm so confused by the whole grants system.

Taking the age of a mature student offically as 23, I'd say that over 90% on the NUIM course this year are mature students. I've only met a handful of people under 23.


Congratulations to everyone who got a place. Those who didn't, good luck for the 2nd Round offers and don't give up hope yet!

maggie_cork

peanuthead wrote: »

Don't lose hope just yet.

A lot of people who applied for this back in Dec may have changed their minds. Their circumstances may also have changed.

thanks Peanuthead!! gutted.. but i have a back up plan in place so I will just have to try again...

question for you- do you think next year when i reapply will it be taken into consideration by those processing the applications that i have applied before or will i be in the same boat as every person applying for the 1st time

dno7239

Well at least now after this year it will be fair that people cannot go raking in points for teaching practice. No offense to anyone but I wasnt offered a place and I had enough points to be considered, but my friend who got a lower mark in their undergrad, but had a few points for teaching practice got in. Anywho theres always next year

pathway33

maggie_cork wrote: »

thanks Peanuthead!! gutted.. but i have a back up plan in place so I will just have to try again...

question for you- do you think next year when i reapply will it be taken into consideration by those processing the applications that i have applied before or will i be in the same boat as every person applying for the 1st time

You will be in a stronger position next year if you are not currently counting teaching hours towards your points.

From next year points will be based on academic qualifications only.

This year people with teaching hours got between 1 and 8 extra points. They will get nothing next year.

Of course if you are counting teaching hours this year then you are at a disadvantage for next year

The PAC computer doesn't mind how many times you have applied. That won't work for or against you.

wolfyboy555

If I pay the 260 euro and accept ucd will i have to pay an extra 260 euro if by chance i get offered maynooth during second round?? Also if i got on to do a masters instead...that won't count in points if i apply next year will it??

dno7239

If you do a masters instead this year (2010-2011), and you apply in Nov 2010, your masters will not be considered because it is not complete. This happened to me this year So if you decide to do a masters instead, it will not help you in points till you apply the following year. Congrats on getting into UCD tho, I would call PAC to double check everything before trying to switch places. Also, is second round being offered to those given a place? Surely it should be offered to those who were not unfortunate enough to get anything? hmmmm

wolfyboy555

yeah i must ring up tomorrow and ask some questions. Still haven't decided weather to accept ucd or not. I had my teaching practiced all organised and everything...i just needed to get accepted into maynooth but now the school is outside the ucd radius! Anyone wanna swap a maynooth place for a ucd place?:D I feel for everyone who didn't get in and congrats to all those who did!

dno7239

I was just wondering those of you that did get in, was anyone in the position where only one of their undergrad subjects was a teaching subject. ie if you did English and Sociology? Can you get in with one subject then train in another while ur doing the dip?

maggie_cork

pathway33 wrote: »

You will be in a stronger position next year if you are not currently counting teaching hours towards your points.
QUOTE]

Ya I was aware alright about the teaching hours not counting anymore after this year..
I am just finishing a liberal arts course this year.. hope to graduate with 2.1 honors or even better..

I'm really pissed off with my college though (not everyone there mind) but see my course is 4 years, 3rd year is coop year (I spend my year in a secondary school- best year of my life, learned so so much) so for those who applied for the PGDE we were told it would be our 2nd year results that would be taken into consideration- we were not told this until near the end of our 2nd year. I got ok results but if I had known how important 2nd year was for applying I would have worked my ass off!!!

So my plan was that if i didn't get place this year that i would reapply the following year and with my year do something constructive.. not too keen on doing a masters at the moment.. I got offered a job teaching in a British Curriculum school in Abu dhabi, so did my boyfriend. So today I made the final decision I'm going!!

I'm aware that the teaching hours I will be doing wont count when I reapply for the PGDE but I was told that if I apply to Trinity that it will be an advantage. Hope this is true.. or even if it comes to it I will apply to England. I was told that my teaching hours in Abu Dhabi will be counted as it is the British Curriculum I will have taught.

The way I see it is I'm only 21 and have time yet to do the PGDE.. all along I had my heart set on coming straight from my Degree to get my dip and be sorted.. well I guess that was a pretty idealistic plan.

So my plan is teach in Abu Dhabi for 1 year (even maybe 2) and come back to Ireland, have invaluable teaching and life experience and apply for the PGDE again!

Lord TSC

dno7239 wrote: »

I was just wondering those of you that did get in, was anyone in the position where only one of their undergrad subjects was a teaching subject. ie if you did English and Sociology? Can you get in with one subject then train in another while ur doing the dip?

I got in on just English (Philosophy was my other).

When you say train, do you mean do another arts degree or part of one at the same time? Or do methodologies for subjects you've never done before.

The latter is "No". You can't do subjects you didn't do your degree in. You can do something like CSPE though, which is what I am taking as my second subject. Don't know about the former though.

peanuthead

maggie_cork wrote: »

thanks Peanuthead!! gutted.. but i have a back up plan in place so I will just have to try again...

question for you- do you think next year when i reapply will it be taken into consideration by those processing the applications that i have applied before or will i be in the same boat as every person applying for the 1st time

You will be in the same boat in so far as it will not favour you or go against you next year that you have applied this year. You do however need to keep the TP points in mind, as has been said before.

dno7239 wrote: »

Well at least now after this year it will be fair that people cannot go raking in points for teaching practice. No offense to anyone but I wasnt offered a place and I had enough points to be considered, but my friend who got a lower mark in their undergrad, but had a few points for teaching practice got in. Anywho theres always next year

I actually don't agree with you. I think points for TP was a good idea. After all, it forced a lot of people to go into the workforce before taking up the course. Which is a good thing because what if you do the course and then realise that you don't want to teach? It's not only a waste of a year, a place someone else could have had but its also a waste of 6500euro!!

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

If I pay the 260 euro and accept ucd will i have to pay an extra 260 euro if by chance i get offered maynooth during second round?? Also if i got on to do a masters instead...that won't count in points if i apply next year will it??

No the 260 is for any PAC course. The only way you will lose that 260 is if you get and accept Trinity.

dno7239 wrote: »

I was just wondering those of you that did get in, was anyone in the position where only one of their undergrad subjects was a teaching subject. ie if you did English and Sociology? Can you get in with one subject then train in another while ur doing the dip?

Yeah you can, you will have to teach 2 so you will probably do CSPE or SPHE as a second. Not good for employability though.

patann

Hi Peanuthead,

Whilst I agree with you to some extent about people having experience of the classroom before they commit to the post grad in education there is no guarantee that this will prevent them dropping out from teaching at a later stage in their lives. In addition their getting work in schools can be at the expense of fully qualified teachers also looking for work.

I feel it was extremely unfair graduates getting teaching positions - temporary, substitute or whatever when there is a surplus of people with the h.dip looking for work and also when there are so many teachers on bits of hours in schools, 10, 11, 14, or 7 hour contracts that would love the extra subsitution hours. This has been the situation for years in secondary schools. In addition h. dip students have also got subsitute work in schools whilst fully qualified staff members on "bits of contracts" are not taken into account at all for these subsitute hours. I feel this is unfair.

What other profession takes unqualifed people over qualifed people. Would a doctors hire a science graduate hoping to do the post graduate training course in medicine ahead of a fully qualifed doctor? Similar with other professions.

Pat

patann

In addition after I did my post graduate diploma in education (secondary), i worked in a school where a teacher was teaching history on a maternity leave. This teacher did not have the h.dip. She was from the area! This struck me as being crazy as a friend of mine had just done the h.dip and was fully qualified to teach history - being a history graduate was working in a coffee shop at the time and subbing a very odd day in schools. We do not know if that job had even been advertised, certaintly if it was, she hadn't seen it. That said, some schools advertise because they are supposed to but it makes no difference as they might have already someone in mind for the job. The system of hiring in schools is so untransparent. Some principals hire whoever is convenient or someone they know, not always the best person for the job. At least in the likes of the gardai it is fairer. It is based on a national panel.

Pat

laulabell

I'm with peanuthead on this one.. I think that the TP points awarded is completely fair and just, as it shows that you are genuinely interested and will go the extra mile to get an offer. You might have all the qualifications in the world but if you are not a people person what good is it? I know a guy who got his 1.1 degree at the age of 40, walked straight into the dip, subsequently walked straight into a full time contract in a school and quit after 2 weeks because "teaching wasn't for him". In my opinion, Substitute work gets your foot on the ladder, confirms that you are suitable to teach and gives confidence as a teacher heading into the Dip.
Fair enough, there are thousands of qualified teachers in the country who can't get work, but there are also thousands each year who do not get offered the Dip and this is soul destroying if you know that teaching is for you.
The system is a bit crazy, but realistically everything in this country is these days !

patann

To Laurabell,

Oh come on! It's totally unfair an unqualified person to get a job over a qualified person.


In addition who is to say someone who had teaching experience before they trained as a teacher will stay any longer than those who hadn't teaching experience? Their so called "teaching experience" could have just been supervising classes - not at all in tune with the realities of the job, getting a curriculum covered etc.

What about the teacher looking for work who is a "people person" and has a vocation to teach. Should an unqualified graduate get a job over that teacher?

In addition I have heard of cases where principals have bumped up the teaching hours on the post graduate in education application form for candidates.

A points system is the fairest system. It ensures hard working graduates and those who made the effort to get extra qualifications get preference. Plenty of hard working 1.1 or 2.1 graduates are "people persons" and have a devotion to teach.

Pat

rose23

Hey everyone.. i just got offered the HDIP in NUIG... Any one done it.. got any tips or thoughts about it??..

Jane98

Hi, I got offered a place this week on the hdip course in UCC and now am wondering what the next steps are? I accepted the place Tuesday but haven't received any documentation yet and the pac website is pretty non-informative.

Is anyone else aware what should happen next?

Blushingblue

Hi, I'm hoping someone could help!
So I applied for UCC and never thought I'd actually get it so I busied myself with looking into Masters and other degrees.
My subjects are Accounting and Business but looking at what i'll be studying I have to choose 2 modules from this list:
The Teaching of Business Studies, Civic, Social and Political Education, English, Computer Studies, Geography, History, Irish, Mathematics, Music, Religious Education, Science, French, German or Spanish and Italian.

The UCC website states that: Students are expected to teach a second subject in which they have some recognised academic attainment.
I was wondering if anyone could state what that means?
While my primary subject is Business Studies, the only other subjects I touched on during my degree was Computer Studies(which were mainly doing Accounting related projects on a computer so I doubt it counts) or Maths, which I got a B2 in Honours in the Leaving Cert and studied as one of my six subjects in 1st and 2nd year of my 4 year degree?

Rosita

Blushingblue wrote: »

The UCC website states that: Students are expected to teach a second subject in which they have some recognised academic attainment.
I was wondering if anyone could state what that means?
While my primary subject is Business Studies, the only other subjects I touched on during my degree was Computer Studies(which were mainly doing Accounting related projects on a computer so I doubt it counts) or Maths, which I got a B2 in Honours in the Leaving Cert and studied as one of my six subjects in 1st and 2nd year of my 4 year degree?

You have inadvertently answered your own question. Having some recognised academic attainment in a subject would mean having studied it at third-level to some extent - your Leaving Cert grade is irrelevant. Technically a teacher can be registered (with the Teaching Council) to teach only those subjects they have studied to degree level so in a sense the teaching methodology aspects of the course are not critical outside of the course.

But presumably the college wants people to take two subjects with which they are familiar if possible. Incidentally I think I am correct to say that Computer Studies is not a stand-alone subject in the majority of schools which would have implications for that as a choice of methodology.