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Jorjia Perkin Sacred Heart Primary School
 
Photo by Marian Mehrtens

Gateway Profile - Jorjia Perkin

Marian Mehrtens —

In term two I went to Sacred Heart for my placement to see first hand how a classroom works from a teachers perspective.

My thoughts about Gateway before this year were pretty good because my brothers had both done it. I thought that Gateway was an amazing program and opportunity for anyone, you are able to get first hand experience in a profession that you are interested in.

The career that I looked into was teaching. This job involves helping children with learning math, reading, writing etc. Some tasks I have helped with are supervising and helping the children while they are completing work, sitting them down in groups/one on one to help them more closely. I have really enjoyed my time in Room 10.

In term 3 my placement will be with Aoraki Explorers to experience what it is like working in an Early Childhood Education setting.

I am doing ECE unit standards online through SIT (Southern Institution of Technology). These units are done in the classroom and since they are online they get sent away when finished to be marked. These standards count towards NZQA qualifications.

My plans for next year are to either go to university for primary school teaching or ECE, or take a gap year.

My advice for future Gateway students is to keep up communication with Mrs Mehrtens, Mrs Cockroft and your workplace and also to be patient because sometimes it takes a while to get a placement because of Covid and specific protocols they have in place.