I’ve been a bit quiet on my blog over the last few months – nothing exciting in terms of travel has been happening and I’ve been busy organising and fundraising for a volunteering trip to Peru (more details in a future post) and completing many tasks to make my provisional Teach First offer into a confirmed offer – aka, I finally got a job!
Back in December, I received the brilliant news that I had been accepted on to Teach First’s Leadership Development Programme. This news followed a successful day in London on a Teach First development day, which involved a 30/40 minute interview, a group task, reflection on the group task, a 7 minute lesson in front of some assessors who acted like students, and a written reflection.
Although it was a very tiring day, I have to say this selection day was a very positive experience. I met a lot of similar-minded people and had quite a lot of fun – more fun than in other interviews, at least. It was also very well organised.
For anyone who is going to a development centre, my advice would be to simply prepare well. Treat it a bit like an exam. Know lots about the organisation. Know why you want the job. Make sure you know how you relate to all of the competencies that are emphasised through out the application process (ie. I said that I can prove my resilience through the fact that it took five times to pass my driving test and I didn’t once think of giving up), and thoroughly plan you lesson with an introduction, main section, and plenary. I wrote my objectives on the board which my assessors seemed to like.
Teaching wasn’t my initial post-graduation plan. From September-November, I went to several interviews for marketing and account management roles to no success. I then found an interest in the charity sector, and then the educational charity sector, and then I was re-introduced to Teach First. I was already aware of the charity and the great work they do from a university talk, but I hadn’t applied as I thought I would consider teaching a bit later in life – I wanted experience in something else, as I had previously worked in education. However, I decided to bring this plan forward – I thought that if I was successful in interview, perhaps this is the career route I’m supposed to go down.
Since getting accepted, I received my offer to teach secondary Modern Foreign Languages in the West Midlands. This was not my first choice (I wanted primary down South), however I have since realised that MFL will be more fulfilling for me as a linguist, and the demand really is there – language education is a bit of a mess in the UK. Also, being in the West Midlands hopefully means that I can stay at home and save a bit of money!
Since getting my provisional offer, I have spoken to many useful people from Teach First who have guided me through the next steps – they like to ensure that you understand everything. I have passed a curriculum knowledge assessment, which, for MFL, involved two written answers to questions about the KS3 and KS4 curriculum, a speaking assignment, and an Action Plan. If you put effort into this assessment, and do decent research, you will be fine, and get your confirmed offer like I now have.
I am now in the process of completing the Participant Preparation Course (not too long), beginning to collect teaching resources, doing certain readings to get me ready for Summer Institute (a 5 week course which will prepare me for entering the classroom) and doing enrolment admin for Birmingham City University – where I will be a part-time student for the next two years.
A few weeks ago, I also went to the West Midland’s Preparing for the Leadership Development Programme in Birmingham, where I got to meet lots of other people on the programme, which made me really excited for what is to come.
Once I have properly started my Teach First ‘journey’, I hope to find the time to update my page with teaching-related posts, as well as my travel ones!
If you are a Teach First teacher/ambassador/LDP participant, or a MFL teacher, I would love to hear from you, especially if you write a blog about anything that could be useful to me! Any advice would be appreciated.
Chloe
Image: Teaching by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
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