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The University of Buckingham prides itself as one of the UK's leading providers of Qualified Teachers Status (QTS). The Assessment Only Route to Qualified Teacher Status is a fast-track route (maximum 12 weeks) to gain Qualified Teacher Status for teachers with two or more years' teaching experience.

Qualified Teacher Status is the United Kingdom's professional accreditation for teaching. In the recent years, many internationally based UK schools have also began requiring their teachers to hold QTS to ensure good teaching standard in their classrooms.

Applications are welcome from teachers, who do not already hold Qualified Teacher Status and are currently teaching at a school in China, providing they meet the necessary criteria.

Qualifying Schools may be public or independent, however, in addition to the Chinese National Curriculum (where applicable), the schools must be following either UK or IB curriculum and the lessons following UK/IB curriculum should be conducted in English.

Please note that due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and difficulties surrounding international travel, we are currently unable to confirm the starting date of the next QTS Assessment Course for China. 

The AO Route to Qualified Teacher Status:

Assessment of the candidate's application, which may include a request to supply additional information.                                                                                                                 

Two assessment days at the candidate's school.                                                             

The Initial Assessment Day will judge whether the candidate is likely to meet all of the QTS Teachers' Standards within a maximum 12-week period without any further training. The Final Assessment Day will take place within 12 weeks from the Initial Assessment and will determine whether the candidate meets all of the Teachers' Standards.       

In order to assess many of the criteria for the award of QTS, during the initial assessment day the Tutor will interview the candidate, hold meetings with the candidate’s line manager, mentor and the school's professional tutor, conduct at least 3 lesson observations and will scrutinize the candidate's planning, marking, report writing and professional development.       

Producing and submitting Teaching & Learning File (TLF).                                         
This serves as a portfolio of evidence in support of the candidate's application for passing the Teachers' Standards.

We receive a large volume of applications, please only proceed if you meet the criteria listed below. If you do not meet the criteria, we recommend that you take a look at our PGCE-Online course as it may be more suitable. 

• You must be an experienced teacher with a minimum of two years' teaching experience as a sole teacher of your specialism. If you have recently completed a PGCE with the University of Buckingham, an earlier application may be considered.
• You must be teaching your specialism for a minimum of 12 hours per week to full size classes.
• You must have taught across two consecutive key stages (equivalent of) with experience of teaching 4 different year groups.
• You must have completed a three-week placement in a contrasting school or have prior experience as a sole teacher in a contrasting school. If not, you would be required to complete a placement before you can commence on the program.
• As part of the AO program, you will be required to complete the University of Buckingham professional skills assessments in Literacy and Numeracy.
• You will need to provide evidence you hold the equivalent of GCSE passes at grade C/level 4 or above in English (as a First Language) and Math (plus Science if teaching Primary or Prep), plus a bachelor’s degree in any subject.

Please Note:

- If you have not taken GCSE, A-levels or an equivalent qualification in English as a First Language, you will be required to provide an IELTS certificate with a score of at least 6.5 as a substitute. Unfortunately, we cannot accept other English certificates as a suitable replacement at this time.

- If any of your qualifications were awarded outside the UK, you will also be required to provide a statement of comparability from ENIC UK (the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills). More details here: https://www.enic.org.uk/

Further Requirements for Primary and Preparatory school applicants

Primary School

• You must be teaching the core subjects of English, Math and Science for a minimum of 12 hours per week, across two consecutive key stages as above.
• If you have a Primary specialism (Art, Music, drama, MFL) then you would need to split the 12 hours teaching between the three core subjects and your specialism, approximately 50:50.

Preparatory School

• You must split your teaching hours as follows:
• 6 hours teaching of core subjects to upper key stage 2 (UK years 5 and 6) and 6 hours of your specialism to key stage 3 (UK years 7 and 8).

Tuition Fee: £3,150
Registration Fee: £275(non-refundable)

QTS cannot be awarded without a qualified tutor visiting your school for observation and performance assessment. In addition to the course fees, you will be required to cover the tutor costs that may involve international flights, hotel and food.

Due to Covid-19, the international travel is currently limited. This presents unprecedented challenges and the course starting dates have been affected.

Please note we are unable to confirm the next course start date before you make your application. 

Before we can review your application, you will need to supply:

• a copy of degree certificate
• a copy of English and Maths GCSE certificates (as well as Science GCSE if you are applying for the Primary Route).
• a copy of passport photo page
• a copy of your CV
• a copy of your teaching timetable

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