Best route to becoming a primary teacher

BrownBear11

Ok so I know this topic has been talked to death on this forum, but...

B.A + H.Dip or B.Ed, which is the better option?

I initially had Primary Teaching down on my CAO this year but missed the points. I've been offered the humanities in Pats though. I was thinking, however, of repeating as i kinda had my heart set on teaching. Recently though I've been strongly considering accepting the humanities cos' I don't want to leave my friends as they go off to college plus whats to say I'll get the points for a B.Ed if i were to repeat. Dilemma or what

But here's my main worry about that; getting into a post-grad program for primary teaching having done arts/humanities is supposed to be ridiculously competitive (correct me if I'm wrong :rolleyes:) so I'm not so sure.

The other worry i had was how prospective employers will look upon each? Anyone able to tell me if either route is preferred by employers, principals, etc,? And in your experience which graduates make the better teachers? Surely all the TP and education modules involved in a B.Ed contribute to the overall effectiveness of a teacher than if all your teacher training were crammed into an 18 month post-grad?

Oh and what criteria are examined for entry into the post-grad? Is it purely results or based more on the interview or what?:o

So guys, any advice? Sorry about the long post

byhookorbycrook

Pesonally, I'd favour the B. Ed. I would not be swayed by friends going to college, if you go to college too there is no rule saying you will still be friends with them, esp. if it they are doing different course to you.

echo beach

BrownBear11 wrote: »

Recently though I've been strongly considering accepting the humanities cos' I don't want to leave my friends as they go off to college plus whats to say I'll get the points for a B.Ed if i were to repeat. Dilemma or what

You are the only person who knows if it is worth your while to repeat. If you slogged your heart out and didn't get the points you may not have the ability to make it. If you know you could have and should have done more work then it probably is worth another shot if it is what you really want to do.
That fact that you are concerned about what your friends are doing hints to me that you aren't fully mature yet (few Leaving Certs are) and another year before going to college might be no harm at all. This time next year you might want something different.

Kathnora

Remember that the B.Ed course is now 4 years and the Post-Grad has increased to 2 years.

Remember, also, that the job situation for Primary teaching is DIRE and will continue to be for a long time to come.

If you do the Humanities course it will give you plenty of time to mature and decide what you really want to do. Your options will be more open at the end of the course. If you do a B.Ed you are trained for Primary teaching and NOTHING else! This is what some of my colleagues who are in their 30s now and fancy a change of direction keep telling me. Not all of them, of course, but some fancy a change at this stage and other than starting a whole new degree they feel they are stuck with teaching! At the end of the Humanities course you can still go into teaching (and Pats Humanities students are said to be in a favourable position for being admitted to the post-grad) or do a Masters or go into the business area or human resources, PR etc etc. Sometimes things happen for a reason and if, like another poster said you have already worked very hard for the points you got this year you've got to ask yourself will you do any better next year??? Think carefully about it and keep listening to the advice of older experienced people before rushing in to a decision.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

If you really want to be a teacher repeat and go for the B.Ed. If you do, you'll spend 5 years doing so. If you go the other route, you'll spend 3 years doing the Arts course, and when you come out of that there is absolutely no guarantee that you'll get the post-grad course. It is very competitive and I know of people who didn't get it until their 3rd time of applying. You'll be spending a minimum of 5 years doing it this way, the final 2 years of which will be very intensive.

member1

I'm in the same situation as you Got arts in pats and didn't try my best studying, and have been offered campus accomodation in st pats and i am lucky to have got it. I'm only 17 and i dunno wheter to repeat as primary teaching is what I want to do I knew i wouldn't get my first choice b.Ed in pats as i didn't work hard enough Now the thing is will I get enough points for the B.ed next year or will i get good or bad teachers?

BrownBear11

Thanks very much everyone for the replies Very helpful!

Fair points lads. Pretty sure at this point that I'll repeat. I'm fairly set on teaching and have been for a few years now so I figure it's worth the extra years work.

member1 wrote: »

I'm in the same situation as you Got arts in pats and didn't try my best studying, and have been offered campus accomodation in st pats and i am lucky to have got it. I'm only 17 and i dunno wheter to repeat as primary teaching is what I want to do I knew i wouldn't get my first choice b.Ed in pats as i didn't work hard enough Now the thing is will I get enough points for the B.ed next year or will i get good or bad teachers?

Crap situation isn't it Was wondering the exact same thing myself... How disappointed would ya be to repeat and still miss it As another poster said only you can really judge that for yourself to be honest. I think myself with more work it's possible cause I think I started too late with the studying this year. About the teachers, ring the school you intend on repeating in and ask the principal or whoever else might know. Personally, I've been on to the principal so much in the past week about subject choice, timetables, etc. that he's going to be sick of the sight of me before I even go back :pac: It seems (to me anyway ) that nothing is guaranteed going the arts route while the B.Ed is a definite teaching qualification. That's one of the main things that helped me make my mind up

member1

I applied for campus accomodation and if I didn't get it I knew it would make the decision of repeating easier! As I don't live near Dublin.. Campus accomodation makes life alot easier as I would be travelling abit! I am worried about the English course and it changing!! And I kinda think then maybe if I repeat knowing my luck I might only get something like 460? I only have until tomorrow to accept or reject the campus accomodation! The only career I want is Primary teaching and its been the same for a few years! Best of luck to you anyway on your decision Sorry if you don't mind me asking how many points did you get in your leaving? Sorry I know it's a personal question. Tough decision ahead!

BrownBear11

member1 wrote: »

I applied for campus accomodation and if I didn't get it I knew it would make the decision of repeating easier! As I don't live near Dublin.. Campus accomodation makes life alot easier as I would be travelling abit! I am worried about the English course and it changing!! And I kinda think then maybe if I repeat knowing my luck I might only get something like 460? I only have until tomorrow to accept or reject the campus accomodation! The only career I want is Primary teaching and its been the same for a few years! Best of luck to you anyway on your decision Tough decision ahead!

Don't let campus be such a big factor! If your male (?) you have a good chance of getting campus as they reserve a house entirely for boys so that's sixty places available just for males and considering the number of boys who do primary teaching in Pats (maybe 70 - 80 at most apparently, not all of who will want campus) there's a strong chance you will get again next year if you apply for campus I plan on staying in campus too And by the way you can always accept campus and not take it up so that could buy you more thinking time so your decision won't be rushed!

And you don't have to do English in your repeat year provided you've satisfied the entry requirements which is a D3 at honors or C3 at pass Once entry requirements are sorted you can pick any 6 subjects for your repeat year! I dropped English too Just pick what you think are the subjects to pick up the most points in

The last thing you want is to panic and make the wrong decision so take your time, get as much advise as possible and do whatever you think is best for yourself All the best member1 and feel free to drop me a PM about whatever


Sorry only seen that there Nah you're grand no worries.. I got 440 so I'm hoping 30 points can be made up with more work

member1

No I'm actually a girl :L I do ordinary maths and don't really want to count that as the points wil be lower! And taking on another new subject and covering a whole new course in 1 year would be tough! Thanks for all your advice

BrownBear11

member1 wrote: »

No I'm actually a girl :L I do ordinary maths and don't really want to count that as the points wil be lower! And taking on another new subject and covering a whole new course in 1 year would be tough! Thanks for all your advice

Oh .. never mind :rolleyes::pac: But I still wouldn't let what accommodation I'd have dictate whether or not I repeat... I'd rather do a degree I love and live in a ditch than do something my heart isn't in and stay on campus! Well ok maybe that's an exaggeration But ya get my point!

Repeats don't generally return until after the rest of the school, maybe around mid-September so you'll have plenty of time to decide on subject choice

Tough isn't the word I still think it would be easier to do something like an economics course in a year than an entire new English course in a year though

No problem at all , glad to be of help

coolgal52

do humanities in st. pats and then do postgrad there or Hibernia is an option also.

lily09

12 years ago I was in the exact same situation as you. All my friends had gone off to college and I decided to repeat(I was 16 doing my leaving). Was the best situation I ever made, I studied my ass off came up 100 points and went to Mary I. I loved the B.ed and made the best friends.At the end of the 4 years you will have your qualification and can go straight on the job hunt instead of looking for a postgrad.
It really is the best job in the world so I would say knuckle down next year and the rewards will be reaped for a very long time to come.

member1

Brownbear11 the thing is i might not get the points I need when I repeat So I might accept the offer

BrownBear11

You yourself are the best person to judge that so whatever you think yourself If you do accept it, best of luck in college

member1

Thanks And best of luck if you repeat Sure You'll get the thirty points I would have to get a bit more however and it wouldn't be easy to go back again :L

member1

Brown bear11 what subjects are you choosing to study when you repeat?:)
Also are you going back to the school you repeated your leaving the first time? :P

BrownBear11

member1 wrote: »

Brown bear11 what subjects are you choosing to study when you repeat?:)
Also are you going back to the school you repeated your leaving the first time? :P

At the minute it's looking like Irish, Maths, Biology, History, Business and Economics although the Maths might change cos' paper 1's changing a fair bit from what I can see

Yep, hope to... provided they accept me?:pac: They're only taking 4 repeats on this year !

member1

Ah right I might be repeating too.. :P did you do business and economics for your leaving before?

Tigger24

Hi Brownbear & Member01

I'm a post-grad and I did Humanities in Pat's.

Brownbear, although there are no guarantees about how things would pan out if you repeat, it certainly sounds like you have a very good chance of bringing yourself up the extra few points and getting what you want next year. Don't forget the vast majority of the work you have done this year will still benefit you so if you get the head down and use how you feel right now to motviate you to work that little bit harder you'll have no trouble bringing your points up.

Member01, please don't let the offer of campus accommodation sway your decision! Like anything else it has its pros and cons so weigh it up the same way you would anything else. I am not trying to scare you or put you off in any way but I think you should have all the facts about the Humanities + postgrad route.
1. Pat's Humanities students absolutely do not get any kind of favouritism in the application process for the postgrad. Everyone does the same interviews and it goes according to performance at the interviews.
2. The 3 Dublin teaching colleges (Pat's, Marino and Froebel) have a joint application system kind of like a mini CAO. You rank the 3 according to your preference so your interviews (one in Irish and one in English) are for all 3, you don't apply and interview for them all separately (so you get one shot for all three).
3. There is enormous competition for places on the postgrads. For the postgrad courses that started in Feb 2011 there were 150 places but 800 applicants who met the entry criteria and were called for interview!
4. The post-grads are now 2 years not 18 months
5. The post-grad courses in Mary I., Pat's, Marino and Froebel are approved year to year. Each year even the colleges themselves do not know until about November if they are running their postgrad courses the following year
6. Hibernia have two intakes per year, their courses start in April and Sept (it used to be Feb & Oct but this has changed because the course has changed to the new 2 year course). The rest of the colleges only do one (they interview in Jan and the course starts in Feb). I think Hibernia do interviews several times a year and if you are accepted you start the next course they have places on.
7. You can do post-grad courses in the UK and you just have to do an Irish qualification when you come back but you can work as a teacher while you do your Irish qualification.

What I'm saying is don't be fooled into thinking the Humanities + postgrad is an easier route. Both routes are hard work and there are not really any guarantees of a place on the course you want but there never really are any guarantees!

As I said I'm not trying to scare you or put you off, I just think you should have as much information as possible to make your choice.

If you do go with the Humanities course, it is a really good course. I really enjoyed it. If you really want to do the postgrad, to be in with a decent shot when the time comes:

- Keep up your Irish, this doesn't mean you have to take it as one of your degree subjects or anything just don't let it rust. No matter which college you do your post grad in you will be interviewed in Irish to get onto the course
- Try and get as much experience as you can working with children, approach a local school and see if you can volunteer in any way, if you know anyone who is a teacher see if they can let you come in and help out. (this will also give you a feel for life as a primary school teacher!)

I wish you both all the very best in whichever you decide to do. Teaching courses are tough because teaching is tough but its indescribably rewarding. Hopefully you will both go on to have very long and happy careers as primary teachers and whichever route you choose to get there will be worth every second

BrownBear11

member1 wrote: »

Ah right I might be repeating too.. :P did you do business and economics for your leaving before?

Just business. Taking up Economics for the first time this year so that should be fun :cool::pac: What subjects are ya thinking of yourself?

Cool, we can keep each other sane throughout the year Ah no, like i said you know best! Do whatever you think will make you happier What I did was picturing myself taking arts and not repeating and then pictured repeating and not doing arts to see which I might regret more. Realized that (although it will kill me next year not to be in college with everyone else ) I'd regret it alot more if I didn't give myself one more chance to do what I really want to do If that's any help

BrownBear11

Tigger, that's just the sort of thing I was looking for Thanks for that!