PGCE - Current Students Thread

The lack of sleep thing is what affected me the most too. In my training year I was up at 5, in school for 7 and never left until 6.30pm, so got home about 8-8.30 most days. It was horrible and I'd never go back to it, even if you paid me! I definitely found it much easier when I started jogging though, exercise just makes you so much sleepier.

Plus, you guys are basically halfway through now, all downhill from here! Keep going

If you don't leave til 6.30, what are you doing during the time between school closing and you going home? This isn't a criticism, I'm genuinely interested - I'm doing a PGCE next year and it would be good to get an idea of what is expected.

Wow that's a long day! Did you do work when you got home or did you make sure you finished it at school? Are you still teaching now?

If you don't leave til 6.30, what are you doing during the time between school closing and you going home? This isn't a criticism, I'm genuinely interested - I'm doing a PGCE next year and it would be good to get an idea of what is expected.

Chances are:
Marking, planning, talking to colleagues, phoning parents (it's always the ones that dont get home till 5:30-6:00), tidying, photocopying.

On a normal day, my school finishes at 3:15, and i leave somewhere between 5:30 and 6pm. Then sometimes do more work at home. At least as a full teacher you dont have essays to worry about (until next year when i want to do my masters).

I hope everyone has a good week.

My day is usually up at 5, leave at 7. Finish at school at 5 and be home for 6 and then plan till around 10pm-11. Sometimes 12.

Are you in your PGCE year or your NQT year?

Year 2, so "RQT".

Slightly more experienced than an NQT, but without the extra 10% free time.

On the flip side, my groups were horrendous last year and are mostly nice this year.

Ah yeah, so you decided to wait a bit before doing your Masters. Wise. It's so good when you get new groups and they are awesome and you can actually have fun rather than slogging your way through lessons!

It takes you 2 hours to get ready to leave? Or do you do work before going out?

When does it get easier? It's not so much the time it takes, as that's manageable (if annoying!) but I'm finding behaviour management so difficult... They just constantly talk when I'm trying to explain things! It's a difficult school - the kids generally come from deprived backgrounds but it seems to be constantly at the point where everything takes twice as long cos I'm being interrupted all the time!

I know it's easier said than done, but have you tried just focusing on the positive and not giving the others attention for their behaviour? It can take a while, but they will start to get it eventually. Also, sometimes if you just state what the child in question is doing, eg. 'George, you're swinging on your chair' then they'll stop, even if you have to repeat it 11 times (I think that's my record ). Something about it seems to make them think about what they're doing. Have you tried changing the seating plans? Table points can work really well too I think - get a box and fill it with small prizes and the table that wins the most points in a week (things like clearing their table first, coming in and sitting quietly first, working well as a group etc) get to choose something. I've seen it done with Pirate Points and a treasure chest. I've never seen kids so excited about a box of hair grips and bouncy balls in year 6! Or you could have some kind of class system when they gain points, and when they get enough they get golden time on a Friday? I've seen it done with marbles in jars or pieces of puzzles.

Sorry if all of this is really old hat and you've tried it already . I think that the most important thing is to be consistent, and they'll get the message eventually.

When does it get easier? It's not so much the time it takes, as that's manageable (if annoying!) but I'm finding behaviour management so difficult... They just constantly talk when I'm trying to explain things! It's a difficult school - the kids generally come from deprived backgrounds but it seems to be constantly at the point where everything takes twice as long cos I'm being interrupted all the time!

You're primary, yeah? I'm not so hot on specific primary techniques but behaviour management was really a massive weakness for me in the first half of my training year. The things I learned are:

Don't give up, ever - the kids will respect you for it eventually. (Took me 2 years with my bottom set year 8s into 9s, but by the end I was actually missing them when they did their options!)

Rewarding the positives, like River said, really works, but perhaps takes longer to have a visible effect than punitive measures.

What's the view on phoning parents in primary? I found that very effective (with certain pupils), but I don't know if it's the done thing

NEVER let kids talk while you (or anyone else) is talking. Once you start doing it you'll find it very difficult to get them back. This is probably the most fundamental thing, and once you establish the rule it's easy to maintain, but it's very hard to win a class back if you haven't been strict on it from the start.
Maybe take time out of a lesson to re-establish your ground rules, rewards and consequences with the class? And keep referring to them - get a poster with them on so there's a visual reminder. Praise any kid that does any of them right, massively, with a huge, genuine smile.

RELAX. Don't take it personally. This is really hard to do. I was so uptight all the time, but when I learned to chill the **** out about the little things a bit more, I established better relationships with the tougher kids and it was easier to work with them.

Aside from that, what does their normal class teacher do?


For me, things improved 100% as soon as I got new groups in my NQT year. I could take the masses of stuff I'd learned and actually put it into practice and it worked!
However, I did keep some classes from my first year, and I still had to deal with the same problems with them all through my NQT year, but because it was only 4 hours a week rather than nearly every hour on my timetable it was much easier.


Btw, sorry if these are really obvious or patronising things to say It's just they seem so obvious now but at the time I was tearing my hair out over it all.

EDIT: your raffle ticket thing sounds really good, just make sure to be consistent with it. I started so many gimmicks that I just lost track of and they tailed off and the kids get pissed off if you don't follow through!

I do follow through with the raffle tickets!

I dunno about phoning parents... Tbh I dunno how much effect it would have, as the parents are likely (unfortunately) to be the kind that don't always support the school. I send them out of class to the head of upper key stage 2.

I try not to let them talk over me - it means I'm constantly having to tell kids off, which means that the lesson goes a lot slower than it should, which means that the chatty ones become more chatty, and so on...

I do try positive stuff, and I've started raffle tickets for the children who are doing well. I've got them sitting in rough ability groups while also trying to spread out the chatty ones as much as possible (easier said than done tho!). Cos they change tables for maths and English (and don't have home tables), table points are a bit difficult. Might talk to the teacher about them earning their golden time, rather than having it taken away/seen as a given (I'm not in on a Friday afternoon)

I do follow through with the raffle tickets!

I dunno about phoning parents... Tbh I dunno how much effect it would have, as the parents are likely (unfortunately) to be the kind that don't always support the school. I send them out of class to the head of upper key stage 2.

I try not to let them talk over me - it means I'm constantly having to tell kids off, which means that the lesson goes a lot slower than it should, which means that the chatty ones become more chatty, and so on...

Ok a few things I did with my Y7s (so a bit older than yours, but principles should be the same)

Just don't try to talk over them. Stop. Stand and wait in silence for a few mins (this sometimes works on its own) If it doesn't you actually need to have a go at shouting at them. 'Right!' At a few notches louder than you normally would (very effective if you never normally raise your voice) - Once you have some of the class listening, you say, 'If you (insert pupil's name) know what we're doing today would you mind explaining to everyone what they have to do.'

This usually works tbh, but if it doesn't you need to try keeping kids in at break and having a word with them (don't punish the whole class) - Works best if you send 5 or 6 out and keep the rest back to have a stern word with!

Good luck