Week 2: Help I'm an NQT

Welcome to week 2, hopefully, everything went well in your first week and you’re still smiling, although not in front of the children, that’s not allowed until after Christmas.

Now that you are starting to find your feet and know your way to the staffroom without getting lost, it's time to think about one or two things.

There are a couple of things you need to check:

1. Whether you have been registered with Kent as your appropriate body (other varieties are available), your induction cannot start until you have been registered.

2. If you have booked onto one of the Guide to Induction events being held around the county. You can do this by emailing NQT@Kent.gov.uk and this will equip you with all the skills needed to be successful during your induction year.  These events start soon so don’t miss out. 

By now you should have met with your mentor and talked about any targets you have from your ITT and other concerns, they are here to support you but in most cases, this part of a wider role and their time is as precious as yours. Be proactive and plan what you want to talk about, focus on three things 

• WWW - what went well? 

• EBI - even better if. 

• HELP!! What are you having problems with?

We talked about classroom environment and this should now be coming on, look for opportunities to get as many children’s work on the walls as possible, think about your learning walls and their purpose The Working Wall must reflect the current Teaching and Learning sequence 

The working wall should be functional and added to on a daily basis it is not intended to be a work of art and a reasonable template could be:  

The next thing to consider, which, although they may not have started yet will in most cases start soon, are the interventions taking place (normally during the afternoons) and who is going out your classroom.  It is important to remember that it’s not a case of out of sight out of mind, the progress of these groups of children will still be your responsibility  and you will need to report back on this progress during the pupil progress meetings at the end of term 2 (more in future weeks) have a look and see:

Who is going out and why? 

How many days they are out

Is it “as well as” or instead of?

Have targets been set?

What was the pupil's starting point? 

How long has the intervention been running prior to you taking over the class in many cases if it’s longer than six weeks it’s not working?

Good luck with week 2!