Secondary School observation

I am fortunate enough to be marrying a Secondary School English Teacher and Jo managed to get me 5 days worth of observations at her school. Luckily I had met one of her colleagues via his partner (whom I run with), and had also been given the lowdown on the many other members of staff.

Although I am preparing to venture into Primary Teaching, I am glad that I was able to see the difference in teaching styles, class management, pastoral care, vast difference in age and also sheer numbers. Working for my current school as a TA (at time of writing), I know that many of the Year 6 girls will make their way to this school in September and it is surprising how many have siblings and friends already there.

Wednesday 2nd October
My first day and I was nervous, mainly because I didn't want to disrupt the busy working environment of the English Department and also with Jo sticking her neck out to get me a chance to observe, I wanted to make a good impression.

The internal fears were squashed and I was greeted with smiles and wishes of good luck from all I met.
The Head of English was very welcoming and had arranged for me to get a glimpse of lessons ranging from Years 7 through to 13. This also meant I would be working with 5 different members of staff and give the chance to see how each of them conduct their lessons.

Being a Year 7 Form Tutor, Jo asked me to attend her registration and after introductions she proceeded to go through pastoral items such as; the Belgium Music Trip, School Council Nominations and missing homework. She is firm but nice and respected by the children. They ask lots of questions but are extremely polite. Jo has her own area to sit when needed although I soon learnt that most of the lessons are up out of the chair.

Period 1  was with an NQT who had been a GTP trainee at this school during the previous year. He supports QPR and is a pretty cool teacher with a modern take on the role. Wearing a waistcoat, suit and tie, with his hair smartly kept- he is certainly someone I will be taking tips from when it comes to dressing for the occasion.

The Year 7's soon arrived and after introductions he started the lesson which was on Performance Poetry. The class shared vocab and phrases (also known as mag-pieing ideas) and this made it seem less dull  because everyone was able to contribute.
A list of words was handed out and the class had to choose 5 words or phrases that they liked and this was to go towards to next step of the lesson. They had to refine the phrases into key word and look at the use of metaphors. He talked about stanzas - paragraphs for poems - and showed the William Blake poem 'Tiger Tiger' and how effective it was in his work.
Homework was given at the end of the lesson, with 5 days to complete it.

Period 2 was with someone I had only met a few times before whilst supporting his partner in her running, with our club. He has been at the school a few years and although teaches English, his main subject is Media Studies where he has a nice big classroom with a painted blackboard for creative ideas. He loves road cycling and has a Noel Gallagher look about him with similar hairstyle, funky shirts and another cool attitude as a teacher.

Year 13's were in this lesson and straight away I noticed the difference in maturity among the girls. They are allowed to wear what they wish (within reason) and the size of the class is also smaller, which means although less people talking - everyone is still loud and animated.
The lesson was to make a Puppet Pop Star, to create a representation of a famous contemporary pop artist using resources given.

Group 1 had Jessie J and portrayed her with mad colourful hair and a huge red lipstick mouth covering half her face.
Group 2 had Jason Derulo and showed him with a naked torso baseball cap and cool look.
Group 3 were given Miley Cyrus and decided to make her out to be post 'Wrecking Ball' where she has since started to 'twerk' and in my opinion do exactly same as Britney did all those years ago.

They then looked at the use of meta-narrative: changes that occur in the representation and iconography of an artist/band over time. Some are trend-setters with the times or have sudden drastic changes. Some may chose to portray themselves totally different than they appear in real-life.

At the end of the lesson, the class were given various bands/groups and asked to think about applying one of their songs to a music video. Firstly creating a setting/ think about a wide shot and then to add pick up shots.

Period 3 was with a teacher who shares the Literacy role with Jo and someone the children seem to respect a lot. He is a mild-mannered person with bundles of energy. Is he a super-hero underneath the teaching persona?

Today  he was teaching a Year 9 class about the prefixes (un, in, im and ir). These were used for the words
undignified, unimpressed, inactive, inadequate, impatient, impenetrable and irresponsible. All antonyms for their use without the prefix.
He then moved on to looking at the prefix (anti). This is used to show the meaning against. For example
anti-Christ, antibody, anti-virus, antisocial and antifreeze.

The main part of the lesson used the LO: To use the features of persuasive speaking to help plan your speech.

• vivid images
• repetition
• flow/pace to build to a climax
• hyperbole - exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech
• rhetorical questions
• triplets- groups of three
• use of imperative language - pleading to the audience
• inclusive pro-noun - include the audience (we/us)
• appealing or damming authority
• giving examples
• using short sentences for impact
• anticipate objections
• catchphrases - (I have a dream)
• use of anecdotes - past examples

The task was to ignite the French Revolution and convince the people of France to stand up and revolt against the incompetent royals. The class had to write a speech addressed to the people of France, convincing them to join you in creating a fairer and more just France. 

I went around the different tables to assist with what ideas to think about and at the end, one spokesperson from each table shared their ideas to the class.

Period 4  was with an unassuming, kind and considerate teacher. This lesson was with a Year 10 C/D borderline mainstream paper class. I could see a big difference in this class compared to the Year 9's with a higher ability. Their was also a Teaching Assistant in the class and she assisted with a few of the students.

The lesson evolved around using the articles and photographs given, to come up with their own descriptive writing.
It had to be; interesting, area specific and compelling
One of the articles used was by Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear Host for those who do not recognise the name). They had to analyse his points made and picked out; use of humour, anecdotal evidence, persuasive language devices (pattern of three), and all informal language. There was also the use of Hyperbole's which I had been introduced to in a previous lesson.

This piece of writing was to aid their Original Writing Coursework, and focused on the following;
Sentence Structure, varied punctuation and vocab to create specific effects, and structure of the narrative 

One of the photographs contained of a lot of Disney Characters and I came up with a few pieces of writing.

Tigger, Pooh, and Timone, met at a street party. Eagerly watching the characters were excited crowds of people, who cheered and sung along. 

Eagerly watching, the crowd cheered with glee when their favourite characters sang to Disney songs. Tigger was bouncing, Timone prancing and Winnie the Pooh dancing. Suddenly Donald Duck strolled along to join the fun.

The 5th and final period of the day was spent with the Assistant Head of English, who at 6'3 is taller than Jo and whose daughter goes to the school. She used to be a University Lecturer but with this class of Year 7, you would think she could teach any age group. She was more understanding and caring to these younger students, than I have seen in older age groups.
They were asked to hand in a written letter, which was being sent to their primary schools and this was a test to get the students to remember to bring in work - with house points awarded.

The Learning Objective (LO): To understand cultural references in the text and to use a range of interesting vocab in a book discussion.
The topic was Greek Myths and looking at Icarus who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death, and Persephone who was kidnapped by Hades, God of the Underworld.

Skellig by David Almond was read aloud by the students and they looked at the positive and negative aspects of the novl; plus personal traits and preferences.


Thursday 3rd October
My second day was just as intriguing as the first, and after going to Registration with the Assistant Head of English, who had a noisy bunch of Year 9's.

 For period 1, I was asked to go into the Head of English Departments Year 12 class. The Head of English is another inspiring teacher and despite her small size like me, she is big in stature and can certainly hold a classrooms' attention.
We watched the beginning of Act One: from Ibsen's A Doll's House, and the class were asked to think about how clever/childish Nora is. I had been given the ending of the play as a college piece back in 2001 and was suprised at how quickly I remembered the story.

• Nora is childish in some ways because she; plays with toys, doesn't seem to understand how important money is and wishes to spend as much of it as she can, allows Torvald (her husband) to mollycoddle her, she is also patronised and pampered by all around her.
• Nora is clever in other ways because she; shows that she can understand the business deals related to her loan, shows determination, and also manipulates the truth about people in her life.

During period 2, I visited Jo's Year 9 class whilst they read chapters 9-11 of To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.
LO: To explore key ideas and events from chapters 9-11
Jo has put a couple of images on the board and asked the class to give word or phrases associated. One was of a mockingbird and answers included; freedom, innocence, it also represents the good and the book compares Tom Robinson's killing to 'the senseless laughter of songbirds'

She then asked 'Why do you think Atticus has decided to defend Tom Robinson?', gave the class time to talk (pen's up) and then time to write (pen's down). This is a good teaching technique, to ensure complete focus during both parts of the task.
Some of the answers; he was unable to sit back and allow a black man to be wrongly judged simply because of his colour, he is the moral backbone of the town of Maycomb and has to do 'what's right', he also wants to show his children (Scout and Jem), that everyone in the word should be treated the same regardless of race, background or wealth.

Two other questions the class had to consider were; 'What problems do you think the Finch Family will face should they take on the case?' and 'Do you think Atticus should take on the case? Give reasons for answer'

Period 3, was with the teacher from yesterdays period 4 teacher, whose 'English Skills' class were exploring how to use sensory language to describe something. Similes and personification were the English skills being developed.
This was a fruit pastel and all of the 5 senses Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste and Hearing, were analysed in that order. Firstly seeing what the item looked like from the outside in its wrapper -some described it as a present. They unwrapped it and said how it smelt; sweet, delicious, disgusting for some even and like the fruit it was representing. Touch  was closely followed by taste and some said it was sticky like glue, hard/soft (depending on if it had softened in their hand), tasted like fruit, heaven or not nice at all.
Hearing was the hardest one but then they soon realised that the unwrapping of the sweet created a scrunching noise, like autumn leaves on the ground and when in the mouth it was being chewed like a cow chews grass.

I spent period 4 in Media Studies, with one of the longest serving members of the department with a wealth of experience. He had told his Year 12 students that I worked on Harry Potter as Daniel Radcliffe's Body Double and this automatically garnered a lot of questions from the class. I was assisting the Media class in creating a video sequence that had to include; opening a door, sitting down and chatting to someone, and a 180 degrees shot. The media suite being used was amazing and although I will not get a chance in Primary education to use it, I can certainly see why this is an industry to be in, not only in front of but behind camera.

The final period was with the Assistant Head again, although with a Learning Support Year 7 group.
LO: To improve sentence and make them more appealing.
Their were some shy students but overall they came out with very interesting words.Afterwards they read part of 'The Worst Witch' and swapped at almost every sentence to get everyone in the class a chance to read.


Wednesday 10th October
Period 1 was a very productive lesson with the teacher who shared the Literacy duties. His year 9 class explored the French Revolution again and this time looked at the types of pronouns to use.

Certain words were grouped together;
Demonstrative- This, that, these and those
Interrogative - Who, whim, which and whose
Indefinite  Both, everyone, most, no-one

We listened to Sir Winston Churchill's speech which is quite monotone but at the same time powerful. It starts off calmly but builds up the suspense towards the end.

Famous quotes include:
'We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender'
We shall fight- is repeated many times and the use of 'we' gives a sense of ownership to all who listen and the accumulation of similar-sounding statements emphasis Churchill's uncompromising will to fight.

The class then used feedback to help redraft and improve their own French Revolution speeches.


Period 2 was with the NQT, and he played an audio book called Stone Cold by Robert Swindells and is a realistic young adult novel. Set on the streets of London, the first-person narrative switches between Link, a newly homeless sixteen-year-old boy, and Shelter, an ex-army officer, scorned after being dismissed from his job.

This book is quite harrowing and I managed to hear it from half way through to the end. Justice is served but also shows that despite the bad guy being sent to prison, he will live in a warm cell with three meals a day, whereas the good guy is no better off and still living on the streets.


In period 3, for PSHE, Jo handed her tutor group, pieces of paper with characters to colour in and each had to represent themselves as the character. It  looks like this, Wee-Me, and personal traits such as favourite subjects, food and also clothes were added to make it personal.
She also spoke to the class about peer pressure and what to do in challenging situations. Being a form tutor, she needs the class to trust her and come with any issues that may arise during the school year.

Period 4 was simply an English GCSE's resit class, where around 10 Year 12 students hadn't managed a 'C' or above and were required to do so in order to take A-Levels.

For Period 5, the assistant head was teaching year 7's monographs, with 'ing' 're' and 'ment', as the main suffix or prefix. This included fun games and house points were handed out as an reward.

Observation analysis

During the 3 days at the school, I was able to observe pretty much all of the English team and saw many different teaching techniques used throughout. Not just the same by each teacher but it varied depending on the age and ability of the class.
A few of the behaviour management and teaching skills I saw will come in handy and the Year 7 work may also be 'magpied' for any work I get to do in a Year 6 class.

This department are a tight-knit bunch. At time of writing, I know that 2 members of the team have now left, including Jo They will both be sorely missed, each with their own unique talents and skills, the other teacher will be back for some part-time teaching, whilst Jo is moving onward and upward to a new school where a bigger responsibility lies ahead.