PGCE Secondary interview information

If you have questions about this information or about your interview in general, please contact teaching@bathspa.ac.uk.  

Documents

The documents below relate to your PGCE Secondary Interview. It's important that you click on the links and check and read all of these documents, completing the audit and task ahead of time.

• Subject task
• Subject Knowledge Audit

All of these should be completed and brought with you to the interview. Discussion of your subject knowledge audit will form part of your subject interview. We will also ask to see some photographic ID to confirm your identity.

Interview

Your interview will give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you possess the appropriate qualities, attitudes and values expected of a Bath Spa Teacher, (a Bath Spa PGCE trainee) and to enable us to assess your potential to meet the Teachers’ Standards by the end of the programme. You'll be interviewed by a University tutor and school based colleagues.

All interviews will be held online for 2025 entry. On the day, we ask all candidates to attend a Welcome Presentation from one of the Academic Tutors at 9:00am. During the talk, they'll explain the interview process, outline of the Secondary course structure, and give an overview of our expectations of a Bath Spa Teacher.

During the day you'll be involved in:

• A discussion of an education-based article. A selection of articles will be emailed to you ahead of time with other interview information. You'll need to select one to discuss.
• An individual subject-based interview comprising presentation of the subject task outlined in the link above and a short individual interview. The subject knowledge audit will be discussed in this section of the day.

This range of activities is designed to assess your passion for teaching and education, your ability to communicate and interact with an audience, your knowledge and understanding of your subject and your basic literacy skills.

We'd encourage you to have gained some experience in at least one school that is related to the Secondary age phase. It would be helpful for you to have reflected on this experience as well as any other experience of working with young people you may have and be prepared to discuss it at your interview. 

If you're unable to attend this interview, please email teaching@bathspa.ac.uk. We'll also be able to assist you with any pre-interview queries that you may have. Your interview will be scheduled to last a maximum of 90 minutes.

We don't need to see copies of your academic certificates ahead of your interview but please be aware that all offers will be conditional on the provision of certificates to confirm the qualifications declared on your application. Y

ou’ll also be required to produce original certificates as part of our enrolment procedures so do make sure you have your certificates ready in plenty of time.

The University is seeking to improve support for students with additional needs and is committed to a programme of adaptations to enable full access to the learning environment. If you'd like to discuss any additional needs you may have before visiting, please contact Student Wellbeing Services at studentwellbeing@bathspa.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1225 876543.