Having spent six years on the programme becoming fully qualified and experienced teachers, our Year 6 Scholars met for the last time in Birmingham for an evening of entertainment and celebration with the FTS team.
Meeting at the Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC for an overnight stay, our Year 6 Scholars caught up with each other during a drinks reception before sitting down to a three-course meal. They received a certificate and were gifted with an engraved pen as well as a personalised USB flash drive – a teacher essential! – to commemorate their time on the programme.
Our Scholars then participated in a table-top escape room adventure where, working in teams, they played the role of bank robbers attempting to solve a series of clues and puzzles to crack into a safe. Our winning team was victorious in just over 40 minutes and was rewarded with a voucher prize.
Richard Churches, Programme Director of Future Teaching Scholars since its inception, delivered a speech which celebrated the successes of the programme and congratulated our Scholars’ progress within their teaching career.
“Future Teaching Scholars was and is still the most unique teacher training programme in the world,” Richard began. “No other programme seeks to find people committed to teaching so early on in their career, and supports them through university, through qualified teacher status and two years beyond.”
“Congratulations on making it through three years of teaching, and we’re so proud of what you have achieved over the past few years,” Richard told our graduating Scholars.
Catching up with some of our Scholars during the event, it was great to hear their enthusiasm for the teaching profession as well as how the Future Teaching Scholars programme helped prepare them for a career in teaching.
Tom Habing commented: “Future Teaching Scholars is a well-tailored programme to people that want to join teaching. It gives you very early experience of what teaching is right from university. From all the Scholars that I’ve talked to, their first year [in teaching] was so much easier compared to every other trainee I’ve seen.”
“The support from the FTS team is absolutely incredible,” Tom continued. “Every single conference that I’ve been to I’ve walked away with an incredible passion for teaching.”
Felicia Hebbes agreed with this sentiment: “The Future Teaching Scholars programme really made my route into teaching so much easier. Coming to all the conferences, being part of a programme like this and getting to mingle with lots of other people in the same position has been amazing. It’s something that you don’t often get to do.”
On behalf of the Future Teaching Scholars team and everyone at Education Development Trust, we wish our first graduating cohort of Scholars every success in their teaching career going forward. We will continue to keep in touch with our former Scholars periodically through a new alumni network and hope to share some of their post-programme accomplishments with you all.
