Gradteach Ltd

Graduate to teacher

I am Beth.

I graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Mathematics and had always liked the idea of teaching. Organisations had been to my university to talk to students about teacher training but after finishing my exams I wasn’t sure whether it would be right for me.

I’d always helped younger family members and tried to get involved in as much as I could do at university to support others. I volunteered as a course mentor and had the opportunity to work at an overseas summer camp, so I knew that I could work with young people. However straight to teacher training was a big step for me.

Moving back to my parents in Manchester, I needed a paid job! I started to search for ‘graduate jobs’ and I found a company that seemed to work with people like me. I was initially surprised by two things, firstly that you can get a job in a school without being a trained teaching assistant and secondly that there are teaching assistants in secondary schools.

After sending my CV one evening I got a call inviting me to an interview, which really focused on why I wanted to help young people and the types of students I wanted to work with. Shortly after I was presented with options of three different secondary schools, all easy for me to get to. They all sounded good, so if I’m honest I just picked the closest! I had a full day at the school to see if they liked me and vice-versa. I spent some time the evening before on the phone to Mark to prepare me for the day. This was better for me because I knew I’d probably be nervous at an interview.

The school was very different to the one I went to myself. A lot of the pupils we from difficult home lives and so had no interest in school or exams. I though that this would be somewhere where I could have a chance of making as difference.

I started a few weeks later in September at my school with five other graduates in different departments, with me and another girl in Maths. We spent some time observing lessons, getting to know the students and meeting our mentor and training co-ordinator, one of the schools Assistant Heads.

We got allocated tasks to complete to ‘evidence’ the work with individual pupils and started to build a portfolio. These were snapshots of pupils’ work or activities that we had done with the students. By Christmas of that year my confidence had really grown. I found that the kids really liked me and the teachers in my department were encouraging me. I started to get involved in full lessons! Not all the graduates that started at the same time did, but I was keen to give it a go.

Delivering a lesson side by side with the teacher was something I couldn’t have imagined a few short months ago, but here I was… My school ran something called a ‘SCITT’ which is basically teacher training at the school, and I applied to my school at Easter and was accepted to start the following September/ Four of the six graduates also applied.

I’m now completing my training year at the school and the year I spent has made this year so much easier for me. I know the school, staff and pupils, and they know me too! I’m training alongside others that are new to the school and they are finding it tougher. Apparently, I’m considered to be an ‘Outstanding’ trainee. Who knows whether I would have become a teacher at all if I hadn’t had the opportunity to try working in a school first?

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