Elizabeth - My week at a glance

Hi! I’m Elizabeth, I have just finished my Second year of Primary Education at the University of Hertfordshire. I am going to give you a little insight as to what my typical week looks like on this course.

If you chose to study primary education there are two types of typical weeks that you will come across, firstly you will have a typical week at university and secondly there will be a typical week on placement. These two types of weeks have huge differences in the time spent working and the time spent socialising.

During a typical university week, I would be in lectures and seminars most days, however, I would only usually be on campus for a few hours each day. During these hours on campus, I attend one hour long lectures with my entire class, and then two/three-hour long seminars. It is typical that you will spend more time in seminars than lectures as these are where you get more hands on with your learning. You are in a smaller group and will be given more practical examples and learning opportunities to combine the learning from the lectures.

My face-to-face learning time varies from week to week, about timings of lectures and seminars. Although, it is very typical to only be in lectures and seminars for half days of Wednesday, as there are often sporting events and competitions that happen then.

I have a fair amount of free time during a typical university week, and I aim to split this time wisely to ensure that I have time to do any university work that needs doing as well as reading around a topic (which will come in very handy when it comes to writing assignments). It is also important to set some time aside for things that you enjoy doing, such as socialising, doing a hobby or anything that keeps you relaxed so that you can focus better when learning. For instance, I like to spend weekends seeing my friends and family, as well as spending some of my evenings attending gym classes.

On the other hand, whilst you are on placement, it will often feel like you don’t have a lot of time, as you will be working in schools typically from 08:00 to 17:00 every day. Although this seems a lot on top of all other university work and extracurricular activities, it is such a valuable experience, and will you enjoy it. There is a fair amount of work to be doing whilst on placement, including planning for lessons and meeting all the assessment points. However, this does give you valuable experience as this is a picture of what life may be like when teaching full time.

Although this sounds like it is a busy course, which it is, you will have the best time studying it because of the experiences that you get from it.

I wish you the best of luck with university and your course.