PGCE Personal Statement Guide

Here is a guide to help you complete your PGCE Personal Statement for both Primary and Secondary Education.

UCAS give you a one liner asking you to write your personal statement. Mos of us will have writers block, but hopefully this guide will help you write your personal statement.

At this point, it’s worth saying ensure you have at least 2 weeks classroom experience before applying for a PGCE.

The Objective: Describe briefly your reasons for wanting to teach giving the relevance of your previous education and details of any teaching experience, including visits to schools and other work with young people.

Why you

Before we start drafting the personal statement. I would like you to answer the following questions. They only need to be one or two lines.

1. Why do you want to teach?
2. What has inspired you; who/what influenced you?
3. Why do you want to work with young people?
4. Why do you want to teach your subject? – For secondary: show how your subject knowledge is relevant to the curriculum.
5. What have you gained from working with young people?

This forms part of your why, and shows that you have thought about teaching and look forward to teaching.

What skills do you have that will make you an effective teacher?

The next section needs to be about what you think makes a good teacher. Ideally your picking out your strong traits and skills, and then reflecting them back to you. For instance, a top essay writer, should be smart, good at analyzing things, and eager to help students with their assignments. Like A teacher needs to communicate effectively, knowing the age range of the audience. I have excellent communication skills. I have worked with children before, I understand varied needs, etc…

I’ve identified the skill, stated how I have it and then gave an example.

Other skills such as the ability to relate to young people, good communication and interpersonal skills and ability to organise and manage people. When have you had to use your initiative?

What are your strengths? How are you better than other applicants? Do you also know your weaknesses? Have you had to overcome any obstacles or hardships in your life? how have they made you a better person?

Show that you have the necessary personal qualities, such as energy, enthusiasm, patience, resilience,tenacity, adaptability, responsibility, versatility, a creative mind and a good imagination, empathy with young people, etc.

Show how the knowledge acquired through your degree, work experience and any other qualifications is relevant to the primary school curriculum or the secondary school curriculum subject(s) that you want to teach.

It’s no good saying Yes to every teacher train, you Must give examples, the Universities are looking for young people who are already teacher-like at heart.

3. Why do you want to teach the age range and subject?

What interests and excites you about this subject or particular age range? For secondary in particular – show that you are passionate about your subject area and about transmitting that passion to young people.

4. Outline your experience in UK schools

Include time spent teaching, helping out, observing in schools. You should not just list what you did, but what you learnt. This will help you stand out because already you thinking about how a classroom can be improved ad that you have ideas on how to do it.

Examples of some observations:

Teachers’ roles and responsibilities including:-

• Lesson-planning – short term and long term objectives
• Classroom organisation – how different activities work, teaching styles
• Classroom management – behaviour, groupings, resources, pastoral care
• Inclusion/diversity issues – how are special educational needs dealt with and pupils with English as an additional language?

Also think about what you observed regarding:-

• The role of ICT/whiteboards etc
• The National Curriculum, current national strategies
• How are parents included?
• Improving Ofsted?

5. Do you have any other experience with young people of the relevant age?

Have you done any: coaching, tutoring, mentoring, other work with children’s groups? Emphasise on any leadership roles.

6. Provide details of hobbies, interests or other skills that may be useful in a school environment.

You may speak Polish or Russian, have a football coaching qualification or be a keen chess player. Make a list, then slip them in your statement to show you are not a one-trick pony.

• Which transferable skills have you developed?
  e.g. planning, time management, team work, problem solving etc.
• What are your hobbies and interests? –
  Sentences such as “In my spare time I enjoy music, reading and socialising with friends” do not add to your application! Its the hobbies that are relevant to teaching. Show that you are a fun person with a personality so you can relate to children in some way.

7. What are your future ambitions in teaching?

What are your career goals? Where do you see yourself in the future? Focus on exaggerating your passion to teach your chosen subject. If the admissions can’t sense passion, chances are slimmer. Then finish off ‘…and this is why I should be selected to do the PGCE’. End on a high note!

This is your basic skeleton. now its time to stitch it together and make it sound good. By now you should have plenty to say.

The statement should flow, English needs to be good, easily readable, Active voice.

The Work Experience Section

Here you have 20 lines to outline paid and unpaid work experience, particularly relevant experience for teaching.

This section should be written like a list in reverse chronological order.

June 14th 2018 – June 26th 2018, St Mary’s Primary School, Leeds, voluntary classroom assistant. Helped with reading in Key Stage 1.

Sept 24th 2018 – Dec 17th 2018, Closeway Primary School, Manchester, voluntary classroom assistant. Assisted learning disabilities children.

Send me an email on sociable7@gmail.com Ill send you 3 examples of Personal Statements 1. Primary 2. Secondary 3. Science related degree.

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