After receiving Miss Leslie's personal experiences of being an NQT it is our pleasure to bring to you one of our newest teachers, Miss Barnard's journey from University to Steinbeck class.
More to follow in the new half term.
Did you always want to become a teacher Miss?
One of the regular questions I get asked is “Did you always want to be a teacher?” Before answering the question, especially if it is a child who asks me, I always question myself as to whether I should just say “Yes” and that be the end of it, or, to answer truthfully and say “No”. This latter answer follows with a ream of other questions such as: What did you want to be? Why aren’t you that? How did you become a teacher? And because it is the truth, I do answer “No I didn’t always want to be a teacher”.
In truth, teaching had never really entered my mind until about four and a half years ago when I found myself unemployed for a period of about four months. Straight out of Uni, achieving a Law and Business degree from the University of Portsmouth, I was fortunate enough to be offered a job in London. A 21 year old with no other commitments in life apart from organising her social life at the weekends, I jumped at the chance and couldn’t really believe my luck at the opportunity that this would provide me with.
I started my five times a week commute from Fratton to London Waterloo and then a two stop tube journey from Waterloo to Green Park……believe me, that was an eye opener in itself! I worked for an Agency Brokers in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, writing all of the legal contracts for the Capital Restructuring Team. A very little fish in a very large pond, every day was a steep learning mountain as opposed to a learning curve but thoroughly enjoyable at the same time. I worked alongside some incredible people such as international law firm Allen and Overy and banks such as the Lehman Brothers (let’s not talk about them! The only thing to say is that I wasn’t to blame for the recession I promise!). I even experienced my first business trips away travelling to Eindhoven and other parts of the Netherlands. However, nine months into my contract, the firm became victim to the recession and had no other choice but to cease trading in March 2011. This left me, now aged 22, unemployed.
Numerous unsuccessful applications and interviews later, I was at the end of my tether and would have given anything to work anywhere. With my self-confidence at an all-time low, a random discussion with an old college friend saw me apply for a TA job at Stamshaw Junior School. On the day of my interview, I was certain that this would be another job pass me by due to my lack of any experience in education. However, to my surprise, whilst I was still being shown around the school by two pupils who would later be in my very first class, they offered me the job there and then!
So, in September 2011, I began my first step towards the career I have now and the rest, to coin a famous phrase, as they say is history. A month in, I had decided that this was what I wanted to pursue and I had secured a place on the Graduate Teacher Programme (an apprenticeship for teachers) with Chichester University which would see me train on the job starting in September 2012 after my year of TA experience. After a year of gruelling training, two essays, fortnightly observations and two skills tests, I gained my Qualified Teacher Status and was ready to be promoted to NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher or, as my mentor called it, Not Quite a Teacher as you still have the ability to fail the year and not progress) in September 2013. With the year passing by in a whirl of Year 6 SATS, transition to secondary schools and end of Junior school celebrations, I was ready for my second year of teaching already which saw me move from Year 6 to Year 5 in September 2014. A chance, and very fortunate, meeting with both Miss Waeland and Miss Lewis, presented me with one of the most difficult decisions I had to make to date; to stay at Stamshaw or to move and push myself out of my comfort zone after only ever working at Stamshaw and join the St Jude’s family? You obviously know the decision that I made and now have the pleasure of working with the incredible members of Steinbeck class who have astounded me every single day since September 2015.
So now, when anyone asks me “Did you always want to become a teacher?” I always answer “No……but I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life now.”
Miss Barnard
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