I just completed my PGCE! Ask me anything.

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Thanks for posting your experience. It's probably largely down to 'luck of the draw' and to some extent I've accepted the next 10 months are going to be tough and I'm getting a substantial bursary for the pleasure. I'm more wary of is that what it's going to be like forever? So much bad news about teacher workloads in the press. It's something I'm going to ask in interviews when I'm looking for a job.

As per the assignments, I heard somewhere they are either pass/fail at 50% and not like UG where you could 2:1 etc. Was that the case for you?

I personally don't believe NQT is as demanding as training as you don't need to undertake all of the uni-related assignments/extensive written plans, evaluations, differentiation schemes, meeting logs etc., however your teaching hours and class numbers do jump which means more reports, more marking, parental meetings etc. If you're in the same school and there's no curriculum of SoW change, after year one you've already planned/created taught and edited your lessons and resources so there aren't any drastically time-consuming changes that need to take place in following years (this is what people tell me).

The government are introducing a two-year NQT now, meaning that entrants for 2019/20 will have two years on an 80% schedule (rather than just one) with an appointed mentor which is a positive step. In addition, lots of more extensive support systems are being trialled in schools for the first five years after a person attains QTS in an effort to reduce the high numbers of people dropping out of the profession within five years. It does look as though OFSTED is taking pressures off marking by extending hour backlogs and seem to be moving towards appropriating a knowledge-rich curriculum which would encourage more text-book based lessons and I would argue that would need less effort from a teacher.

I know the question wasn't directed to me - but at my university it was a pass/fail but then you are graded 1 (Outstanding), 2 (Good) or 3 (Satisfactory/In need of improvement). A 4 is a fail.

Reply 21

username4853508

Original post by georgem93

Snap!!
Secondary science (biology specialism)

woooo congratulations!!! Don't you just feel like you're flying
:dance:

Reply 22

airfixfighter

Original post by Sceptical_John

I think you can ask at your placement schools? The NQTs in the school I'll be in next year said they regularly do 7:30 until 6:30 days.

My assignments were technically pass/fail but we were given grades of A-D for a pass. They don't mean anything particularly though!

Original post by hnde

Congratulations and thank you for contributing to the thread!

It is really difficult to express that it's hard to predict what workload will be like as it does vary so much. My uni course required 60% teaching, 20% observation reports/SEN assistance and I filled the other 20% with undertaking extra curricular responsibilities and pastoral duties which is why I ended up doing a lot of the uni write ups/uni research project work/lesson planning once the school day had ended. I hadn't considered that the format of the day might vary between unis until your post so that's pretty insightful!

Yeah, it's really interesting to see the difference. I think it really depends on the schools as well. For the last three weeks, my days were filled up with observations leaving me with one PPA a day to give me a more "realistic" timetable (obviously not quite as I wasn't teaching those observations!) but by that time, I felt quite comfortable with what I was doing so it wasn't so bad. I can't believe your uni filled up your days like that - you'll only be on 80% next year so to fill up 100% is so mean.

Reply 23

TeacherTraining1

Congrats! How did you find managing students' behaviour? Did you find you were too lenient or too strict? What was the most challenging student like?

congrats

Original post by airfixfighter

Yeah that sounds pretty fair to me. I know some on other courses or at other unis and they only ever reached max 60% which arguably isn't good preparation ahead of next year.

Yeah the final 20% of pastoral and extra curricular was self-induced though so when you outline it as 80% required overall I guess it makes a little more sense. Still, I do look back and think why! Nobody even seems to worry all to much about gradings its just if you have QTS or not so I wish I gave myself a bit of a break... oh well.

Do you have any plans for next year?

Reply 26

username4853508

Original post by TeacherTraining1

Congrats! How did you find managing students' behaviour? Did you find you were too lenient or too strict? What was the most challenging student like?

Thanks!

It firstly depends on the school and their behaviour management policy. The first school I was in had a solid behaviour management routine which meant there was barely any problem... that being said the children didn't really show a lot of personality as a result. In the second school I was in the management policy was interpreted differently by different departments and staff which sent a mixed message to the pupils about where the line was. What I do think was advantageous about the system at my first school was that all teachers followed the same routines (single file like outside classroom in silence, two people enter first to issue books, stand behind chairs once unpacked etc.).

My biggest advice would be have your own routines and expectations (within school policy of course) and even if they're the same as what the school projects make sure you yourself articulate that to pupils. They don't see general 'rules' they see an individual teacher and an individual class/subject.

I personally felt I had quite a good balance, but arguably I was too lenient in certain cases (I allowed pupils with seriously poor behaviour management across the school to get away with certain things (forgetting pens, for example, because for them it was good). I don't believe a child should be sent out of a room for asking their peer a question whilst I'm speaking it just seems unreasonable, so I always issued a 'first warning' as a reminder of what my expectations were before issuing the behaviour management policy. I do feel pupils appreciated this because you have to remember as a trainee, you're a floating island to them who has randomly come out of nowhere and it can take longer for some than others to get used to you and as a result your expectations.

Whether anyone admits it or not - if you're interesting and make the content you deliver accessible, appropriate and intriguing, behaviour concerns will go down because why would anyone want to ruin or be left out of something they enjoy?

Most challenging - a group of year 7s who established teachers of 30 years even refused to teach. They just wouldn't stop talking, and because it was so many of them the school behaviour policy wasn't successful as you can't relocate 20+ pupils. A lot had SEN, a lot had behaviour issues, a lot came from families who actively would tell the school that their child's priority was not school work and that they wouldn't support them with it. I wouldn't say they were the worst children in the world though, we got through the lesson plans and they did well in their assessment and interacted really well with the activities I planned.

Reply 27

username4853508

Original post by easterehs

congrats

Thank you! :smile:

Reply 28

airfixfighter

Original post by hnde

I've got a job in my second placement school. One of the teachers was giving me some career advice last week before I finished and was telling me to be careful with how much you try and do this first year. So I think I'm going to try and do one after school club but nothing else! I don't want to put too much pressure on myself because it's going to be so difficult anyway - I'm the only full time physics teacher (eek!). How about yourself?

Reply 29

username4853508

Original post by airfixfighter

That's some good advice! The only one?? ahhhh gosh that's scary but so cool at the same time! I'm going to be one out of two full time geographers. 20% randomly floats around and relies on non-specialists (why they don't just employ a third part timer I don't know). I'm currently down to run an extra curricular, workshops and a CPD programme and I already think that's too much so I'm going to try and just prep everything during the summer.

Reply 30

MJ16

That honestly makes me feel so much better - thank you! As you said i'm hoping my confidence will build up with each lesson.

All the best for your NQT year!

Original post by hnde

Thanks so much!

As someone who has suffered very bad anxiety when presenting in the past, this too was a worry for me heading into training! The first time I stood in front of a class I was wrongly thrown in, without warning or any time for prep or even knowing what the lesson was about by an NQT+1. It was introducing a lesson and I mixed up all my words, sweated so much I wondered if these children were wondering if I had swam to the lesson and had a big panic afterwards. It was awful.

HOWEVER, the first time I taught my own lesson (literally the day after) and had had the opportunity to look at seating plans, books to see where they left off the previous lesson and formatted my own slides, it was a breeze. You feel less like you're presenting and more like you're performing if that makes sense. Suddenly, you have thirty children intrigued by who you are and what you're going to say and instinct stops you from having any visible panic/nervousness as you don't want them to feel panicked or nervous. I was still nervous, but as each lesson passes confidence builds so quickly.

Personally, I think being a nervous presenter ensured I planned better lessons and was more reflective upon my practice. My advise would be - it only gets better, and teachers who have been teaching for 30 years still mess up or get nervous at times so don't take it to heart like I did at first.