Primary Education with QTS with Foundation Year
Entry requirements
GCSE/National 4/National 5
Grade C/4 or above in GCSE Mathematics, English Language and Science
UCAS Tariff
About this course
**Train for a challenging and rewarding career as a primary school teacher in an ‘outstanding’ (Ofsted, 2019) department.**
Study our primary education degree with a professional qualification (QTS) to prepare for a fulfilling career in the classroom, inspiring future generations.
We will train you to teach five to 11-year-olds in both secular and religious schools. We offer special provision for those intending to teach in Roman Catholic schools.
**School Experience in every year of your course**
You will spend at least seven weeks each year in a primary school working alongside expert colleagues in a range of year groups. You will start working with small groups and will progress to planning for and teaching whole classes.
We will organise these school placements for you in one of our partnership schools to ensure you receive the appropriate levels of support.
**Learn from devoted tutors in a supportive environment**
Our students praise St Mary’s for the quality of our teaching, and the support you receive from staff on the programme: "The passionate lecturers are a constant reminder of why teaching is my chosen profession, and I became genuinely excited to go into school and put everything that I have learnt into practice." (NSS, 2021)
Another student explained, "I felt valued and respected by all staff from the outset of my course. I have enjoyed my experience and thanks to all the staff on my course, I feel I have the skills and enthusiasm after their support, teaching and advice to embark on my new career as a teacher."
Ofsted graded St Mary’s ‘Outstanding’ in all areas of teacher training in 2019. We achieved 92% teaching satisfaction rate in the 2022 National Student Survey.
You can also study our programme in North Wales. We are partnered with Wrexham Glyndŵr, who offer teaching placements in both English and Welsh schools.
**About the Foundation Year**
Our four-year degree programmes (including a foundation year) provide an alternative route to undergraduate study at university if you do not have the grades to access higher education in the traditional way.
This programme gives you the opportunity to study on a foundation year as a route toward Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
The Foundation Year will help you to become a confident presenter, improve your written and numerical skills and give you a broad understanding of the sociological perspectives of Education.
Please note: you will need to pass an interview process and obtain a DBS and fitness to teach check in order to progress on to the full undergraduate programme.
Modules
As well studying the core Foundation Year modules, you will also have the opportunity to experience working in an educational environment
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
St Mary's University, Twickenham
School of Education
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Teacher training
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Teacher training
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
The stats above mainly cover teaching degrees for training and qualifying in primary school education. These tend to be three or four-year courses — check with course tutors about how long you will need to study to get your Qualified Teacher Status. Most graduates go into teaching roles — usually primary school teaching, so these courses have good employment rates and starting salaries. We have a shortage of teachers of all kinds, which is deepening, and whilst many of the most severe are at secondary level, the prospects for this degree are not likely to take a downturn any time soon.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Teacher training
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£25k
£29k
£33k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Explore these similar courses...
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Course location and department:
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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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