Can i study to be a primary teacher from home?

Question

I live in scotland & have a BA(Hons) in Business Management. AT secondary school i gained a C in higher English and a 2 for standard grade maths. Working in Marketing at the moment however i was P.A to Managing Director for 5 years prevously. I am 26. Can i study to be a primary teacher in my spare time?

Answer 1

Why do you want to study from home? Being a primary school teacher isn't a spare time thing, it is a full time committed vocation.  

Answer 2

There may be programs online that you can check into.  I don't know about Scotland but many schools in the US require student teaching. You may want to call a college or university mainly because you already have a degree and some of those courses may qualify as classes for a teaching degree.  That would lessen the classes to take and put the focus on your specialty courses. There are certain courses that you must take....your core requirements...then you get into your specialty areas.  Many people leave the business world for teaching and it can be an easy transition mainly because you have to be a team player and work in co-operative groups.  There is a lot of new jargon in education today and it can be overwhelming at times.  I have been teaching for 22 years in Special Education at the elementary and middle school level.  There is a growing trend in differentiation and data analysis.  Co-teaching is becoming a huge area, also.  Our school system is big into UBD or Understanding By Design.  There is alot to learn however in the long run the benefits are wonderful.  Good luck!

Answer 3

You need a BSc or BA plus a PGCE or a BEd to teach in the UK. You can certainly do a BA or BSc from home through the Open University. However, I don't know about the BEd or PGCE. One of the things with teacher training is that you have to do some work on placement. I'd recommend checking with the Open University.

Sorry, for some reason I didn't take in your additional details. You already have the BA, so you need to go down the PGCE route. It's a one year, full-time course involving some time on placement at a local school. I really don't know whether it's possible to do it part-time and with the coursework done by home study.

Answer 4

I looked into doing a PGCE and as a single mom thought doing it at home would be easier, however it doesn't look like the open university do a PGCE at primary level, just "primary education certificates" at a full time undergraduate level. Doing it that way seems to avoid the classroom based work experience but is probably longer and require more work, but I don't know if the qualification you come out with allows you to then go straight into teaching primary school children. The PGCE is a one year course but most of that is done in the classroom. The OU website is really confusing so it'll be best to contact the OU directly. (I decided that by doing the course at a local university I could take advantage of their child care facilities and hope for local placements! But the primary course is really popular so you usually have to apply by the december before you start your course)