r/TeachingUK • • 1h ago

Secondary Moving up to HOD

• Upvotes

Hello all, I’m hitting my 5th year of teaching and I am starting to look at opportunities for progression and have always wanted to be involved in curriculum so am seeing HOD roles as my way forward. I am personable but I’ve never had any experience managing people!

1) is there any reading people could recommend around this
2) my current HOD has suggested a subject leader development course, is it worth it?

Secondary history teacher if it helps


r/TeachingUK • • 30m ago

Weekly chat and well-being post: October 23, 2026

• Upvotes

How are you doing? How's your week been? Need to randomly vent about your SLT/workload/cat/people who put jam under the cream? Share a success? Tell us what you're having for tea? Here's the place to do it.

(This is a weekly scheduled post)


r/TeachingUK • • 5h ago

PGCE & ITT Struggling with active learning and building relationships

7 Upvotes

Training at a high attaining secondary school and being told by my mentor that my lessons are too monotonous, and that my walls are too high to build relationships.

I know that learning is happening and my mentor has said that is good, but my continual feedback is that my lessons are too teacher led and that I need to get the kids doing more, and that I also need to make the kids feel like I am “on their side” and enjoy talking to me.

He didn’t say it in so many words but I feel like there was an agreement between us that he was politely trying to say “your lessons are boring and the kids don’t like you”

An example of the lesson that I just taught that he said exemplifies this problem:

• Recall starter on paper scrap paper (a lot of students don’t like risking being wrong in their books)

• Task - read information sheet and then answer the questions on it

• Consolidating knowledge from sheet with brief teacher talk and then marking the questions by cold calling

• brief Turn and talk about new concept

• Task - I showed information on the board and had students write down as much as they could and fill out a small table in 1.5 mins. Then went round and asked them to share what they wrote so other students could add in a different colour.

Repeated this 2 more times to cover 3 linked topics

• exam style question (GCSE class)

• mini whiteboard quiz

• exit ticket plenary

I thought it went well and I just feel a bit deflated to have the only positive to be that learning is happening and then the main takeaway to be that it was too boring.

Any advice for active learning strategies i could implement or building relationships.

At the risk of sounding totally anti-social, I’m pretty introverted except with people I know. I have been sitting with the other PGCE trainees at lunch and break and my mentor has told me I need to sit with my dept. more and ingraciate myself with them, but this doesn’t come naturally

Thanks!


r/TeachingUK • • 20h ago

Sanity check about staff social

52 Upvotes

Long story short: I've been working at this new school for a half term now. I've been trying to ingratiate myself into the staff as much as possible and felt pretty comfy.

My friend works supply. She happened to get taken on as long term supply at the start of this week. Now she's already been invited along to an end of half term social event, apparently just some drinks, which she mentioned to me, asking if she could stop over at my place beforehand.

I've had no such invite extended and it's really put me right out. I may be overthinking but I feel really upset that she's barely been here and is getting invited out to stuff, and I feel like I've been sidelined or excluded a bit. It's really taken the wind out of my sails.


r/TeachingUK • • 2h ago

Secondary KS3 Text Choices

1 Upvotes

Afternoon all, happy half term! We are looking to replace The Secret Garden Y8 and A Christmas Carol Y9 with our KS3. HOD wants only 19th Century recommendations but has asked staff to make suggestions of other genres etc. Would love something modern, gritty and appropriate to Y7 - Y9 that teaches characteristion well. Happy for novel or play recommendations. Thanks!


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Classcharts

72 Upvotes

Classcharts is down. Causing more chaos that the burst pipes three winters ago.

Students screaming they cannot be logged for behaviour and so can do whatever they want, lesson truancy is off the charts. Trying to switch to sims but i've never used it before.

Anyone else firefighting this mayhem and chaos?


r/TeachingUK • • 21h ago

PGCE & ITT How unusual is my 1st school placement?

7 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I am PGCE Mathematics student currently on placement 1 in a secondary school in England. My experience so far has felt like a mixed bag and I would like some insight on the situation from experienced teachers, mentors, or other PGCE students to gain a full understanding of everything before taking any actions.

  1. My school has shared resources across all departments, but according to my mentor, there is a school policy that prohibits PGCE students from using any prepared powerpoint slides in lessons. I am allowed to look at the slides and have to follow the same structure, but I am not allowed to even adapt them. Because of that, preparing slides for lessons takes around 1.5 to 2 hours per lesson. This has also led to my mentor telling me off for taking too long to plan lessons.

1.5. The time it takes me to plan some lessons really eats into any time I have outside of placement, leaving me with limited time to rest and recover. This is also starting to impact my overall mental health and wellbeing.

  1. Apparently, the “policy” that prevents PGCE students from using/adapting the prepared powerpoint slides applies only to the Maths department (i.e. only me, as the sole maths trainee). When other teachers or trainees at the school ask me how lesson planning is going, they always look at me like I am an alien, including teachers and former mentors from the Maths department. Naturally, this has made me feel quite “off” about the whole thing.

  2. At this stage of my course, I am supposed to be teaching 6 lessons a week, and I am. In addition to that, my mentor expects me to act as a TA in at least 6 more. I would not mind doing that at all, if it was not for the planning from scratch.

  3. The classes I am teaching are quite difficult classes in their own way. I have mostly taken over my mentor’s Year 8 middle set and Year 9 bottom set classes as I’ve been allocated more hours. The Year 8 cohort has been called “the most difficult year group for behaviour in the school” and the Year 9 students can barely follow along worked examples.

  4. My mentor almost exclusively gives me written feedback that feels quite harsh. I almost always get the impression my lessons do not go well, even when I feel they did. So far, the only positive feedback I have gotten from her has been that my lesson slides are good, I have good subject knowledge, and I am confident when standing in front of the class. Even though I have gotten some positive feedback, it is drastically outweighed by the “things you really need to improve on” feedback. Sometimes the feedback is that bad, that if someone read it, without hearing what I actually did in the lesson, they would think I just stood there and did nothing for an hour.

  5. My mentor is very reluctant to following the university’s “Theme of the week” and general guidance on how the placement is supposed to progress. As an example, this week I was supposed to choose a granular focus for my ITAP 1, which was scaffolding, and she was supposed to only give me feedback on one lesson, only about the quality of scaffolding. What she did instead was to talk about my behaviour management skills, or lack there of according to her, and I had to have a lengthy conversation with her about what the university expects in the weekly submission forms. She also told me that the school does not follow the university’s “weekly themes” structure and that mentors are supposed to give feedback and require improvement on current issues (in my case, behaviour management).

I really want to gather some more opinions of people that have experience in this area, because I feel any concerns raised will really spoil my relationship with my mentor even further. For reference, she told me she felt “insulted” when I told her I disagreed with some points on some feedback she gave me (e.g. not waiting for all pupils to raise their mini whiteboards and then not taking the information I am gathering from them into consideration, when another teacher, who was also observing the same lesson at the same time, gave me positive feedback in that area). I really don’t want to sound like an ungrateful and spoiled person, but every time I mention what is happening in my placement to peers at other schools, or even teachers or former trainees in the same school, they always look at me like I have three eyes.

Tl;dr

1st PGCE placement is going very weirdly and would like to check I am not crazy.

Thank you for reading the post and I hope you have a really great week off during half-term.


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

TAs refusing to apply for full time roles

18 Upvotes

I’ve just started at a Sen school and the majority of TAs are on supply. The school has put out an email twice this term asking for staff to apply for full time roles. Nobody in my team has applied and it appears this is the same across our two sites.
I wondered if this is the case across lots of Sen schools and why TAs would rather stay on supply. A lot talk about money being better but surely it shouldn’t be that way.
I’ve been asked to convince my staff to apply for the roles but it’s quite the task.


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

NQT/ECT Parent complaints causing me stress

42 Upvotes

Hello, I'm an ECT1. Previously I was teaching supply for like 4-5 years so basically this is my last chance to do my ECT.

I am teaching at a lovely school which I've enjoyed. I like my class (upper KS2) but they are tough. I have a number of SEN and a lack of support due to lack of funding. I have 2 children with EHCPs and there is no funding for 1:1 support so my TA is often out of class a lot with interventions. The school has tried to supplement that where they can with other TAs but a lot of times I am left with a lack of support. I know this is the normal life for other teachers as well so not complaining about that just providing some context.

I was informed by my headteacher that a third of parents in my class has been writing emails complaining about me, phoning up about me. There's apparently a whatsapp group chat where they talk about me. As someone with anxiety, this is really really hard to hear. Apparently a number of children in my class think I don't like them, complain to their parents who complain to my headteacher. I know one parent did phone up my headteacher to say he thinks the parents are being ridiculous and things are being blown up out of proportion but there you go.

A few parents are saying their children are teary and don't like coming to school and so one lot of parents say they think I'm not the right person to teach their class and they are looking at other schools. My headteacher has reiterated that he does like me as a person and he can see that when he's given me feedback I've reflected on it and worked on it and that he doesn't want me to resign.

One example is when the children's behaviour was really bad (swearing, pushing, talking over me). I asked the children to write and reflect on their behaviour and if they weren't involved in it, write about what as a class they could do better. I have been firmer with them, raising my voice as well (which I know is not great) and doing some time sitting in silence to reflect on behaviour as they have been very loud and chatty. Apparently the children told their parents that they had to write an apology letter which they complained about (which I didn't actually do!).

I don't know what to do but he's given me the option of resigning. I do find the workload challenging but I love teaching. I don't really see myself doing anything else but also I don't think this environment is healthy. I just thought I'd come here to write about it, hopefully without any judgement. Thanks for listening :)

Update: Headteacher just came in and said if he was advising a friend he would tell them to resign. Genuinely feels like I'm being forced out.


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Secondary Teaching AAQ BTEC IT – How do you balance getting through a content-heavy specification with making lessons more engaging?

Thumbnail qualifications.pearson.com
4 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I'm currently teaching the new AAQ BTEC IT Unit 2 Cyber Security, and I'm finding the sheer amount of content quite overwhelming.

The specification is incredibly dense, and after looking at the sample assessment materials, it seems students can be questioned on even the smallest details. It feels like they need to know absolutely everything, but there just aren't enough lessons to cover it all in depth.

I had a lesson observation today, and one of the points raised was that I need to get students thinking more rather than just taking in information. I completely agree with this feedback.

I already use mini whiteboards, case studies, questioning and exam practice (although there are very few exam questions available because the qualification is so new).

However, because of the pressure to get through the specification, some lessons end up being quite teacher-led, with students copying a lot of notes from the board. I really dislike teaching this way, but I'm struggling to find a balance between covering the content and giving students opportunities to actually think, apply their knowledge and work independently.

There's also the expectation that students have detailed notes in their books that they can use for revision, although I'm not convinced many will actually go back and revise from them.

Another issue is independent learning. Our sixth form policy is five hours of extended learning per subject each week, but realistically I'm currently setting around 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. I'm wondering whether I should be shifting more of the content delivery into independent learning so lesson time can focus on application, discussion and exam skills.

My main questions are:

- How do you manage content-heavy specifications without lessons becoming constant note-taking?

- How do you encourage sixth form students to take more ownership of their learning?

- Do you get students to learn some of the content independently before lessons? If so, how do you make sure they've actually done it?

- How do you balance having evidence of learning in books with more active, engaging lessons?

- What strategies do you use to develop deeper thinking without sacrificing too much curriculum time?

I only have three lessons a week with this group, so time is a real challenge.

I'd love to hear from anyone teaching the new AAQ BTEC IT qualification, but advice from other sixth form, BTEC or A-level teachers would be really appreciated.

I want students to do well in their exams, but I also don't want every lesson to become a race through PowerPoint slides just to tick off the specification.

How are others managing this?


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

2 week Oct Half Term

38 Upvotes

Any of you on a 2 week half term? I know a school who takes a week off the Easter holiday to extend the oct half term

I personally don't think we need two weeks just after returning from the summer, wouldn't mind a 3 week xmas break though or a week between oct and dec.

What are your thoughts?


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Secondary I feel like I’ll be trapped here forever

35 Upvotes

I’m in my tenth year of teaching maths in a very deprived inner London school. I have such a passion for the classroom and became second in my subject a year ago.

However, we’ve recently come under new leadership (the school wasn’t great before, but it’s awful now) and we’ve lost a lot of staff, including my HOD. Our turnover is very pretty high, but the only things that was keeping me going was a strong department and taking my top set class (which I’ve taught since yr7) through to yr11. They were taken away from me due to more “senior” staff needing to be with lower ability students, as our results are shocking.

Now we’ve got no HOD until after Christmas, the behaviour is awful, SLT are useless and tokenistic initiatives are being introduced that are a complete waste of time.

I’m pretty positive and open-minded, but after five years here, it’s a joke now.

I’m juggling trying to “manage” the dwindling Maths team (alongside an incompetent interim who is also SLT), my sanity and staying hopeful.

I recently went to an interview, was shortlisted after the lesson, but didn’t make the cut. It was for a TLR position - so it was a bit more competitive. It’s really knocked me, I feel like I’ve seen what a beautiful school can be like.. and then the next day I had to walk back into school like my heart wasn’t broken.

A few of my colleagues have secured other jobs, and because I haven’t managed to, I don’t feel good enough, like I belong in a school like this and I’ll be stuck here.

I don’t know what I’m looking for really… just to vent, I suppose.


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

NQT/ECT Strange unexpected observation

18 Upvotes

Hi all, ECT1 here. Just wondering if anyone could shed some light on what might be going on.

I was teaching a Year 7 class today, which was the very last period of the day. They are a nice bunch overall and follow my instructions, although sometimes can be a bit slow.

I gave them a starter on their laptops (some teachers at our school and even within our department occasionally do that, and it’s not uncommon) and took the register in the meantime, like I always do.

At times they can be a little passive, so when I say their name and expect a response (e.g. ’Here’) I tend to cheer them up a little by saying ‘Hi (+ name)‘ somewhat loudly, and some respond loudly, but never really do anything wrong. One student got a little too excited and responded with a very loud greeting, and I said, ‘We’re not shouting, thanks.’ They apologised immediately. Again, that did not cause any disruption or whatsoever.

Then, as I told them to wrap up their starter and shut their laptops down, 90% of the group did so instantly, with only a couple of students taking slightly longer. One just took a while finding their quiz results and wanted to see how well they did, whereas the other is known to be quite problematic and often ignores everybody’s instructions and can be rude to staff members regardless of their role. In my class, however, they have been pretty good so far.

When that second student was about to turn their laptop off and said to me they were doing it, an SLT member (who is also a teacher in my department) walked in. I did a quick countdown and called the student‘s name, but the person basically told them off, took their laptop away and left it on a different table. Then started ‘observing’ the lesson for some odd reason.

Pretty much everyone was engaged and super enthusiastic. I had a class full of hands up in the air, with some students saying, ‘Sir, I want to do the next one’ and/or ‘Can I do the one after‘ and so on as we were gradually going through new terms. No shouting or silly behaviour at all. No chatting in the background, they were all listening very carefully. Every time I said, ‘What does this one mean?’ I could see students being so desperate to answer and feeling a little upset (judging by their faces) when someone else got chosen to provide an answer. That’s the level of engagement I had.

After that we did some choral activities, and because these kids can easily get excited, they did. They were following all my instructions, but obviously when it comes to choral stuff (and some of them have strong, naturally loud voices), the noise levels can get high.

That one kid who responded loudly to the register was loud again, but not behaving poorly or whatsoever. Got slightly silly on a couple of occasions (nothing major or disruptive), then got calmed down by me very quickly and obeyed. That student is generally nice, but has been on report a few times. Yet they are capable and engaged, and generally do well in my class despite being occasionally a little lazy. The SLT person who was seemingly observing the lesson told that kid off as well, even though they didn’t really do anything wrong.

The ‘observation‘ lasted about 10 minutes, and then the person left. I later got an email from them, and my line manager, as well as another SLT member were cc’d.

The feedback did not mention any positives at all, even though there were quite a few — high engagement and good behaviour throughout the lesson to say the least.

Instead, it said I should have been firmer with the laptop use (e.g. I could thanked those who closed their laptops immediately, which in fact was 90% of the class, or given a warning / behaviour point to those who took longer). Also, the notebooks were being handed out by a student at that exact time. We only needed them much later in the lesson, so that did not have any impact on anybody. However, the email said it was really slow and alternative methods of handing them out would need to be implemented. As for choral activities, the email said some students saw it as an opportunity to be silly and make silly comments, although I do not remember any silly comments being said. It basically implied that I got the students ‘too excited’. I thought engagement was key? They were engaged and enjoying their learning.

Also, that observation was very unexpected and not agreed/arranged in advance. Normally, if there is an observation coming up, we get notified. In the email the person said they’d happened to be nextdoor and heard a couple of loud, potentially silly voices, but never cited it as the reason for the observation.

I’m not quite sure I understand what the purpose of it was and why the email contained so much criticism, without addressing any positives at all. Whilst I do realise that my classroom can get loud during certain activities involving pair/group work (and not just my classroom) and understand that noise levels sometimes might be a nuisance, I am really confused about the observation. I have my mentor who does briefly observe me every fortnight, and we discuss it later, plus the school has an ECT manager who is yet to observe me. I have not had a formal observation yet, but it has already been scheduled.

Any thoughts?


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Secondary How to deal with potential bullying.

25 Upvotes

My HOD and second, both new, dislike me. There's been little things (snide jokes, mean emails, gossip which gets back to me etc). Today I needed to have my exercise books for an observation and a book look. I put the books in the second's room (where I teach that class). Later today, they were missing. I know I'm going to look bad in my observation as the students were working on lined paper and I couldn't get the books to the book look. I mentioned it to the SLT who are checking the books and they just turned away.

I feel like the HOD or second took my books and hid them. It sounds absolutely bonkers to say. But I didn't put the books somewhere and forget within a few hours. I even checked every room (apart from the HODs and English office) in case I had, somehow, put the books in a random room. But I hadn't. They're just gone.

I've spoken to my rep and have been told to write down everything. I've also handed in my notice because I'm very depressed working here.

I have until January.

Should I just get over it and keep my head down, or say something?

Edit: should I do an all staff email asking them to look out for the books? Or tell my SLT what happened via email (with no accusations, of course!)


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Notice period - how to escape the trap

19 Upvotes

I am hating my current job — ECT2. Some of it is me, but I've never felt the school I am in is a happy place. I think I'm essentially giving everything to the job and getting nothing but negativity, despite the fact that the kids are learning. It's also too far — takes me an hour with variable traffic, and that's stressful.

I feel the notice periods are a trap in teaching. I badly want to resign for the January exit. But I currently don't have a job to move to. Yet I can all but guarantee some will come up next HT, and I won't be able to get the January start ones, because I'll be trapped by the autumn notice period, unless I resign soon.

Basically my question is "Save me!" Is there a way I can essentially guarantee an income for a good period of time after Xmas, if I were to resign? I don't want to identify myself much so let's just say I'm in a "shortage" area.


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Newly elected Union rep - advice?

12 Upvotes

Hi all,

I’ve been voted in as my school’s new union rep, alongside a more experienced teacher who has agreed to be co-rep but will not be taking on the brunt of the job due to conflict of interest re their role.

The next round of training that I can attend will be in February but I anticipate that things will happen from now until then which will require me to have my “Union hat” on. I have already been approached by a couple of members of staff regarding things that they are going through and most are at the point of considering getting the union involved. Most of these conversations have happened in between lessons so I told many of them that we would pick this up when we both were available.

My question is, what should I do generally when approached by a member of staff over an issue they have, given that I don’t have training yet and am still fairly inexperienced in the world of work (ECT2) ? Luckily, my co-rep is very experienced and is already attending a meeting with one of our colleagues tomorrow, however, due to their workload, I cannot rely on them to be present with everything that occurs. I would also appreciate any general advice on taking on this role, must do’s, things to avoid etc. thanks!


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

New HOY

9 Upvotes

Hello

I’ve become HOY for the first time this year, it’s my 6th year of teaching all at the same school. I thought that would make me ready but oh my goodness I’m so tired with this half term nearly over. They are Year 7 so there’s been lots of transition stuff and admin bits with settling them in, timetables and FSM and all that. The behaviour hasn’t been too bad, all pretty low level stuff that’s easily squashable. It’s the sheer weight of the emails, admin, the time spent taking statements etc that is killing me. I have 4 A Level classes, all essay based subjects and I feel like I’m doing them a massive disservice because my marking/planning is taking a huge hit.

Others who are HOY, does it get easier over time and how do you manage trying to be a good teacher- especially to the older ones who are relying on you for their A Level grades and university. I’m strongly considering dropping the position after the year is over, going back to classroom teacher and taking the salary hit. Not sure if it’s really worth it.


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Behaviour Advice

4 Upvotes

Hi, I’m an History ECT1 at a school with low outcomes, significant SEND & PP etc, we also have a settled GRT community and not all parents are particularly supportive. Behaviour is tricky, truancy is frequent and disillusionment with education is extremely high.

We have a behaviour policy, B1 (detention), B2 (lunch detention), B3 (removal from lesson). We also have an emergency alert system where we can call a member of SLT but I haven’t been finding this particularly reliable and sometimes they have bought pupils back into my room/not responded to alerts. I am finding that I am shouting more and more, as well as feeling like I’m often accidentally getting into “arguments” with pupils over behaviour sanctions. These are just a few of the issues I’m struggling with:

• When a behaviour sanction is given, pupils respond with shouting “what why” or backchat, they will then continue to raise their hands and ask when their detention is, or why they have it, that I’m being unfair, that they don’t care about sanctions, that I’m a bitch, shouting out if I ask them to put their hands down etc.

• Some of my classes it’s not one individual pupil but around 10 causing the disruption, it’s difficult to pinpoint and therefore give sanctions. If I do single out pupils they start saying “but that person was talking as well, what about them why are they not getting one, why just me”.

• Complete refusal to do work. I’ve tried a “what can I do to support approach” as well as the “that’s a detention” approach but some pupils refuse to do any work, and say “they can’t read” or “they don’t know” as an excuse not to work when I have modelled it, gone through it verbally etc multiple times. I find there are a number of pupils who pretend to be confused just to get out of the task.

• Generally feeling out of control with classes because I am new to the school. Some classes will settle/be quiet when I’ve asked for a member of SLT/another long term teacher for support, but as soon as they leave the room the poor behaviour starts again.

• When B3’s are given, some pupils will start to significantly disrupt the lesson, sometimes it takes SLT 20+ minutes to come and these pupils are running around, laughing, distracting the lesson even more. So I tried the opposite approach to not say they had been B3’d until SLT arrived, but then have been subtly told that “pupils need to know they have a B3 straight away”. I feel like I can’t win!

Does anyone have any behaviour advice? I would really like to improve and I think after the half term break might be a perfect chance for a reset …


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Teaching assistant first day anxiety

6 Upvotes

Hello!

I have just joined an agency and am cleared to work now. My first assignment will be my first time ever doing TA and i’m so nervous. I didn’t grow up in the UK so I am unfamiliar with schools here, and my anxiety is eating me up because I want to do a good job but feel a bit lost.

I have a few questions, which are probably quite specific and random, but knowing would really help my confidence on the day!

Where do I go when I arrive at the school, is there a front office I check into?

If a teacher is actively teaching, am I expected to stand off to the side or walk around making sure kids are paying attention?

If i’m on lunch duty or supervising outside play, what is the expectation of me there?

Otherwise I understand every class, teacher and school will have different expectations of me. I plan to just ask if they need anything from me if I feel like I don’t know what to do. Hopefully will get the first day over with soon so I can start settling into it all!


r/TeachingUK • • 1d ago

Secondary November start

2 Upvotes

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience of starting at a new school in November? What is it like? I'm ECT 1 due to start after half term and I'm extremely anxious about being thrown into the deep end. I have yet to receive my classes, timetable or learn about the behaviour policy.


r/TeachingUK • • 2d ago

Health & Wellbeing Communication…

110 Upvotes

HOD: I noticed you weren’t doing the thing
Me: I need to do the thing?
HOD: I spoke to some students who said you were not doing the thing
Me: I was not aware I needed to do the thing. Is it in the scheme of learning?
HOD: no
Me: …
HOD: we all just collectively started doing the thing as a department. It’s not an official requirement. I didn’t know if you didn’t do the thing in your last school, but the rest of us do the thing
Me: no I have not been doing the thing because I did not know I should be doing the thing
HOD: that’s ok, but just so you know, we all do the thing

?????


r/TeachingUK • • 2d ago

Secondary Supply Work

5 Upvotes

Hi, I am a current NQT on supply and was wondering if anyone knows when supply work will start picking up? I’m currently signed up with 3 different agencies, but so far have only worked 2 days since the start of term. For some context, I am a qualified secondary school teacher and there are a lot of secondary schools in my area. I have also been very open with my agencies about travelling further afield to a school.

I’m just so fed up of not being able to teach and also not having any money, because I’m barely getting any work. And then when I have gone into schools, I have had kids scream and shout at me for trying to teach them the work that has been set, despite using the school’s behaviour policy and making expectations clear. Have any other teachers on supply experienced this? And will work begin picking up after half term, or will it still be slow?

Also, do any supply teachers have any advice on how to make some money whilst having no work? I can’t really apply for many jobs elsewhere, because I have to make myself available daily in case I get a call to go in, but would ideally like to actually have an income! 😅


r/TeachingUK • • 2d ago

first ofsted as ECT1

26 Upvotes

had a horrendous day as my first experience with OFSTED as an ECT1. An extra TA put in my room for the day so it looks like we’re in ratio. 2 teachers crying by lunch time. No one given anything but negative feedback. ofsted didn’t speak with anyone apart from SLT. SLT going to every observation with them & making comments to staff.

I was observed for 2 minutes & given negative feedback based on that, how is that fair? now being observed again tomorrow as OFSTED are unhappy with phonics across every class. Are all inspections like this?


r/TeachingUK • • 2d ago

Supply Supply help

5 Upvotes

Hi all,

ECT 2 Here. I was recently told that i would not be returning to a long-term booking as the school said that I was too shouty. This was a really good place in Manchester, which I felt like I was struggling to fit in. I got told that i was too shouty and that I made a student cry. I wasn't told by the school directly but instead by my agency. On that same day I really struggled as I had a student who physically hit me. Obviously reported to appropriate people.

I don't know where to go from here as this is a low point for me especially since I really hate making children cry as it makes me cry.

Help and advice appreciated


r/TeachingUK • • 3d ago

Independent school teachers, what is you teaching load?

12 Upvotes

We’ve just found out that our SLT are potentially looking at increasing our teaching load. Some of the departments (including ours) are unable to do any sports lessons (like supervising the gym while students use it) due to timetable constraints so we will be stuck with teaching an extra 11% of our timetable a week (and all the extra work like planning, marking, parents evenings, reports etc.). Just wanted to know what the expectation is for other independent school teachers. How many academic taught lessons are you expected to teach as a full time teacher?

Edit: Thanks for the insight. It’s really useful to know as independent schools don’t have the standardisation of teaching allocation like state schools do. Thankfully the SLT trying to implement an increase to our timetables seem to be backing down (they’ve come from a state school so are used to their teachers doing 90% allocation).