How To Become A PE Teacher
A PE teacher will work in schools and colleges teaching a range of sports and fitness to young people of all ages from primary school to college.
Could you be a PE Teacher?
To be a PE teacher some of the skills and knowledge you will need to have the ability to motivate and inspire pupils of all abilities, can use your knowledge to design courses and lessons, you must be able to work well with others and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations. You will need to pass enhanced background checks to become a teacher. Some of the daily tasks you may do as a PE teacher could be teaching and coaching a range of sports and activities to pupils of different abilities and ages, organising events like sports days and matches against other schools/colleges, prepare pupils for their exams and set assignments, meet with parents/carers to discuss their children's progress.
The working environment could be within a college, or a school and you will be required to work in environments which could be indoors or outside in all weathers.
Check the entry criteria:
Depending on the school and level you apply for the entry criteria will be different. you will need to decide who you want to teach, this could be primary, secondary, or further education. All teaching jobs will require you to have at least 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and if you wish to teach primary you will need at least a 4 (C) in science, or the equivalent qualifications. You will need a university degree or an equivalent qualification to gain your QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). To get into university you will need to have at least 2 or 3 A levels or a level 3 qualification. To become a teacher, you will need either a degree with QTS or if you were to do a degree without QTS a completed PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education), which can be either at university or on a school-based training programme. To specialise as a PE teacher, you will need to have a degree in sports science or the equivalent.
To get into PE teaching you could apply for the Sports Coaching & Physical Education, BTEC Extended Diploma at Weston College which would give you the relevant information to go onto a sports science course at university.
Get the relevant training/ How to become:
To get into the PE Teacher role you can go the university route, go through an apprenticeship or work towards the role. Through university you will gain a degree with a QTS which would allow you to go straight into teaching. If you get a degree that is not a QTS you can then take the apprenticeship route and complete a PGCE with a postgraduate teaching apprenticeship. If you were to become a graduate in a sport related course without at QTS then you may be able to get into teaching by working as a sports coach in schools and then moving into a teacher training programme.
To improve your application, you could attend teacher training events before you apply to get advice about the profession, the different training routes you could take, and the funding. You can attend these events in person and online and attending these could be incredibly useful for teachers in training. A useful skill to have on your application would be being able to drive as you may be expected to drive a minibus to take teams of pupils to sporting events.
Further development…
As a qualified PE teacher, you could further progress into becoming a specialist leader of education where you would be supporting teachers in other schools. Other roles you could pursue would be a curriculum leader, head of department or even head teacher or deputy head.
