Professional Education (Primary) with specialism in The Environment

Primary education is the foundation on which everything else is built. The years between five and eleven are the period in which children develop literacy, numeracy, and the love of learning that will shape the rest of their educational journey and their lives. Primary teachers need deep knowledge of how children develop and learn, skill in creating effective learning environments, and the ability to inspire curiosity and confidence in children across a range of backgrounds and abilities.

A specialism in the environment brings a distinctive and increasingly important focus to this essential work.

At the University of Stirling, this four-year, full-time programme gives you extensive classroom experience alongside the academic study of education theory, child development, and pedagogy. The environmental specialism allows you to develop particular expertise in environmental education, bringing a focus on sustainability, outdoor learning, and children's engagement with the natural world into your classroom practice. A year abroad is available, giving you the opportunity to observe and engage with primary education in another country, which deepens your comparative perspective on how children learn and how schools are organised.

Graduates of this programme qualify to teach in Scottish primary schools, and the professional qualification is also recognised more broadly, enabling careers in primary education across the UK and internationally. The environmental specialism equips you to lead on sustainability education within your school, to develop outdoor and environmental learning programmes, and to bring an increasingly relevant dimension of the curriculum to life for the children you teach. Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study in educational leadership, special educational needs, or environmental education.