Getting school experience?

[airedailleurs]

Hello hopefully this is the right place to ask, please let me know if not.

I am considering starting a Secondary PGCE in September 2020 and would love to get more school experience first but it's proving difficult as schools don't reply to my emails.

I have now been advised to actually go into local schools between 3 - 3:30pm and ask to speak to the relevant person (Head of Teaching training?) but this seems potentially annoying and intrusive.

It would be really helpful to get some advice on the best way to get a foot in the door from current teachers so thanks very much in advance!

Going in at the end of the school day probably would work better than sending an email.

Do you have any contact person at all who already works in a school? eg. do you have any friends who are teachers/support staff in a school? This is the most common way that people get into a school for experience.
Or are you close enough to the school you originally went to yourself as a pupil, to be able to do some work experience there? This is also very common.

@astuz thanks I will have a think about who to ask, and no I don't live near my old school unfortunately.

Have you got a DBS check?
I’d phone the school office to ask who to email and then send a brief summary of your skills (“I’m hoping to gain experience before starting x course in x. Within the classroom I would be able to support lessons by either working with student groups, or I’d be happy to be able to observe etc”). State whether you’re flexible with dates and if you can provide any character references that would be good.

Hi @PETRONELLAS no I don't have a DBS check yet, which is something else I find strange about this. I have also tried asking what skills would be useful to a school and how to present myself but not had very coherent answers, which is why I am posting here I guess.

I have already tried phoning schools to get the relevant email address, sent an email and not had any replies, btw.

I'm a trainee teacher. A quick and relatively easy way into a school is to sign up for a teaching agency as a cover TA and cover supervisor. A cover supervisor is basically someone who just watches a class for the day as the teacher isn't in, for whatever reason. It's usually emergency cover, so they'll call you at 7am.

The benefit of this is they will arrange for your dbs check and you'll have a up to date certificate which you can also bring to any potential school you'll volunteer with. Also, agencies only care about profit so they won't require too much experience from you normallt, so it's less stringent. Also, you're emergency cover so no one expects you to be a child expert.

Main issue with getting casual experience is you need a, dbs check and the school aren't going to arrange that just for a couple of weeks work experience.

Id Google ta agencies and call some up.

This was my route in, and now half way into my training year.

Also, some providers don't even require school experience anyway, although it helps. Any child related activities can count, such as youth clubs etc.

I feel that teaching is actually simple to get into if you put in a bit of effort.

Directly approaching the school can work but try other routes too.

If you're in a major city this shouldn't be an issue, if not, call agencies in your closest city and be prepared to commute.

Hi @selfishaltruism and thanks for your reply.

I have actually already called a teaching recruitment agency as I had been told by another potential trainee teacher that they could give me cover TA work as a route into a school, but again I was told that as I had no experience or training or DBS they couldn't help me!

I think it's obvious I'm putting in some effort, but my efforts are all being thwarted and I seem to be going round in circles as nobody I ask for advice has the whole picture and can actually help me. And yes I live in a big city.

I'm just about to start my pgce (primary though, not secondary) and found it much easier than I thought to gain school experience- most schools are pleased to have any help they can get. I found out the email addresses of the heads at my local schools, explained my situation and ways I'd be happy to help and 2/3 came back to me almost immediately. One school I went in as a visitor and did observations over 3 days, the other processed my dbs for me and I went in for one day a week as a volunteer. I think the best thing is to get in touch, being flexible about what you need and could help with and see what they can do.

I had no experience and got ta work, although had to wait for the dbs. Try other agencies, there's literally hundreds.

Don't say you want school experience, say you want to be a TA or cover supervisor. They'll know you want to work then. I wouldn't even mention your plan to teach. Say you want to be a ta as you like working with children.

Letting them onwo you want to teach showd you'll be leaving in a few months, or only in it for a few weeks so not going to be good value for the agency.

Get a dbs. It's not that hard. Volunteer to help children read. Schools need regular people to listen to children who are struggling and it's difficult to find the time. This is true in secondary as well as primary. Primary schools will bite your hand off.

You in London??? I could ask for you.

Hi thanks for all your replies, I thought I'd replied last week but looks as though my message didn't get posted for some reason.

So I called my potential PGCE university to find out exactly what they mean by school experience and the idea is to attend classes in Secondary school in the subject I want to teach, so not primary or any of the other suggestions. I'm going to apply via the Get into Teaching website for a place as there were a couple of options that I had initially dismissed as they're quite far away.

Thanks again!

Who have you emailed at the schools you have contacted?
You might get more response by emailing teachers of the subject you want to teach.
Or tell us where you are and maybe one of us can help.

I used to manage training in my last school and would regularly get requests such as yours. I would pass them to the relevant HoD and some would be more receptive than others but it is fair to say that in some subjects we were pretty inundated with requests and staff would be busy with students, student teachers etc and often have little space for another person.

I suggest trying to find out who the HoD is in each school you approach and trying to engage with them directly. If you can sell yourself to them and make yourself stand out , you’ll be more than just another email forwarded by the training coordinator.

@Whynotnowbaby - I can't actually offer the school anything though, I just need experience of seeing classes in my subject in action to give me an idea of whether it's something I would like to pursue. They are helping me out rather than the reverse.

Yes you can. You need to explain that you would like to do observations but as part of this you are happy to work with individuals, small groups or just be an extra pair of hands in the classroom. You will get a much better experience anyway if you are prepared to actually engage with the children rather than observe from the sidelines. You will be expected to discuss your school experience at interview so it’s definitely a good idea to ensure you gain as much real insight as possible.