ENGLISH 2019/20

Gaining experience in a real school setting before applying to Red Kite was invaluable in preparing me for the course.

When I was at university, I got a part-time job as a Maths and English tutor and loved it. After graduating, I signed up to a teaching agency and applied for a full-time job as an English Intervention Support Worker at a local high school. I worked at the school for two years and it was the best move I made. I knew I didn’t want to jump straight into applying for teacher training as that wasn’t the natural step for me. Gaining experience in a real school setting before applying to Red Kite was invaluable in preparing me for the course.

I have absolutely loved my experience with Red Kite. From the outset, the team have always been so supportive, professional, approachable, and just an email or phone call away. One of my main worries about teacher training was becoming overwhelmed, but this certainly was not the case for me. As I do not drive, I was worried about my commute to placements, but this was taken into consideration as early as the interview stage and I worked at two fantastic schools that were 20 minutes away.

The course offered additional mental health first aid training and other sessions based on supporting some of the challenges we could expect to face during the course. My mentors in both placements were exceptional and I felt like a fully integrated member of staff within the schools’ English departments.

My TPL (Cherie) has been a credit to the RK team; offering feedback, additional reading and support with the employment process, interview preparation, application support and continues to offer a helping hand whenever she can.