Primary Education with QTS (5-11 years)

As an Ofsted Outstanding institution with a long and proud history of training teachers, we prepare you for this rewarding career through a mix of carefully selected school placements, interactive seminars, and subject skills sessions.  This professional degree will qualify you to teach across all primary years, but you will specialise in teaching 5-11-year-olds.

At Worcester, you’ll gain experience through multiple placements in a variety of school environments throughout the year, preparing you for a successful transition into teaching.

When not on placement, you’ll be taught through a mixture of lectures, workshops and interactive subject sessions covering the full spectrum of National Curriculum subjects. In these interactive sessions, our tutors will model effective teaching and classroom management strategies. They’ll then pause their ‘teaching’ to clarify their actions and the reasons behind them. Specialist facilities, such as our DT room, gymnasium, music room and art studio, are designed to replicate the school environments you’ll be teaching in, allowing you to learn in authentic settings.

In addition to your subject-specific sessions, you’ll also cover topics like behaviour management and inclusive practice, as well as carry out your own research project. In each year, our 'Developing Self' module will equip you with tools for good mental health and wellbeing, and give you space to reflect on your personal development.

The route you choose will determine the focus of your modules. For example, if you choose early years, you’ll learn how to adapt a maths lesson for 3 or 4-year-olds. In a later years group, you might be creating a computing lesson plan for 10-year-olds.

No matter which route you choose, you will qualify to teach across all primary areas – giving you flexibility throughout your career.

Placements

Across the three years, you’ll carry out at least 24 weeks of placements.

We work with over 200 schools in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire, Birmingham and beyond, and carefully select your placements to give you a range of experiences across different key stages and in different types of school. So, in your first year you might be in a Key Stage 2 class in a small village primary, and then in your second year a Key Stage 1 class in a large, culturally diverse school.

You’ll be supported in school by trained mentors and class teachers, as well as your university tutors. They will observe you teach and give instant feedback to ensure you continually improve through reflective practice.

Why the University of Worcester?

The University of Worcester is a campus university, meaning everything you need is on site. We’re based in a vibrant cathedral city just 40 mins south of Birmingham and an hour north of Bristol, and our beautiful green campuses have plenty of parking and quality on-site accommodation.

At Worcester, small class sizes, supportive tutors, and professionally focused courses mean you’ll be prepared for your dream career. These are just some of the reasons why we’re first in the UK for both graduate employment and quality education.

• University of the Year finalist in the Times Higher Education Awards 2025.
• First in the UK for sustained employment, further study or both, from any multidisciplinary university – Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) 2017 to 2025.
• First in the UK for quality education – Joint 1st in the Times Higher Education’s University Impact Rankings 2025.
• Ofsted Outstanding in 2023 the University’s primary and secondary teacher training programmes were rated ‘Outstanding’.

Join us at one of our regular Open Days to see if the University is a good fit for you: www.worcester.ac.uk/opendays

For a breakdown of the modules you'll study each year visit our course page. You can do this by scrolling to the bottom of this page and selecting 'Visit our course page'.

For detailed information about assessment, feedback, teaching and contact time visit our course page. You can do this by scrolling to the bottom of this page and selecting 'Visit our course page'.

To work as a teacher at a state school in England or Wales, you will need to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS). This is offered on this course for the following level:

• Primary