Amanda Ridgeway, Former Gateway Alliance Trainee 2017-2018
I always held a desire to teach but when I was younger I didn’t feel I would have the confidence to stand in front of a class of children and teach successfully. Years later and I had moved from working as an IT auditor for big firms to being a child minder and working in a pre-school as a way to remain close to my own children. At the age of 39, when my children were 8 and 10, I realised that now was the time to take the plunge and go for teaching as a career.
Being a mum and a trainee teacher are not easy jobs to reconcile and at times it was very difficult. This is where Gateway Alliance provided the most benefit to me – the additional training and meetings outside of my training school and University sessions provided me with more people to talk to and find support. I found all the people working for and with the alliance to be incredibly supportive and understanding – they always took the time to find out how you were doing.
Outside of this, the training programme itself was great and provided great extra training outside of the university training which, critically, were school-based. Most of the training sessions were held in schools which gave me more exposure to different schools and ways of working.
I secured a job working for my school through this programme and remain working there. I am currently completing my third year post qualification and I am Reader Leader (in charge of Early Reading using the RWI scheme) for the school. Working with children is a fantastic career and I firmly believe that training with the Gateway Alliance’s support was a key part of me successfully achieving my dream job.
Whether you’re a career changer, graduate or are currently working in a support capacity within school, we can provide you with the best possible training experience to equip you with the skills, knowledge, experience and confidence to be a fantastic teacher. Train to teach with Gateway Alliance.