Teacher Review

I had a really rewarding experience with Teach First. The ambassadors, assessors, mentors and ones running the programme in particular are so understanding and clear. They were very encouraging always giving praise and making you feel at ease. It does not feel like a chore at all! Despite the long hours it was engaging throughout and I would recommend it to others who are passionate about the STEM motivation. I also learnt a lot of invaluable content during the course.

Throughout the whole internship we are made to feel valued and worthy. For example they gave praise and made it clear that when ever you experienced a problem we should email them and they will help as much as possible. They were always happy to help and made sure that no one was made to feel like it was there fault when for example their WiFi went down. They made it clear from the start that we were valued to their cause and why we should be invested.

Teach first gave us reading to do before the virtual internship which was really helpful coming into the internship. Then during the internship we were offered support from lots of different people who have been involved with teach first at present but also in the past. We received invaluable feedback from the insights team of teach first and even from of interview assessors. They really want you to improve and they really want you to succeed.

The skills I have learnt during my time on the virtual internship are invaluable. They can be applied to every and any job and circumstance I might come across. The internship was all about developing your skills in techniques like working on strong voice. From this I feel more confident being stood in front of an audience. I have improved my communication skills and also have improved my self evaluation skills. The teaching skills we learnt we all well researched and not myths.

The vertical experience was very well organised. It ran over occasionally but they still gave us the allotted break times and didn’t take time away from our breaks. Since the course was about us making progress it was ran using step chunks of information and then giving us time to practise. When doing the course we knew the structure and had a timetable plan. Since it was only over 3 days the course was thoroughly planned and had crammed concise learning techniques.

I think everyone enjoyed the virtual experience. It was very engaging and had a lot of activities. Despite it being 8 hours in one day on zoom it was a good amount of challenging but not stressful. We were able to make friends in the breakout rooms and although I expect the virtual experience to be half as good as the original STEM internship we all ended it feeling overwhelmed with what we had all achieved and shared during the internship.

Teach First is extremely committed to helping YOU individually. If you fell behind they picked up on it straight away and reminded you. They had specific feedback and took the time to watch you individually perform to give you the best and most specific feedback so as to help you develop. They want you to succeed and they invest so much time and resources in to helping you. Any one who has been involved with Teach first agrees they are dedicated to support.

In the virtual experience we were working up to being able to handle a whole class. While we were able to practise on each other it can never fully prepare you for the perils of teaching year 8s. However, staff members while watching your lesson really effectively imitated problematic students. This gave you a great insight in to the feelings and emotions you experience in the classroom when your pupils are not listening. This prepared you for dealing with the unexpected.

The company culture is made clear through their motives and their ideas. I got the impression that Teach first is all about that helpful community feeling.

The content of the virtual internship made me very passionate about the Teach First mission. I found it very inspiring in helping their cause. They expressed how hard the training programme is and despite this it did not put me off. They showed me how great teaching is but they also told us about the challenges. This meant that we knew they were being transparent. It definitely reassured me on deciding that teaching is for me.

I was not paid or reimbursed but I did not lose any money in taking the course and the experiences I learnt were invaluable.

Teach first encouraged you to look on their link on networking. Which I did. They encourage networking and boast about how supportive the company is throughout your whole career and future decisions. They encouraged you to call their ambassadors but they also asked old ambassadors to join the virtual experience to tell us about their experiences. These ambassadors were also really keen to be helpful offering email addresses and even was willing to organise experience with in the school.

They encouraged us to join the Facebook group which I did however since it was online it was tricky to make friends and socialise. I imagine this is really strong for the “real” non virtual internship.

At the end they invited talkers to tell us about the opportunities available if we didn’t get the job. There was volunteering options in tutoring and mentoring.

I would really recommend the experience. I had a great time, and learnt so much invaluable knowledge about teaching, planning, my self and communication. I had a laugh and I have made networks for life. The virtual experience was really challenging and was great for testing your problem-solving and making you more confident with working online. Which is a key skill for the future. I have few criticisms to give the internship because I enjoyed it so much.