Peterborough teachers among 100 new trainees placed in East of England by Teach First

Throughout the next two years, the trainees will support an estimated 6550 children, across 46 schools, to achieve their potential.

This comes at a time when the majority of children in the East of England have experienced nearly six months away from school, and many poorer children faced struggles, such as a lack of devices to learn online and insufficient quiet space to study.

A report by the Education Policy Institute earlier this month revealed that disadvantaged GCSE students in Peterborough were 23.1 months of learning behind their better-off peers nationally. More than a quarter (27%) of the area’s secondary school pupils were classed as disadvantaged.

The education gap also exists for young children, with five-year-olds trailing by 4.3 months and primary school pupils 12.8 months behind.

It is feared that work that has taken place to close this gap could be wiped out as a result of school closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Teach First is an organisation whose mission statement is to build a fair education for all. The charity supports teachers, leaders and schools facing the biggest challenges in these communities.

Since 2003, they have recruited over 15,000 teachers and leaders and supported over one million pupils and have in their alumni.

One of the new trainee primary teachers for 2020 is Gielliane Gaa, who is teaching Year 3 at St John’s Church School in Orton Goldhay.

Gielliane was born in the Philippines and moved to the UK aged 10. She arrived in Peterborough, last year, shortly after graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2018 with First Class Bachelors in Drama and Performance, to take up a Teaching Assistant role at Hampton Vale Primary School.

She said: “I worked in a few roles after leaving uni, mostly as an Associate Consultant, but I couldn’t knock a lingering interest in teaching. I really liked the idea of making a wider impact and being on the front-line, supporting children that really needed me.

“The work Teach First is doing to help underprivileged children is vital. It’s so valuable to provide these children with teachers that are prepared to go above and beyond for them.

“After seeing some of the deprivation children face in the Philippines, Teach First’s mission to create a fair education for all really spoke to me.”

As part of the scheme, trainees commit to a minimum of two years at their host school, where they teach an NQJ timetable. At the end of the first year, successful trainees achieve Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Education after the second.

In preparation for the placement, recruits must complete a prep course before they can be invited to a five week Summer Institute, to prepare them for life in the classroom. Usually, this would take place in Canterbury but this year, it was held online.

She added: “Training so far with Teach First has been incredibly insightful and certainly eye-opening. I could almost have said it was easy as I was able to understand the whys, hows and whats in learning the practice of teaching, but the real challenges come when I’m in the classroom, navigating classes of 30 or so seven or eight year olds.

“I’ve been really well supported by my Teach First development lead and my mentor at the school.

“The back to school process has been exceptionally challenging, a lot of the children have been off school six months and the first few days have been all about establishing the routines again.

“I’ve been building in breaks between sessions and encouraging some meditation to make sure the return isn’t too overwhelming for them. Everyone is excited to be back though and I have seen a real desire in the children to improve their handwriting and their maths.

“I think through my experience of acting and having to deal with rejection from time to time, I have built up a resilience and that is something I want to pass on to my pupils.

“It’s about showing the children how they can self-criticise and demonstrating to them that if they put in the work and try their best, they will take a step forward, even if it is a small step it gets them closer to their goal.

“The most important thing for me is to look out for every single student and make sure all of them have the access to what they need to reach their potential.”