Placements
School-based work placements during the course take place in partner schools across the South West: in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset, subject to availability and are within commutable distance of your preferred placement area.
There is also the opportunity for primary trainees to apply for summer placements in our partner schools in London (more information is provided about this opportunity once you start the PGCE and applications are made in the Autumn term).
The PGCE Primary programme includes the following periods of school-based work. They are:
| Autumn Placement dates (school 1): | 10 November - 04 December 2025 |
| Spring Placement dates (school 1): Spring Placement dates (school 2): |
05 January – 05 March 2026 09 March - 02 April 2026* |
| Summer Placement dates (school 2): | 20 April* – 09 July 2026 |
*there may be local variations to these dates, particularly with Dorset schools where the spring placement 2 may end a week earlier and the summer placement may start a week earlier. Exact dates will be provided by your placement schools once you are on the course.
In addition, there are twenty Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) days focussing on four themes of teaching and learning, enabling you to delve deeply into particular key areas. Each group of 5 days focuses on a theme and is a mix of St Luke's campus-based university-led sessions and school-based practice in your placement schools.
| ITAP 1 (Early reading) | Autumn term |
| ITAP 2 (Assessment) | Autumn term |
| ITAP 3 (Effective questioning) | Autumn & Spring term (16 January & 13 February are campus-based days) |
| ITAP 4 (Adaptive teaching) | Spring & Summer term (27 March & 15 May are campus-based days) |
There are also two St Luke's campus-based seminar days on 06 March 2026 and 10 July 2026.
The PGCE Secondary programme includes the following periods of school-based work:
| Autumn Placement (school 1): | 10 November - 05 December 2025 |
| Spring Placement dates (school 1): Spring Placement dates (school 2): |
05 January – 06 March 2026 09 March - 02 April 2026* |
| Summer Placement (school 2): | 20 April* – 09 July 2026 |
*there may be local variations to these dates, particularly with Dorset schools where the spring placement 2 may end a week earlier and the summer placement may start a week earlier. Exact dates will be provided by your placement schools once you are on the course.
In addition, there are twenty Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) days focussing on four themes of teaching and learning, enabling you to delve deeply into particular key areas. Each group of 5 days focuses on a theme and is a mix of St Luke's campus-based university-led sessions and school-based practice in your placement schools.
| ITAP 1 (Learning Environment) | Autumn term |
| ITAP 2 (Assessment) | Autumn & Spring term (23 January is a campus-based day) |
| ITAP 3 (Adaptive Teaching) | Spring term (27 March is a campus-based day) |
| ITAP 4 (Literacy & Numeracy) | Summer term (24 April & 15 May are campus-based days) |
There is also a further seminar day on St Luke's campus on 10 July.
The Partnership Office will ask you to provide details about your circumstances and placement preferences to help them when allocating your placements. We aim to advise trainees of their placement schools by the end of July. If your circumstances change after you have submitted your information, please do inform the Partnership Office (exeterpartner@exeter.ac.uk) as soon as possible.
Please see Placement FAQs for more information about the placement allocation process.
We offer a contribution to some of the travel and accommodation costs that PGCE trainees may incur as a result of the structure of the training year. The policy is available on the School of Education website here. Please read the policy carefully to see what it does and doesn’t cover. If you have any questions about this policy in advance of starting the programme, please contact the Info at St Luke’s team on info.stlukes@exeter.ac.uk.
