Secondary Physical Education with QTS Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)

Our roots in delivering Physical Education training go back as far as 1897 and we are now the largest provider of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in the West Midlands. Our strong partnerships across a diverse range of secondary schools will enable you to gain practical experience that reflects the rich variety of cultural and linguistic influences, religious beliefs, and social diversity of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. This course gives you the opportunity to achieve Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and teach PE to secondary school pupils aged 11–16, as well as providing some post-16 enhancement.

The course aims to develop your PE subject and pedagogical knowledge at degree level, alongside gaining QTS. The combination of professional teaching practice and subject expertise means you get the best of both worlds – benefitting from the strong partnership between our PE teacher educators and our subject specialists who are at the forefront of practice in their fields. To do this, you will be taught across our City Centre Campus and at our Doug Ellis Sport Centre in Perry Barr.

Studying this course will enable you to discover the contemporary place and role of Physical Education, School Sport, and Physical Activity within the education setting. You will explore the current national curriculum for PE and have opportunities to develop your subject knowledge across a range of physical activities alongside effective teaching pedagogy to deliver high-quality PE in the secondary school phase.

You will develop a deeper understanding of the PE teaching environment and learn how to meet the needs of learners from a range of socio-cultural settings, as well as pupils with learning barriers and specific education needs, all the while ensuring PE is meaningful and engaging for all. We will look at alternative PE curriculum designs, exploring a combination of traditional and alternative activity pathways, including off-site, outdoor activity experiences, which will widen your skillset as a trainee PE teacher. This means that, in addition to covering more traditional team sports, such as football and netball, and other invasion game activities, you will gain practical experience of gymnastics and dance, net and wall activities and athletics, and emerging and alternative physical activities, such as parkour, kinball and adventurous outdoor activities.

Across your three years, you take some modules of school-based training. You will spend at least 120 days on placement across the course, with the majority taking place in years two and three of your degree. Your placement experiences are designed to equip you with a wealth of practical experience to develop you as a PE teacher, working in partnership with experienced school subject mentors. You will develop your professional behaviors as a trainee teacher and immerse yourself into the day-to-day responsibilities of a secondary school PE teacher.

In addition to your school placement, you will also have three separate enrichment weeks, which provide you with the opportunity to deepen your understanding of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), both in mainstream and specialist school provision, primary education, and post-16 provision. In your final year, you will also study an additional subject module and undertake some teaching experience. This will enhance your employability by showing employers you can bring some additional flexibility because you are able to design and deliver the curriculum in another area other than PE.

You will be assessed against the Teachers’ Standards (DfE 2012) at the end of the course.