Insight Scheme Participant Review

I enjoyed the scheme as it included a week of the theory behind teaching, which enabled me to learn the key skills and ideologies behind teaching. For example, I learned how to plan a lesson, classroom management techniques and had a child safeguarding workshop. The next week was also very enjoyable as I got to go into a school and see what teaching is really like

I felt very valued in the company. Teach First paid for all of my expenses, gave me so many opportunities for self-development. I had workshops on the unconscious bias which showed an investment of the company into me as a person rather than me as an employee of the company. There was a lot of performance evaluation and I was able to get lots of feedback of my performance at various points of the scheme

I received so much guidance and support. I had one-to-one calls with a Teach First employee, feedback from my initial assessment centre, plenty of opportunities for peer-assessed feedback when doing the classroom activities in week 1 of the programme, feedback from teachers when delivering my own lesson. There were plenty of opportunities for self-development and reflection as well.

I learned a lot about how to handle different personalities and attitudes, what works for one person will not work for another. I also gained a lot of confidence after being made to present one lesson and one informal presentation to a year seven and sixth form class. I also developed my organisational and timekeeping skills.

Very structured but a bit too intense. There was a lot of faffing around during the insight with a lot of repetition and too much information on the LDP which we had covered 1000000 times, so the days dragged on a little bit. But it was very insightful and clearly structured with plenty of breaks

[This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions]

the company thoroughly invested so many resources, time, money and effort into me. There was such a focus on self-development, learning from your mistakes and being the best teacher you can possibly be which was very motivating and uplifting. The fact they used real-life teachers in their presentations and workshops made the training excellent.

I completely understand what it was like to be with the firm. They thoroughly explained all the various bits and bobs related to development, our journey, our LDP offer, we talked to ex-LDP and teach first ambassadors and whilst being deployed in our various schools, I was able to see exactly what being a teach first teacher would be like

[This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] I am unsure what the company culture is truly like because every school has its own vibe so I am not sure as an organisation [teach first], it is that important to know about the culture so long as you fit in whilst teaching at the school. Also, something I really disliked on the programme, was the forcefulness to present to peers you barely know. As someone who is quite shy, I found this very uncomfortable and I don't think Teach First handled this aspect of their training very well. Obviosuly, I know as a teacher you have to present things - but I personally, found presenting to children and adults quite different and I found the latter very nerve-racking and horrible

Absolutely valuable. I absolutely know everything about teaching and the career path of a teacher, the various progression one is able to go through. The content was very practivally based during week 1 on the insight week, as in we were taught skills and we forced to do activitis to delop the skills. So this allowed you to see what skills are needed as a teacher and whether you possess these/ like using these particular skills

I was paid and reimbursed travel. I was paid minimum wage