PGCE - Current Students Thread

Eek, Suzanathema I saw your post on TES about waiting for an offer letter... I'm on day 6 and still no offer letter so getting a bit worried! They said they would send one.

How long did anyone else who's been offered a job have to wait?

Eek, Suzanathema I saw your post on TES about waiting for an offer letter... I'm on day 6 and still no offer letter so getting a bit worried! They said they would send one.

How long did anyone else who's been offered a job have to wait?

Be flattered.
Is it a long way out?

I am 22, so a guess of 21 would be pretty good. I got IDed yesterday lol - cheered me up as I've been looking rather old due to lack of sleep lately! IDed in M&S buying a gammon joint, broccoli and wine lol!

I'm going to be a year 7 tutor! Exciting but very scary. I have to go to a new parents evening next week and in a couple of weeks I have to do a full induction day with the group. Terrifying! But at least I'll be getting straight into it I guess?

Hooray, Y7!

I think (and said in my interview, so I'll probably get a Y7 tutor group too) that Y7 is the absolute best year to have as a tutor group. You are making an impression on them that will last throughout the rest of their time at secondary school. You are making them feel welcome in a strange new environment. I think it's much more rewarding than other year groups


As for the offer letter, I was goign to phone the school today but mine came through in the post. There were PAYE forms and CRB paperwork and internet usage policies so perhaps your school is taking their time getting all the relevant paperwork together.

If nothing tomorrow, you could try calling them?

I do love year 7, just think it's a bit like the blind leading the blind! I told them how much I love my year 7s at my interview too...

My offer letter was here when I got back too, so no need for me to have worried... have to contact them about giving in all of my documents, will just have to do it when I go over there for this parents thing I guess.

That'll be me tomorrow!

Also, is supply work hard to come by in the summer term? I guess with Y11 and Y13 gone secondary will be harder to find vacancies, but I am willing to do primary as well!

In primary there's very little daily supply work at the end of the summer term as it's mostly sports days/trips/assembly planning etc and things that they don't really need a teacher who doesn't know the school to do. Secondary will be similar because they will be able to use their existing teaching team to cover for lower school supply as a lot of teachers will have a lot of gaps on their timetable.

It also takes quite a while for all of your references/paperwork to be processed so by the time everything had been processed it'd be mid July and then you'd only really have 2 weeks left until the end of term. Some agencies are really picky about CRBs and want you to have one from their agency because some schools will only take supply teachers who have a CRB from the agency they use. Your CRB technically is portable, but some schools want a specific one.

I also think it'd be a bit weird having someone who is secondary trained and only an NQT as a primary supply teacher - think about the logistics of it, in many cases on supply you are left to your own devises with shoddy planning/can't find the planning and you have to think of appropriate things to do with the class for the day. I did supply at the start of my NQT year as I didn't get a job until after Christmas and it's really tough as an NQT as the school will just leave you to get on with it and there's no one to ask for help. You basically turn up, get taken to the classroom and if you're lucky there will be some planning or a note from the class teacher. I had other situations where there wasn't any planning to be seen and no one else seemed to know so it was a case of "make it up for the day" - if you've not trained as a primary teacher do you really think that you'd be able to do come up with things to do for numeracy and literacy off the top of your head which were related to what the children were currently learning? I always used/adapted things that I had taught my PGCE classes at that point as I always took resources to school with me. If you've only trained in a secondary environment you'd come unstuck when presented with a class of Y1 children and no lesson plans because you wouldn't have anything appropriate. It's the same as if I did supply for a Y10 English class, for example, I wouldn't have a clue what level they're working at or what would be appropriate to do with them because my only experience of a Y10 English class is from when I was a Y10 student.

I'd say you'd be better looking for work in summer schools/summer camps/stuff with international kids who recruit teachers to work full time over the summer.