I am currently undergoing my PGCE Secondary English and have been placed in a Catholic Middle School in which I teach various classes of mixed ability for English and Humanities. I have found the most rewarding part of my role is when I can be a role model for my pupils and I am someone they can come to when they are struggling. I have immersed myself in finding out about mental health and wellbeing and how I can best aid my students. I have helped prepare year 7 and 8’s for their mid-term assessments in various modules. I spent the beginning of the Spring term teaching students virtually in which I engaged up to 90 pupils at a time. I have been constantly improving my teaching style. Due to COVID-19, we do not teach pupils in sets, therefore our classes are very mixed ability. I have found ways to adapt tasks to accommodate all levels. I have been able to utilise extra resources for lower ability, whilst setting challenges for higher ability. Alongside my time at St Bede’s, I am visiting Tudor Grange High School in order to obtain KS4 experience. Although I do not spend as much time here, I have gained valuable experience in teaching GCSE texts. I have had the chance to expand my experience and work in Media lessons and Criminology at Sixth Form. I have also learnt to change my approach when speaking to young adults and engaging them with different tasks, challenges and knowledge recall.

During my time studying Psychology and Childhood studies, I particularly enjoyed conducting my own research. I have worked in a small group conducting experiments and writing up quantitative reports showing our results. My course has been mainly focused on Psychology with additional modules related to sociology. In these additional modules we have learnt about social class, social policy, therapeutic techniques and inequalities in society. All these modules have allowed me to understand how best to help different people from different backgrounds in a variety of ways. When aiding businesses, I believe the fundamental way to offer help is to focus on an individual’s wellbeing. The techniques I have learnt will be extremely beneficial when aiding people’s welfare at work and at school, college and university. As part of my course, I was encouraged to be part of a voluntary work placement. I worked closely with a young person with Autism. It was an incredibly insightful journey and I feel I was able to connect very quickly with this person as well as begin to understand their world. This experience will enable me to adapt to different people’s personal situations as well as understand the ways in which it is best to guide them.