Paid Internships for Teachers with the West Country Teaching School Alliance and the Ted Wragg Trust

Aims of Internship

The aims of this programme is to provide interns with the opportunity to:

• Gain an insight into teaching as a profession
• Develop an understanding of effective classroom practice
• Share their passion for their subject with students
• Have a positive impact on students learning

Structure of the Internship 2020

Interns will spend the first day of their internship at Exeter Mathematics School (EMS), completing inductions activities and training, including safeguarding.  Each intern will be assigned member of the EMS teaching team as a mentor who will meet with them at induction and again at the midpoint and end of their placement.

The majority of the four weeks will be spent in a placement school.  During their placement, interns will have the opportunity to observe teaching, support students one-to-one, teach episodes of lessons and become involved in the broader life of the school.  A Subject Champion from the placement school will support the interns,  ensuring they gain the maximum benefit from the experience.

Part-way through the school placement, interns will come together for a day of support, reflection and training.  At this point they will receive support in planning lessons and will develop an action plan to ensure they get the most out of their remaining time in schools.

In the final week of the internship, participants will return to EMS to take part in further training, including learning about the routes into teaching.

Placement Schools will provide:

• A Subject Champion who will take responsibility for supervising the intern whilst on placement
• A structured induction to the school
• A timetable which has between 15 -18 hours of classroom based experience
• A range of experiences whilst on placement

EMS / West Country Teaching School Alliance (WCTSA) / Ted Wragg Trust will provide:

• Overview training
• A mentor
• Quality assurance process
• Enrichment activities

Payments

Interns must commit to full attendance to be able to take part in the internship.

A payment of £1200 will be made at the conclusion of the internship if there has been full attendance.  A pro-rata reduction will be made for days missed.

In 2018 and 2019, we provided STEM internships for students considering teaching.

100% of interns agreed that they would recommend this internship to others who are considering teaching as a career.

74% of interns were more likely to go into teaching as a result of their experience

A few internship highlights

Visiting and working in multiple schools

Teaching the majority of a lesson

Experiencing different teachers and their approaches

Jumping into a whole new environment

The mentor from EMS

Supportive teachers

Routes into teaching was very informative

Working with students 1-2-1

Great insight into the teaching profession

Key learning for interns

Building confidence in public speaking

How difficult and rewarding the job can be

How to get into teaching

Learning the thought processes of teaching children

What it’s like to be a student in 2018

The different cultures of schools

Teachers do more than I realised

The importance of being adaptable

Communicating effectively with young people

Differentiating teaching for different groups of students

Quotes from our interns

“Great experience! Thank you so much.”

“The internship as a whole has really built my confidence.  Great team spirit with other interns. Thank you!”

“Thanks so much for this opportunity. Funding also great as I could take time off work.”

“Each part of this internship has been very valuable in thinking through teaching. Thank you!”