17-06-2019
06:42
Our team sorts through all blog submissions to place them in the categories they fit the most - meaning it's never been simpler to gain advice and new knowledge for topics most important for you. This is why we have created this straight-forward guide to help you navigate our system.
And there you have it! Now your collection of blogs are catered to your chosen topics and are ready for you to explore. Plus, if you frequently return to the same categories you can bookmark your current URL and we will save your choices on return. Happy Reading!
Some people know they want to teach from an early age, others work out later on what they want to do.
Once Amy had become a teacher, she wanted more. She trained for several other roles and since Lockdown, has started her Masters in Psychology alongside all her other duties and her family.
She wants us to think about what ‘the right time’ looks like.
Did you always want to be a teacher? It was not a clear trajectory for me, though my secondary school work experience placements were in a specialist provision. I was the first in my family to go to university and being unsure of what my career aspirations were, I opted to study Sociology before embarking on my PGCE. As is the case with all new teachers, the learning continued ‘on the job’ in my NQT year but I had a thirst for more. That’s when I took the plunge and started my first Inclusion Manager role and another period of study, this time for the National Award for SEN Coordination. I knew two things at this early point in my career: I wanted to make a difference for children with additional needs and I wanted to continue learning.
Working with Educational Psychologists was a fascinating part of my job, and one EP, in particular, sparked my interest in the career in my first year of being an Inclusion Manager. I worked with her briefly again recently, a decade on, and told her that she’d inspired me. My only Psychology qualification was a poor A-Level grade (I sadly didn’t have the same love of learning when in school!) so I knew I needed to do a conversion course but it had never been the right time in the ten years since developing an interest in Educational Psychology. When the first COVID lockdown hit in March last year, it gave me an opportunity to reflect on what ‘the right time’ would look like or if it actually existed. That’s when the research into courses and finance options became serious because let’s be honest, there’s no time like the present to follow a goal.
I needed flexibility in order to manage study alongside my part-time job as a primary Assistant Head/SENCO, and secured a place on a fully online Psychology Masters with the University of Derby. I applied for funding through the Student Loans Company and it was all fairly straightforward, meaning that finance wasn’t an obstacle either. I started the three year course in September 2020 so it’s the start of a long journey but it has been brilliant to challenge myself and I am enjoying the content of the modules; even the statistics! The pride I felt gaining a Distinction for my first module was the push I needed to keep focused when things were tough to juggle.
Though my course isn’t related to my work in school, it has had an impact on my practice and conversations with colleagues and outside agencies. Anything that broadens our perspectives as educators can only have a positive impact on the children, staff, and communities connected to our settings. I’ve also had to develop a smarter work attitude in order to commit to the recommended study time and weekly activities, as well as juggling family life.
If you’re thinking of embarking on Postgraduate study, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. Keep the goal in mind when things get tough, as it is a challenge to learn anything new when life is already busy. For me, the stepping stones are the feedback received from submitted pieces and the coursework grades. The end goal that I visualise is my children seeing me graduate, and I hope that this will teach them that lifelong learning is a positive thing and a fantastic opportunity for personal growth.
https://www.oneeducation.co.uk/
One Education has worked with schools for over a decade, providing specialist training and consultancy services to raise standards and pupil attainment. We offer support across the whole school, empowering school leaders, business managers and teachers to champion excellence at every level.
Operoo is a school operations and productivity platform. We help thousands of schools and trusts to eliminate slow, expensive and repetitive tasks. Operoo helps schools streamline and digitise processes, drastically reducing the associated costs: From student pre-admissions, permission forms, payments, and school trips; to medical information and emergency contacts, incident reporting, staff agreements, and more in over 100 languages.
Unify is an online sales and marketing tool that allows users to create tailored personalised documents in moments.
ImpactEd's mission is to improve pupil outcomes by helping schools understand what is and isn’t working in their specific context. We are a non-profit organisation, and through hands-on partnership and our digital platform, we support schools to understand the impact of programmes they run and make monitoring and evaluation easy.
https://www.utility-aid.co.uk/
There’s nothing special about the energy we sell. In fact, it’s exactly the same energy as all our competitors provide. But there is something special about the way we do it. Where others complicate the process, we simplify it. Where others confuse customers with hidden terms, we’re an open book. And where others do all they can to make as much money from their customers as possible, we do all we can to make as little. Everything we do, we do it differently. Our customers are a privilege. One we’ll never take advantage of.
Securus provide market-leading monitoring solutions to safeguard students on ALL devices both online and offline. We also offer a full monitoring service, where we carry out the monitoring on behalf of the school, freeing up valuable staff resources. From the smallest school to large MAT groups, Securus offers safeguarding protection for all!
Vivify partners with schools across the country to hire out their facilities outside of school hours to enable them to generate much needed revenue that can be invested back into their facilities, teachers, and student experience. Opening up school facilities for communities to get together can improve mental and physical wellbeing, boost confidence, tackle loneliness and help people feel more positive about life.
As European leaders of Time Management Solutions, Bodet offer Lockdown, Clock, Bell & PA Systems. Harmonys, our five-in-one IP/PoE Bell System, provides a unique customisable lockdown or panic alarm alert. Melodys, a Wireless Bell System, is useful where wiring can be difficult.