Insight Participant Review

The insight programme was a good way to experience teach first and see what the Leadership Development Programme would be like. The material covered in the preparatory week was engaging and useful for the school experience. The four days in school were a real eye opener and helped me build my confidence as well as learn about the LDP first hand from the participants placed there already.

I definitely felt valued during the programme, a lot of focus was given to what impact everyone could go on to have in the future. They did their best to be inclusive of everyone, not just those who would go on to do the LDP after the insight programme ended.

The first week was all preparation for the school experience and all the material covered was extremely helpful and engaging. The recourses were available to us online and we always knew who we could contact for help. There was also a really good set up for support within the school I was placed at as well.

A lot of the skills taught on the programme such as reflection, planning and presentation are really helpful core skills. The insight programme had useful resources about these skills and developing them and it also allowed us to put what we'd learnt and developed into practise in multiple different ways.

The insight programme is well organised and structured. There is a lot of moving around in the second week but it is well organised and executed.

Everyone during the programme was excited and the atmosphere was really charged. There was no sense of competition, everyone was there to learn as much as possible and see how they could make a difference. The first week did seem a bit like being back at school but everyone was engaged and the material was interesting and we knew it was needed for the next week.

Teach First did invest a lot in providing us with the recourses we needed for the two weeks and ensuring we had the skills we would need to teach and their core competencies. They also did focus on applying these competencies is different situations in life, not just teaching, especially the master classes on presentation and reflection.

The insight Programme had a couple of sessions focused on information about the LDP, one of which was a QA session with people who had completed it and gone on to do different things, including staying in teaching, going to work at PwC and going into civil service which was really useful, there was also plenty of opportunity to speak to people who were currently on the LDP as well.

The insight programme was really immersive and there was a lot of opportunity to ask questions to employees, current participants and former participants. Several sessions were based around different parts of TeachFirst's goals and most included rational and explanations about why they focused on these goals. The school experience is also a great way to experience what they do.

It was definitely useful as it gave me some confidence about choosing teaching as my career path. The experience allowed me to observe other teachers in different stages of their career and showed me what was possible and gave me an insight into what it might be like to teach.

Some expenses were reimbursed, accommodation is paid for but not food and travel.

There were a couple of networking events to meet some employees and other participants and there were several opportunities to meet LDP participants and former participants to ask them questions about their experiences. Teach First employees were also happy to answer any questions in their free time between sessions as well.

There were good opportunities to network during breaks in the first week. They also booked out space for drinks and networking at the end of the first day as well as on the last day. One of the sessions also focused on learning about everyones experiences during their week in school.

There was a lot of information about the opportunities that Teach First provided outside of the programme, including corporate internships, volunteering and teaching abroad. There was a lot of information available about these opportunities as well as about other Teach First events and activities available to current and past participants of the LDP