What Our Trainees Say About Us
Emma Mitchell
Science Trainee 2018-19
"I was a bit concerned about going back to the beginning in a new career having been good at what I was doing before and I was worried about my subject knowledge...but being enrolled on the SKE course helped me to work on this over the summer in preparation."
Listen to Emma being interviewed on Brooklands Radio about life as an i2i Trainee here: Emma Mitchell Brooklands Radio i2i SCITT Interview
I chose the i2i teaching partnership for my teacher training because I liked the idea of being in a school full time as well as having weekly training sessions at Weydon. I attended one of their get into teaching events and from that point felt hugely supported during the application with all of my questions answered promptly and plenty of good advice.
Since starting my course the support from my mentor and the teaching school have been amazing. Everyone is very approachable and will help to sort out any worries and our weekly professional skills sessions are a great way to celebrate successes and challenges with a group of trainees who all understand how you feel.
Being a co-tutor to my year 7 form got me involved in the pastoral side of teaching straight away and made me feel like part of the team. Building relationships with my classes has been a massive highlight and I feel like I am making progress with my teaching every day with the support and feedback that I receive. There is no denying that the course is tough but it is also highly rewarding and I am confident that the decision to start training was one of the best I’ve ever made.
Previously I was working for a school’s expedition company so I had quite a lot of experience working with school groups and really loved it and during my PhD I did some outreach work with schools and had considered teaching so the timing just felt right for a new challenge.
I was a bit concerned about going back to the beginning in a new career having been good at what I was doing before and I was worried about my subject knowledge as it had been 6 years since my PhD and a lot more years than that since I had studied physics and chemistry at school but being enrolled on the SKE course helped me to work on this over the summer in preparation. Since starting there have been topics I’ve had to teach which I have been less confident with but there is lots of support from our subject tutor and the other science trainees who are always happy to share resources and be on the other end of the phone explaining physics to me.
