STEM Online Intern Review

The virtual experience was extremely insightful, helpful and enjoyable. The programme was administered on Zoom and we were given pre-work to complete in our own time. There were several session enhancing teaching skills using the 'gatekeeper skills' of planning, assessment and classroom management. These sessions were extremely useful and insightful, we were given chances to practice these skills with a partner (in Zoom's Breakout Rooms), receive and give feedback and then have another go. We practiced delivering a lesson on our second day (with feedback from an assessor), before re-practicing prior to the final-day assessment.

I think Teach First valued the participants and candidates that took part in the virtual sessions and the final day assessment during this virtual internship. The whole focus was on our own development and the sessions were delivered in a way that made it easy to improve. There was also a quiz at the end of the first day to get to know some other participants. The assessors were all very pleasant and helpful, overall we were valued very much.

We were supported a lot during the virtual experience. We were regularly encouraged to raise our (virtual or physical) hands whenever we had any questions, and the people who delivered the sessions would listen to any questions and answer them. I ran into internet problems during the internship, and the staff were very helpful and understanding. All tasks and expectations were very clearly explained and if we had any doubts or needed clarity, we had enough channels of support.

The virtual experience included a final day assessment, and this consisted of a group case study and a teaching episode (with both activities followed by self evaluation and reflection). There is a possibility of getting an offer to teach on Teach First's award-winning Training Programme next year. We also gained a lot of skills that would be useful in the classroom, and also potentially outside of the classroom too. Overall it was extremely helpful for us.

The structure of the whole virtual experience was really good, overall. The sessions were spaced out nicely, and there were sufficient breaks in between sessions, with intense learning during the sessions. My only slight problem was that I felt that the first day was too long - from 9:30 till around 5:15 followed by a quiz that finished at around 6:20, although there were enough breaks in between. Also, the timetable on the online platform was changed (perhaps in response to feedback from the previous cohort).

The general atmosphere during the virtual experience was very pleasant and warm. All of the participants that I came into virtual contact with during the programme were friendly, the Teach First employees were extremely helpful and there was a warm atmosphere. All of the assessors that assessed me were nice and helpful - I developed a connection issue and they were understanding and gave me time to sort my problem out, which I really appreciated.

Teach First had already presumably invested a large amount in the in-person internships that they were going to run, before the pandemic, developing robust and educational sessions with actionable tips to improve on our teaching. The programme was intense and tiring - and that speaks volumes about how much time and effort the organisers must have put into the event. The whole internship was based around our own personal training and development, and they invested a lot in us.

The sessions themselves were useful in knowing how to teach lessons well and how to deliver good, robust lesson plans as opposed to the graduate scheme, but there was one session where they went through what the graduate scheme would look like, with a range Teach First ambassadors (those who have completed the Training/Leadership Development Programme) presenting their experiences and introducing themselves, and later answering any questions we had. The session were - naturally - based more around development and the final day assessment overall though.

In teaching, it is obvious that the company culture differs from school to school, and that everything depends on where you are placed, who is the headteacher at the time, who is your mentor etc., so knowing what Teach First's company culture was like wouldn't really be useful for us. However, having the session with the Teach First ambassadors and trainees gave us a decent understanding into what we may expect from the schools we're placed in.

The sessions helped me to consolidate and reinforce my passion for teaching, and I now feel that the Training Programme is 100% what I want to pursue, due to the personal and professional development opportunities it offers, and due to the relatively less time it takes before you actually start teaching in the classroom. However, I was already fairly certain that I wanted to do this anyway, so - due to no fault of the course itself - it didn't really help decide, but it reinforced my decision.

The original STEM internship offered by Teach First was going to be paid for and expenses were supposed to be reimbursed. However, this online course was understandably not paid, and there were obviously no expenses for them to reimburse.

We were introduced to some current Teach First trainees and some Teach First ambassadors through one session, and there was ample work that we did in groups (where we could connect with some of the other participants that were on the STEM course via the Breakout Rooms in Zoom). In terms of meeting other employees of the firm, there was very little in the way of networking with them, but ultimately this was not the purpose of the programme.

as above.

I would absolutely recommend a friend who was interested in teaching to partake in this virtual experience from Teach First. It was incredibly insightful, useful and an overall extremely enjoyable - albeit a tad intense and tiring - event altogether, and I feel like in only three days I have learned such an extraordinary amount and developed myself and my teaching, so I would recommend this to someone interested in teaching, but obviously not if they weren't.