PGCE - Current Students Thread

I remember before I applied for the Primary PGCE and reading this forum made me quite nervous. But just to share an experience I don't see much on this thread because each school is very different and each university is also. I am thus far finding the PGCE incredibly manageable. I get to school for 8.35 and leave between 3.05-3.30 depending on if i have a meeting. As I have my own study and no distractions at home I take any work I have home. Get into my PJs with a cuppa, put some obnoxious reality TV on and get into creating fun and structured lessons and resources. Depending on how you decided to do the lesson, the creating of the PPTs and worksheets can be time consuming (I found this with literacy based lessons), so I actually manage to get stuck in on a weekend day and most of the planning/or rough planning done and finish bits off when at home between 4-5.30. Most days after school I get to completely relax if I have finished everything.I am the type of person who itches to do something if they aren't busy anyway, so the workload has never scared me.The school I am at has no teachers staying after 4pm, they are happy to do as much work as they can at home and as long as everyone delivers outstanding lessons everyones happy. The school is rated outstanding and the best in the town.

Sound too good to be true? Well, it is half true. I am still on my first placement, so I only teach 40 percent - but considering how much free time I have at 40 percent I believe 80 percent next placement will be management and probably busy as hell. But the first half the PGCE isn't hard (well. very much depending on your school or year group - I have year 3!) or stressful at all if it something you enjoy doing... and at least only half of it has the potential to be a bit of a nightmare!

I've been goven a Notice of Serious Concern.

I've been goven a Notice of Serious Concern.

Sunflowers - I'm sorry you're having a hard time and I'm glad you took Shelly's advice and shared your problems. I think you'll find most of them are standard PGCE issues that every one of us will be feeling at one time or another.

I hope you don't take what I'm about to type as a dismissal or anything, because it's not intended that way at all, but I think maybe you need some objectivity. Take a step back, a deep breath and just consider the following:

No, don't worry, I understand what you're saying.

Yes, I expect you will be working late and getting up early. I've been getting up at between 4.30am and 5am, getting to work for 7am on the dot, and working solidly through to 6pm, as well as often doing an hour or so at night when I get home (not to mention ALL weekend). I've even gone so far as too book into a hotel nearer school (my commute is 40 mins in the morning and almost an hour at night) so I can get more work done this week! I'm literally sitting in a Premier Inn as I type this

I think I'm looking at having to do extra at night or in the morning as a bad thing, but it would probably help. I don't want to be too stressed out and functioning on coffee!

It's exhausting, and it's certainly not sustainable, but the PGCE year is notoriously difficult. You just have to get through each half term (or each week, or each day!) one step at a time and give yourself a huge pat on the back each half term.

This is good advice. Since I don't get half terms, I'm making sure I give myself little rewards at the end of each week. Just something like going for chocolate and churros.

The thing is, all teachers work long hours, so if this isn't something you are willing/able to maintain long term, then you might need to do some serious thinking. I believe 50-60 hours a week is the norm even for experienced teachers.

On my bad days, I feel very lost as to where I'm going, but then on an alright day I'll wonder what I was thinking that for.

Welcome to teaching. I doubt you will ever find a class where all children will work well without some.... nudging, shall we say! I'm in Y5 and there's one boy who (despite being very bright) simply cannot write more than one sentence without a teacher hovering over him. I've been taking literacy for 2 weeks and every lunch time he has to stay in for an extra half hour to actually get more than 5 words on the page. It's driving me batty, but he needs his education as much as everyone else so I'm persevering. Today I've started moving him to a separate table and told him I'll keep doing so until he can get on. Today he only need 15 minutes at lunch time to finish, so perhaps we're having a breakthrough. That's on top of 3 very low ability chn who need 100% of the TA's time to get anything done, 3 more quite low ability who need a lot of guidence, 1 with behaviour issues and another 20 or so who, for the most part, seem to want confirmation that every single thing they think of is correct before they'll put it down on paper. It's exhausting, but that's what the job it. We're only learning but we'll surely develop strategies to deal with these situations, but to expect a class (any class - EYFS or A level) to work completely without any assistance throughout the lesson is, I would say, quite unreasonable.

Sometimes I realise it's my fault that I haven't explained the activity properly. Now I usually do the activity on the board with them for the first two or three sentences or questions. One of the activities last week was ordering words in a sentence. I didn't do it then, but I'm going to look at it on Tuesday. I need to think of the best way to do it. At the moment, I'm leaning towards making cards with the individual words on and sticking them on the board. I'll ask them to identify the verb, subject, object and time phrase. Do you think this would word with primary 5?


Not to be rude, but exactly when else were you expecting to be able to do marking and preparation? If you were under the impression that teachers have the luxury of introducing a topic, setting a task and then sitting there getting on with various jobs while the class just does works perfectly and silently for the next 40 minutes, then I think perhaps your thinking was a tad misguided.

My marking is done at lunch (when I'm not handholding the affore-mentioned irritatingly lazy child!) and after school, or sometimes before school if I just can't bring myself to do it at night! My preparation is done during my one afternoon of PPA and the weekend, as is the preparation of every other teacher I know.



Sorry I'm not sure what ESL stands for and can't comment on Y8, but I've certainly had some unruly classes to deal with. Have you asked for help with behaviour strategies, perhaps from some teachers who also have this specific group of children? There could be some little tricks that work with this class that you haven't tried yet.

ESL is English as a second language. My student's native language is Spanish. I've talked to a colleague about it and she gave me some help. The strange thing is that I seem to have won round the other Year 8 group who were giving me problems.


You say you 'have' to use the textbook. Is that because the school makes you, or is it mainly because, as you say, you don't have time/energy to find anything else? If the former, that's a shame, but perhaps you can try to liven it up with your delivery of the lessons? If it's the latter, then I really can't suggest anything other than a can of red bull and a bit of perseverance!

Both really. I have another book of the same level that I prefer, so I try to use bits from that. I've started building up a bank of resources to supplement the book.


That's life, unfortunately. The report card is intended to inform parents of a child's performance, not supposed to solve their behaviour problems. Behaviour management is HARD (it's my 2nd biggest issue, behind timings in lessons - oh how wonderful it would be to have time for a proper plenary!!). Read some books, practice changing your tone of voice, use your eyes, follow the school's behaviour policy to the letter. If you can take minutes off of their break times, do that (I had the entire class in this break time to prove they could sit quietly after a particularly fussy afternoon yesterday). There are so many tools for behaviour management, but it is hard getting to grips with them and figuring out which ones work with which children/groups of children.

Could you recommend any good books on behaviour. Would Sue Cowley's book Getting the buggers to behave be useful?

I'm honestly not making light of this, truly I'm not, because I spent 6 weeks on the edge of tears on placement in the Autumn term, but.... this is genuinely par for the course as far as your PGCE year goes. I mentioned your post to an NQT at work today and his responses were much like mine, especially regarding this last point. My uni asked us in December to put up our hands if we had not cried since the course started. Not a single hand went up. That was a cohort of 50 or so, with ages from about 23 - 50. Every single one of us had cried. The relief in the room when we all realised we were in it together was palpable.

Part of me is scared to admit I'm having trouble and finding it hard. My colleague recognises this though and tries to get me to open up ( even if it is over a glass of wine on a Friday night).

I really hope you take all of this in the manner it's intended - i'm not trying to be mean, I'm just giving an impartial outside view to try and help you get a bit of perspective.

I really hope you start to feel better soon, but if not you MUST go and seek help elsewhere - family, friends, university tutors, your GP...

You seem quite down based on your recent posts (I'm so glad you've finally opened up about what's been bothering you), and NOTHING is worth risking your mental health.

Have a good cry, then stick on a song or tv show or something that always raises your mood and try to bring yourself around.

I promise there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for the support guys. I know I need help to be outstanding but I don't think I deserve a NOSC. I feel I'm being picked on. I was observed twice in 2 weeks before being given this. It's been shown to several tutors as well as several teachers at the school. The things I'm being NOSCed for are trumped up, the sorts of things FQTs could improve on, like better organised paperwork, better use of assessment. They make it seem like I've been skiving or sitting there every day doing nothing and going home and letting my folder rot and using my PPA time to play Candy Crush. The things I'm being NOSCed for I have not been warned about before. It's all new to me. Sorry if I sound bitter but I work very hard and the whole thing has been very embarrassing to me.

Thanks for the support guys. I know I need help to be outstanding but I don't think I deserve a NOSC. I feel I'm being picked on. I was observed twice in 2 weeks before being given this. It's been shown to several tutors as well as several teachers at the school. The things I'm being NOSCed for are trumped up, the sorts of things FQTs could improve on, like better organised paperwork, better use of assessment. They make it seem like I've been skiving or sitting there every day doing nothing and going home and letting my folder rot and using my PPA time to play Candy Crush. The things I'm being NOSCed for I have not been warned about before. It's all new to me. Sorry if I sound bitter but I work very hard and the whole thing has been very embarrassing to me.

I'm training for Primary. But are we able to apply for A-Level teaching? I'm not thinking now but later. Really want to reach A-Level History.

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Had an amazing lesson today that was being observed. Kids were engaged, had excellent written and verbal answers. But my feedback (it was observed) totally didnt show that - she focused on all negatives (relating to context, starter should have been 5 mins shorter) and never once praised on the fact the kids learnt a new skill and used it well!

Overall I got a 3 out of 6 but it's not the grade that's annoying me, it's the fact that when I thought te lesson went really well. It actually was rubbish!

Got my new timetable today.. Really happy with it!

Got two year 7's, 2 year 8's, one year 9 and one year 10. One of my y7 groups is the very bottom set - a nurture group. It's going to be a challenge but they are all lovely so will be ok. Will be doing controlled assessment with the year 10 lot which is a daunting thought!

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Had a great lesson today with my year 8 which was observed by my mentor. Probably my best lesson so far on my PGCE; crucially I think I got behaviour right from the start and used rewards and sanctions perfectly to set the mood. Progress was made verbally and in books by every single pupil. It wasn't outstanding but it was very good and it was a 40 minute lesson so I'm even more pleased! Feels so good after a tough 2 weeks of my confidence being knocked.

2 more observations to go on this placement.

Has any taught 15 lessons a week yet?

I have successfully completed my first placement and I am worried about teaching 15+ lessons. I just about managed with 10 lessons and hardly had anytime to spare as I always had something to do. I am in secondary.




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I teach 24. It's hard. I have no life.


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Oh my that is an awful lot of lessons. Are you an NQT?


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