Becoming a PGCE Secondary school partner

We welcome schools and colleges partnering with us who are: 

  • committed to developing great teachers as part of a flexible, structured programme;
  • interested in opportunities to collaborate on developments in pedagogy and curricula within and across subject areas.

What's involved? 

  • Each school we partner with will identify a Professional Mentor amongst their staff - usually a senior colleague - who has responsibility for the trainee teachers (and their Subject Mentors) placed within their school. 
  • Each trainee is then assigned a Subject Mentor who hosts them within their class and supports them throughout their placement. 
  • To ensure our partner schools feel well-equipped to train our secondary PGCE trainees, we offer twilight training sessions for new or returning Subject or Professional Mentors in January, June, and September each year. 
  • Our School Liaison Team are also on-hand to support mentors throughout each placement period. 

Of all the universities I work with in my role, Manchester is by far the best for clear lines of communication, timely information at key points in the year, partnership and support with the trainees throughout the year as well as general quality of trainee that you have clearly recruited yourselves.

Elise Hay / Great Sankey High School


Get in touch

There is no set date for expressing your interest to partner with us for the next academic year. We welcome contact at any time during the year. The secondary team will contact schools about their placement offers for the following year around Easter time. We confirm these details in the early September of the new academic year to ensure the placements are still available within your school.

If you wish to provide placement opportunities within your school during the next academic year, please contact us, identifying which of our PGCE Secondary trainees you’d be able to mentor:

  • PGCE Secondary Biology;
  • PGCE Secondary Business Education;
  • PGCE Secondary Chemistry;
  • PGCE Secondary Economics and Business Education;
  • PGCE Secondary English;
  • PGCE Secondary French;
  • PGCE Secondary Geography;
  • PGCE Secondary German;
  • PGCE Secondary History;
  • PGCE Secondary Mathematics;
  • PGCE Secondary Mathematics with Economics;
  • PGCE Secondary Physics;
  • PGCE Secondary Physics with Maths;
  • PGCE Secondary Spanish.

If you have any questions about becoming a Secondary PGCE School Partner with us, please contact us: