Primary Education

Home of the two-year degree, the University of Buckingham, based in the South East of England, is ranked 6th for Student Satisfaction in the UK (National Student Survey, 2020).

Based in Buckingham on a riverside campus, we are only 20 minutes’ from Milton Keynes central station and a short drive from Bicester, Aylesbury, Banbury and Northampton. There is free parking on-site and we are within easy reach of London and Oxford.

Our award-winning small class tutorials ensure every student is known by name and supported throughout their studies, including by dedicated personal tutors.

This three-year BA degree course is designed for those working as teaching assistants in schools who wish to become primary or prep school teachers. To become a qualified teacher you have to have a degree and the most relevant degree to take is one in Education.

While the number of teachers in schools in England has remained steady over the past decade or so, the number of full-time equivalent TAs has more than trebled since 2000, from 79,000 to 262,800. Teaching assistants now comprise more than a quarter of the workforce in mainstream schools in England, rising to 35% in primary schools.

Our degree has many significant advantages:

1. It is designed to enable you to work in a paid job while taking the course.

2. The course is online and this enables you do the work and complete tasks at times you can manage. The course is delivered with our partner, Anspear, whose system is already being used to deliver a very similar course online to prison officers – so we know it works. The course materials are written by academics and leading primary school head teachers in England.

3. The course is excellent value. Every student will need to find out whether their employer is happy to pay, or whether they will take a student loan.

4. You will have your own University of Buckingham tutor who will support you throughout the course.

5. The degree course is integrated with your work because much of the study is based on you reflecting on your school and what happens there.

6. The BA can be followed by the 12-month Qualified Teacher Status course at the University of Buckingham which is free of charge (at the time of writing) because it is paid, through your employer, by the apprenticeship levy. QTS is needed to teach in many schools in England.

7. A typical teacher training course is only 10 months long, so adding a three-year degree to that will ensure you have a much higher level of knowledge.

8. You will have opportunities to come to the University of Buckingham and meet fellow students and on passing the degree will attend our graduation ceremony in 2026.

Teaching assistants should not embark on this course unless they are determined and can find a good amount of time each week to do the necessary reading and writing.

Part-time teaching assistants are welcome.

Start date: July 2023. The compulsory induction day is in July 2023, online.

Finish date: June 2026 (October 2027 if you add the teacher apprenticeship QTS course).

Course Modules

There are 10 modules of 30 credits each, and a final 60 credit Enquiry module. The modules are:

Child development 1 and the purposes of education
School organisation and regulation and successful primary schools
The science of learning and successful primary pupils
The role of play and creativity in primary education
Child development 2: barriers to learning, classroom culture and managing behaviour
Early Years learning and an introduction to oracy and phonics
Literacy and numeracy
Foundation subjects and statutory RE
Teaching primary science and assessment in primary schools
Literacy and numeracy throughout the curriculum
Enquiry module

You will study one of the modules in each of the terms of the programme (four a year) , using the online platform. You will be sent readings and talks to work through and you will be assessed via computer-marked tests and reflective writing during the term and submit an end of module assignment of 3,000 words. These will be based on your study and in-school observations and experiences. The final Enquiry module is assessed in part by via computer-marked tests throughout the module as well as reflective writing and a larger piece of research based on an area of your choice from the programme that will involve a literature review of 2000 words and a research project of 6000 words, written over two terms.