Whilst there is no requirement to have experience of working, visiting or volunteering in a school when applying to train to teach many candidates find it valuable. After pausing our school experience visits during the Covid pandemic we are pleased to now re-establish them. We are happy to arrange school experience visits for potential applicants to our training program.

School experience visits normally consist of the opportunity to:

1. Talk to a senior member of staff about training to teach
2. Meet with a subject leader (secondary) or curriculum lead (primary) to discuss how to develop your subject knowledge in preparing your application
3. Observe lessons across different year groups.

We would recommend that school experience visits should last at least a day.

If you are interested in gaining school experience, your next best steps are:

• Contact us at Teach Kent & Sussex and we can liaise with one of our partner schools to offer a visit.  Please email [email protected] or phone us on 01892 521595 for further information.

• Look at some of the online lessons devised by the Oak National Academy at https://www.thenational.academy/ where you can view a number of lessons by subject and year group.

• Apply for roles within a school to gain experience. Some schools advertise Teaching Assistant/Education Assistant positions with the aim of preparing you for the teacher training programme.  Please look at https://www.kent-teach.com/ or individual school websites for current vacancies.