PGCE - Current Students Thread

Was just browsing the TES jobs site and have actually found a job I could apply for! But no idea where to start with my letter of application or anything. Annoyingly, the closing date is January 6th so not much time to get it done if I were to wait until school starts up again, and I don't know if I should pester my tutor to help me as it's the holidays now- I'm fairly sure she wouldn't mind, but still.

It's a bit weird, looking at a real teaching job and thinking "yeah I could actually go for that", I certainly don't feel qualified. Stressing about teaching related things was not how I intended to spend the first day of the holidays!

I wrote a PS for teaching jobs and had the careers advisor at uni (she was the one who did teaching related stuff) look at it - apart from a few minor changes, she said it was really good. It also got me 2/3 interviews (the one I didn't get was the NQT post at a special needs school), with at least 60 people going for one of the jobs I got interviewed for. If anyone wants to look at it, feel free to ask

I wrote a PS for teaching jobs and had the careers advisor at uni (she was the one who did teaching related stuff) look at it - apart from a few minor changes, she said it was really good. It also got me 2/3 interviews (the one I didn't get was the NQT post at a special needs school), with at least 60 people going for one of the jobs I got interviewed for. If anyone wants to look at it, feel free to ask

I'd love to have a sneaky peek. I'm just not sure if I'm going down the right path.


What are peoples' experiences of Eteach.com? Just signed myself up but I haven't uploaded anything to it yet or signed up to any of the schools pools.

I was going to do this, it's on my to-do list.

I am getting quite worried about getting a job now, an ex-placementee (is that a word? I am so making that a word) has been texting the HoD at the placement school I have just left, and apparently the other trainee who was there at hte same time as me wants a job there too. If there's so few jobs I will be going up against some very talented people

Me too, especially since our career sessions have been so utterly depressing. (the main agenda being grow a penis and move to London )

We've just got to be the best we can be and go above and beyond on our next placements! I'm just finishing off my assignment and then I'm going to attempt a personal statement, scary! Don't psyche yourself out because of the competition! You're just as worthy as them.

Aw thanks, I hope so!

And we are the cheapest to hire as NQTs as well, which will work in our favour hopefully!

I have my QTS tests tomorrow. Starting to feel a little nervous. I keep forgetting 'simple' things that knowing will obviously help. Eg, 1/8 = 12.5% and dividing by 0.1 = multiplying by 10. :/

Plus, because of the limited availability at the test centre, I've got a 40 minute gap and a 30 minute gap between the tests [if I take up all the possible time allowed for each test]. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they might let me run on from one to the other, but I'll obviously understand if they can't. I'll just have to take a book lol.

Yes, I appreciate that Assessment for Learning is a Very Good Thing, and I will make a lot of use of it in my future practice.

But having to write 6,000 words on it, over Christmas, is taking the biscuit.

Passed my QTS tests.
They let me run them together, back-to-back, so I finished all three before I would have even started my second one lol.
Some of the English spellings were a little difficult - I wrote them down so many ways before deciding which one looked 'right'. Then again, spelling has never been my strong point, so I was never going to find that section particularly easy lol.

Now I should be lesson planning and preparing for our 'teaching and learning conference' in January, but I doubt that I shall. Yet another night ignoring the work is in order I feel.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone - they clearly worked.

I bet you any money you won't.

10p

OK, I'm also aware that I'm an idealistic PGCE student. But there are a few fundamental principles of AfL, REAL AfL- not the watered-down-target-setting from the last government, that I really agree with and want to implement. Fundamentally, I want to create a good classroom climate, where children are happy to state and justify their opinions, and where the pupils have an incremental theory of intelligence, which should help them throughout their school life. I really agree with Dweck on this.

And there's things like modelling exactly what can be created, and coming up with criteria for successful work with the children (in the ungrammatical "What Makes Good..." fashion) because it's pretty obvious, when you come to think about it, that the only way they'll write a good letter, say, is if they know what a good letter looks like first!

Plus I really agree in finding out what they know FIRST rather than just throwing knowledge at them, in the hope of plugging gaps that may or may not exist and hoping that some of it will stick.

Yes, I'm aware that it's idealistic and I'll probably be brought back down to earth in the cold light of day. But there's nothing wrong with trying, I think.

"X, that's a very poor choice you've just made... "