PGCE - Current Students Thread

That's excellent news! Even if you do decide to leave teaching it's still great to know it was definitely your choice, and that you obviously made a lot of progress over the year. Well done!



Pick on or two things that you really care about - if I were you it would be talking when someone else is talking (my pet hate). Start the lesson by saying you were really unhappy with how much it happened last time, and that you don't expect it to happen at all in the lesson. If it does (and it will), give on verbal warning and then come down as hard as possible - either throw the pupil out or give them a short detention (just something like "e'll have to have a discussion after school about why you think that's acceptable). The verbal warnign should give a choice - "if you do that again we're going to have to have a chat after school". I also find it useful to run informal 10-minute detention after the lesson if it runs into break, lunch or after school - they're way more effective than it feels like they should be.

That's how I approached a year 8 class I'd completely lost in my first placement anyway - it took 3 or 4 lessons where I had an awful lot of pupils in detention, but then they got the message.

I always found the service premium an odd one, my daughters junior school claimed hers as we were both serving RAF but she was miles ahead of her class and never had any issues settling in when we moved around. I found that to be the case with 99% of service kids. I guess at least there was extra money in the pot to help out the ones who did need it.

Eurgh, last day of the holidays today! I've also still not planned anything for this week so tomorrow should be interesting!

It's gonna be so tough waking up at 530 tomorrow!

Ive managed to sort tomorrow so having a quiet evening with my husband and some netflix before the madness starts over again.
My husband has pointed out that every day now is one day closer to the end, 23 days and counting.....
The busier i am the faster time will go, so going to bury myself in the remainders of this course and my final essay and prey it flies by!

I recommend a countdown widget on your computer.

I think that might be a countdown too far. I have an academic wall calendar where I mark my classes deadlines, homework etc as well as uni deadlines and ive been striking through weeks as theyve gone by.
On friday i have a literal month left...hoorah

I think that might be a countdown too far. I have an academic wall calendar where I mark my classes deadlines, homework etc as well as uni deadlines and ive been striking through weeks as theyve gone by.
On friday i have a literal month left...hoorah

I strike out my days on my uni calendar :P

40 working days left for me. It doesn't sound like much but then I remember it is mid/late June I finish which sounds ages off!

I strike out my days on my uni calendar :P

40 working days left for me. It doesn't sound like much but then I remember it is mid/late June I finish which sounds ages off!

Yeah we finish our second placement at half term then have 6 days enrichment afterwards so just sorting out where to go for that, then its all uni based with break up mid-june, so i have saturday day tickets to download festival to celebrate

Mid-June sounds like no time at all when you remember we have half term and bank holidays too to make things more interesting.



I have tickets to go and see Wicked the evening I finish I usually work at download but I think this year I might just sleep right through it.

I love wicked, such a great show

We've only ever seen a bootleg copy but absolutely love the songs. I finish uni for the very last time at 3pm and get straight in the car to drive for three hours to see it

Well done on getting an interview! I had my first NQT interview a few weeks back so I thought I'd tell you how I structured mine. Might be of some help?

Introduction - your name, what you're there to do (i.e.: teach them about ...)
Behaviour management - you need to do this straight away, before you start teaching them. Lay out your expectations up front. When you're talking, they're silent. When you clap your hands/count down to zero/ring a bell (whatever technique you use to get their attention) then they need to stop talking, put their pens down and look at you. Once you've got your expectations out there, they'll know where they stand with you.
Brief intro/starter - Introduce the topic - Afl - what do they already know? How confident do they feel in that subject etc? This will help you know how to differentiate. Model anything you need to model.
Main task - about 10-15 mins I'd say. Mini-plenaries if necessary. Show clear differentiation and have a challenge for those that might finish early.
Plenary - ask them how they felt about the task, what strategies did they use, how would they do it different next time etc.

Feel free to DM me if you want any more detail on my lesson plan or questions I got asked at the interview.

Is it inappropriate to ask out the ict technician at my placement school?

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Nope, do it.

It'd be weird to ask mine out - I have to walk through their offices to get out of mine but if you don't have that issue then do it.