PGDE Primary (Gaelic Medium) (Taught)

The Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) consists of 18 weeks study at the university, plus 18 weeks in professional practice in schools. The placements in schools are arranged nationally and you will be placed in schools within travelling distance of your home or term-time address.

You must be a fluent Gaelic speaker at the start of this course and your language proficiency will be assessed at interview. Parts of the course are delivered through the medium of Gaelic and you will complete the majority of your school practice in classes that provide Gaelic Medium Education.

The Gaelic medium pathway is offered in partnership with Argyll and Bute, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highland, and Perth and Kinross Councils, each working with the university through the relevant local campus at:

◾UHI Argyll - Oban
◾UHI Inverness
◾UHI North, West and Hebrides - Benbecula; Fort William; Stornoway
◾UHI Perth
◾Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

You will be required to have a home or term-time address in the local authority area of your chosen campus. Graduates of the course will hold provisional registration as a primary teacher with the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

You will benefit from studying in small, locally based groups while collaborating remotely with other student teachers and tutors across the university’s network of colleges. The course is taught with the PGDE Primary (English medium) and overlaps significantly with the PGDE Secondary to offer a cross-sector perspective.

A mandatory three-day residential induction is held at the start of the course with a further one in March which focuses on STEM and developing teacher leadership. Each local cohort will also organise a showcase event at the end of the course, as part of developing leadership.

Important: Please read our FAQ sheet on our website for essential information about applying to this programme.

Module outline

PDGE Taught Modules

Collaborative Practice (20 credits)

This module will develop teachers who are critically reflective, accomplished and enquiring professionals, able to fully engage with the complexities of education and become key people in shaping educational change. It will enable an understanding of the nature of curriculum and its development, the relevance to the modern world and a changing society. The module will examine how Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in education by providing a more enriched, coherent and flexible curriculum. Students will be equipped with the skills to plan, teach and assess within a curriculum framework where the focus is on themes across learning and working with their class and teaching colleagues as part of the whole school.

Enquiry and Practice (20 credits)

This module is aimed at establishing children and young people’s learning, and their classroom experiences as learners, as the central focus for students’ enquiry into their own practice, as the key driver for all planning, teaching and assessment decisions made. The module is closely linked to the four blocks of Placement experience in Gaelic medium settings, to enhance understanding of learning as a continuum.

Reflective Practice (20 credits)

The module will equip students with the necessary tools to develop an enquiring and critical approach to their teaching, as part of their own personal and professional resources to ensure continuing growth and development. It aims to ensure that the aspirant teacher will become a reflective professional, embodying the necessary skills to think seriously about the quality of children and young people’s learning and the ways in which their own practice impacts on learning. The module will also give students a critical appreciation of how the key concepts of language understanding and development are integrated into teaching and how they impact on each other.

Professional Practice (Primary)  (60 credits)

For this module, you will develop your teaching practice and professional identity as a teacher in three 6-week blocks of school placements in three different schools. These are allocated nationally via the Student Placement System to afford experience of learning within different levels of Curriculum for Excellence.

You will gradually increase the duration and scope of your responsibility for learning, teaching and assessment in your school placement class, culminating in taking full responsibility for the class for an agreed period of consecutive full days during the final 6-week placement.

This outline reflects the modules as currently delivered and is subject to change.