New teachers celebrate

Future history teachers (pictured) joined over 500 other teacher trainees to celebrate their success at a special event at Edge Hill?s Ormskirk Campus. Those who successfully completed their Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) celebrated, receiving formal letters of congratulations in recognition of their effort and commitment.

Martin Kerridge is Acting Head of Secondary Education: "The achievements of this year?s cohort of secondary PGCEs has been outstanding and we wanted to recognise this with a special celebration event. The course can be quite demanding as it's held over just 36 weeks. Trainees work extremely hard and it takes much dedication and commitment to succeed. I wish everyone the best of luck in their future teaching careers."

From September 2006 extra support is to be offered to graduates who want to enter teaching with a package of reforms that include larger bursaries for those who wish to teach maths, science, music and RE. As the largest provider of secondary education programmes in the country Edge Hill welcomes these new incentives to attract the best graduates into the teaching profession.

Martin Kerridge: "The new incentives will hopefully result in a more balanced output of qualified teachers in shortage areas. I?m sure that the £9,000 bursary for maths, science and RE students plus 'golden hellos? of £5,000 or £2,500 in the first year of employment will help to recruit many more teachers in these areas."

Dr Peter Marsh, Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Bolton was guest speaker at the event.

ENDS