Education placements

Gain practical experience through placements on our Education courses.

Undergraduate placements

You’ll benefit from the strong links we’ve established with local schools, giving you rewarding experiences through placement opportunities. Learn more about placements on our undergraduate courses.

• Primary and Early Years Education (with Qualified Teacher Status) BA

  Professional practice placements are an important part of the Primary and Early Years Education (with Qualified Teacher Status) BA course. They can support your journey to becoming a teacher in many different ways by:

  • enabling you to practice the knowledge, skills and teaching approaches you’ve learned
  • giving you module tasks that link what you learn on the course with practical school experience
  • supporting your understanding of schools as organisations and classrooms as spaces for learning
  • deepening your understanding of how children learn and develop in the classroom.

  Throughout the course you’ll spend at least 120 days in a variety of school placements. This is around 25 days in Year 1, 40 days in Year 2 and 60 or more days in Year 3.

  At the start of each placement you’ll get to know the children, the school and your mentor. Mentors works closely with you to develop your confidence and knowledge in teaching individual children, small groups and, eventually, the whole class.

  As you progress through the placements, you’ll be given increasing responsibility for planning and teaching. By the end of the Year 3 placement you’ll be acting as a class teacher. We’ll support you with clear guidance throughout.

  Placements take place in our partner primary schools throughout East and West Sussex. You’ll work with three different schools over the course, with the aim of working with a full range of year groups (Early Years, Key Stage 1 and 2), in both urban and rural schools, where possible.  We also offer enhancement placements in early years settings, secondary and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools.

  Find out more about our Primary and Early Years Education (with Qualified Teacher Status) BA course. 

• Childhood and Youth: Theory and Practice BA

  With a variety of potential career paths and an increasingly competitive employment market, graduates need to combine a strong academic grounding with a clear professional focus that prepares them for the workplace.

  The Childhood and Youth: Theory and Practice BA prepares you for this by incorporating practice placements in the first two years of your degree. You’ll also have a further opportunity to experience work in children's services during the final-year research project. You’ll find a range of practice placements available to you, including schools, early years, youth work and family services.

  Placements in Year 1 are linked to a module on social pedagogy, a theoretical discipline which informs work with children and young people in many European countries.

  In Year 2, observational placements are based around the module ‘Working with Children and Young People’.

  In each of these modules, you’ll spend the equivalent of one day a week on placement, for five weeks. During placements you’ll keep diaries reflecting on your observations. You’ll have opportunities to discuss links between theory and practice experiences during seminars and tutorials.

  Find out more about the Childhood and Youth: Theory and Practice BA.

Postgraduate placements

If you study on one of our PGCE courses you’ll spend at least 120 days in school environments, working alongside experienced teachers and developing your teaching skills.

Our partner schools play a central role in providing support to our students, with many of our school-based teacher mentors having trained at the University of Sussex themselves.

We also help teachers through Continuing Professional Development opportunities, as well as Masters and PhDs designed to support teachers in their own school-based research.

Learn more about Education and Teaching courses at Sussex.

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