My First Week in School as a Trainee Teacher

My first week as a trainee teacher has been extremely action-packed. From numerous amounts of training sessions to learning about how students behave.

Monday and Tuesday consisted of two teacher training days. I got introduced to the ‘Excel Way’ and how the school would like to operate. I received multiple documents on the policies and procedures that the school implements. A lot of the information went over my head due to the sheer volume of information – even long-standing staff were saying similar things. For example: the progress 8 scores I did not fully understand so I plan to ask my mentor more about this. However, I did learn that my mathematics department had brilliant GCSE results and had the best results out of all the other departments.

On Wednesday, the students arrived and it was their induction days in their forms. I met my Year 7 form that I had been assigned to and spent the whole day with them introducing them to the school. I found this quite a good experience as the students did not know I was a new member of staff so treated me as an equal to all other members of staff. The overall behaviour of the students was excellent and they genuinely seemed like a nice group of students. I found it interesting seeing the form teacher take control of the class and assert her authority.

Thursday was the first real day of classes and I spent the day observing five different introductory maths lessons. I found it intriguing seeing how different teachers introduced themselves and set out the rules of the class. Furthermore, how some teachers could just carry on from last year if they had the same class because of the relationships they already had. I hope to create the relationships that I have witnessed with my future students. On some of the lessons, I walked around the classroom helping certain students to grasp what the task at hand was. This was my first proper interaction with the students when relating it to mathematics teaching. The outcome was a good one as I now have a better understanding of how to talk to the students 1:1.

Friday came round soon enough and I went to St Joseph’s training day. I got to meet all the other trainees for the first time and share our first week’s experiences. I learnt about what evidence needs to be accumulated in order to gain QTS and what I need to do to become the best teacher I can be.

Overall, my first week has been a success and I have learnt a huge amount.

By Alex Cimino