This course will provide you with opportunities to excel as an Art educator, inspiring students to be curious and well-crafted learners that harness their imagination and unleash their creativity. You will explore a wide range of materials, processes and techniques to make your classroom practice flourish in a variety of settings, providing space for all learners to navigate the world of Art, Craft and Design and find their own style.

You will embed your understanding of artistic pedagogy and the importance of Art not just in schools, but wider contexts, across history, societies and cultures in order to promote the subject across all Key Stages. You will learn how to build the right atmosphere for safe exploration of artistic themes and expression, developing your own teaching approaches that support students and motivate them to achieve.

We will explore how ‘cultural capital’ is a foundation stone in the Art and Design classroom especially, examining the opportunities provided in curriculum planning, from idea generation, through experimentation to resolved works and how to assess the subjective, all whilst championing young people’s natural ability to create. 

Bishop Challoner Training School, in partnership with Alliance schools (BCTSA), is an accredited provider of school-based teacher training in Birmingham and across the West Midlands.

You will be in school 4 days a week where you will be fully involved in all aspects of a teacher’s work. One day a week you will have your pedagogical  training, which will provide a mixture of specific Subject Studies and more general Professional Studies sessions.

To enrich your professional practice and develop your expertise you will complete 2 PGCE assignments, which will contribute 60 credits towards a Master’s degree.

You will be in your school from day one.  At the beginning of the year you will observe expert practitioners, moving towards leading small parts of a lesson and gradually building up to teach whole lessons. You will receive the support of school-based mentors, as well as members of the BCTSA Central Team and Subject Tutors.

We believe that art and design is a crucial element in the education of all pupils, and will work with you to enable you to become the inspirational secondary school teacher that today’s young people deserve.