Teach First Taster Experience participant Review

I enjoyed it very much, thank you. The Taster Experience was a great opportunity to meet wonderful people, as the applicants and staff were all extremely friendly, and to hear others' views on education, through the lively debate exercise we had (on the questions of whether pupils should learn in sets or primary schoolchildren should have homework). It was also useful to be able to practise teaching and to learn more about the charity and educational inequality.

I felt very valued, thank you. Each team member was able to contribute in almost every breakout room session, and comments were invited from everyone on the program in answer to every group question. The experience was also high-quality because attention was often very individual- speakers would move around breakout rooms after their talks for example so that they could hear as many questions as possible. No question was stupid, in the words of one speaker.

A lot, thanks. There were helpful emails throughout the process and the leaders said many times that if anyone had any questions they'd be available to answer them. There was a helpful welcome webinar the week before which was useful for getting to know Zoom, and the leaders were also very patient with technical issues. Guidance was very clear and none of the electronic instructions were too complicated as well, so it wasn't too hard to run sessions.

My skills developed well, thank you. I'm grateful that it was a full schedule because this helped fight against the slower pace of work which can develop when working remotely, and also that it involved speaking to relatively large team groups from time to time as this helped to develop confidence. As well as confidence skills it helped me with organisation and leadership as well I think, not to mention several useful practical teaching tips.

Very well structured, thank you. It rarely ran over time and almost always started promptly, so felt like just the right length of time- a two day nine-to-five experience which felt like a real investment by the charity. It was also a good balance of interactive and lectures, so that it catered well both to those who prefer the former and those who prefer the latter. And it included a variety of speakers in different areas which helped to keep the structure exciting.

Very positive overall, thanks. I felt that I was able to get to meet people properly, and learn interesting things about them as well as have pleasant exchanges (exercises which helped with this included icebreakers at the start of each day and a teaching life map where each person drew a diagram which explained what had led him or her in life so far to be interested in teaching as a career.) It was also a good idea to teach lessons to each other, and have a debate, as this kept the atmosphere intellectual.

The company invested in me well because we were told not only in excellent and useful detail about Teach First opportunities but also tutoring opportunities in many other locations, and heard from people (both in person and in a video) who had benefited from these in all sorts of ways. I also know that completing this Taster Experience allows me to miss part of the Teach First Training program application. And there were several skills development session.

It helped me to understand this to a great extent, thank you, as there were first-hand accounts from many teachers and charity promoters, even in the preparation work. It was commendably useful for this in spite of the fact that it was virtual, which is saying something because this would have made it harder, but videos and narratives still conveyed well what it's like to be in a classroom- even though there were no pupils at all in this virtual version of the Taster Experience.

Very well, because Teach First provided a document with its core values before the event which was very helpful in understanding their ethos. It was also useful to hear aspects of the culture directly from speakers, for example one who said that the charity's goal isn't narrow-minded, i.e. closing educational inequality by telling pupils they have to go to university, merely giving everyone an equal chance and freedom to be able to choose to do so.

It was valuable thanks, because it made clear why a lot of people had decided to go to Teach First, that it felt like something incredibly rewarding to do for a living. It was also useful in this way because it made very clear, through kindly taking time to answer lots of questions, exactly how the program works- the different training courses available, when one can apply, the necessary qualifications and so forth, so that everything is made easy.

But I could have been had I requested it- when the event was going to take place in person I was asked if I would like to be reimbursed for travel for example. And it isn't in the least necessary to be paid for it as it wasn't a job, just an enjoyable opportunity which more than pays back the participants through the pleasant experience of learning more about Teach First, gaining useful skills and meeting new people on the program.

Yes, thank you- there was a quiz with drinks after the first day which allowed for networking and meeting other employees, and Teach First was also very helpful in stressing the importance of networking, so much support and opportunity arrived in that area. And it was also possible to meet many employees from Teach First through the enjoyable and interesting presentations and so I felt that I'd had the chance to get to know many people well.

Quite useful, thank you. It was a wide range of people who were connected with Teach First in all kinds of different ways, and so it felt very balanced. Everyone was also very helpful about answering questions so it felt as if there was a lot of support and as if participants could find out exactly what they had to do in order to follow their chosen paths. The quiz was also fun and there's few better bonding exercises arguably.

Yes, thank you, to some extent. Employees can get involved in Teach First events at my university, which was made clear by the university representatives who spoke at the Experience, and there were other activities advertised as well I think. It was a good chance to see that Teach First isn't just about teaching because of how much else happens, and how no two people linked to Teach First are the same, as it's wonderfully varied.

Yes, absolutely, thanks. It was a wonderful chance to meet people interested in teaching for anyone who'd like to do so, to hear a lot of interesting stories and career routes which would help with this, and to get advice on how to apply for Teach First. It was also useful practice teaching itself, as the feedback from leaders was excellent in its detail and it was a realistic experience despite there being no children because of this, thanks to the organizers' efforts this way (the detail). And it was all tremendous fun.