The English Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course prepares you to teach the subject to all ages and abilities in the secondary school system (KS3 and KS4). The central aim of the course is to produce confident, competent and professional teachers of English with a good grasp of effective approaches to teaching, and the enthusiasm and skill to help pupils understand, enjoy and apply this subject. The course is very practical but underpinned by an emphasis on developing your own theoretical and philosophical position towards English teaching. It is a challenging course but highly effective. The course enjoys a very strong local and national reputation and has high completion and employment rates. Trainees are assessed formatively and summative across the course. This ensures that progress is reviewed regularly and you are aware of the progress being made against the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). There are informal activities that need to be completed, and are important in developing a deeper insight into effective teaching. Besides completion of all subject based tasks there are three elements common to all trainees in order to complete the course successfully.