University of Greenwich, PGCE, Primary Education (French specialism)

The University of Greenwich is part of the Primary Languages Teacher Training Project, a joint initiative of the Teacher Training Agency and the Ministre de l'Education Nationale; alongside the mainstream 1-year PGCE primary programme, the university offers a course intended to train graduates to teach the full primary curriculum and offer French as an additional subject; students follow the standard PGCE primary course and attend classes on the pedagogy of teaching a modern foreign language to younger children; the university works with the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Matres (IUFM) Nord-Pas de Calais, a teacher training institution in Lille; in January students spend 4 weeks teaching in a French primary school, in Lille, Douai or Arras; there are opportunities to meet French student teachers and explore northern France; students are supported by their class teachers and by academic staff from the IUFM; a tutor from the University of Greenwich visits the students during the placement; the primary French course is for graduates who already have a good command of spoken and written French; if the language was not part of their degree, they need to demonstrate they are significantly beyond A-level standard through having undertaken further study or spent a considerable amount of time in a French-speaking country.