Insight Classroom Teacher Review

Great fun. Hard work but very rewarding. The techniques taught in training all make sense when you see your lesson progress from a plan to delivering it to a full class of children.

We spent most of the time in the classroom and didn't interact much with Teach First staff. They were all really friendly when on placement and offered some great tips for the assessment centre.

Loads - we had just under a week of intense Pedagogy which really built up our confidence before heading into the classroom. I found the hints and tips picked up "on the job"in the second week were more useful than the formal training.

Solid foundations were laid for summer institute (the graduate programme.) Presentation skills should help with university work and any presentations regardless of future career.

We should have spent more time teaching on placement. It may have been easier to plan our lesson if we had an observation day first. Some of the training was repetitive. There was lots of travelling between locations for training, which could have been streamlined.

Everybody had a great time - especialy those staying in the accomodation. I really would recommend the accomodation to everybody for the social side.

We received a lot of staff time and attention - a full week of presentations and activities. Staff also visited us on placement.

We were obviously shown the "best" Teach First schools but they made a great impression. Teaching a lesson was a very valuable insight and is much more hands on than most placements. New employees were happy to chat and gave us a good idea of what to expect.

Teach First has a very strong company identity which is very prevelant both around the office and on placement.

I applied and was accepted onto the graduate programme.

Accomodation was provided in a hostel in Zone 2. Very well equipped with great facilities. We also had a £10/day food allowance so long as we "didn't go crazy with it".

Loads of Q&A pannels. Most presentations were given by different staff members so you could get a wide array of views.

An area of a pub was reserved for us one afternon - but no freebies.

They are very proud of their summer projects for employees and company network. There seems to be lots of opportunities and staff had great stories. More detailed, less anecdotal information would have been appreciated but these projects seem to vary every summer.

Worth considering for anybody interested in teaching. Essential for anybody with doubts and no teaching experience before committing to a PGCE or Teach First Programme.