PGCE placement disaster. Advice needed, please help!?

Question

I apologise if this comes over as very stressed, and garbled, I am genuinely in a very distressed state, and basically panicking. If anyone has any advice, or contacts I would be terribly grateful. I have not mentioned the names of specific institutions of course but I will go so far as to say I am in the southwest of England 


I have been doing a part time PGCE in post compulsory education (specialism drama and media) and if all had gone according to plan, I would have been finishing this month. 
When I started, in 2007, I was working as a paid tutor in Adult and Community Learning, but I was told that I needed, for the PGCE, to work with learners on an accredited course (rather than unaccredited evening classes). I was verbally told I "should" have a small placement at a local college, but when it came to two weeks before I was due to start (at the beginning of my second year, my PGCE tutor (not me) was emailed to say there was no placement for me, and when I complained, another member of staff in that department whom I had spoken to several times, claimed never to have heard of me. I was told I could not continue my PGCE (I was left to phone all the local schools and sixth forms to try and find myself a placement, far too late in the year, they said they were all full and anyway that it was the job of my university to arrange the placements, not me). Eventually, my tutors found me a placement in another college. 

I served two terms there, with no apparant problems of which I was aware and good feedback from staff, tutors and students. I of course have had to apply to extend my PGCE over a third year to get the required amount of teaching practice, but I was not too worried, as this college had said I could continue my placement. My tutors and I had this in writing this time! And now I have been told that due to a department restructuring, there is no placement availble to me after all. 

I am required to finish the PGCE in three years, that is the maximum to which it can be extended, and I am now looking at the third year. I dont know what to do, I have spoken to my tutors, and others at the university,and have again emailed all the local schools and sixth forms, I have already had several "no we are full"s back. I have also contacted the local volunteer bureau and jobcentre, as well as posting my CV on Monster.com. I am heartbroken as through the PGCE despite the problems, I have found that I really love teaching, and would really like this to be a long term, lifelong career. I would have wasted two years of student debt and fallen in love with a career aim, all for nothing. I am terribly upset, and not sure what to do. If I had done something wrong I could understand, but I have only ever had people being positive about my teaching, using words like "impressive" and "excellent". 

To be fair I think my tutors began making some enquiries yesterday, but I have lost all trust in the academic process of the PGCE. 

I dont know if there is anything else I can be doing, or places to contact. or if anyone has any suggestions.

Mumknowsbest · Accepted Answer

It sounds like you've done everything you can - don't give up as you are in the right here!  Have you tried writing to the Education authority and explaining the situation fully, as you have here?  They must see that it's not just a case of finding you a placement as it would be for anyone who hadn't had the delay.

sashs.geo · Answer

OK so break thins down

You have done all the academic work.

You just need the teaching hours. OK as well as colleges and VI forms you could try charities, prisons, care homes, summer schemes for teenagers etc.

Your PGCE must be completed in 3 years but you can also defer for a year. Ie you take a break now for a year and do your teaching course starting in September 2010.

You can do your teaching hours as a volunteer. That's why I mentioned care homes. Contact your local housing group - do this in writing. Lots of sheltered accommodation have activities and you could offer a course in drama - leading to a production of a play.

Also check if your teaching hours all need to be in media and drama - some PGCE's offer a generic route and as long as you are teaching it doesn't matter what the subject is.

If you can teach any subject then contact our local council - most have volunteers teaching English. This can be great fun - I used to go to a lady's house and have curry for breakfast and we would talk  to improve her English.

Although your PGCE is for post compulsory you can teach students from age 14. You culd ask local schools if you could run a drama club after school for older students. They would get a free club and you would get your teaching hours.

good luck - you will get your hours somewhere

Anonymous · Answer

Wow, this is a difficult situation. I am a teacher who has taught special ed. students, emotionally disturbed, and highly gifted. I have noticed that some highly gifted students do have behavior issues, stemming from their own frustration at not being challenged, and being bored in class, among other things. I KNOW for a fact there are schools for gifted students like your son, and they can even deal with his frustrations as well. I teach in Denver and have a gifted/emotionally disturbed child going to one of these schools next year, after talking with his mother and telling her this would be a better place for him. In my experience, IEP's are strictly for learning/speech disabilities, but if he has been labeled as emotionally distrubed he may be able to have an IEP written for certain aspects of that. I am not totally sure. However, you need to ask about these special placement schools. He will most likely not be happy in a regular ed. classroom, and thus his behavior issues. He needs a place that will challenge him and keep him busy thinking. A dysfunctional class is no place for a highly gifted student. Talk with the school, they should do the right thing. good luck to you and your son.

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Barbara Doll to you · Answer

I think calmness is an important criterion for a teacher. So stay calm.
Positive things happen to positive people, and vice versa.

Put pressure on your college and trust they will come up with the goods. If you panic they will worry what they might be inflicting on some unsuspecting school.

Anonymous · Answer

I would continue to speak to other FE colleges, perhaps further away than you've so far tried? It's good the university are negotiating for you, but it wouldn't hurt to be proactive. If worse comes to worse, ask your University to defer your placement till next year due to unforeseen circumstances.

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Anonymous · Answer

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John S · Answer

You have asked this twice, part of my answer to your other question was to advise you to get student membership of one of the teaching unions.eg NATFE or NASUWT.

PGCE placement disaster. Advice needed, please help!?

9 Answers