Another successful 'African Adventure' our PGCE students
Following overwhelmingly positive feedback from the first group of PGCE trainees and Graduate Teacher Programme teachers on their trip to Africa in 2013, a second group made the trip in 2014 and caught up with projects previously visited.
PGCE trainees and School Direct teachers had the opportunity of this optional trip in April 2014. They were the second group of teachers from the University of Southampton to travel to Nakuru in Kenya (which is some four hundred miles from troubled Mombasa) with African Adventures and teach in community-run schools in areas of great deprivation. The trip, coordinated by Julie Reynolds, PGCE Tutor in the Southampton Education School, also offered students the opportunity to experience the culture and scenery Kenya offers, including a Rift Valley Adventure Day.
School Direct Secondary English PGCE student Gemma Kenrick comments, "Teaching in a local secondary school in Nakuru with limited resources and no idea of what I would be teaching until I walked through the door on Monday morning was a terrifying prospect. However I was greeted with such enthusiasm from the teachers and students that soon my worries began to fade. … my time in Kenya highlighted my strengths and weaknesses and this challenge gave me the opportunity to push myself to become a more confident and creative teacher."
Aims for trainees:
- Minimum of 5 days working with school pupils (supporting development towards meeting Teachers’ Standards)
- Understanding of a different country’s education system – supporting an international dimension to the PGCE course
- Experience in a Kenyan school serving some of the country’s poorest children (personal development) and opportunity to make Home Visits.
- Possible opportunity to build lasting links with a developing country’s school which might be continued into a teaching career and personal life in the future
- See some of the local environment and experience the culture.
The University of Southampton ensures that trainees are placed with the age group for which they are being trained to teach. The accompanying tutors observe, support and work alongside trainees so that the placement contributes effectively to their development as teachers.
All PGCE Core trainees and School Direct teachers for 2014/15 will be contacted before September about the trip being offered again in 2015.
The university and the charity made sure that we were well looked after at all times and guided us towards getting the most out of teaching and enjoying the whole experience. The trip was a fantastic venture and I fully recommend it both personally and professionally.
I felt that Southampton Education School would be the ideal establishment to undertake a postgraduate course in Primary Teaching, with its outstanding reputation, strong links with local schools and excellent student facilities.