Jade Phipps

During my time at Henry Cort, I have completed a level 3 Teaching Assistant apprenticeship. This was incredibly beneficial as it enabled me to learn more about my role, and how to support my students as effectively as possible. I support students in a classroom environment where I circulate the class, as well as 1-1 settings and small intervention groups. My role is based in the Maths, ICT and Business department, and I am trusted with the responsibility of creating my own timetable to best support my students, as well as recommending individuals to my SENCO ,who I feel would benefit from further intervention programs.

As well as this I am a tutor to 20 students, ranging from year 7 to year 11. This means I am the first point of contact with any queries or issues regarding these students, and I communicate effectively with their parents and carers on a regular basis. I monitor their progress, house points and attendance. As they are a mixed year tutor group, my responsibilities range from supporting with transition, choosing options, contacting their employers during work experience and eventually their GCSE examinations.

After I left College, I was offered a full time position at Debenhams - I was working weekends at the time. My manager could see my potential and wanted to welcome me to the team full time. During my time at Debenhams, I had various responsibilities ranging from serving and supporting customers, arranging the displays in various departments across the store, and I was even in-charge of the shop floor on certain days. Eventually I was promoted to Visual Merchandiser, which meant I was in charge of how the store was presented. I worked on numerous window displays, dressed mannequins on all the shop floors, and liaised with the departments regarding which items of clothing needed to be on display. Working within the retail industry definitely improved my confidence with regards to talking to people, and I was frequently top of the store for recruiting account holders and collecting customer emails. I also frequently communicated with my managers to make sure my displays were captivating to customers, and relevant to the season we were in.