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The Guardian | Tuesday 5 April 2016
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The Guardian | Tuesday 5 April 2016
Inside 03 Training options A guide to the different routes available to trainee teachers 04-05 PGCE The tried and trusted training programme is tough, but gets results. Plus: The experience of a PGCE student working at a primary school 07 Teach First An intensive two-year course in which trainees earn their PGCE on the job
Newly qualified teacher
Teaching remains a prized profession
08 Special needs/Scitts Special needs teaching is far removed from the usual reading and writing Plus: The challenges and rewards of school-centred initial teacher training
Section:GDN H3 PaGe:2 Edition Date:160405 Edition:01 Zone:
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09 Special needs case study Addressing the individual needs of each child is key to success 11 NQT diary Streetdance and pizza: a day in the life of a newly qualified teacher Editor Sarah Jewell Production editor Craig Scott Subeditor Pas Paschali Picture editor Marissa Keating Cover photography Jill Jennings Contact shade.omishola@theguardian.com
Sarah Jewell ll
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eaching is a challenging yet rewarding career choice and last year, despite a drop in numbers, there were still more than 100,000 applicants in England and Wales. There are many routes in from the tried and tested postgraduate certifcate in education (PGCE) to learning on the job in a school. As one student says: “Emotionally it gets very tough because you just get thrown in.” In this supplement we look at the different teach teacher training courses. PGCEs are PG applied for via Ucas and bursaries are bursar available for f some, according to the class of degree and de subject. A Although it’s the more academic route, sstudents still spend 120 days on teaching t practice. pra
Learning fractions with pizza
Teach First is a leadership development programme for graduates, where students work in a school for two years. “Akin to army training but with more psychological warfare,” is how one teacher describes the scheme, which is run by a charity that works with schools in low-income areas. But the training hasn’t been wasted: “I knew I’d come out after two years being better at pretty much anything I wanted to do.” Special needs teaching is not for everyone, but has its own rewards. One student says the key to success is empathy: “If you get a kick from trying to see the world from someone else’s perspective, special needs is the way forward.” To offer insight into what teaching is really like, we follow a newly qualified teacher (NQT) through her day in a primary school, covering everything from reading James and the Giant Peach to teaching streetdance.
A day in the life of Emily Davies, an NQT at Bearwood primary school, Birmingham
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y day starts at 6am. I get ready, have breakfast and, as there’s no direct bus, I walk to school, which takes half an hour. I arrive around 7.30am and go straight to the classroom. I start with a mix of things: preparing for guided reading, planning, dealing with what we did the previous day, or fnishing of marking. Because I don’t have a car, taking books home is a problem, so I prefer to do the marking in school. At 8am, my learning support practitioner (LSP) comes in and we chat about what we are doing that day. I’ll give her work to do, such as printing something of, and I make sure everything is ready so I don’t have to think about it later on. On some mornings, at 8.35am, I have playground duty. The kids come in at 8.50am and I sort out homework and dinner money. I will have put something on the board – a maths sum or a problem to solve – so they are focused on something. At 9am we do guided reading. We have fve groups of diferent abilities: the LSP reads with each group one day; I read with them another day; one day they do a comprehension task; another they learn a poem; and on the ffth day they read on the iPad or choose a book from the reading corner. At 9.30am it’s English. We are doing persuasive writing, so today we looked at famous speeches. Our local councillor came in one day, so we asked him questions about the area and the children came up with suggestions of what could change. I hadn’t expected much, because it is not something they had done before,
In PE they are doing streetdance and I try to model what they have to do, but it’s difficult JILL JENNINGS
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Introduction
but they were really good and it was fun to see them getting energised. At 10.30am we do spelling, punctuation and grammar for 15 minutes. Today we used the conjunctions “therefore” and “however”, because they need that for persuasive writing. Then it’s break. I’m on duty for two breaks a week. I have a few girls in my class who like to hang around and tell me about their weekends, their birthdays and shopping. I have never had to deal with any fghts but sometimes there are disagreements. I have people stomping along and saying: “Miss, they did this,” and someone else saying: “No, I didn’t.” After break, at 11am it’s maths. Today we did subtracting fractions. We did a role-play where my LST ate half of my pizza and I ate a quarter and they had to say what was left. Lunch is between 11.45am and 12.35pm and on two of the days I get changed for PE. I might have a bit of lunch in the classroom; I don’t usually go in the staf room because I will be tidying, marking or preparing for the afternoon. Wednesdays is when we sit down and talk, because we have preparation, planning and assessment. I don’t teach
Emily Davies: ‘After lunch I read the children a story. I think it’s one of their favourite times’
at all that day, because Wednesday mornings is my NQT time. I have a meeting with my mentor and discuss what I did in the last week and what my next targets are. After lunch I read the children a story until 12.50pm. We are reading James and the Giant Peach. I think it’s one of their favourite times. It’s the only time they are perfectly quiet without me having to ask. On Mondays and Fridays, we work on our topic. We are doing one on local community and are making a model village. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we do PE. It’s not my favourite subject. They are rowdier out of the classroom, and my LSP isn’t there. They are doing streetdance and I try to model what they have to do, but it’s difcult. After that, we’ll have about 40 minutes left over. The children may go through their books – or they’ll work on their book for parents’ evening, on what they have learned this term. At 3.10pm we take them down to their parents. If I’m tired or it’s a Friday, I might go home at 3.30pm. Or I might do my marking, get ready for the next lesson or do some NQT stuf. I usually get home between 5.30pm and 6pm. I get changed into my pyjamas and sit down with a cup of tea or make a meal. I won’t do any school work straight away but will spend half an hour or an hour on it from around 8pm, when I’m more relaxed. Interview by Harriet Swain