Liverpool Hope University has a strong tradition of educating and training successive generations of teachers. In addition, we have a highly valued and excellent reputation for good quality Initial Teacher Training and Education (ITTE) courses. In total each year, we have approximately 370 students undertaking the PGCE Primary courses.

Liverpool Hope is situated on the outskirts of the city centre in a very pleasant and relaxing area. The campus is relatively compact and enables students to feel that they belong to a community. Often our PGCE students who choose to take university accommodation are placed together at our St. Michael's campus situated in another pleasant spot close to the River Mersey. Both Hope Park and St. Michael's are both convenient places for visits to the city centre and for transportation links to our partner schools.

We have a very strong team of tutors, the vast majority of whom are highly experienced primary practitioners. The PGCE team is specifically comprised of tutors with a great deal of experience in training and educating student teachers. Students benefit from a variety of learning experiences from whole cohort lectures to curriculum workshop sessions, seminars, e-learning opportunities and one-to-one profiling meetings and tutorials with a seminar tutor who guides their students in terms of their professional, academic and pastoral needs. We work closely with our partner school colleagues and include them in various stages of the courses from recruitment to first teaching posts. During school based learning students are allocated a school-based tutor (SBT) who observes them teaching and meets with them to discuss progress and target setting for future professional development. As future professionals we anticipate our student teachers undertaking a full part in this process.

The full-time course offers students the opportunity to complete a PGCE qualification with a recommendation for QTS within a ten month period. Students will have the opportunity to submit assessments that may enable them to achieve accreditation at Masters level, thus providing the foundations for future postgraduate study. We cover a wide range of curriculum areas and the pedagogy underpinning them.

As part of the course and students also build on their degree studies by offering a 'special-interest area' (please see the 'Entry Requirements' and 'What we are looking for' section for more details.

We have in recent years built up an excellent reputation for our PGCE Primary with languages courses. In 2003, we began with ten French and ten Spanish specialists. We now take fifty language specialists each year (20 French, 20 Spanish, 5 Italian and 5 German). Our courses are well thought of by students, school colleagues and the Training and Development Agency for schools (TDA) which is the body responsible for this initiative. We have well developed partnerships with our university and school colleagues in Normandy, France, Frenchy. Whilst in university, our students undertake classes in 'the teaching of languages to young children'. In January/February, French specialists live for one month in Normandy, France working within a French primary school. Flights and accommodation are arranged and financed by Liverpool Hope. This represents a fantastic opportunity to experience first-hand a different education system and to develop cultural awareness.