So half term has been and gone and we are now half way between half term and Christmas! When I think about it, September feels like ages ago, but it also seems to have really quickly. A lot has changed too. During the first couple of weeks, I found the adjustment from PGCE to NQT challenging, as timetable wise, it is a massive step up. In combination with a few other challenges that were thrown up, my first few weeks were bit shaky. However now, 10 weeks into my career, I really feel like I have found my feet with my classes. I like (most of) of my pupils, and I think that they (mostly) like me!

The workload is really quite intense, there is always such a lot to do. I think that partly because I am a bit of a perfectionist, I want every one of my lessons to be as perfect as possible. Due to such a rigorous training year, I feel like I have been left with very high expectations of myself and this is challenging in itself.

I am teaching two subjects, which at the start of term I was not too excited about, however I now really enjoy having the variety in my timetable and being able to be a different kind of teacher with different groups of pupils. Having two subjects does mean that I have a lot more planning to do, however I would much rather have the variety of different lessons in my week rather than reteaching the same KS3 lessons five or six times over.

I feel like I have also kind of found myself as a teacher. When you’re training you are being constantly being observed, and I found that I couldn’t entirely relax; however, this year I have been able to fully explore the sort of teacher I want to be. And one of the qualities I have discovered in particular is my enjoyment in creating displays. A lot of teachers hate doing them – I really enjoy it!

My goals to achieve before Christmas:

Go home before 5pm at least once a week

Learn the name of every pupil I teach (there are around 400!)

Set up an intervention session once a week for my KS4 and KS5 pupils

Plan a trip for Health and Social Care Level 2 pupils to enhance their learning