As I write, it is the second week back at school after the summer holidays. It has been a shock to the system having to wake up at the crack of dawn after six weeks off, but it is nice to return to a working routine.
I am lucky in that I live just a five-minute drive from the school. I am at work for 7:30am every day, giving me a solid hour of planning time before the school day starts. I find that I am more productive before school and find this extra preparation time to be an invaluable part of my working day (there is also no queue for the photocopier, which is a huge bonus).
The first two days of term were INSET days, with a packed programme of seminars and meetings for all staff. These days were well planned and delivered by the senior leadership team, relaying vital information to staff regarding developments within the school. This included the introduction of a new behaviour policy, which aims to promote and celebrate positive choices as opposed to the more punitive policy that was previously in place.
The third day of term was a year 7 transition day, with only the new starters attending. Not being a year 7 form tutor, this gave me an extra day of preparation which I used to polish off lesson plans and complete the displays in my classroom.
I am coming to accept that it is impossible to feel 100 per cent of top of my planning. Despite working before and after school, there is always more work to be done. My head of department has encouraged me to be flexible with which activities fit into which lessons; he would rather that each topic area is thoroughly covered and understood by the pupils before moving on to the next.
This is a liberating approach, as I do not feel pressured to rush through activities to fit them all into a one-hour lesson.
However, it also means being flexible in my approach to lesson plans; if something vital has not been covered to an acceptable level, the plan for the following lesson will need to be amended accordingly, often at very short notice. This means that, no matter how prepared I think I am, I will often be refining my lesson plans and resources right up until the moment the students enter my classroom.
Years 8 to 11 returned to school on the Thursday of the first week back. We began this year’s timetable three weeks prior to breaking up for summer, so I had already met my teaching groups and established my in-class expectations.
It has been fantastic to see my students again and I feel that I have hit the ground running with most of my groups. I am particularly enjoying teaching my year 10 history class, who will be the first group of students that I deliver the entire GCSE syllabus to. We are currently studying America in the 1920s, a topic that I am particularly passionate about.
I am finding geography the most difficult subject to teach simply because I lack the subject knowledge that I have in history and English, but this is becoming easier with the support of my colleagues.
Behaviour management was noted as a particular strength of mine during my ITT year, but I cannot afford to become complacent about this – I am still establishing myself as a classroom teacher and must maintain high expectations at all times. If I can continue to manage behaviour effectively and be thorough in my planning, I am confident my pupils will make good progress in my lessons while also enjoying the learning experience.
- Our NQT diarist this year is a teacher of history at a comprehensive school in the North of England.