Personal Statement:Primary Education 1

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Primary Education Personal Statement

I have wanted to pursue a career in Primary Education for several years now. I also greatly enjoy my studies of English, having achieved A grades at AS level in both English Literature and English Language, which is why I wish to study this as a specialism. I have a love of children, and there are many reasons why a career in this field appeals to me. I enjoy interaction with children on their own level, gaining insight into their perceptions and how they see the world. The idea of playing an active role in helping them develop, greatly appeals to me. I gain huge satisfaction from being able to help them learn and discover new things about the world. I also believe that it is a great challenge trying to put across a new concept so that a group of children, who previously did not understand, now do. I want to enable children to have fun at school and make the most of their primary school days, and not to find school boring or a waste of time

I also like the idea of having personal responsibility over a group of children, seeing them through a year, and witnessing them improving

I have had many varied experiences related to teaching, which have strengthened my desire to follow this career. I currently have a part-time job at "Eureka! The Museum for Children", which I have held since February 2001. My job allows me to interact with many different children and adults, of varying ages, across a range of different backgrounds. A major part of my role involves enabling families and teachers to gain the most educational value from the exhibits, although my other day-to-day activities include teaching through role-play, managing and maintaining a classroom environment, and interacting with Foundation Stage children and their parents in the pre-school classroom. My work at "Eureka!" has taught me many things, most notably patience and the ability to keep calm

I assist at "badgers", the junior section of St John Ambulance. I have joint responsibility for a badger set, in which I have to keep the children entertained, help them follow a set course, and maintain discipline. I enjoy this because it involves the same children every week, giving me the opportunity to get to know them, watch them develop, and earn their respect. I am also an adult member of St John Ambulance, and I am aiming to gain my First Aid at Work qualification

At school I am a prefect to a form of Year 7 children. I have joint responsibility for taking care of them in place of their form teacher, on a weekly basis

In July and August 2002, I assisted at a two-week remedial summer school at ****** Rd Primary. I gained a lot from this, witnessing literacy and ICT with Year 5 pupils, and supervising on out-of-school trips. This, alongside my work experience in St ******'s RC Primary in October 2000, has given me a good insight into the practical running of a school

In September 2002 I was in a team that came second nationally in the STEM website awards. I had to create an educational resource; my responsibility was the section for the Primary age phase. I found this useful as it made me look at things from the point of view of a teacher, creating teaching resources and activities I felt would be useful, and creating information pages that were easily accessible and understandable for KS1 and KS2 children. I also tried to link it as much as possible to National Curriculum ideas

I am currently a very active member of the school charity committee and have assisted in the organisation and implementation of many charity events

I feel that my experience and enthusiasm for Primary teaching would make this a fulfilling and rewarding career.

Comments

General Comments:

First of all, it's clear that this applicant has a lot of experience with children, although a lot of it is not in a school context and this is important, as I'm assuming that the candidate is applying for a BEd/PGCE, which is a vocational course. Although the content is good (but more detail could be included about experience at school and why that's made him/her want to be a teacher), the statement does not flow particularly well - a lot of the sentences start with 'I' and some of the paragraphs are very short - the conclusion especially should be longer. While lots of experience is good, in a PS, quality is better than quantity, so it would be best to talk about one or two experiences in greater detail, rather than several but only writing a couple of sentences on that.

Comments on the statement:

I have wanted to pursue a career in primary education no need for capitalisation here. It is only needed if you are saying 'Primary Education PGCE' or 'BEd Primary Education' (for example) for several years now. not the most attention grabbing first sentence I also greatly enjoy my studies of English, having achieved A grades at AS level in both English Literature and English Language, which is why I wish to study this as a specialism. while the grades are good - this will be shown in your qualfication section of the UCAS/GTTR application, and getting a good grade doesn't mean that you enjoy it - you need to show this another way by saying what you enjoy (e.g. modules/units) about the course/subject and possibly what you do outside of college/school work related to it I have a love of children, and there are many reasons why a career in this field appeals to me. I enjoy interaction with children on their own level, gaining insight into their perceptions and how they see the world. teaching isn't about observing the children - you need to show more interest in the actual teaching side of it The idea of playing an active role in helping them develop, greatly appeals to me. I gain huge satisfaction from being able to help them learn and discover new things about the world. I also believe that it is a great challenge trying to put across a new concept so that a group of children, comma not needed here who previously did not understand, now do. you wouldn't be explaining it if they already understood! The tenses are mixed up here - keep the sentences simple I want to enable children to have fun at school and make the most of their primary school days, and not to find school boring or a waste of time remember full stops at the end of your paragraphs! As previously mentioned, you should avoid starting a lot of sentences with 'I' as they don't flow very well. While this stuff is good, it needs to be reworded - and I'm not sure saying that pupils feel that school 'is a waste of time' is a good thing to put in, even with putting a positive spin on it, and it is rather informal as well

I also like the idea of having personal responsibility over a group of children, seeing them through a year, and witnessing them improving this could easily be integrated into the previous paragraph and doesn't deserve a paragraph on its own

I have had many varied experiences related to teaching, which have strengthened my desire to follow this career. I currently have a part-time job at "Eureka! The Museum for Children", which I have held since February 2001. My job allows me to interact with many different children and adults, of varying ages, across a range of different backgrounds. A major part of my role involves enabling families and teachers to gain the most educational value from the exhibits, although my other day-to-day activities include teaching through role-play, managing and maintaining a classroom environment, and interacting with Foundation Stage children and their parents in the pre-school classroom. this is a good opportunity to say what you learned about planning/teaching children and how it was adapted for the different age groups. It could be condensed at present, to integrate the second and third sentences My work at "Eureka!" has taught me many things, most notably patience and the ability to keep calm

I assist at "badgers", the junior section of St John's Ambulance. I have joint responsibility for a badger set, in which I have to keep the children entertained, help them follow a set course, and maintain discipline. I enjoy this because it involves the same children every week, giving me the opportunity to get to know them, watch them develop, and earn their respect. again, more could be said about your role and what you've learned I am also an adult member of St John Ambulance, and I am aiming to gain my First Aid at Work qualification this last bit isn't really relevant, so could be deleted

At school I am a prefect to a form of Year 7 children. I have joint responsibility for taking care of them in place of their form teacher, on a weekly basis with the other experience, this is far less important and probably doesn't need to be in the PS - if necessary, the referee could mention this in their reference

In July and August 2002, I assisted at a two-week remedial summer school at ****** Rd Primary. it's not necessary to mention the name of the school, or even the dates. Just say 'last year I assisted in a summer school at a local primary school' (for example). Keep all experience relevant (i.e. in the last 2 years) I gained a lot from this, witnessing literacy and ICT with Year 5 pupils, and supervising on out-of-school trips. This, alongside my work experience in St ******'s RC Primary in October 2000, has given me a good insight into the practical running of a school again, more specifics needed. What did you learn about behaviour management/planning/teaching/assessing, either from the observations/children or talking to the teachers? This sort of thing will set you apart and show that you've done your research on the job. Also, being the most relevant experience this should probably be put first, after the introduction

In September 2002 I was in a team that came second nationally in the STEM acronyms should be written in full in the first instance website awards. I had to create an educational resource; my responsibility was the section for the primary no capital letter needed age phase. I found this useful as it made me look at things from the point of view of a teacher, creating teaching resources and activities I felt would be useful, and creating information pages that were easily accessible and understandable for KS1 and KS2 children. I also tried to link it as much as possible to National Curriculum ideas for something like this, it would be good to explain what it was and how you made it accessible to those children

I am currently a very active member of the school charity committee and have assisted in the organisation and implementation of many charity events this could easily be put with the bit about being a prefect, or just removed completely to make room for more relevant info

I feel that my experience and enthusiasm for primary teaching would make this a fulfilling and rewarding career. the conclusion is the last place to sell yourself - make it good! Be specific about why you want to do the course and why you are a good candidate, so that you leave a good impression on the admissions tutors