I started my PGCE on 9th September 2019! My first week had to be spent on a 'Home School Placement', whereby I had had to make arrangements to go to a school for a week to observe their practice and learn about creating routines in the first few weeks! I chose to go to a small school near where I live that I had heard great things about. From working as a TA in a three form entry school, I wanted to go to a small village school to compare.
The first picture above is of my bag ready the night before! Being organised in advance definitely helped to keep my nerves at bay.
My bag is from Primark and I have this in both brown and black as it's such a great size! It can fit ringbinder folders in as well as all other bits too - it's ideal. I had all the essentials in my bag: my diary, highlighters, pencil case and water bottle. I had my notepad where I had written down my plans for my observations for the week to keep me organised, alongside all of my paperwork from uni detailing what I needed to do! My clipboard came in really useful across this week when taking notes too.
The first day in particular sticks in my mind as everything suddenly became real! It had all actually begun. I had a lovely morning spent with Year 2 and experienced Forest Schools for the first time with Reception in the afternoon. All of the teachers at this school were really helpful and supportive towards me and what I needed to get done. They were also great at answering my millions of questions too!
Across the week, my observations had a focus on behaviour management as this was what I then had to write an essay on! Due in the next Monday was an 'Early Written Task' based on behaviour management. This was quite daunting to already be writing an essay in just the first week - but looking back on it now, I think it helped a lot.
It was scary at the time because it felt challenging because it was a masters level essay which suddenly felt so much more important! I was also worried because it would be the first piece of writing that my University would see from me. However, it wasn't assessed officially and the mark and feedback were given to us to help with our 'real' assignments later in the course. I hadn't written an essay in over a year by this point as I had been working as a TA for a year after finishing my degree. However, it all came back to me - phew! I found researching and observing behaviour management interesting. Here are a few books that helped!
Things I learned in my first week of my PGCE on my Home School Placement:
- Year 6 aren't actually as scary as I thought they'd be (or as tall, yay!)
- I loved Year 3 and Year 4.
- I liked Year 5 more than I expected to.
- I understood Year 5/6 maths way more than I thought I would.
- Observing different teachers and different lessons is so valuable and helpful.
- Reception and Year 1 are cute, but probably aren't my cup of tea. However I did like how Year 1 was more structured at this school compared to what I've seen before, which swayed me towards liking that year more.
I was gutted to have only spent one week at this lovely school as I loved every minute of it! The children were amazing and sooo well behaved. I can't believe how lovely this note from the Head was about me - so kind!
If you want any advice on calming your nerves for the first week, what to take with you, or how to arrange a 'home school' placement - my messages are always open! Anything I can do to help, just let me know. But I hope this post was insightful for how your first week could look too!
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