Research into career options based on my personal interests and qualities

Before the module began I knew that I was very interested in teaching. Both career assesments, and my basic knowldge of the roles of a teacher, alongside personal experiences in eductaion helped establish this. However, It was not until I began researching the facts that I truly believed I would excel in this profession. I believe I posses all of the appropriate values and skills needed to enter the teaching profession such as Organisational skills, confidence, design technology and Art subject knowledge,the ability to plan, manage and evaluate a practice and time for lesson planning purposes etc, empathy, compassion, passion.
I am stimulated and engaged by a challenge, something that I feel teachers face every day, across lesson planning, conducting a class and in behaviour management. Without a real challenge I believe I would grow bored in a position. I enjoy the Idea that as a teacher you are met with fresh faces every year, new challeneges, new learning oppurtunities, in that all those students are unique and their Ideas and value will be unique with its own merit and value. I look forward to the constant growth within schools ever changing anf adapting approaches and drive to better themselves as an establishment. Something I would find greatly rewarding to nurture and develop with them. In addition, my passion for the right education pushed me to attempt to be the best provider of that education I could be or offer to pupils. I would find it sincerely and deeply rewarding to watch individuals find their passion and work on their skills, developing themselves into confident talented students, under my wing. I believe my empathy and emotional intelligence gives me the base skills to communicate with young people in a constructive and positive way, providing positive reinforcement and an understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement. In addition to all of the above, I feel that the terms are in line with the way that I hope to live my life as I intend to travel and conduct carity work over the coming ten years. The school holidays etc would allow me to contine to develop my relationship with my own family and cater to their needs alongside my personal and career development.





What ive discovered? a conclusion followed by a summary of my proposal

I have discovered through research all of the immediate expectations of someone in a teaching role and feel that I fit the bill certainly. My ability to maintain good grades, alongside running a home, raising a child, managing a netball team, and other responsibilities is tribute to my time keeping and organisational skills aswell as my drive to succeed. Being a slightly older than average student and applicant gives me the certainty and drive needed in a career that I feel most 21 year olds fail to have. I have the extra passion that comes from having responsibilities and a need to succeed in what I do.

Searching for the right school

I began by searching for local schools that could take me on as a volunteer on worl placement. initially this was purely for primary schools, and later expanded to high schools. There was one in my area that stood out to me as being the place I would like to get my experience and that was Russells Hall primary. This was because of the creative curiculum. My Aunt works in the school and had informed me of their sprawling murals and value in the arts. So i knew that my efforts would be appreciated in a school like this. When I visited the site It excelled my expectations. The hallways are extensively filled with murals in tribute to paintings such as Van Goghs starry night. The school is immediately engaging for young creative minds and their is a new stimuli around every corner. Images are painted on almost every wall, with art displays abundently layed out in every classroom. The school obviously values its creative skills.
I met with the Headteacher, who  sat with me and arranged a further meeting with the art co-ordinator Miss Pestridge. We discussed what I wanted to achieve from being in the school on placement and what I could bring to the childrens eductaion during that time. We realised that there were some issues in what I wanted to do at this point, as I was not fully aware of the extent of involvement I could have with the children. I initially considered only observing and learning about the roles of a primary teacher, rather than expecting to learn for myself! later on, before meeting the co-ordinator I developed a proposal outlinging a range of workshops to complete with small groups of children alongside the core subjects. The children every term have a new book, which acts as a theme for the term. The first term or winter term, that boook was all about history, So my workshop plans outlined clay activities creating stone age artifacts. As I needed a full term in schoool however, It happened that I would need to create a new set for the coming spring term so that they could be incorporated into the overall plans for that term in class.
The new book and theme was a midsummer nights dream , a play by Shakespeare.
I evaluated my skills and practices, considering where I have appropriate skills that could translate to this theme and the primary environment. coming up with a new range of possibilities such as cameraless photography, light and shadow drawing, and theatrical or elizabethan mask making. Miss pestridge decided from here that the mask making would be most appropriate for years 3, 4 and 5. In addition the materials needed for other tasks may have been too expensive for the schools budget.


Beginning at russells hall school

I had some issues with my DBS check that resulted in a long delay in starting my placement. I had applied on time and received confirmation that my check was clear around 3 months before actually receiving the certificate back. This resulted in a delay to my starting, and a chenge in the structure of my course at university. In future I will apply for DBS with a much larger window to cater for such an extensive delay. Despite the effect being detrimental, I have gained an experience that will contribute to my better time keeping later down the line.

a summary of how I feel about primary environment including my decisions to move on to high school and why

During my time at Russells Hall school, I developed classroom skills such as clarity of speech, confidence and behaviour management, enjoyed the rewarding relationship built between myself and the pupils and staff there, gained insight into design technology practices and proposals in line with the curiculum and in school policies/formats, and made valuable conclusions about my future career.

I spoke with teaching staff openly and honestly about their choice to teach primary, therefore building a sincere understanding of the pro's and cons of teaching this age group.
This helped me make my decision to gain experience and potentially teach a higher age group at secondary/high school. This decision was also greatly impacted by my experiences during the proposals for tasks and the conducting of activities.

Primary age children havent developed the motor skills needed to teach a more diverse and challenging range of art and making skills.
This age range do not have the capacity to talk at length regarding more challenging tasks therefore not able to comprehend them in the planning stage.
Classroom behaviour management can be too challenging when the children are faced with something taxing, as they become easily frustrated etc forming large numbers of queries and queues to gain some help, therefore more challenging tasks become overwhelming not only for the students but in the number of issues arrising for teaching staff. This massively effects the positive development and outcome of work.
Teaching across subjects, that are not in my knowledge pool adds a great deal of pressure to lesson planning. Something that I would personally like to avoid due to the fact I have my own small child and many other commitments in life that could be greatly effected by this. After talking to other teaching staff this was something that cropped up often as an issue, especially in teachers who were also mothers to young children.
My own interest suggest that an older age range would be more suitable, as I would like to engage children/pupils in activities that they would find challenging, a real task that they can apply to the understanding of their own passions and future careers. Although children in primary school are already discovering their passions etc I dont believe that this is as established as with high school pupils. In addition the level of skill I could be teaching with the upper age range would be more engaging for me. I believe that it would be incredibly rewarding.

In order to establish if this I will apply for experience at a high school.



feedback from June


June Pestridge, My mentor during the primary school placement completed an assessment of my performance.
She scored me perfect "5's" throughout all criteria with the exception of one, where I scored a "4/5" this, she said, was for having to miss two days due to my little boy being very poorly. She later informed me that I went around the issue well by catching up on anything I had missed in my own time, Informing the school in a timely manner and through my best attempts to rectify any issues arising in school caused by my absence. In the written notes section she said the following,
"During the time Roxanne worked alongside/with me in the classroom (spring term 2016) I found her to be a great assett, a first class 'creative colleague'. Her work covered two main areas... (1) Group Mask making with years 3, 4 and 5 and (2) supporting years 3, 4 and 5 with purse and bag making.
(1) Mask making
Roxanne worked with groups of approximately 6 children from each year band. She followed schools format and produced planning and evaluation booklets for the children to use. She was very organised throughout and the children were really proud of the masks they produced.
(2) Design technology support
Roxanne showed great initiative here, she always seemed to know where to be and what to do... not once did I need to direct her.

I feel that Roxanne would excel as an Art teacher in a primary school. Her love and knowledge of all forms of creative work would i'm sure be a great inspiration to children of all ages.







The application process

UCAS apply 21: three applications ready for March 01.

discussions with bianka and what this led to, the pros and cons of buikding this relationship and the new situation that has ensued, what happened next

I attended a meeting with Bianka, deputy head of Redhill High school, discussing with her my experience in primary, my desire to move on to high school and an older age group and the reasons for this. We also discussed my degree, and practical skills that could translate to teaching. She made me feel welcome and valued from the get go by engaging me in extensive conversation regarding my degree experience and showing interest in my practices. She took me for a tour of the school and the appropriate departments, and left me to observe an art lesson where the students were doing their GCSE work. The teacher prompted pupils to discuss their work with me and I went around the classroom at my leisure discussing their work and what artists they had been inspired by during their course so far. This enabled me to asses the level of sklll and understanding expected from the age group and gave me a basic grasp of how to approach them in terms of conversation.


meeting with Haybridge

UCAS apply 2: second stage applications, decline of intiitial applications viea the changes page.







planning for interview, research on haybridge, what will be happening in the coming days includnig day in the school meeting staff and pupils,





interview technique overviews and plan

REsearched the school through offsted reports, looking at what the report advises they need to improve on. This way when they ask how I could contribute to the school I can focus on how my skills will enable those improvements




developing my portfolio to suit 3d design practices etc.