All three places to which I applied to undertake teach training offered me a place. I was initially going to accept a ‘school direct’ route with Shirebrook Academy straight away. It’s the school where I had visited to get an experience of teaching. The head of IT is a wonderful lady, the faculty and the whole school are simply brilliant. Shirebrook was the place that had quenched my remaining fears that education hadn’t changed from Pink Floyd’s depiction of 1970s education, and it was what properly invigorated me to pursue a career in teaching. The head teacher, Mark Cottingham, was a very inspiring gentleman to meet and evidently has a strong grasp of social needs.
Nottingham Trent University also offered me a place for their PGCE route. The travel time concerned me a bit and I really want to resist having to buy a car and use public transport as much as possible. To be honest, I only attended the interview for the experience of attending this type of interview – in preparation for Sheffield Hallam‘s PGCE course.
I accepted Sheffield Hallam’s offer:
I really enjoyed the interview day and meeting the course leader, Phil Spencer. He’s a really knowledgeable, enthusiastic and friendly guy. He’s very ‘down to Earth’ – the archetypal Yorkshire man. I had a good conversation with him he recognised my motives for getting into teaching – as a vocation by which I could help bring opportunities to others. If I’m honest, I accepted the course on the basis of meeting Phil, alone. I’ve rationalised my decision with the idea of public transport being easier and with the idea that a PGCE will look better on a CV than the school direct route but no, really, it’s because Phil is evidently someone you can rely on.
So, two weeks of the summer remaining and I’ve got a few books, Phil recommended, to read before the course starts:
