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BA Primary Education with Art (QTS)
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UCAS code
X1W1 -
A level offer
BBB -
Year of entry
2025/26 -
Course duration
Full Time: 3 Years
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Year of entry
2025/26 -
Course duration
Full Time: 3 Years
Our BA Primary Education with Art Specialism (QTS) course will develop your talents as an artist and teacher, and champion your passion for art within primary education.
This course will enable you to get a job as a primary school teacher following graduation. There is a high demand for specialist primary school teachers and many of our graduates go on to become subject leaders. Furthermore, we have strong links with schools.
You will divide your time between studying modules on professional skills and curriculum subjects, and developing your artistic skills and knowledge. The former will introduce you to the core National Curriculum subjects, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
You will develop skills essential to the role of a teacher, including leadership, classroom management, and evaluation and assessment. You can then put these skills into practice through professional placements, which take place throughout the course. Additionally you will study professional legal requirements, and investigate the role of the teacher and how children develop. Your final year will involve research engagement, developing reflective critical thinking and application of theory into your teaching practice. You will also engage in professional studies, which include gaining school experience through teaching placements in partnership primary schools.
In the National Student Survey 2024, 96% of our students said the course has developed the knowledge and skills they think they will need for their future (National Student Survey 2024, 95.73% of responders from the Institute of Education).
The art specialism will develop you as a skilled artist by exploring a range of different media, materials and techniques. During your three years on the specialism, you will have access to a range of excellent facilities including a large print room, ceramic and kiln space, a dark room and, importantly, your own studio bay where you can develop and research your own art-making. Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to investigate how to transfer your skills, knowledge and understanding of the subject of art into the primary classroom in order to influence and affect how children can learn with, and through, art.
Through an examination of art education initiatives, you will identify and understand how art can contribute to the primary curriculum and education of all children. You will engage on a practical level in order to facilitate developing art practices as imaginative and innovative artist teachers. You will gain a critical insight and knowledge of contemporary art and its use in the classroom.
Issue-based art education will be key to your studies, where you will consider art-based pedagogies linked to global citizenship, social justice, inclusion and diversity. In both your second and third years, you will develop practical projects, showcasing your developing skills as an art subject leader.
Placement
You will have the opportunity to carry out placements throughout this course. These will take place within local schools that the Institute of Education has active relationships with. Whilst there you will be mentored by a teacher and linked to a University tutor, who will provide you with additional support.
During your first year you will attend a weekly placement, which will familiarise you with the daily routine of the classroom and link in with your professional modules. For example, you may have to complete an observation for an assignment.
You will also complete a block placement during each year of the course. You will spend four weeks in a Key Stage 1 (KS1) setting during your first year, seven weeks in a KS2 setting in the second year, and an eight-week placement in a Key Stage of your choice during the final year.
Climate and sustainability education
At the University of Reading we believe that climate and sustainability education is everyone’s responsibility. This is why we have set out our vision that all initial teacher trainees should be able to access training that empowers them to effectively incorporate climate education within their teaching across all levels and subjects as part of our National Climate Education Action Plan.
Across all of our ITT programmes at the Institute of Education, you will learn about:
- what is happening to our climate, how to help children learn about climate and sustainability in an age-appropriate and accessible way, and how to develop your own positioning as a teacher
- climate justice, the impact of current and future changes to our environment and climate on ourselves and others and implications for teachers
- how to translate knowledge and theory into change and personal action through building climate and sustainability education into your planning, teaching, and children’s learning.
Visit our Partnering for the Planet to find out more about the University of Reading’s world-leading work in climate science.
For more information, please visit the Institute of Education website.