I’m Emma, 23 years old and last month I joined BBSCITT to train to be a biology teacher.
Before joining the SCITT I was a physiotherapist and I decided to change careers and train as a teacher because I wanted more variety and to get to know the people I am working with while following them through a journey. A month ago I had very little school experience but I currently feel really happy I did it and took the leap into a new career!
Over the first busy, busy month of the SCITT course I’ve met amazing, supportive, down-to-earth fellow trainees as well as qualified teachers. I’ve loved getting classroom experience and building rapport with the pupils in my placement school. I’ve just taught my very first lesson by myself and I’m feeling super proud and positive for the months to come (now I’ve got my head around all the new IT systems!). The SCITT course is well organised and prepares you to get involved really quickly with your placement classes and the wider school.
Check back again for my next update in about a month’s time!
Half Term 1:
We have made it to half term! It’s been an intense but most exciting 8 weeks learning from both the pupils and teachers at my placement school! I have also enjoyed helping out at science club with interesting projects such as ‘invisible writing’🍋🔥 and ‘balloon rockets’🚀🎈.
After half term we have a literature review due to be submitted as part of our PGCE through the University of Worcester. It has been strange getting back into the flow of writing in an academic style again, but made a lot easier by having scheduled days whereby University of Worcester lecturers come up to Barr Beacon to meet with us!👩🏻💻
We are now up to 4 hours of independently taught lessons a week (after half term). So far I have most enjoyed my lessons involving practicals, where you see the pupils become so excited by and engrossed with science!🔬👩🏻🔬 The week before half term we had ITP week (intensive training practice) focussing on modelling which I’m excited to implement further in my future lessons!
Half Term 2:
We’re three weeks away from breaking up for Christmas and I cannot believe how fast the weeks have gone since October half term!🎄We’re now teaching 6 solo hours/lessons a week and honestly it almost seems to be getting easier in some ways when teaching more hours as you can get into a better flow with a topic as opposed to just teaching one lesson a week of a certain topic.
My subject knowledge is rapidly improving from revising topics in such detail, plus even GCSE science seems to make so much deeper sense than it ever did before now I have ‘adult common sense’!👩🏻💻
Last week I went on an A-Level Biology school trip with my placement school to the University of Birmingham and really enjoyed hearing about the inspiring different careers and opportunities stemming from biology such as marine biology, cognitive neuroscience etc.🐳🪸🧠
Next week, for our PGCE we have a presentation due which reflects on the findings from our recent literature review and how we implemented our findings into our own teaching practice which has been incredibly informative📝
Half Term 3:
Half Term 4:
Start of March blog:
We have just finished our third ITaP ‘Intensive Training and Practice’ week focussing on questioning. For science, our subject course leader is based at Q3 Academy Great Barr, so we visited for a day to observe questioning in action by experts after learning the theory and pedagogy. We then had two days back at our placement school during ITaP week to put into action everything we’ve learnt and observed specifically about questioning such as how to ensure questioning is ‘no opt out’, how to scaffold questioning to build pupils’ knowledge and confidence, as well as how to create questions that stretch and challenge pupils.
Now we’ve been at our second placement schools for 5 weeks I feel really in the flow with the school’s culture and routines. I have also continued to build good relationships with the pupils which aids my adaptive teaching as I know them better as individuals so I can engage and support them more effectively.
Coming up in March we have a visit to Uffculme School in Birmingham as well as a visit to Bloxwich Academy’s alternative provision which will be insightful opportunities to observe how high-quality teaching is delivered for pupils with SEN in different settings. We also have carousel week coming up whereby we will visit different schools within the SCITT partnership. So, March is very busy with lots of eye-opening opportunities ahead!
Besides completion of our Term 2 placements completing 12 hours solo teaching each week, we have had lots of opportunities to visit other schools and provisions to gain understanding of the communities they serve and how they adapt to the needs and barriers of different pupils. We visited Bloxwich Academy’s alternative provision known as the ‘success centre’ and Uffculme School which does incredible work to support pupils with SEND. It was insightful to see the adaptiveness of teaching in different environments, and how comfortable & safe pupils felt in learning communities that supported them.
Within this half term, we have also experienced ‘carousel week’. This is an opportunity to visit multiple schools that work with BBSCITT to look specifically at different barriers to learning (SEND, having a ‘disadvantaged’ background, literacy barriers and EAL). During these visits we had the opportunity to learn how these barriers can impact students and the steps that schools take to make learning effective and meaningful, close attainment gaps and create inclusive school communities. Even though the variation in routine this week travelling to different schools left us a little tired, the opportunity to see a range of schools serving different communities was an incredible opportunity with some fantastic strategies and insights to take away!
At the end of term 2 and heading into the Easter holidays, we are in the middle of our second assignment for the PGCE component of the course. Last week we had a timetabled, online University of Worcester day whereby we had the chance to peer discuss our essay ideas. We also had a Q&A session with the assignment leads. We then had the rest of the day to put our ideas into words and make a good start with our essays!
Half Term 5:
Start of June blog:
