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Congratulations on joining the Primary Education with QTS BA (Hons) programme, and a very warm welcome to St Mary's.

Your induction timetable

Induction Session 1

About the session

Find out how the year will look in terms of structure and timetabling. Hear about wellbeing and resilience support – to help you flourish at SMU – as well as a welcome from the Students' Union's Education President, and tips from current students to help you get the most out of the year.

Induction Session 2

About the session

Get to know your peers and meet some of the staff. You'll also be introduced to your school, partnership, and library – and hear more about the expectations for professionalism on the course.

Please note that you will receive your timetables in this session. Timetables are not available before this date.

University-wide induction

Your Welcome Week timetable

Try some of the welcome activities and socials on campus during 14-18 September. From fitness to freebies, they're great ways to settle into university life.

Be sure to join your Faculty induction and social activities:

Tuesday 15 September

  • 1-4pm - Faculty induction: Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences (G5 and G7)
  • 4-6pm - Faculty social: Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences (1850 Bar)

Wednesday 16 September

  • 1:30-3pm - Faculty induction: Education (G7) and Arts (Waldegrave Drawing Room) only
  • 1:30-3pm - Faculty team building activity: Business, Law and Theology only (The 1850)
  • 3-4:30pm - Faculty induction: Business, Law (G7) and Theology (N44) only
  • 3-4:30pm - Faculty team building activity: Education and Arts only
  • 4:30-6pm - Faculty social: Faculty of Arts, Business, Law, Education and Theology (1850 Bar)

Find out why we're rated Gold in student experience (2023 Teaching Excellence Framework).

Join one of the mandatory Student Essentials sessions in Welcome Week

These are a warm welcome and introduction to different faces you’ll see at the university, plus essential info about support services, health and safety, the code of conduct, and ID cards.

Complete the two mandatory Learning Modules online

St Mary's University is committed to creating a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for everyone.

All students must complete this Harassment and Sexual Misconduct online training module on your Moodle accounts by Friday 30 October 2026 and further information can be found on the module webpage.

Please note, to access the above module you will need to Log into your University Office 365 account and set up multifactor authentication (need MFA help?), so you can log into University services. You can then use your student email address – [Your student number]@live.stmarys.ac.uk – for Office 365 and University systems.

It’s worth noting, after you enrol there’ll be a short delay until your modules appear in Moodle, our virtual learning environment.

Pre-induction tasks

SMART target from interview. At interview, you identified your developmental needs and set a SMART target. Please do what you can to achieve your target. In September you will be asked to discuss the progress you have made towards meeting this target with your personal tutor.

Gain further experience in school. Focus on routines in the primary classroom.

Free online learning course: Supporting children’s learning in primary education today | OpenLearn - Open University

Recommended reading:

Professional Studies: Professional studies in primary education Cooper and Elton-Chalcraft. 4th edition, SAGE, 2022.

English: ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ by Onjali Q Raúf. Please read this before your English lectures start

Maths: Mathematics explained for primary teachers. Haylock, D. & Manning, R. 6th edition, SAGE, 2019

Science: Read:

The Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach UCL/IoE

Next steps: Once grades are confirmed

  • Apply for enhanced DBS (Link will be sent in an email from Admissions)
  • Complete Fitness to Teach (Link will be sent in an email from Admissions)

Here's an additional pre-induction programme for students in the following categories. If you feel you'd benefit from additional support, you're eligible to apply to Get Set for Success:

  • Students who've previously been eligible for free school meals
  • First generation students (the first in family to go to university)
  • Estranged students (students no longer in contact with their families)
  • Care experienced students (students who have spent some time in local authority care)
  • Students who are carers
  • Students from Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller (GRT) backgrounds
  • Students with academic qualifications other than A-levels (BTEC, diploma, etc)
  • Refugees and asylum seekers

Find out more about Get Set for Success or contact getsetforsuccess@stmarys.ac.uk.

About your programme

Module information

You’ll complete your course one block or ‘semester’ at a time. In each semester you’ll study modules. Some are core modules you have to take – others you’ll be able to choose between when you arrive, personalising the course to your interests.

In your first semester you will study the following modules:

  • Teaching Experience  Core
  • Professional Studies 1 – teaching and learning.  Core
  • Core English 1  Core
  • Core Mathematics 1  Core
  • Core Science 1  Core
  • The Broader Curriculum: Expression  Core

Further information about the structure of your course can be found within the programme specification document.

Resources

Once you’re registered, you can loan textbooks and other resources from our library. We have plenty of copies of key texts, though some students choose to buy their own.

We’ll let you know more in our induction sessions. Plus how to use our online learning environment Moodle – where you can access, lecture recordings, copies of lecture slides, handouts, further reading, and interactive resources.

The following titles are recommended for this programme:

Professional Studies in Primary Education (4th edition)

  • Author: Hilary Cooper & Sally Elton Chalcraft
  • Year of publication: 2022
  • Publisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications Ltd

The Boy at the Back of the Class

  • Author: Onjali Q Raúf
  • Year of publication: 2018
  • Publisher: Orion