Why choose the School of Education and English
A practice-led approach to gaining Qualified Teacher Status, with 80% of your time spent on placement.
In the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2025, our education and teaching courses rank in the top 25 in their subject field for sense of community and skills development.
In the NSS 2025, our teacher training courses scored student satisfaction rates of 90% and over for teaching, learning opportunities, academic support, learning resources and freedom of expression.
About the course
This largely placement-based course gives you the practical teaching skills, understanding of educational theory and subject-specific knowledge to lead learning and teach drama in a creative and imaginative way. You spend 80% of your time in placement schools, gaining hands-on experience of teaching ages 11-16. In your University-based sessions, you explore areas such as professional issues, curriculum content, planning and assessment, and the role of technology in teaching drama. Underpinned by principles of equity and inclusion, the curriculum is designed to develop drama teachers who can be agents for change, building pupils’ confidence and empowering them to be creative.
There is the option to take this course part time over two years, making it easier to balance study with your other commitments.
Course accreditation / industry endorsement
We are a Department for Education-accredited provider of Initial Teacher Training (ITT). This course meets the requirements for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
Facilities and specialist equipment
- Teacher Education Centre with realistic mock classrooms supported by specialist technology that allows you to watch and self-assess your lesson
- Up-to-the-minute simulation technology
- Specialist sensory suite for teaching SEND classes
- Multimedia space for webinars and podcasting
- 80-seat black-box theatre
- 260-seat professional theatre
- Dance studios
Industry links
We have well-established partnerships with more than 500 schools and other associated organisations across the eastern region, a network that puts us ahead when it comes to national priorities, issues and developments in educational practice.
Your student experience
The University of Bedfordshire is one of the largest providers of teacher education in the region with a long, successful history of teacher education going back to 1882.
Gain real-world experience on a practice-led teaching course where you complete your training in the classroom at placements in our partner schools around the region.
The PGCE course has wellbeing embedded throughout, with specialist sessions entitled ‘Looking after yourself as a teacher’.
The enrichment arm of the course enables you to gain further understanding in areas of your choosing, such as autism or school leadership, with some choices leading to additional qualifications.
Your mentor is fully trained and may be a former University of Bedfordshire student teacher so you are joining a large, lifelong community.
Additional placement support is provided by our placement coordinator and wellbeing coordinator.
University-based sessions take place at our Bedford campus, a small, thriving academic community where academic staff get to know you well and provide individual academic support.
All University-based staff teaching our QTS courses were previously employed as teachers, senior leaders and/or head teachers.
Staff are evidence informed and current in their education practice through school settings or research activities at HE/national level.
We use blended-learning strategies, with conferences, TED-style masterclasses and cross-curricular discussions taking place on campus as well as online.
Regular visits by professionals from schools, local organisations, community partners and professional bodies including both primary and secondary teachers and senior leaders, SEN schools, and local education authorities.
Experience field trips to locations you would be likely to take your pupils.
On graduating, you gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), enabling you to work as a drama teacher in a secondary education setting.
Course Leader - Mr Kalib De Merchant
I began my teaching career in 2014 after obtaining my BeD from the University of New Brunswick. Prior to this, I obtained my Bachelors of Arts at St Thomas University (Canada) where I received an Honours in English with a concentration in Drama and a Major in Philosophy.
Upon completion of my degree, I worked as an EAL Teacher at Guiyang Concord College of Cino China. In 2016 I began teaching in Luton as a Teacher of English, later becoming the Head of Drama.
Course Leader - Mr Kalib De Merchant
I began my teaching career in 2014 after obtaining my BeD from the University of New Brunswick. Prior to this, I obtained my Bachelors of Arts at St Thomas University (Canada) where I received an Honours in English with a concentration in Drama and a Major in Philosophy.
Upon completion of my degree, I worked as an EAL Teacher at Guiyang Concord College of Cino China. In 2016 I began teaching in Luton as a Teacher of English, later becoming the Head of Drama.
Studying our Secondary Drama PGCE course will equip you with the in-depth knowledge and skills to effectively teach drama at secondary level. The Curriculum Specialist (Drama) is designed to develop adaptive, creative, inclusive, reflective and socially-just teachers, who view themselves as career-long learners. You will develop your knowledge of key theatre practitioners and explore aspects of the drama curriculum, such as Foundational components of Drama Education and Introduction to Physical Theatre. You will explore pedagogical approaches to teaching scripts and texts, and you will learn to teach a breadth of curriculum areas including teaching Shakespeare, directing, devising theatre, global theatre and critical analysis. Throughout the drama course, you will be supported in developing your own teaching practice through collaborative planning, peer teaching, weekly progress reviews and evaluations.
The Evidence Informed Curriculum Specialist unit builds on your understanding of current contexts in drama, as well as how to apply that knowledge into practice. You will have the opportunity to undertake a school placement where you will build your experience to independently plan and teach sequences of learning based on your observations and learning in our School Experience 1 unit. You will also explore new pedagogical ideas while learning to align with behaviour management policy in schools. In the second part of this unit, School Experience 2, you will continue to develop and apply your experience from the first unit while also learning strategies to adapt teaching, effective use of assessment and to promote good progress. This course is available as both a one-year full-time or a two-year part-time course.
The assessment strategy is based upon the premise that critical evaluation of theoretical perspectives as they apply to your own teaching is an intrinsic element of best teaching practice. Throughout the course, therefore, you will continually be encouraged to explore what is known about teaching and learning, and to demonstrate independence and creativity in evaluating the relevance of that knowledge in your own context. Sound subject knowledge is a fundamental quality of an effective teacher and you will be expected to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing development of that knowledge throughout the course in preparation for the final assessment. Also key to the course is a focus on the development of evidence informed teaching, culminating in an extended systematic study of your own practice.
By embracing the professional requirements for Qualified Teacher Status within the course it supports you in developing the qualities which define the University of Bedfordshire graduate teacher: an independent, reflective, creative, innovative, collaborative and resilient professional who is committed to ongoing personal and professional development.
The assessment for this course seeks to support you in developing your understanding of the interplay between theoretical perspectives and practice-based experience. You will be developing your skills of reviewing and evaluation of evidence, critical thinking, creativity and independence. The themes for your evidence informed writing are developed from local and national subject priorities and, therefore, allow you to develop the evidence of your understanding of values and principles found in the cumulative evidence record which enable you to meet the Teachers’ Standards as they apply to your working context at the end of the course. By building your work around these themes, you will generate rich evidence which can contribute to the assessment of your professional performance: the Profile Review Points. Hence, the assessment items are intrinsically connected and, in combination, allow you to demonstrate your achievement of all learning outcomes.
The Profile Review Point is the process by which the mentor reviews your progress in your teaching practice and offers this evidence to your university tutor to review against all the other evidence that they see of you on the course. The Cumulative Evidence Record provides the framework by which this progress is judged and are supplemented with descriptors which support you in understanding how to show you have learned the curriculum of the course. The Teachers Standards are used at the end of the course as per the statutory PSRB guidance.
Formative use of assessment is embedded throughout the course and is a principle which we would expect you to adopt in your own teaching. You will be supported to become familiar with self- and peer-assessment approaches and to make effective use of feedback on both academic and practice-based aspects of the course, to identify targets for your ongoing development and plan actions to address them.
The passing of all four units will mean the course will recommend you to the TRA for QTS. In exceptional circumstances, approved by the head of school, it may be possible for recommendation for QTS to be made without completion of all four units. This option is not an automatic entitlement.
Engagement with published research is a fundamental aspect of the course and you will be supported in developing skills of critical analysis of the literature. Rigorous attention to referencing conventions is, therefore, essential and you will be required to adopt the Harvard system. You will be supported in developing your understanding of plagiarism and in the use of Turnitin as a means of ensuring that referencing requirements are satisfied.
Careers
On graduating, you can apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), enabling you to work as a drama teacher in a secondary education setting. Many of our graduates go on to rewarding employment in local schools.
As well as Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), completing the course also offers you up to 60 Master's-level credits with opportunities for further study at MA/MSc, MPhil, PhD and EdD levels.
Entry Requirements
- Safeguarding checks, including an Enhanced DBS, and Occupational Health check are required
Entry Requirements
- Safeguarding checks, including an Enhanced DBS, and Occupational Health check are required
Fees for this course
UK
You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for PGCE tuition fees.
See www.gov.uk/student-finance
A limited number of bursaries are available for Primary PGCE courses.
See www.gov.uk/teacher-training-funding
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
Bedfordshire Scholarship Available
The University of Bedfordshire is proud of its alumni and is delighted to offer a tuition fee discount for those who choose to continue or return to the University for on campus Postgraduate level studies.
We offer a 20% discount on full and part-time Masters courses to those who were successful in completing an Honours Degree with the University of Bedfordshire, DMU’s Bedford campus or the University of Luton.
The Department for Education (DFE) Bursaries and Scholarships
Bursaries and scholarships are available to trainees on tuition fee-based teacher training courses in England that lead to the award of qualified teacher status (QTS).
| Subject | Bursary | Scholarship |
|---|---|---|
| Computing | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Mathematics | £29,000 | — |
| Physics | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Chemistry | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Design and Technology | £20,000 | — |
| Biology | £5,000 | — |
| Geography | £5,000 | — |
Fees for this course
UK
You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for PGCE tuition fees.
See www.gov.uk/student-finance
A limited number of bursaries are available for Primary PGCE courses.
See www.gov.uk/teacher-training-funding
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
Bedfordshire Scholarship Available
The University of Bedfordshire is proud of its alumni and is delighted to offer a tuition fee discount for those who choose to continue or return to the University for on campus Postgraduate level studies.
We offer a 20% discount on full and part-time Masters courses to those who were successful in completing an Honours Degree with the University of Bedfordshire, DMU’s Bedford campus or the University of Luton.
The Department for Education (DFE) Bursaries and Scholarships
Bursaries and scholarships are available to trainees on tuition fee-based teacher training courses in England that lead to the award of qualified teacher status (QTS).
| Subject | Bursary | Scholarship |
|---|---|---|
| Computing | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Mathematics | £29,000 | — |
| Physics | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Chemistry | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Design and Technology | £20,000 | — |
| Biology | £5,000 | — |
| Geography | £5,000 | — |
