Sally reflects on her amazing journey from Teaching Assistant to Trainee Teacher

After finishing my degree this year, I embarked on my teaching career.  I started working at Millgate - a SEMH (Social, Emotional, Mental Health) boy’s school in Leicester five years ago as a pastoral TA (Teaching Assistant). I supported a Year 7 tutor group, following the students from lesson to lesson and being the important link between home and school. I formed strong relationships with both the students and their families. I loved the role and still see it as an incredibly important role within our setting. The pastoral TA underpins all of the principles that are needed in order to champion our students. It establishes unbreakable relationships with the students built on mutual respect and trust. A child that has been excluded from a mainstream setting or has been unable to engage with education for whatever reason needs someone to champion them, to help them re-engage with education and the various benefits that encompasses. School doesn’t just offer a full, rich, rounded curriculum but also a safe caring environment that enables that child to develop how to learn, how to socialise, interact and become a rounded young person ready to contribute successfully to society. 

In my second year, I became an English Curriculum TA, moving away from the pastoral role and becoming more focused on my passion: English. I was fortunate to witness some of the best English lessons I have ever seen. Our Head of English (now Head Teacher) was inspirational.  The following year, I moved position again and became a Behaviour Mentor. Moving back to my pastoral roots, I was now responsible for supporting the boys that were in need of further support - mentoring those in crisis, putting interventions in place to help those in need of extra supporting, working with staff and tutor groups. Writing pastoral support plans, meeting with parents and looking at alternative ways to support students’ learning when things just weren’t working. I loved this role. Working out the best way to engage with students that felt unsupported at home or at school, or sometimes both. They were often misunderstood, lost and struggling. Yet I realised I could find a spark that just needed igniting and nurturing. A student being unable to articulate how they feel can be the symptom of a number of issues. Sometimes children forget how to be children. The pressures of life and outside influences can sometimes interfere so much that if not supported that child could feel ‘lost’ and disillusioned with education potentially forever. I strongly believe that as educators it is our responsibility to provide as much of an inclusive school environment as possible. 

The following year my role changed again and I became a behaviour mentor in our primary unit. Prior to working in a school I had been a childcare practitioner in a pre-school and as a result my EYFS knowledge proved useful. I also got involved with some safeguarding issues and helped develop some of the whole school policies alongside the Deputy Head. The energy and passion within the primary unit was infectious. Working with younger students made me realise how important a fully rounded education is. I know that our primary students will eventually leave Millgate in year 11, ready for what the world has in store for them but richer for the school experience we have given them.  

The whole time whilst working at Millgate I was studying for my degree. That in itself became very complicated when the University decided to close the lifelong learning department. I led a public campaign which made it all the way to Parliament and as a result I (along with others) was able to continue studying to obtain our degrees. So here I am embarking on my teaching career at 37. 

The transition from support staff to teacher is different to what I expected. Having been in the same school for a long time and having had so many varied roles, teaching is the one role that I haven’t undertaken. I have supported some brilliant lessons, led students on daily trips, been on residential trips and even taken a group of students to Disneyland Paris.  

Transforming a life through teaching comes with great responsibility. Never did I realise how I would feel when I saw students learning and progressing academically due to what I had taught them. For them to understand a literary concept or for me to hear a boy read out loud after telling me he will never read to anyone - especially to his classmates - gives me an incredible feeling I hadn’t accounted for. It is an addictive feeling I hadn’t considered. I went into teaching because I want to change lives through the power of education and I felt like it would be quite straight forward. I would learn to teach, then I would teach and hopefully they would learn and if I could inspire some students or get some of them to engage in something and see them flourish, I would feel like I was doing a good job. Little did I realise how it would make me feel. More than ever I wanted to combine all the previous roles I have had and combine them with this new exciting position I find myself in. I have often said in the past that a good teacher is a gift, being in lesson when you can see the magic of learning awaken within pupils is impressive to witness, but when you are leading that lesson and all of the responsibility rests with you it is quite an amazing feeling. I taught a lesson on Charles Dickens- We looked at ‘Oliver Twist’ which happened to be my favourite film. When I was a little girl I would sing and recreate scenes around our house and my family still laugh about it now. In a moment of silence when my year 9 class were working away on the work I had set on ‘Oliver Twist’, I had a moment, I had goose bumps. I felt like I had come full circle and that I was where I was meant to be, doing what I should always have been doing. 

I’d be lying if I said that this first term in teaching has been easy. It hasn’t. I have never worked as hard as I have during the last few months. I’m up late working on lesson plans and I am juggling lots of different things all at once. I’ve had lessons that on more than one occasion have reduced me to tears. Life in a SEMH school isn’t always easy and sometimes students can be your worst critics! Despite the ‘peaks and troughs’, imposter syndrome, the Covid-19 rules and regulations, I find myself excited and impassioned about my future in teaching. I will always be true to my pastoral roots but that will hopefully help me to grow into a genuine, sincere dedicated teacher who truly believes that empowering others through learning and transforming lives is at the heart of everything that I do.  

Sally Birch Trainee English Teacher