Maisie Krebs - Secondary SCITT trainee 2019-2020

9 Jun

"I have found myself to be surrounded with some of the most supportive and nurturing individuals in my colleagues and mentors"

Maisie Krebs, secondary SCITT trainee talks us through her training year with The Sheffield SCITT

My training year with the SCITT has been an experience I will never forget. From start to finish it has been both rewarding and challenging. I have found myself to be surrounded with some of the most supportive and nurturing individuals in my colleagues and mentors, these people have helped me overcome my obstacles, and celebrated my successes with me. While success often does not come without it's trials and tribulations - every moment of worry and stress has been more than worth it.

“The biggest personal highlight for me this year has been gaining employment in a FE position. From the day that I became interested in teaching I knew I eventually wanted to teach further education/16+, however I had no idea that the opportunity would present itself as soon as it did. I was over the moon to find out that I had achieved a long-term goal so soon.”

Another personal highlight of mine was being able to form the relationships that I have with some of my classes.

I have had the chance to work with some really lovely pupils over this year, and to see them make progress, become more confident and enjoy English has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced.

My most challenging moment happened around December/January time. I had started out really well, my feedback on most of my lessons was generally great - I was feeling pretty confident in myself and my teaching. Then, towards the end of TP1, I hit what my mentor and I called a 'blip', where all of a sudden my lessons seemed to decrease in quality, I became less confident because of this, and the negative feedback I started to receive caused me to really doubt myself as a teacher. I'm happy to say that I have now, of course, come out of the other side a more confident teacher and resilient individual because of this, but the challenge at the time was definitely picking myself up and motivating myself to find out what went wrong, fix it, and progress from it when my confidence had taken a definite knock.

My biggest tip for any new trainees is definitely to not expect that you will be a perfect teacher all year. Speaking from experience, it's very easy to approach the course with high expectations of yourself, and because of this, negative feedback will knock your confidence. Be prepared to be told about it when things haven't worked or there are things you can do better, and instead of letting this affect your confidence, use it constructively and use it to progress. Another tip would definitely be to build up your bundles as you go, rather than collating everything at the end. I made this mistake with my first bundle and it ended up being a way more stressful process than it needed to be!

As part of the training we were given sessions that were entirely devoted to the application process and job prospects, this meant that I was able to anticipate the kind of questions I might have been asked during my interview and was able to prepare well. I definitely believe I have also become a more confident and outgoing person overall as a result of the course, which definitely helps when interacting with potential employers!

The school that I have secured employment with is John Leggott College in Scunthorpe. I will be teaching both Y11 English language and literature, and A Level English language, literature, and the combined course.

I started to apply for jobs around the beginning of April, actually - John Leggott College was the first and only position I applied for!