2020 has been a year like no other – and we know this may have had an effect on your ability to get work experience and prepare for a teaching course.
As a university, we know it’s difficult to secure a placement in a school at the moment and we take this into consideration on your application. We’ve listed some advice on what you can do to overcome this in your personal statement and interview.
- First of all, tell us that you’ve been trying to get experience. Tell us that you’ve been unsuccessful due to Covid restrictions in schools. We will understand.
- Keep up to date with news and current events in the Teaching sphere – check out BBC Education regularly to make sure you’re aware of what is going on
- Look at school’s websites for policies related to teaching, you can learn a lot from these. You can usually find health and safety policies, IT policies, Bullying policies and many others publicly available on schools’ websites.
- Speak to teachers – you may not be able to get into school when the kids are there, but could you secure a phone call with a teacher or a head teacher to ask about their role, how its changed during Covid, their top tips etc. You can talk about this in your personal statement and interview
- Speak to current students – many universities have Open Days or events where you can chat to current university students. Ask them how their course has changed through Covid. How are placements changing?
- Could you sign up to a journal or teaching newsletter such as Education from the NEU https://neu.org.uk/educate
- If you can’t do any of the above – focus on why you want to teach. What experiences have you had in the classroom? Reflecting back on your experience in schools – which teachers were effective and why? What is your teaching ethos – which style of teaching do you or will you adopt? What qualities make a good teacher? What qualities make a bad teacher? How can you demonstrate the qualities which you think are important to effective teaching?