Many congratulations on being offered and accepting a place on your School Direct course with Canterbury Christ Church University. We hope that you enjoy your education and training in what we expect to be a challenging, stimulating and rewarding year for you.

Lucie Towse
School- Based (Secondary) Course Director

Welcome and induction

Your Welcome Week is an essential introduction to your course and student life at CCCU, helping you to feel confident and prepared for your studies right from the very start.

It is important to check your Welcome Schedule for all the activities you are required to attend during the week.

If any of your welcome activities are in groups, your course team will contact you before your arrival to let you know which group you will be in.

Your teaching timetable 

UniTimetables provides an overview of all teaching activities on a course. Your individual timetable will be available via MyTimetable and is personalised to show you what modules and groups you are expected to attend.

Your individual student timetable can only be produced once you have engaged with online registration and created your computing account. It is essential you complete these tasks when invited, so that your course team can assign you to your teaching activities and publish your individual timetable.

Find out more about all aspects of timetabling for new students including user guides.

Welcome

We are looking forward to working with you as you train to become a secondary school teacher. Your studies will be challenging and hard work, but very rewarding.

Getting started

Preparation tasks

Please complete the preparation tasks outlined in our Welcome Pack before you start the course. We will add activities and information (such as timetables) as we get closer to the start of the course. Please check back regularly.

In addition to gaining QTS at the end of the year, you have the option of gaining a PGCE by undertaking some additional study during the course. More information about this option will be given to you at the start of the course in September. To consider whether to opt for the PGCE, you could talk to your colleagues in school when you start.

Getting to know your school

Look at the most recent Ofsted report.

  • What type of school is it?
  • Number of pupils on roll?
  • How many boys/girls?
  • How many children with English as an Additional Language (EAL)?
  • What are the main linguistic groups?
  • How many children have Free School Meals (FSM)?
  • How many children attract Pupil Premium funding?
  • How many children have Special Educational Needs (SEN)?
  • What do you notice about pupil progress?
  • What does Ofsted recommend the school should be doing to improve?
  • Look at the Ofsted Data
  • How does pupil progress compare with other schools locally and nationally?

Look at the school’s website:

  • How is the curriculum delivered?
  • What extra-curricular opportunities are available to children?
  • What can you discern about the ethos of the school?

Your course will start in your school, on the first day of their term.

Bursary/Scholarship

Students who are registered on an eligible Teacher Training Course may be offered a Department for Education training bursary. To allow the University to assess your eligibility for the bursary could we please ask you to fill in the bursary eligibility declaration prior to starting your course.

For more information on the bursaries available and the eligibility criteria please visit the Get Into Teaching website.

For queries, please contact education.bursaries@canterbury.ac.uk.

We look forward to meeting you during Welcome Week w/c 9th September 2024.

Pre-course reading

All pre-course general and subject-specific readings can be found in the Welcome Pack

You can pre-order or purchase any of the books mentioned on this page through our University Bookshop.

It is useful to note that the University Bookshop offers a 10% discount on most titles in print and has some price-beating book bundles. They also price-match Amazon on core texts recommended in the module handbooks you will receive when you start in September.

International student success programme

International students: don't miss out! Make sure you register for our international student success programme which provides practical advice on preparing to live and study in the UK.

Contact details

FAHE.CourseAdmin@canterbury.ac.uk