Hannah Marie Ruddock

Hannah graduated from PGCE Secondary in History in 2021 and now works as secondary school teacher where she teaches Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 students the subject History.

On choosing to study for a PGCE

The University has an excellent reputation and a high success rate in creative effective teachers ready for the profession. I had studied a History degree in Liverpool and was prepared to then return to Manchester to then do my PGCE to become teacher as this was always my career goal.

I had excellent support from my University tutor Thomas Donnai who always gave effective and critical feedback to push me in my development. Working as a cohort enabled me to learn from others and thus, helped me to better myself in my confidence and approach to my own teaching practice.

The University always went above and beyond to support me in my career path especially with time management and well-being and maintaining a balance between work life and social life.

On my current role and responsibilities

I am now a secondary school teacher at St Antony’s Roman Catholic School where I teach Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 students the subject History. I am a teacher of History but also have the role of being a form tutor.

The course prepared me in many ways - I learnt to be resilient and the course allowed me to develop in my own subject knowledge and pedagogy to enable me to be an effective and outstanding teacher.

On my most surprising takeaway

The most surprising takeaway from my course was how much I learnt about myself with the skills I developed whilst studying at the University, e.g. I didn’t realise how patient and resilient I was until studying the course and these are skill I acquire for the remainder of my time in teaching. I think I learnt a lot about myself whilst studying at Manchester.

My advice for prospective applicants

My advice would be to take the feedback as development pointers and not criticism and to have every faith that you will be successful in the profession. Learning to become a teacher is a marathon not a sprint and you really have to be patient with it.

The University of Manchester is a phenomenal university with highly skilled professionals who really steered me in the right direction with regards to my career and goals. The support is unbelievable and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my course such as the learning provided, my tutor and the cohort that I studied with.