tickedoffteacher New Teachers, Teacher Tips

What to expect on INSET day

INSET, also known as “in-service training”, can feel like your ‘first day of school’. This is our guide to what happens on INSET day.

Timetable of the day

INSET days vary in content depending on the time of year, phase and priorities of the school. However, most INSETs at the beginning of the year will involve at least one day of safeguarding training, sharing school priorities/ vision, CPD, time to prepare classrooms and meeting colleagues.

What should I bring with me?

Your school should have communicated if there is anything specific that they want you to bring. Make sure to bring a notebook, diary to note important dates and pen. If you have gathered some items to decorate your classroom, INSET can be a good time to bring them in to get set up in your new room.

What should I wear?

Have a look at any dress-code policies on the school website and think about what you saw other people wearing if you attended an in-person interview. Expectations for dress are normally more relaxed on INSET than normal work days, however, it is generally better to be over than underdressed. It is unlikely that anyone will be wearing suits and ties, but also generally not sports clothes either.

Expect to be overwhelmed

You will be receiving a LOT of information. No one expects you to remember it all, especially if you’re an ECT or new to the school. Try to note down key information but make sure to utilise the experience of those around you, and remember that policies should be clearly accessible on the school website if you need a refresher. Subject leaders are there to answer your questions and were all new starters at one point!

Make time to chat and EAT

Prioritise time for forming connections with colleagues. Yes, it may be tempting to spend your lunch break putting up that beautifully laminated display, but don’t neglect getting to know people who will be able to support you and help you put up displays terms or years from now! One of the best ways to do this is eating lunch in the staff room and chatting to anyone wandering around. INSET days are busy and there are lots of moving parts and people, so equally, don’t get disheartened if you feel that someone seems occupied or not up for a chat. Finally, make sure you eat something! Fainting during safeguarding training is not the first impression you want to be making!

Signed,

What are your questions or advice for INSET days? Comment below.

tickedoffteacher Opinion, Teacher Tips

The most powerful CPD to try before September

Try something you’re really rubbish at

Do you have a memory from school that you totally cringe at? Something you were so awful at that you swore you’d never touch it again?

Baby Ticked Off teacher still remembers their art teacher holding up a piece of work from a ‘child in the other class’ and declaring that it was ‘the worst piece anyone had handed in’. With their name clearly permanent markered on the side and children sniggering around them, they vowed to never again even touch a Crayola crayon.

Fast forward, and today’s blog is coming to you from under a mound of shiny new drawing pencils and an ambitiously thick sketchbook. Teachers-in the main- enjoyed school, this one included. To become a teacher requires jumping through a near-decade of academic hoops and learning about a wide range of subjects and disciplines. Many of us have had a pretty easy time learning and are passionate about our jobs, this can actually make it harder to connect to our most difficult students.

I say ‘difficult student’ and one immediately pops into your head. The one that you see is full of promise and you don’t understand why they can’t just ‘get it’. My challenge to you is to try and improve at something you’re really rubbish at, whether that’s art, languages, sport etc. You’ll soon find that the hours spent creating your growth-mindset display didn’t make it all the way into your brain.

Remember the discomfort you feel, the inadequacy and sheer additional effort you have to put into something you don’t like and aren’t immediately good at. That is likely close to the experience of not just ‘that’ student, but of many others sitting in your classroom. Remind yourself of the successes and strategies in overcoming your own rubbishness and share them with your students. It’s a powerful exercise for educators to become empathetic learners.

Signed,

What are you going to challenge yourself to try before September? Comment below.

tickedoffteacher Teacher Tips

Struggling to relax over the summer holidays? Tips for teachers who still can’t unwind

Still lying awake thinking about your planning? You need our help!

Most teachers in the UK have been on holiday for a few weeks now. However, if you’re anything like the Ticked Off Teacher, you’re still struggling to slip into full holiday zen mode. Today we’ve gathered up some tried and true techniques for making the most out of your time off.

1) Get away early and have a change of scene

If you’re lucky enough to be going on holiday, try to suppress the urge to keep working and get yourself straight on a holiday. The change of scene can really help to put distance between you and work. Try to go somewhere with no visual reminders of school or children, think adults-only resort! If you’re planning on staying at home, do your best to remove cues that are going to remind you of school. Leave your teacher bag in the cupboard for at least a week so you can begin to unwind.

2) Unplug

It can be tempting to relax by spending those forbidden midday hours scrolling mindlessly through your phone. However, you’re bound to come across posts from a teaching group, an update from a colleague, or yet another classroom ‘inspiration’ picture to drag you mentally straight back to work. If you have time, perhaps think about creating ‘teacher’ social media to keep your personal and professional scrolling separate. Try and spend the time doing things you wouldn’t normally have the time to do and making the most of places being less busy midweek.

3) Routine

You have sleep to catch up on right? Yes, but try to keep yourself in a somewhat regular routine of sleep, eating and exercise etc. otherwise you can find yourself becoming more groggy and exhausted! You will spend the first weeks of term getting the children in a good routine, now listen to your own advice!

4) Indulge in some self-care

Bubble baths, gardening, walking, whatever it may be. Make time for the things that make you feel good and you don’t normally have time for. Try making a list at the beginning of the break and seeing how many you can tick off. It can be useful to schedule things in advance and try to hold yourself accountable to stop self-care from being something else to put off to tomorrow.

5) If you must work…

Some people benefit and feel more relaxed by getting things done. Try not to get yourself into a cycle of finding yourself work-related jobs to do to keep yourself busy. This can sometimes feel easier than thinking and organising things that you actually want to do. As with self-care, try and make a list of tasks that actually need completing and days you’re going to block off to complete them. Make sure the tasks are meaningful and productive and not an excuse for not having found anything better to do.

Overall, enjoy yourself! You have worked very hard all year and deserve this break. Come back in September rested and refreshed and ready for another round!

Signed,

What works well to help you relax? Comment below.

tickedoffteacher Education Policy

Lowering the requirements for teaching – what lessons will the USA teach us?

Several states are removing or relaxing barriers to entry in an effort to reduce the USA’s ‘teacher shortage’, will the uk be next?

It’s no surprise to anyone in the education space right now that there is a teacher recruitment and retention crisis in the UK. Experienced teachers are leaving the profession at the fastest rate for over a decade and 25,000 fewer trainees in 2022 than the previous year to replace them.

There have been calls for various policies aiming to incentivise remaining in the profession to ease the crisis, such as an ‘inflation plus’ pay deal (1). Across the pond, some states are taking a more radical approach to solving their own teacher recruitment crisis. Individual states are removing barriers to entry by lowering the requirements to teach in the public sector. Arizona, for example, no longer requires public school teachers to hold a degree as long as they are currently enrolled in college (2). California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri and Alabama are just a handful of other states where similar measures have taken effect.

Why is lowering the barrier to entry such an ‘effective’ measure in solving the recruitment and retention crisis?

  1. In short, it’s very cheap! The state, instead of funding new teacher training routes or measures can simply remove administrative check boxes, saving money for them, while still providing bodies in the classroom. It requires less effort and is easier for the establishment to remove existing measures and leave nothing to replace them. It requires no additional administrative work.
  2. It appeals to the wide group of people that believe teaching is easy. Disrespect of teachers is broadly perceived by those in the profession (3) and has been cited as a major reason for teachers changing career. Lowering barriers to entry is extremely palatable to those that believe teaching is an easy profession and perpetuates a trend of undervaluing teachers in their work, experience, and education.
  3. It shifts the accountability for the retention crisis. Instead of focusing on the systemic failings that are causing droves of teachers to leave the profession, lowering barriers to entry gets bodies in the room. The effectiveness of these teachers can then be blamed on the individual and the school, shifting the blame from central policymakers. Short-term statistics will look excellent, but student outcomes and the well-being and longevity of these teachers will be harder to measure over the long term, making it a simple sticking plaster, rather than a long-term solution.

What are the drawbacks of these policies?

  • For the current teachers – these policies do an excellent job of sweeping current concerns under the carpet. It adds to a feeling of being ‘replaceable’. The responsibility of training and supporting these new teachers will likely fall on existing staff, increasing their workload and likelihood of burnout. This will lead to more experienced staff being lured away from teaching.
  • For the untrained teachers – their experience will likely be extremely stressful. Generally speaking, areas that are tough to teach in experience the most difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. Therefore, it is likely that these inexperienced teachers will be sent to challenging settings where existing staff will not have the time or resources to effectively mentor and support new staff. These new teachers will be exposed to situations that they are not ready for and may lead to extreme stress and a sense of failure, despite having likely ‘taken up the call’ with the best of intentions. This would lead these new teachers to leave the profession due to a lack of support.
  • For the pupils – there is a consensus that a well-trained, effective teacher is essential to raising pupil outcomes. While these new teachers are surely well-meaning, any teacher would admit to finding their first few years of teaching tough. As explained above, children in low-income areas would likely be disproportionately affected by having inadequately trained and supported teachers, stunting their progress further.

Surely this would never happen in the UK?

A practical, ethical and evidence-informed approach and debate of initial teacher training is an essential feature of good education policy. However, 36,000 teachers left the profession in 2021, and with that figure expected to rise, the UK is heading towards a crisis point. We have already seen alternative teacher training routes such as TeachFirst and School Centred Initial Teacher Training rise in popularity. There appears to be a demand for a departure from the university-centred PGCE.

In a similar move to some US States, the UK Department for Education scrapped the traditional numeracy and literacy professional skills tests. The reason was to end ‘arbitrary testing’ as a barrier to recruitment (4).

In summary, there is clearly a teacher recruitment and retention crisis in the UK. I believe that policymakers here will continue to watch the effects of the American policies unfold with keen interest and an eye on their bottom line.

Signed,

Sources

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/23/english-schools-warn-of-acute-teacher-shortages-without-inflation-plus-pay-deal
  2. https://www.k12dive.com/news/arizona-law-removes-bachelors-degree-requirement-for-teachers/627128/
  3. https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2018/11/18/teacher-index-2018/
  4. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/changes-to-the-professional-skills-test-for-teacher

Cost-effective policy or American nightmare? Let us know what you think below.

tickedoffteacher Education Policy

Raising school start age in Scotland to six – what does the evidence say?

A bold move for Scotland’s devolved Education is seeing a proposal for a kindergarten stage for three to six-year-olds being debated at the SNP’s conference in October, but what evidence is there?

Education has been a central issue of British politics in the last few weeks, with PM hopeful Liz Truss pitching herself as the ‘education prime minister’. However, it’s the push in Scotland for a shake-up in the early years that has got Twitter talking.

What’s the current system?

Scotland has had a fully devolved system of education since 1999. Scottish children take different exams at the end of secondary school, and do not pay tuition fees at Scottish universities. The rest of the system functions largely similarly to the rest of the UK.

What’s the problem?

Audit Scotland found that there is a ‘wide’ gap between the richest and poorest students in Scotland (1). The report also found that the effect of Covid-19 has negatively impacted work to close the attainment gap. The report reads that the ‘attainment gap has remained a feature of our society for generations and does not do justice to the type of Scotland we wish to build’.

What’s the solution?

Toni Giugliano, the SNP’s policy convenor, has called for a ‘culture shift’ in how Scotland administers early years education, with the hope of improving children’s mental health and closing the poverty attainment gap (2). He said that the current system was ‘designed to build a workforce’ and did not reflect education for a digital age. The proposal is for a play-based kindergarten for three to six-year-olds, followed by six years of primary school.

What isn’t happening

There has been a significant amount of misinformation, misunderstanding and comparison to ‘Scandinavian’ education systems, where it is more common for children to start formal education at seven. However, in Scotland the proposal is not to delay starting school until 7, but to actually add an additional year of funded kindergarten starting a year earlier than in the current system, starting with a kindergarten at age 3.

What evidence is there to raising the school starting age?

Raising the school starting age is increasingly common in developed nations (3). However, research literature has not shown clear educational or economic advantages. A 2018 paper (4) measured a proximate outcome of academic achievement, measures of mental health in childhood. It found that a one-year delay in the start of school dramatically reduces inattention and hyperactivity at age 7, and persists at age 11, a strong indicator of student achievement. However, this widely cited paper has various issues of generalisability. The variation between systems of education, pupil and teacher demographics, teacher training etc. makes it very hard to predict what the outcome would be in Scotland were the proposal to move forward.

What’s next?

The general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), Larry Flanagan, said that he was not opposed to a kindergarten stage and believed in a play-based approach to the early years. However, he was also clear that the change would require a considerable amount of resources and training that are not currently in place.

A Scottish government spokeswoman confirmed that the government does not have plans to change the school age (2) but that it welcomes the debate as part of the national discussion on education and will inform future reforms to improve outcomes.

Scotland’s neighbours and the rest of the world will surely have their eyes on Aberdeen as the issue is debated at the SNP conference in October.

Signed,

Sources

  1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/closing-poverty-related-attainment-gap-report-progress-2016-2021/
  2. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-62368574
  3. https://expatchild.com/school-starting-ages-around-world/
  4. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hec.3638

Step forwards or backwards? What do you think of the kindergarten proposal? Comment your ideas below.

tickedoffteacher New Teachers

How to Prepare Over the Summer as a New Teacher

Ideas for new teachers/ NQT/ ECT/ PGCE students to get their heads around over the summer to give a flying start to the new year

School’s out for summer! At least for the kids… This time of year can be a nerve-wracking countdown for new teachers. Your ticked off teacher is here to give you the advice they wish they’d been given to help you get ahead on the new year’s planning, while balancing a break.

1) Get your space organised

It’s tempting to spend your summer scolling through Pintrest and dreaming of that perfectly decorated classroom. Fast forward to a few weeks in and you suddenly realise you want to swap everything around and your beautifully curated displays are already looking ragged. Focus on getting your room clutter free. You’d be amazed at the things you’ll find in the back of the cupboard, but get ruthless. Check with the previous teacher that they have fully moved out and then get to chucking. I promise no one is going to come looking for those spelling tests from 2004!

Make sure that things are organised and arranged the way YOU want them. This is your space now, feel free to get rid of things that aren’t useful to you. You’ll create enough of your own clutter throughout the year without holding on to inherited rubbish. The only things you need to be bringing in to add to the space are a few essentials for your cohort – coat peg labels etc.

2) Put down the IKEA family card

Following the first piece of advice, it can be so tempting when looking at inspiration pictures to want to buy lots of fun little ‘bits’ and ‘essential’ organisation systems. STOP! Remember that those classrooms you are viewing have been built up over years, no one is expecting a new teacher’s classroom to look like that. Many Pinterest classrooms are also in America where there are different expectations for decoration and how much a teacher is to provide themselves for the room. Don’t bring extra clutter into the room before living and teaching in the space for a few weeks. You’d be amazed both at what you find in storage rooms in schools, and just how much those ‘incredible’ and ‘essential’ bits of teacher tat will get in your way.

3) Start some planning

Whether or not teachers should work or plan over the holidays is a divisive topic, especially as you are not yet working at the school. My advice is to make sure you’re au fait with any schemes of work that they use, and have been given access to any shared planning. Further than that, getting your head around the term dates and weeks can be one of the most helpful things. From there, working out how many of each lesson you’ll be teaching and then planning out L.I.s can be useful if you are responsible for planning. Walking in in September with the general shape of the scheme of work and curriculum can be really useful in helping you feel more confident and knowledgeable.

4) Make some (teacher) friends

Hopefully you will be coming into your first year of teaching with some friends from your training route and have had the opportunity to meet your new colleagues at a transition day. However, I can’t suggest making friends with other teachers completely out of your circle highly enough. While a little old fashioned, Facebook seems to be the mainstay of the teacher social life. Try searching for a group that reflects your new role, ‘Year 3 and 4 teacher’, ‘Primary teachers in the North East’ etc. You will find thousands of groups on there. It is perfectly acceptable in these larger groups to merely lurk, although people are always very supportive and want to support new teachers if you would like to introduce yourself. These groups regularly share resources, advice and grumbles, so are a great place to feel less alone and score some inspiration and free resources.

5) Relaaax

You had a life before teaching, you’ll have a life after teaching. Taking on your first role in class can be exciting, scary, and daunting. Try not to view this summer as a ticking time bomb. Do as much as feels exciting and helps you feel more prepared. However, if you’re wondering if you’re doing too much, the answer is probably yes! Teaching is a demanding profession and you’re doing no one any favours if you turn up already overworked and exhausted in September. Getting to Christmas can definitely feel like a marathon, so make sure to relax and look after yourself first. You’ve got an exciting and challenging few months ahead so forget ‘perfect’, ‘Pinterest’ and ‘prepared’, turn up YOUR best self in September, you’re going to be great!

Signed,

Comment your best advice, what you wish you would have known, or questions for a future post below.