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My Primary Education Studies degree and placement experiences at Cardiff Met

Megan Bamsey Primary Education Studies student
Megan Bamsey Primary Education Studies student

Hello, I’m Megan, and I am in the third year of the BA (Hons) Primary Education Studies degree. Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to become a Primary School teacher and to work with young children is something that has always been ingrained in me. I always knew that University was the path for me, it was just a matter of which one. When my older brother attended university in Wales, I immediately knew I also wanted to move to Wales, in particular Cardiff. The desire to attend a University in south Wales was fuelled even further because the national training centre for my sport is based here in Cardiff. This would then allow me to have the very best of both worlds, a dream university course and the opportunity to train at a brilliant national facility regularly.

Before starting at Cardiff Met I completed some work experience in a local primary school and one week within a children’s physiotherapy team. This confirmed that working with children was for me!

During this work experience, I found that there are different options to teaching than a mainstream primary school. Having opportunities to witness teaching and learning prior to applying to Cardiff Met, alongside my experiences with an outside agency, I learnt a lot that could benefit my practice which has contributed to my levels of enjoyment and achievement so far on the course.

From the very first day, the academic staff made me feel super comfortable and at ease. The course is very interactive with a lot of practical elements which really suits my learning style. The Primary Education Studies degree is very enjoyable, relaxed, informative, and fun which in my view creates an amazing environment for high quality learning. The topics covered on the course are diverse but also well rounded, which allows you to draw on aspects from different modules when writing your assignments.

Going into my first year at Cardiff Met in September 2020 unfortunately meant I was unable to gain as much placement experience as I would have liked as Schools were not allowing any unessential staff in due to Covid 19 and the risks involved. However, the staff on the course were incredible and changed the course so that we could still gain experience working with children – all be it in a virtual way! During the January – March lockdown we had the opportunity to work on a project with Welsh Water and produce a video for International World Book Day! As I was at home during this period, I home tutored my 6-year-old neighbour with her school learning until she went back to school. This greatly helped me develop my confidence because it was just me, I had to adapt, improvise, and tailor things to her just like you would differentiate within a classroom.

At the start of my second year, I volunteered at St Monica’s Church in Wales Primary School in Cardiff once a week to start building my profile of experience. Here, I worked in different year groups ranging from Reception to Year 3. I started as an observational student and then really began to build my experience when I began working with groups of up to 10 children, watching and reading the planning of lessons and marking, as well as improving the core skills that every practitioner needs, such as confidence and delivery of content.

, My Primary Education Studies degree and placement experiences at Cardiff Met, CARDIFF MET BLOG
We had chicks in our classroom during our topic “Down on the Farm”!

After finishing the second year, I decided to join a local teaching agency in Cardiff, Teaching Personnel, which gave me the opportunity to gain more hands-on experience within schools as a teaching assistant and be paid for it. I thought I had hacked life when I discovered that this was possible! From phoning the agency to enquire, to my first day at work was just over two weeks.

So far, I have worked at 5 different Primary schools, working with children in nursery and up to Year 6, either on a one-to-one basis or as a Classroom teaching assistant. I’ve also worked with children with Additional Learning Needs and with English as an Additional Language.

Whilst my days do have a general pattern, in Primary Education you can never predict what a day has in store for you. For example, in one day I can go from being covered in paint one minute, playing football shortly after, and then finishing the day by building a tent!

I really love working with children and the Primary Education Studies degree has given me lots of hands-on experience. I can’t wait to finish my degree and complete my Primary PGCE to have my own classroom one day!

Find out more about Megan’s placement experiences – A typical day volunteering as a Teaching Assistant.