Studying primary education at Brighton

Final year student, Oliver Moutrey, tells us about his experience whilst studying Primary Education (3-7 years) BA(Hons) with QTS at Brighton…

Why did you choose to study primary education at Brighton?

After deciding that I wanted to pursue a career in education, the choice to choose the University of Brighton was so easy. The university was rated outstanding for the course I had in mind and on the plus side, I lived 45 minutes away from campus and saw it an easy commute to make.

Whilst completing my BTEC’s, I did some volunteering in a school and this helped to confirm to me that teaching was what I wanted to do in life. Throughout my time at school, I always aspired to be a teacher as I saw how their job can have an incredible impact on children and that’s what I wanted to do too.

What are you enjoying the most about your course?

The course is absolutely incredible, it’s very practical and hands on but it can be challenging as well. The most interesting aspects of the course have to be where you’re working collaboratively as a group, there are so many ideas bouncing off one another and it’s a truly great environment to be in.

I also work for the university as a student ambassador where I support interview days and recruitment events and I enjoy chatting about my experiences.

How have you found the teaching staff and support available?

During the interview process, the first people I met were Pippa and Mel. These ladies have been working collaboratively for years in the primary education recruitment process and laid a very professional impression on me, I felt safe and ultimately invited into the primary education family.

All of the staff that have taught me have been absolutely incredible. They are engaging and aspiring people and have a lot of knowledge about what they teach. Their passion for teaching comes across massively in their teaching to us.

How have you found your placement and what experience have you gained?

I have had the opportunity to go on three separate placements, one for each year of study, these school-based experiences are really rich and ultimately essential to my end goal.

This course helps you tremendously to prepare you for your future career. Staff show you how to plan, teach, assess and improve in your own teaching from this. The placement experiences on top of this ultimately helps shape you as a teacher and are a really powerful resource.

How do you think this course will support you in your career?

 I can safely say that the lecturers really do provide an insight on their experiences – they help you understand and underpin relevant strategies and ways to teach children and how to best support them in most situations. I can already see an incredible transformation in myself as a teacher from when I first started the course to where I am now.

My plans after finishing the course are to complete my two NQT years and end up in a new full-time teaching job. I am feeling very positive about what the future holds and know that I will be a very successful teacher.