Lead Partners (formerly School Direct) PGCE

The University of Leicester works with schools across Leicester, Leicestershire and the surrounding counties to offer the Lead Partners Primary PGCE and the Lead Partners Secondary PGCE.

School Direct (now Lead Partners) was introduced by the government in 2012 to enable groups of schools to work together to recruit their own students onto teacher education courses offered in collaboration with a university partner.

It's an approach aimed at enabling schools to take a stronger lead in the type of students they recruit, often with a view to meeting particular gaps or future employment needs of schools involved in the Lead Partners Partnership. School placements are central to this, with most (if not all) placements taking place within a local hub of Partner schools. You may be offered the opportunity to spend some time in the lead school before your training begins.

Aside from that, students on the Lead Partners PGCE course follow a broadly similar course to students on the University-led route. They spend the same amount of time on school placements, study side-by-side at the University for most of their taught sessions and receive the same high quality support from University tutors throughout the course.

Different Lead Partners providers will offer different subject choices so you should contact them directly to discuss the options.

Our Lead Partners providers

While each Lead Partners provider offers its own unique range of placement experiences and opportunities, Lead Partners students follow most, if not all, PGCE taught sessions alongside students registered for the University-led PGCE.

Lead Partners Primary PGCE

Find out more about the Lead Partners Primary PGCE course, and find out more about each of our Primary Lead Partners, including location maps and contact details:

Lead Partners Secondary PGCE

Find out more about the Lead Partners Secondary PGCE course, and find out more about each of our Secondary Lead Partners partners, including location maps, subjects available and contact details:

Browse our course vacancies to see which subjects are still available with our partners.

Choosing a route

Take a look at our study routes page to find our more about the different ways you can study for a Leicester PGCE and how they compare.

If you're still unsure, feel free to contact our PGCE team, who will be happy to help. Alternatively, come along to one of our regular Routes into Teaching events to find out more about your options.