Insight participant Review

Although there were times when I felt the talks were repeating themselves a little and couldn't really understand the relevance of some of the talks from other companies that were given I really enjoyed the insight. I met a brilliant group of people, both the organisers and participants, and learnt a lot of useful lessons which I'll be able to use to my advantage later on with teach first.

Clearly a lot of planning and organisation was done for us and everything ran very smoothly. They put a lot of effort into the programme making me feel valued. The organisers were very good at remembering faces and names - they were able to greet me (and the 170 odd other people) by name on the second day

There was a huge amount of support and guidance available. Emails were always replied to very promptly and all staff were very knowledgeable. When I was at the place event in the school the staff knew exactly why we were there and the sort of experience we were looking to have. They were very accommodating and ensured that any particular requests were had were taken care of.

Although it won't help with my degree it will give me great help with my future career in teaching. They put a lot of emphasis on telling us about teach first's leadership development programme. They gave us a lot of advice and support about how best to prepare ourselves for the assessment centre for it. Having completed insight I'm able to go straight to the assessment centre for the LDP without reapplying so that's a big bonus.

Everything was planned meticulously. Some of the talks were too long but the schedule we were given was always accurate. It would have been helpful if we could have been given the details of the school we were going to be placed in earlier so that we could have taken advantage of reduced advance fairs on the train but it is understandable that it took them so long to confirm these. It can be very difficult to contact busy schools!

The general atmosphere during insight was very friendly. Everyone was in the same boat - they were mostly students who were considering teaching as a job and were looking to find out a bit more about it. Everyone was looking to make new friends and tthe staff made sure everyone had a chance to mingle with the other participants by getting accommodation for everyone for the whole duration of the programme.

There were a number of practical activities which focused on our personal development of skills we could use later in our career.

The insight gave a good idea about what doing their leadership development programme would be like but they didn't spend too much time talking about how working directly for teach first is. The point of the programme was not about working directly for the charity so I wouldn't say this was a flaw. That's not why I went on the insight programme!

There was a lot of emphasis placed on what the charity does and why they do it. The charity seems to be run very effectively. The staff are all very competent at what they do and are very friendly. The way the charity operates was also quite transparent - there was a session centred around how the charity supports itself financially which was very interesting. This gives you a good idea about the culture in the company.

It was invaluable for deciding whether or not I would continue to pursue a career with teach first in their Leadership development programme. It gave a lot of information about what to expect on the programme and the process involved in applying for it. It also gave a good insight into the life of a teacher and the role they play behind the scenes as well as in front of a class.

I was paid £500 for the programme. All accommodation and some breakfasts were provided but all transport costs had to be paid for ourselves. For some people these were quite considerable as they were travelling down from Scotland then had to travel a significant distance to their school eg. Northern England. I estimate I took about £200 home from the programme after paying for all the travel and food while I was there.

Yes and from other companies too

Not very structured but I guess that's the nature of networking

They made a point of making sure everyone knew the skills they'd learn on the Leadership development programme were applicable outside of teaching too. They highlighted that it is important to have people who are aware of educational inequality in all workplaces as it is not only teachers that can have an influence in trying to tackle the problem.

I already have!