School of Education

Meet our students and alumni

Discover the educational experiences and career journeys of the students and alumni from our School.

  • Meet our students and alumni

“ARU gave me the confidence, the qualification and the opportunities I needed to become a teacher and I honestly couldn’t recommend it more.”

Lisa Cunningham, BA (Hons) Primary Education Studies

“It’s been fantastic having consistent access to expert practitioners who have real-world experience and a real passion for their subject.”

Lexie Jarvis, BA (Hons) Primary Education Studies

“The fabulous staff in ARU recognised something in me that I didn’t see in myself.”

Susie Threadgold, BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies

"They're invested in us as students" - Primary Education Studies at ARU

"The right course found me at the right time and changed my life" - Montessori at ARU

Find out why our students love our accelerated degree

Ellen, Charley and Freya, BA (Hons) Primary Education Studies

“The staff team ask us what we want to learn more about, and tailor the guests and information specifically to that.”

Angie Gray, BA (Hons) Primary Education Studies

“Knowing that I could complete my degree a year earlier than the traditional route made University feel far more realistic and motivating.”

Abi Grice, BA (Hons) Primary Education Studies (accelerated)

Lisa: Kickstarting my teaching journey with an ARU accelerated degree

"This course has shown me that as mature students we can keep on learning. One of my favourite modules was the sustainability module... My goal now is to become a sustainability lead in a school."

Suniti Sharma, BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies

“This course has been incredible to develop my professional identity. If becoming a teacher is what you want, this course will teach you everything you need to know."

Meg Villaplana-Nuckley, BEd Primary Education with QTS

“We did a whole topic on outdoor play for one of the modules, and that allowed me to change a lot of the outdoor area in my setting.”

Rebecca Dempsey, FdA Early Years and Education

“...as soon as I walked in, saw them, saw how passionate they were about this new course which was starting. That instantly won out over all the other universities I’d looked at.”

Harry Williams, BEd Primary Education with QTS

“The support from my lecturers… and the quality of teaching was just top notch. It felt really good, and made the whole journey really easy.”

Uche Oshevire, MA Education with SEND

“My favourite thing is the opportunities to take part in the different workshops they have on campus… It just opens up really huge opportunities for people.”

Violet Ongele Hindle, BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies

"All the things I learned... go round in my mind when I'm planning for the setting I work in. We've just had our Ofsted inspection and I think it really helped towards that. We were rated Outstanding!"

Lucy Smith, BA (Hons) Montessori Early Childhood Studies

"ARU definitely helped me find my voice and gave me the confidence I needed to pursue other opportunities."

Mitzi Harris, BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies

"I just wanted to learn as much as I could to support my daughter. Then obviously it then spread out to not just her, what about all the others?"

Kate Larsson, BA (Hons) Montessori Early Childhood Studies

"I wanted to be a part of children’s learning and inspire young children to write and be authors themselves - that always gave me such joy."

Emma Speller, BEd (Hons) Primary Education & Head Teacher, Heybridge Primary School