NQT: Piper Hill High School
School Direct Primary with SEND
Post Graduate Certificate of Education and Qualified Teacher Status
After completing my undergraduate degree, I went on to teach English as a Foreign Language as a means of living abroad and earning some money. After spending three years in Moscow and Hong Kong, this amazing experience confirmed to me that I wanted to become a teacher. Whilst working abroad, I had the opportunity to work with a whole range of pupils, from toddlers to adults, independent learners to structured learners – this experience led me to understand that I wanted to teach SEN.
During my School Direct PGCE, I learned so much about teaching, pedagogy and the school system from a theoretical and practical approach. By spending lots of time in mainstream and SEN schools, I gained rich experience and a truly holistic understanding that helped me to prepare for my teaching career. Teach Manchester’s PGCE Primary with SEN Specialism course allows you to experience a range of settings, which I think is really important for your professional development.
My first placement was in a mainstream primary setting, this was the first time I had set foot in a mainstream primary school since I was in primary school, over ten years prior! This experience allowed me to gain essential teaching skills such as time management and behaviour management. By discussing weekly targets and having regularly observed lessons by my mentor (assigned at the placement school), I managed to look at my areas of strength and areas for development, making these very clear. My next placement was in a SEN high school, which was a truly contrasting setting to my Block A placement. This placement really developed my understanding of specialist educational schools and I learned so much during this time. The ongoing support from staff at the school, my mentor and everyone involved with the PGCE was truly amazing. I always felt supported and confident when approaching any of these people for anything that could help me to improve my teaching practice. My final placement felt like the most important to me, as this was a time in which I could really put everything I had learned over the past 6 months together and show what I could do.
There are many challenges in teaching, and some days can be tough. However, it is always important to understand that your colleagues and other professionals are there to support you and understand the difficulties. A colleague told me during my PGCE year that sometimes we feel stressed or overwhelmed, but this is only because we care enough about our jobs to ensure that we are working really hard to better ourselves professionally and the pupils we are teaching.
My advice to anyone thinking of doing a PGCE with Teach Manchester is to organise your time effectively -a diary comes in handy! Also, most importantly, accept that you will have areas of development and do not take criticism personally. Some of these areas may take just a few lessons to develop, whereas others may take years!
