A warm welcome back

This week marked the first time back at St Mary’s and for the next few months I will be working in Year 5 alongside a shared classroom. My aim is to improve on the targets set by my Second Placement mentor and build up to a Good if not Outstanding teacher by the end of July.

The first 4 days I spent getting to know the class and was fortunate enough to have taught many of the students during Maths from September to January, and coached both boys and girls in the school football teams. I've been given the progress ladders and mid-term planning overviews to look into and I made it a top priority.

In English, biographies is the unit choice and the students have been asked to research various well-known people, in order to create their own biography of them. It was very interesting to see obvious choices such as football players and TV or Music celebrities but what did strike me was the quality of note taking and after hearing 'ooo I didn't know that about this person' was great because it showed the students there is more to a person than meets the eye.

I am also excited for English because from the April 27th it will use the General Election as the stimulus and I am planning to teach the class how to write a persuasive speech based on the 7 political parties manifestos. By using the BBC Newsround site, it will enable the children to access politics on a low level but give them a chance to have a 'theoretical' say in how they want the country ran. This unit will include videos featuring children interviewing the party candidates, asking why a TV debate matters, what a General Election actually is, and the power of using persuasive language. 

In Science the teacher asked the students what they knew about the life-cycle of animals and reproduction cycle. This will inform us when planning future lessons to ensure the national curriculum is adhered to but taught according to the what the children already know. I already have some ideas about how to facilitate this and am thinking to split the class into research groups and feedback to their peers with written presentations.  It will be used as a Speaking and Listening assessment.

The Music unit is exciting because it's based around Holst's 'The Planets'. Due to Earth not being used as one of the planets (because at the time of composing, everyone thought the planets revolved around the Earth), their task will be to compose their own idea of what Earth sounds like. I am envisaging solo pieces at first then leading to a group ensemble for their peers to evaluate. This will help with marking and using Success Criteria to show progress.

 Next week will be spent team teaching and getting prepared for the big step up to 80% teaching. I am nervous especially as it's getting closer to the final assessment plus I now have a position at the school as a full-time teacher next year so don't want to make too many mistakes. A good piece of advice I was given is - use this time to make mistakes, as there won't be a lot of room for them once in charge of class by myself.

Half term review Spring 2

To say that this term has been busy would be an understatement. I could not wait to start planning for my new class and boy was I given the chance to do just that.  I was given the responsibility for planning: 3 weeks of English, 4 weeks of Maths, 5 weeks of PE, 1 PSHE, 3 Science, and 2 Topic (History) lessons, and I thrived at this opportunity.

Marking also played a huge part in this term and I have begun to appreciate the power of peer marking. I agree that children need to be training into doing this properly and efficiently but given the right time and focus it will help those same children to become better at analysing others work and gaining proofreading skills that they will transfer to their own work.

One of my next targets was to be able to differentiate work. I was told that some of the children are performing above national average (especially in Maths) and I had to ensure work was pitched at their level. I did this and during my planning ensured everyone was catered for and scoured online for resources and asked teachers in the years above for advice. At parents evening during the 3^rd week of 5, a few parents commented on the great work the mentor and I had been doing in pushing their children rather than allowing them to complete easy tasks without any effort.

My mentor was very good at giving feedback and I certainly learnt a lot from him. Being a young teacher himself, he was able to impart the wisdom of what to look out for and how to make my planning, training and teaching easier. 

At the school I was made to feel extremely welcome. The head teacher’s daughter is also on the Schools Direct course so she knew what was expected of me. I am local to the school and a few parents whose children were in a year above and below knew me from my running club and it was soon apparent that some money I helped to raise and donate from my club was given to the PTA, in which most of the member’s children were being taught by myself. I spent most of my break outside with the various cohorts and the loyalty and respect from the children I gained was spread across the school. ‘You coming to play football sir?’ ‘Here sir let me get that for you’ ‘When will you be teaching us?’ Were all comments regularly heard and it filled me with immense pride that I had both an academic and sociable sense of respect from them.

During World Book Day I took 12 children from KS2 and taught them how to interview their peers and teachers about the costumes they had worn, then showed them how to put it all together into their own newsletters. I created one master newsletter which went out to all the parents. Print outs of all are displayed in one of the main corridors with pictures of the group dressed up for the day.

Am I ready for 80%? I think the answer is yes. Will I achieve Outstanding in my QTS? I hope so. After being one of the lucky few to attend the talk by Andrew Pollard, I can see how interesting the life of a teacher can be. I do need to fine tune my classroom behaviour management and in doing so will stick close to my philosophy which is to be fair, fun and firm.

I reflect on almost anything in life from the choices I make in my wedding plans, to why did I set off too quickly in a race, to why on earth did I place those children together in a project. This is why I enjoy teaching because I can build on my mistakes and improve them day on day, week on week, month on month etc. I will continue to make mistakes but as long as I can see how to rectify them and do so properly, I will strive to be the very best I can be. I do have aspirations for the future as we all should do but for now my immediate aim is to knuckle down plan for the remainder of my training year and look forward to taking on my own class in September (which I can gleefully confirm is going to be at my main placement).

Second School placement ends in time for Easter

It’s all Greek to me:WC 9^th March

This week consisted of teaching decimals and rounding in Maths; planning an eggs-periment in Science (yes it was all about eggs); how to be a persuasive Viking leader in Topic; and recounting the myth of Icarus: The boy who flew too close to the sun.

Life as a primary school teacher has meant that I have to be versatile in many different lessons, knowledgeable to some extent, and convey across to 32 children that learning is fun, engaging and worthwhile. Hopefully I manage it on a daily basis and have inspired the children to one day use the many skills learnt and to apply them in a whole manner of life situations.

Luckily for me, last term I observed a year 4 class, at my main placement, carrying out the observation lesson for the science experiment I was to teach. Little did I know back then, that that one hour would provide me with enough information to confidently take on the planning and turn it into my own words and differentiate it for my own classes needs. I did ask the class teacher last week, whilst visiting for the Oscars ceremony, where she has kept some of the resources, and was pleased to find it all filed away in the specific subject folder. This is one trait I wish to develop myself as it will enable other teachers to find resources and adapt them where required.

The eggs in question were placed in 6 different liquids and will be kept in tightly closed jars for one week until the observation lesson. This will help show the children how the shell of an egg reacts similarly to the enamel of teeth and that certain liquids will damage the shell more than others.

As for persuading a Viking leader – this was a good way for the children to use persuasive techniques. Later on this term I will be moving onto the DAFOREST method of remembering what is needed to be persuasive but this week’s lesson concentrated on Viking settlers, what they did as well as invade villages, and what makes a good Viking leader. All of this was put into a poster and the class were shown various examples including the ‘We Need You’ Lord Kitchener posters.

The English topic looked Greek myths and after looking at the story of Pandora’s Box, we concentrated on Icarus and his father Deadalus. This really excited the class because everyone dreams of flying and after showing them two different stories plus a video clip, they could see that a myth can change ever so slightly but have different parts changed to suit the storyteller and audience. At the end of the week a recount was created for their Extended Writing, and some of the pieces really showed how much had been taken on board including the spellings of challenging Greek names. 

A long wait to decide my fate: WC 16^th March

On Monday the observation part of the experiment was completed and it was amazing to see all of my class as scientists pondering the question as to which liquid did the most damage to the eggs. It was tricky because although the coca cola and coffee hadn’t seemed to do much damage, it had however stained the egg. This was hard to see at first for some children who though no damage had been made.

The vinegar and orange juice were the worst offenders and it was deemed that the sugar inside the juice and acid in the vinegar slowly eroded the egg shell within a week. The egg in orange juice was totally clear of shell and the smell was disgusting. Seeing the children’s faces when looking at the eggs via the visualiser created the ‘wow factor’ I had hoped for. Each group when given an egg to examine, did so carefully and wrote their thoughts on smell, touch and sight. 

I look forward to doing this again and possibly next time plan even further in advance with some eggs being inside the liquids for a couple of weeks if not a month.

For two days this week I had to be observed by not only my tutor (for his 4^th visit) and then my teaching interview at my main placement school in front of both the head and deputy. I was not sure of which one I would be more worried about. The person who keeps a check on me every few months and is slowly grading me toward Good/Excellent or the two at the top of the very school I wish to work at.

Firstly let’s settle the matter of the tutor observation. He hadn’t seen me at this school before and also not in this year group. I decided to go slightly outside of my observation comfort zone and teach a creative drama lesson in which the entire class was split into 12 groups to act out the 12 Labours of Hercules. It was only yesterday that they had started to look at this myth and I wanted to improve on their recount skills from the Icarus story of last week. 

In the lesson I had tried to ensure the children were evenly split by the acting skills I had seen during their play scripts lessons last term and also attempted to balance those less able students with more able whilst at the same time keeping overpowering children away from each other in case of a ‘too many cooks’ situation. It proved to be a success however whilst each group was showing their performances off, I didn’t fully explain to the rest of the class that they were to watch attentively and give a star or wish to their peers performances. This meant a few were sitting around doing nothing waiting for their turn. My tutor did commend my bravery for this lesson especially as it got everyone involved in the acting process and genuinely helped the entire class remember some if not most of the Labours.

On Friday was the ‘big one’, I was given the task of teaching a year 6 class from my main placement, on the subject of the Ten Commandments, during an RE lesson. This was something quite new to me because I am usually at University on a Friday, or was used for PPA time both schools. Being a Christian is something I value and this is one of the areas I had a little bit of knowledge in plus I had dinner with some good friends both of whom are regular church members and gave me some very good advice.

The lesson being taught was to consider ‘How the Commandments fit in with modern day society’ and so I posed this question to the class and had a nice debate running on which of the Commandments was most important and why plus should any of them be kept, removed or simply amended to suit the religions of today. It was more pupil led than teacher led and hopefully that came across in the lesson. 

Afterwards I had to wait a full 90 minutes until the phone call and am pleased to say that it was a success. Being a trainee teacher already based at the school; having a good relationship with both the children and teachers; knowing the schools layout; their non-negotiables; and finally showing some promise during my time at the school, on top of the interview and lesson – they feel I am the right man for the job. I am not sure which year group I will be placed in but it will be in either years 3, 4 or 5.

Second School Placement completed with lots of tears WC 23^rd March

This week was the last of 5 full teaching weeks and 7 at St Peter’s. It has been a busy process especially with planning, marking, parents evening, assessments, dealing with parents, and learning a whole new set of rules and timetables.

My University manual of guidance stated that I had to track 6 students ranging from High Ability through to Low Ability. For this I needed to copy work from English, Math and Science so I did exactly that as well as a written assessment they each completed. It was very good seeing them from one sub-level to another because there was a clear indication of progress throughout. This gives me confidence in placing the correct level/mark for when assessing formatively.

I was very pleased that the final week’s English was based around creating a collaborative Hogwarts School Prospectus. Being a body-double on the set of Harry Potter I have fond memories of the films and this was a chance to link my past career with my new one. Some of the children had read a lot of the books and this made creating groups a lot easier. Initially I went down the list based on Writing Ability and delegated the first 8 students as ‘leaders’ of their foursome. Using the persuasive techniques learnt in a previous lesson plus the DAFOREST mnemonic, I gave the class 8 different ways to persuade in their writing. The end result was pretty good and I can comfortably say that they will be using their new skills in future work.

The final day for me was Thursday despite school not ending until Friday. It was very emotional and whilst I was out during PPA the children had made some cards and I was presented with a lot of goodbyes plus a Q&A session was held with the children asking me what I had enjoyed doing during my time at the school. I had a great experience, learnt so much about a one-form entry school, planned more than I could have imagined, taught some truly inspirational children and wish them all the best of luck.

Away from school I was very lucky to meet and listen to Andrew Pollard talk about his Reflective Teaching Book. He is someone who has gone from being a primary school teacher in the 70's to helping to create policies for teaching and researching into what makes children tick. I can see a lot of what he said about his younger self in myself and I wonder what the future holds for me.

Assessments, World Book Day, and the Oscars

As the title suggests, this week has been extremely busy. At my second placement school, they did a series of tests including the reading and maths SATS that I have been used to seeing take place in my main placement school every few months to check for formative assessment (with writing being assessed almost weekly during Extended Writing) as well as a reading age, and spelling test using a company called NGRT.

‘It is an ideal screening/monitoring test for groups of pupils. It enables the assessment of reading and comprehension in a single test, helping to identify, for instance, competent readers with weak comprehension skills who would benefit from a follow-up individual assessment and learning support. The assessment also measures how a pupil is performing compared to their peers at a national level.’

Using the SIMs programme to monitor attendance, progress and other pastoral activities, I can see how important assessing is and not just through the use of tests. Next academic year it will be interesting to see how schools cope without the use of Levels, unless of course a certain Political Party win leadership. I feel that regardless of what happens, I want to use many forms of assessing as I can, including: photographs, peer assessment, Dojo Points, teacher/pupil reading, Guided Reading sessions etc.

From the looks of just the Reading test, most of the class have shot up since autumn and although I have not been there long, it would be nice to take some credit for it.

World Book Day came about quickly and 

I dressed up as Iron Man/Tony Stark this year. Firstly I came in wearing a suit to which I was asked 'what have you come as?' I replied that I am Tony Stark from The Avengers and Marvel comics. The twist came soon after when I changed into the full costume and I shocked a few people because they didn't realise I had swapped clothes. I even grew a beard and shaved it just like the character does.





I taught 12 students from across KS2 how to produce their own newspaper front page by interviewing people who had dressed up for the event. The Year 6’s worked alongside Year 4’s as did the Year 5’s and 3’s. I did this to ensure that everyone had a buddy and it gave the older ones some responsibility too. Planning a presentation to introduce the project was key to the day because I was able to explain not only what types of questions to ask but what the layout for the page should be.

I hadn’t taught or been introduced to over half of the group so it was a good chance to get to know more children and overcome any teaching and behaviour barriers I encountered. Once I had set the groups off to their various destinations, I also went around the school taking photos of the day. There were lots of Harry Potters, Where’s Wally, Superheroes, and Disney princess’s. Despite a few setbacks along the way with a few children not saving their work correctly at lunchtime, I was presented with some very good pieces of work and this enabled me to create a school newsletter to go home to parents.

Finally, the Oscars ceremony that I had been waiting almost two months to attend to. This was a culmination of all the hard work each year class from Years 1-6 had put together into making their own short film. Since this was taking place at my main placement I had to ask special permission to attend. My mentor especially wanted me because I had taken the lead with the Year 6 classes into the planning, filming and editing of 10 films that were whittled down to just 2 on the day.

Everyone dressed for the occasion and I wore a new suit with a bow tie. Stepping into the school for the first time in over a month was a moment I will never forget and the welcoming smiles and hugs I received was a lovely feeling. My mentor asked me to be cameraman for the entire day (ending up with over 500 photos). The hall was decorated to look just like its namesake even including a red carpet for the winners to walk up. Seeing as there were 14 films to be shown, this was split evenly across the year groups and about 50 parents came to support their children. Special guests including Governors, the ex Headteacher, office staff and some class teachers, were invited to present the certificates and ‘Oscar statues’. The look on some of the children’s faces was brilliant when they realised they had won, plus some had speeches prepared.

I am so proud of my mentor because she did most of the hard work and a lot of the support staff across the school put in a lot of long hours and man-power to ensure it was a success. This is one event I wish I had done when a child but defiantly one tradition I would like to see in any school I work in.

So in all it has been a truly busy week. Some may say that World Book Day is off-timetable and therefore easier to manage but actually the day is completely different and the children are buzzing, there are things to prepare and time to stick to. As for the Oscars, it may also have been a non-teaching day for me but was emotionally exhausting, my thumb throbbed after taking so many pictures and I also stayed behind afterwards to catch up with my mentor about training progress.

Taking the metaphorical bull by the horns

I try to always use a metaphor as a title for my reflection and in this week’s English lessons I introduced the use of them with my class’s creative writing.

For the next few weeks my year 4 class are to plan an adventure story and write their own one. This is quite important because it will form one of their assessment pieces and gives me a chance to see how my 6 chosen pupils are progressing. I used Robert Louis Stephenson’s ‘Kidnapped’ as the introductory story and because it is a classic that no-one had read, this ensured everyone started on the same level and could hear me read the story without (I hoped) any of them being distracted.

One thing I could have done was to give support group a piece of information with an overall layout of what the 1^st chapter was about- I actually did this but afterwards. The reason for using this particular piece was because it introduced the hero of the story, has a reason for an adventure to begin, a cliff-hanger and a journey that the hero goes on from the very beginning.  These are all the things I wanted the class to think about when writing an exciting and tense adventure story.

My first day teaching without the class teacher in school came about on Tuesday when he was away at a course. This meant I had complete ownership of the class from registration through to the end of the day. Math’s merges straight into English without a break (unlike my main school) and this kept me on my toes to ensure the children were occupied for 2 hours. I used the reward charts to my advantage and spoke to any parents at the start and end of the day who had the usual queries. This will no doubt help me over the next few weeks with establishing firm parent/teacher relationships.

My main lesson objective in English for this week was to teach the proper use of similes and metaphors and although it took a while I am confident that most of the children can correctly use the both of them. I gave everyone a list of well-known similes and metaphors, and allowed them to describe their hero with them if needed. For the more able, I wanted them to think of their own or at least change them to make it more appropriate.

My two observed lessons were English and Maths and both had a lot of constructive criticism. The main thing I need to do is ensure silence is kept when asked for. This particular class hate to lose table or Dojo Points so are excellent tools to use when giving or taking them away. A sand-timer is also a good visual for the children to see when I set a quick task such as tidying away desks or finishing up a piece of work, I do need to get a few into the habit of not watching the sand run completely down or a clock on the IWB countdown from a minute, as this will defeat the object.

Differentiation is also a hard thing for me at the moment as there are some children working at almost year 5 level. I overcame this by looking at the Math’s work for the years above and gave them a lot more independency with less input. This was I can see who truly has a grasp of certain parts of the curriculum and those who actually coast through the easier work but then struggle when it gets harder.

Next week is assessment week and rather than the usual SAT’s past papers in Reading and Maths, the children will also complete a Written task (essentially the adventure story I have been teaching then to plan) plus a Reading Age and Spelling Age test. As this will take out the majority of the mornings next week and with World Book Day on the Thursday, I have got quite a different week to the other 4 whilst at my second placement school. This is a good opportunity to see how a whole school approach is to assessment and also to mark work alongside other teachers for moderation.

I have planned a World Book Day project similar to one I undertook last year when I was a TA except this will be more structured and I have included the chance for older children to mentor the younger students in KS2. 

Planning, Planning, Planning

Wow what a relief that is over, are the first few words to spring to mind. Never before have I ever had to plan so much in my entire life and that is saying something.

Organising a staff rota, deciding who is going to play where on a football team, what directions to take when visiting a new place for the first time, even planning my own wedding – nothing can compare to 3 completely different Primary Subjects with two of them being the most important ones of the week.

My week started really well and I had the Year 4’s going rehearsing play scripts based on well-known fairy tales and adding their own adverbs and stage directions. The Pirate Points board was finally completed with all of their faces on Scuba Divers rising up to the top of the sea after finding treasure.  I team taught a guided reading session with the class TA in which we had 10 children using their Reading, Speaking and Listening skills to discuss a funny story about aliens who came to earth after accidentally receiving an invite to watch a film about aliens. This was useful because I can now gauge what comprehension lessons to plan and how to differentiate the learning.

The class behaviour for learning is dependent on incentives and although a lot of it is intrinsic, most of it is still extrinsic. They want to please and know that I am not an easy target- I have been using an App called ClassDojo that is a whole school approach and am not afraid to award negative feedback (which goes straight to parents), but at the same time reward with positive as well. I even brought some prizes for the class Treasure Chest and this has gone down well already.

It is now half way through the course with merely 3 half terms left and even I feel more composed than I did after last half term. My mentor has guided me through the start of my 60% teaching and we have been addressing the standards that I need to meet.

The lesson planning days at University were extremely useful and I took a lot away from each of them. The Maths and English in particular especially as I needed to improve my bibliography to include some extra columns for why and when I would use the books. The tutorial was very useful towards the end of the term and I had a lot to say given a recent CPD training I had only just attended on ‘Closing the Gap’.

I had planned a series of lessons on how to write an adventure story and originally wanted to use the Alex Rider series as a hook especially as the 23^rd February sees the start of a Literacy competition surrounding the character. I am not familiar with the stories and don’t think I could have done it justice- however it is always something to think about for the future. I did decided to use a booklet I found on TES which enables the class to follow a series of tasks that lead up to them writing a story. I adapted it for this year group and added in a twist in which TOP TRUMP’s cards can be made as well based on the hero and villain of the story.

Maths planning was based around the programme Abacus which the school follows and although I had a lot of the planning set for me, I still had to adapt it and find some extra resources to make it my own.

PE was the final subject I planned and I used knowledge from last year whilst I was based as a TA but took the learning of rounders with my class teacher observing. It was in the last Summer term so gave me confidence in teaching a whole class. I have picked out the main learning points of the sport and broken them down into weeks. An assessment will be made at the beginning and will form part of the ongoing progress each child makes. This will give them ownership of their own learning and something to improve on week by week.

Now with only 5 weeks to teach until the next holidays, I am relishing the fact that I am going to be the main class teacher most of the time and will really be able to see how much my time and effort goes into developing individual and class progress.  

Joining a new school on my birthday – Yes I am 31 years young!

This week was a first for me because I had never started a new job location on my birthday and also kept it quiet to pretty much everyone. My second school is a small one form entry school with yet again one male teacher although there is a male TA and he is an avid PE teacher.

My mentor is said male teacher and he will be mentoring me under the guidance of the headteacher whose daughter is also on the Schools Direct course and used to be a GTP assessor so knows a thing or ten about student teachers. I had 32 children’s names to learn, which I managed by about Thursday. Using surnames is also a good thing because there are 3 children with the same name and it also helps when they have done something wrong or I want their attention quickly. I remember being called Schiffer or Schiffer-Hart when at school and sometimes it was endearing because it showed teachers were bothered to know both my names. 2 parents whose children are in my running club are also at the school but not in the class although one has a nephew in my class and was shocked when I told him how I knew his aunt.

As part of my Schools Direct training I am required to be in charge of planning for the Core Subjects and have already gone through the Writing, Reading and Math’s levels to see the pupils progress. Math’s for this Year 4 class is quite high and one of the pupils is working towards Year 5 levels already. I am sure that with my recent teaching in the year above, I will be able to push him and ensure he doesn’t stagnate.

Each day there is a Daily Challenge on the board (similar to rise and shine) and the children also go out for reading with either the class teacher, TA or myself and this allows each child to read to an adult at least once a week. A times table board shows who is currently working towards their targets and a big deal is made when someone moves up to harder multiplications.

Over the week I slowly got to know the children, implemented my own style of teaching and followed the class teacher’s advice as to what goes where, who to keep an eye on, which children need an extra push, the class reward system, and behaviour strategies. I brought in some prizes for the Pirate Points Board and at the end of the week even taught Art in which the children coloured in a Scuba Diver which will attached with a photo of themselves and moved up the board to win some prizes.

There is a spelling test once a week linked to Read Write Inc, Mathletics is a new Math’s programme the class use to improve their subject knowledge, a mental math’s test is also weekly and both are things I will need to factor into my planning once I become their main teacher after half term. I may be at a new school but many of the things are the same and those that are different I can perhaps adapt and use when back at my main placement school or next year. I do have a few teaching ideas for this class and will discuss them accordingly. 

Being an avid footballer, I am also able to join in at break and lunch times with my mentor and get involved with football games in the schools sports cage. I think I need to improve my skills though as some of these children are whiz at it.