11 replies to this topic

[tommo]

:

Edited by tommo, 01 October 2008 - 07:26 AM.

[Shiny]

Sorry tommo can't help but wanted to welcome you to the forum.

[Wendles]

Hi and welcome.

I am doing a degree and I know that this has been a hot topic of late in our class. There are a few people on my course who need English and Maths (as they want to do QTS) which are fairly straight forward, however it would seem acquiring science seems to be a major problem. Sorry I can't help, I expect there will be someone around soon who can. I thought I would let you know you are not the only one having this problem

[hali]

hello and welcome - do whoever your doing your degree with not offer an equivilancy?

[shirel]

A warm welcome Tommo, yeh me too, wanted to say you are not alone, I need to get maths and science if I intend to teach, which I do hopefully, if I don't go insane with all the training, pain in the bum isn't it!!

Thanks for raising the query, will watch with irritated interest so as to share any information.

I can do the equivalency for maths at my Uni, but am awaiting science, think I may have to enrol at local college to do the full GCSE course.

[tommo]

hali, on Mar 17 2008, 22:05, said:

hello and welcome - do whoever your doing your degree with not offer an equivilancy?

Thank's for your welcomes i'm so glad i'm not the only one i thought i was and no can't find any help from where i did the degree but thanks for support

[belle06]

Hi tommo
You can do courses with the ou that are acceptable equivalents I will attach the equivalent doc from the dFES for you I believe that courses that start with an s and are at ungraduate level for the OU are acceptable

Attached Files

•  gcse_equivalents_document.pdf   118.91K   17 downloads

[Betty boo]

belle06, on Mar 18 2008, 15:23, said:

Hi tommo
You can do courses with the ou that are acceptable equivalents I will attach the equivalent doc from the dFES for you I believe that courses that start with an s and are at ungraduate level for the OU are acceptable

Hi,
sorry but am unable to answer your query about equivalency but Im intrigued to know how you are teaching Reception as an 'unqualfied' teacher. I have worked in this area for 14 years, have 3 A levels and 10 GCSE including English, Maths and Science as awell as an FDEd but no one seems to think that I can be anything other that a TA without doing further studies? Just interested?
Betty Boo.

[mundia]

Bettyboo, there are quite a number of people now teaching classes whilst unqualified and I have done my fair share of mentoring over the past few years. There should be quite strict guidelines as to when this can happen..ie usually if a post cant be filled with a qualified teacher and usually only for a number of years (it used to be 5 but Tommo has been in place longer than that so perhaps that ruling has now changed); and usually if there is commitment from the 'teacher' and the school to train that person to get QTS. It may be that in your authority, there has never been a problem with recruiting teachers and so taking on unqualified staff is therefore not considered an option. If you are interested in finding out more about becoming a teacher then see what option are available in your area to complete your degree or consider he Registered or Graduate Teacher programme (known as RTP and GTP).

To get back to the original post about science, this is a bigger issue currently because the requirement to have science used to be only for people born after 1979, so many trainee teachers who were mature students did not require it. Now everyone needs it regardless of their age and so new course will nee to run for equivalence. You should find more places offering this next year, so its worth checking local colleges as well on online distance course, but I would also check that they ARE acceptable as equivalent. Some training providers are stricter than others.

[Shelley35]

Yep I'm in the same boat I wanted to do a PGCE have everything but science its the only subject at school which I just did not get on with.

I did EYPS instead, although long term I too might consider doing a science qualification and doing a PGCE to give me more scope.

It will be interesting to see if accessing a science GCSE equivalent does become easier as when I was looking Sept time 2006 it seemed pretty unachievable whilst working having children etc etc. And also far more expensive than getting maths or english which made me really annoyed!!!!!

[tommo]

belle06, on Mar 18 2008, 15:23, said:

Hi tommo
You can do courses with the ou that are acceptable equivalents I will attach the equivalent doc from the dFES for you I believe that courses that start with an s and are at ungraduate level for the OU are acceptable

Thank you for thisw very useful

[pickle]

Have been reading this thread with interest - as I am in the same situation as so many others.

I have my English already, am planning to do my maths this september but surprise, surprise still looking out for the science.

I did wonder if there was a specific science GCSE that is generally requested (Reading Uni is closest for me but they just stated science).

I have found info locally on Biology and Environmental Science - didn't want to end up doing an invalid one!

Grateful for advice....