Birmingham City University

Birmingham City University and its predecessors have a long-standing history of providing initial teacher education for primary and secondary teachers. The Faculty of Education was formed in 1975 from a merger of three existing Colleges of Education in Birmingham within the then City of Birmingham Polytechnic. For the majority of this time the Faculty has provided both undergraduate and PGCE courses for intending primary teachers and PGCE courses at secondary level. The number of subject areas at secondary level has gradually expanded to the current 5 routes. 2008-09 intake targets were 315 for Primary trainees and 170 for Secondary trainees. The Faculty is a Category A provider in both primary and secondary areas. Many staff teach in both primary and secondary provision and the Faculty encourages a coherent and integrated approach across the two sectors. Subject knowledge is delivered by Faculty staff with a background in teacher education.

The Faculty and the majority of its partnership schools are located in the West Midlands. Training in this densely populated area provides students with experience of teaching in a multi-cultural, urban setting, although partnerships also exist with schools in the more rural hinterland of Worcestershire and Shropshire, and a small number of school partners are located outside the West Midlands area. The majority of students therefore have less than an hour’s travel to their placement school and many students will be placed in schools with one or more of their fellow students. A high proportion of trainees (71% of primary trainees and 56% of secondary trainees in 2007-08) come from the West Midlands area and many continue to live at home throughout their training. Employment rates are high (97% in 2006-07, compared to the sector average of 82%), with the majority of students finding employment locally on completion of their course.

The PGCE Secondary Partnership consists of 288 schools, although in any one year not all schools will be active. The Partnership covers an area from Leicester in the east to Shrewsbury in the west, from Stafford in the north to Worcester in the south, although the majority of schools are in the West Midlands conurbation. The extensive area covered by the Partnership reflects the fact that, as the only provider for music and for art and design (and to some extent drama) in the West Midlands, trainees are drawn from a wide range of locations. For example, in recent years we have developed partnerships with schools in the Leicester area to provide places for art and design trainees who live in the area. This was necessitated by the closure of De Montfort University’s art and design route.

A feature of the course is the large numbers for music and art and design. Before 2005 the art and design route was an independent course based at the Birmingham Institute for Art and Design, and the current Partnership is a coming together of the pre-existing, independent partnerships. This background explains why the Partnership has been developed through, in the first place, establishing strong links with subject departments that demonstrate good practice. As our range of subjects has grown, we have maintained the close links between subject tutors and subject departments as this enables trainees to be placed in departments which best meet trainees’ needs, and also allows tutors to provide effective support for subject mentors, both in their mentoring and in their CPD as subject teachers. At the same time, the growth in our subject routes has enabled us to develop our relationship with professional mentors and strengthen their role in school-based training and the quality assurance of placements.

Links with the profession are evidenced by partner involvement in course development, recruitment and course delivery. Training our students for careers in culturally-diverse schools maintains our focus on those aspects of the University’s mission which seek to promote equality and inclusion.

Distinctive features of our provision are the high employment rates, the emphasis on teaching in a multi-cultural environment and the consistently high quality ratings for training, management and quality assurance. The Faculty at present offers PGCE students the opportunity to delay the choice of either the Professional Graduate or the Postgraduate award until after an initial period of study at Level 6.

In the Secondary Programme we have traditionally focused on arts subjects, (art and design, drama, and music) and have a history of working successfully in these areas. In recent years we have extended our provision to incorporate design and technology (food and textiles) and mathematics which complements and extends our commitment to creative and innovative subject areas in secondary schools.