Thousands of DMU students graduated in July after years of hard work. We reported some of their stories in our Class of 2015 series...
In a few weeks’ time De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) student Laura Wilkes will be standing in front of her very own class of 30 children as she starts her new career as a teacher.
“From September, I will be ‘Miss Wilkes’,” said Laura, who will be graduating with a 2:1 in Psychology BSc (Hons). “It’s a strange feeling that it will be my name on the classroom door. It’s scary but exciting at the same time.”
Laura has been accepted onto the Leadership Development Programme run by the Teach First, a charity which helps schools in disadvantaged areas of the UK. This means that after an intensive six-week training course she will spend the next two years in a primary school, studying for her PGCE qualification and becoming a newly-qualified teacher while also teaching and earning a salary.
Three years of volunteering every week at Shaftesbury Junior School in Leicester not only helped improve children’s literacy levels but also gave Laura the vital experience she needed to secure a place on the programme.
She became involved at the city school after signing up for the Leicestershire Education Business Company’s Right to Read initiative through De Montfort Students’ Union volunteering programme. She started off reading with pupils of different ages and skill levels, and then helped as a general teaching assistant.
Shaftesbury was then only too happy to help when she needed a full week in a school before she could apply to Teach First. She spent time in Year Three and Year Five classes, and also observed a phonics lesson: “Because there are quite a few children there learning English as a second language, they are taken out of class and taught to read and write. It was a great insight and very interesting to see all the different techniques used.”
Laura, who has wanted to be a teacher “ever since I can remember”, said: “I came to DMU because I wanted to study something I find fascinating for three years and I thought it could help with my teaching – psychology touches on so many different aspects of life and can be applied to just about anything.”
During DMU freshers’ week she signed up to join the rowing club but, after discovering 6.30am starts were required for training, decided she preferred hockey: “I hadn’t played before, so I was worried about the first session, but it turned out a lot of people hadn’t. We all developed together and improved so much. It’s been a fantastic experience – in many ways meeting up to train, play and socialise was the highlight of my week.
"In the Varsity hockey matches against the University of Leicester we got better each time. We lost about 10-0 in the first year, 5-0 the second and 3-0 this March … so next year we’re going to win! I won’t be playing but it would be great to come back to watch.”
Laura is now heading off to teach at a school in Peterborough, but will never forget her time in Leicester: “When I think of DMU, I don’t just think of learning and studying … I think of friends, being independent and becoming an adult, especially this year. For the first two years I felt like I lived in Norfolk and I studied in Leicester, but now home is here.”
Posted on Friday 17 July 2015