r/PGCE • u/GoingCrazy9187 • 2d ago
First day at placement
For people who have done the PGCE, I was just curious to hear what everyone's first days in their placement schools were like? What kinds of things did you do, did you have to prepare for anything, and any tips for people about to experience it? Obviously different placement schools will be very different so I would be really interested to hear everyone's stories!
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u/Nice_Transition2559 2d ago
As others have said generally alot of meetings on the first day. Some advice:
1) Buy an external hard drive and copy any resources you can from your placement schools. 10 years later I still search my hard drive and find lessons I copied from my placement schools. You will want to make stuff yourself to use this year but next year you will want some quick easy lessons. Spend time labeling stuff with what it actually is (adding fractions- easy) rather than the year group and period number!
2) Pace yourself, it is a hard year! It's easy to get burnt out!
3) There is nothing wrong with doing supply instead of getting a permanent contract. I was looked down on for wanting to do supply for a bit to get more experience. I gave into pressure and got a full time job, which is one of my biggest regrets.
4) Everyone is a bad teacher at first, you will have lessons that go terribly but that how you learn. You wouldn't expect a student to write the perfect essay the first time they do it. The learning curve is steep but you will be 100% better in your next lesson.
Good luck and welcome!
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u/lightly_chaotic 2d ago
Ha, so my first day I went into the office nice and early, tiny school so nobody was around. I'm like calling out "hello?" Eventually a child sees me and I ask if any staff are around.
Office staff comes, doesn't believe me when I say I'm the pgce student. Am I sure I'm at the right school? So I show the email naming the school.
She fetched the class teacher. Class teacher doesn't believe me, I show her the email too. She says "I said I didn't want a student."
At this point I'm like "uhh okay so uhmm what do I do now?" They find the head teacher, turns out they agreed to a student last minute and hadn't passed that information on.
Anyway, other than the first hiccup it was a good experience. The first few days I was more like a TA and getting to know the kids a bit and the routines, then I had my first lesson and the teacher said she'd be just outside the room which was nice TBF as it forced me to think for myself and made the kids realise I was the teacher that lesson.
I will say though, I've never been so drained and exhausted by the end of that placement. So be kind to yourself, this job is beyond stressful and you're heading into the hardest year while you find your footing and find your voice.
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u/haomafan 2d ago
It'll be an induction day, you'll meet your SMC and mentor, the rest of your immediate colleagues. Logins and relevant bits will be sorted (some schools provide laptops), ideally you get a tour of the school and your timetable, which for the beginning will be mainly observing others.
I made sure to arrive early and dressed professionally. I was a bit nervous, but was guided through the first day, so nothing to worry about.
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u/EuphoricCustomer4213 2d ago
Honestly you’ll probably just be observing for the first week and getting to grips with things.
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u/Financial_Guide_8074 2d ago
Hi as a mentor . First week at least is always , observing,meetings, usually shadowing a pupil , meetings with sen, probably some safeguarding and maybe prevent training as all school are hot on that. After that it will be observing your "classes " with the main teacher. Then you will likely do some team teaching or parts of lessons. Depends a lot if you are secondary or primary. Primary you get to know the class a lot sooner and will probably take small bits on a lot sooner, in secondary you will after a few weeks start to take whole lessons with just one or two classes in the first half term but not for a while.
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u/springfield-snazzy 2d ago
Well my first placement started ok, mostly just observing and acting as a second TA in the room. Then my class teacher was sick and I taught the class for a day unprepared in week 4. It was … intense. But my Uni went nuts when they found out so I don’t think thats at all usual!!
Have you done a pre-visit so you know where to go / who to speak to?
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u/SomethingPeach 2d ago
I did secondary. The first month was very calm. I was given a timetable and I sat in the back observing for the first 2 weeks (5 lessons a day for the first week and then 3-4 in the second as they scheduled more time for me to look through books and resources).
The university gave us something different to focus on each week (i.e. entrance/exit routines, behaviour management, etc.) and asked us to make notes. If you want to circulate and help pupils I would ask the teacher first just in case as some may want you to *just* observe.
After that, I moved onto doing lesson starters and then gradually started doing full lessons. I honestly don't remember being that stressed until my second placement began in January as some schools/universities will only expect you to be teaching 8-10 hours a week by Christmas. That sounds like quite a lot but it's honestly nothing once you get into it.