Over 100 graduates were honoured at the ceremony before
the Schools Minister met with trainees, including
Harriett Gaynor and Jonathan Shortman to hear
first-hand about their teaching experiences. Following
their discussion, the minister also had a tour of the
university’s facilities.
The graduates are among around 32,000 teaching trainees
who will graduate this year from universities across
the country. Many of them will have benefitted from the
government’s generous bursary scheme and other
financial incentives to attract top-class graduates
into the teaching profession.
School Standards Minister said:
It was a pleasure to meet so many talented graduates,
whose enthusiasm reinforced my belief that great
teachers can help ensure every young person reaches
their potential.
It was recently confirmed that the number of teaching
graduates holding a first-class degree is now at
record levels. The quality of teachers entering our
classrooms was evident at the graduation ceremony
today.
“We want to build on this further and have introduced a
number of measures to continue to attract the best and
the brightest into the profession, including generous
bursaries and the new student loan forgiveness pilot to
ensure teachers are recruited in the subjects where
they are most needed.”
Harriett Gaynor said:
I studied for a PGCE in Physics because I have a
passion for science and I want to get that across to
younger generations. The course leaders have been
excellent, providing the support I needed throughout
my time at Manchester. I chose the University of
Manchester as it is one of the only places to offer
to Physics SKE course which helped me to achieve my
ambition of becoming a teacher.
Jonathan Shortman said:
I’ve graduated with a PGCE in Business Economics. I
came into teaching to motivate young people to be
inspired to get into business and economics. I’ve
been supported by subject mentors in schools and
staff at the university. The University of Manchester
is one of the few universities to offer the
specialist PGCE course I wanted to do. The vast
majority of my cohort have secured employment within
the PGCE year.
The Ministerial visit today follows the recent
confirmation of a number of other government measures
to recruit and retain more great teachers. This
includes:
- The commitment to invest £42million in a Teacher
Development Premium pilot to enable teachers and
leaders working in areas of greatest need to access
high quality professional development, and drive school
improvement;
- The introduction of the new, strengthened national
professional qualifications, as well as a £10million
fund to support teachers in the areas that need it
most;
- Naming the projects that will receive a share of
the £75 million Teaching and Leadership Innovation
Fund. These projects will help provide tailored
training opportunities for teachers on both managing
challenging pupil behaviour and developing leadership,
so they can make the most of their talent in the
classroom.
