I’m 10 weeks into my training programme with the Oxfordshire Teacher Training SCITT and absolutely loving it. I am in a primary school teaching a mixed class of Year 4/5 which is keeping me on my toes!
It has been wonderful to get excellent classroom experience from the beginning of term and being able to have time to plan and deliver lessons 8-10 hours a week is really developing, challenging and stretching me.
My school is so supportive and is constantly ensuring I have enough biscuits and tea to keep me going during my training year! I have weekly meetings with my mentor, which is great to touch base, to get helpful feedback and to check in that everything is going well and if there are issues, we work out solutions together.
Teaching is a complicated, multifaceted joy! It has been something that I have considered for a while, I saw how passionate teachers at my Sixth Form were (particular mention to Mr Garton and Miss Dorn!) and how much they genuinely wanted to invest and develop us as 17-18 year olds before we left for the world.
By the time I’d finished a degree in Politics and Philosophy I was even more convinced that it was teaching, not the House of Commons, that I wanted to have a crack at.
Having started now, it is a real privilege (and a battle!) to do a job whereby I am helping to lay foundations that will set these children up for the rest of their lives. There is no escaping the hard-work that goes into teaching, however when you see a child grasp a concept for the first time, when you see them growing in confidence and being proud of themselves, it is always worth it.