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 chosen Initial Teacher Education Hub (primary) or within your preferred placement area (secondary).
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): | 11 November - 29 November 2024 |
| Spring Placement dates (school 1): Spring Placement dates (school 2): |
06 January – 28 February 2025 10 March - 04 April 2025 |
| Summer Placement dates (school 2): | 21 April – 10 July 2025 |
In addition, there are four Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) weeks focusing on four themes of teaching and learning, enabling you to delve deeply into particular key areas. These weeks are a mixture of university-led sessions and school-based practice, some of which will take place in local schools to your ITE Hub and some will be at your placement 1 school.
| ITAP week 1 (Early reading) | 23 September - 27 September 2024 |
| ITAP week 2 (Assessment) | 21 October - 25 October 2024 |
| ITAP week 3 (Effective questioning) | 02 December - 06 December 2024 |
| ITAP week 4 (Adaptive teaching) | 03 March - 07 March 2025 |
There are also three seminar days for trainees from all ITE Hubs. These are on 31 January 2025, 23 May 2025 and 11 July 2025 and are all held at the St Luke's campus.
The PGCE Secondary programme includes the following periods of school-based work:
| Autumn Placement (school 1): | 11 November - 06 December 2024 |
| Spring Placement dates (school 1): Spring Placement dates (school 2): |
06 January – 07 March 2025 10 March - 04 April 2025 |
| Summer Placement (school 2): | 22 April – 09 July 2025 |
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 university-led sessions and school-based practice in your placement schools.
| ITAP week 1 (Learning Environment) | Autumn term |
| ITAP week 2 (Assessment) | Late autumn term & early spring term |
| ITAP week 3 (Adaptive Teaching) | Spring term |
| ITAP week 4 (Literacy & Numeracy) | Summer term |
There are also six days where trainees return to the St Luke’s campus (some of these days are also ITAP university-led days) - 24 January 2025, 14 February 2025, 28 March 2025, 25 April 2025, 16 May 2025 and 10 July 2025.
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 PGCE 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.
