Jessica Holdsworth

Primary School Teacher, Shipley Church of England Primary School

Leeds Trinity has such a high reputation for teaching, it gives you the lectures you need and does what it promises – it gets you into schools. It offers everything you need to become a good teacher.

My student experience

My best memories are from lectures, you become really close to your lecturers and development tutors as well as the people in your class. It was such a close-knit community with a small amount of people, we had 30 people in one room. You got to know everyone and you could speak to anyone can help each other out.

​How my time at Leeds Trinity equipped me to be a teacher

The school-based training in my opinion is the most important part of the course. You can pour everything you have learnt from your lectures into your school-based training. The lectures and the lecturers have definitely equipped me for my NQT year. I’ve learned so many things from such a broad curriculum, I have so much to take forward to use in my NQT year.

As well as studying at Leeds Trinity I also worked at a theatre and music school teaching musical theatre and dance. This gave to me a different experience of teaching, that wasn’t as formal as in the classroom. I was able to gain additional valuable experience of teaching 3 to 19-year-olds. This proved very useful during my NQT interviews as I had a bit more experience than other people had.

Continued support

I got my first teaching job confirmed in June, it was a big process but the university really helped with this. We were supported by headteachers coming in to speak to us about how to apply for jobs and make your application stand out.

The support available to NQTs is great and very accessible. We can still email our lecturers and development tutors, knowing that they are still happy to help us along our journey. I have the kind of relationship with my lecturer where I know I can email them if I really need to. 

My advice to other trainee teachers and prospective students

My advice would be to put everything into your placement. It’s such a valuable experience to have, if you make the most out of it really impact on your ability to network and perform well in interviews. 

Leeds Trinity has such a high reputation for teaching, it gives you the lectures you need and does what it promises – it gets you into schools. It offers everything you need to become a good teacher.