Insight Participant Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the insight programme, primarily because it gave me an excellent taster of what the real Teach First experience would be like. There's no better window into what teaching would be like than actually standing up and delivering a 50 minute lesson and this is the opportunity that the programme provides you with. The First week of teaching theory and personal development was fascinating and will be useful for any industry, while in the second week the school I was placed in was unbelievably accommodating and friendly - really inspiring me to apply for the LDP next year.

Teach First have an excellent community feeling which is very welcoming, and they treated all of us with enormous respect and warmth. The employees running the programme were all excellent and very willing to answer any questions and address any issues.

The level of support was just right during the programme so you did not feel completely on your own but at the same time had the freedom to be creative. The teacher at my school allowed me to pick any topic and deliver it however I wanted but was always happy to provide me resources where I needed them or advice when I was unsure.

It's not easy to develop skills on a two week programme to the point where they are life changing, but the various activities as well as the lesson were certainly a boost to my confidence. I think of more benefit was the amount of information available from teachers about all the minutia of the LDP that you had been wanting to ask about, or the details of the reality of Teach First from previous ambassadors that you would not be able to find on the website.

The programme was excellently organised and delivered, and the structure of training before we arrived at the schools was perfect. Even the set up once you're in the school of observing lessons for the first few days before delivering one of your own allows you to see what works well and what works badly and pick up tips for your own 50 minutes.

The atmosphere is probably one of the best aspects of working with Teach First. There is an incredible community feeling with all the other participants, and the fact that you are all staying in the same hostel really adds to the feeling of having fun whilst doing something productive and useful.

The first week is very focused on personal development and training, so that by the end of it you really feel as though you've picked up a lot of new skills around self-reflection, as well as the obvious tips about how to plan a lesson etc.

It's hard in two weeks to reflect what a difficult process the LDP would actually be, but Insight was good in the sense that it involved a training aspect as well as a teaching in a school with little experience aspect as the real Teach First programme would. Going into a Teach First school even for a short time is definitely the best way to see what working their would actually be like.

The feeling of community during the two weeks was extraordinary considering how little time everyone had known each other, so I think the programme did give a good sense of the sort of atmosphere you are likely to experience at Teach First.

Insight was extremely valuable to test whether or not you want to do the actual Teach First programme, so in that sense it's useful to decide at least the first couple of years of your career.

The £500 you get for the programme is actually very generous as it easily covers any travel and food during the two weeks and leaves you with a good amount as a reward for your hard work. I would have done the programme for free to get the experience - so this felt like a real bonus.

After each speaker during the first week (most of which were Teach First ambassadors) there was always an opportunity to catch them one on one and have a chat.

Everyone goes out for a drink on the final Friday which is a nice opportunity to socialise with all your fellow candidates.

Being in the school is an excellent opportunity to ask all the teachers what sort of opportunities there are to get involved with stuff outside of work.

I would absolutely recommend the Insight programme to a friend who was even vaguely interested in taking part in the actual Teach First programme.