I'm a Primary School Teacher...AMA

[Danceintherain2018]

I teach Reception but am happy to try answer more general questions too!

How large are the classes? How old are the kids? Do you have speciasl needs kids mixed in?

I'm a Yank, so I'm still sorting out what the equivalents are.

Do you have a favourite child or parent?
What are your parent pet hates?

How can I help my summer born DS to thrive this September?

Classes generally have 30 children in.

My class are 4 and 5 year olds. I have 30 in my class with a part time teaching assistant.

Parent pet hates..talking to them about an incident involving their child and them coming in the next day with their rose tinted specs on to tell you what actually happened

What year will he be in una? :)

Reception. He's bright, sociable but small for his age, tends to shyness in new situations and lags a bit with gross motor skills.

Do you get fed up taking 1000s of photographs and writing loads of bumf and wish you could get on with teaching ?
All that printing seems such a waste or do you digital profiles ?

How common is it that children have difficulty holding a pencil properly at the end of Reception? My DS will go into Y1 in September and still isn’t holding a pencil properly which is really affecting his writing. The school have raised it with me several times and they/we ordered pencil grippers and encourage him as much as possible but this hasn’t made any difference whatsoever. 🙁

Are there kids that you really don’t like? Not so relevant for you but are the teachers vocal about kids they pray they won’t get next year?

Is there anything I can do to help or need to provide for my DC who is left handed when they start reception?
Whats the nicest thing a child has ever done for you?
What do you want as an end of year gift?

Ooooh! Can I ask you about your working hours and work life balance?

I would love to teach but I’ve got 2 very small children, by the time I would be qualified the would be 7 and 5. Would you say your job offered a good work/life balance or not?

Do you know the name of the accelerated reading programme for children who don’t pass their phonics in Year 1? I would like to go on that course.

Do you find what you were taught at uni and the realities of teaching are very different?

What do you dislike most about the job?

Do you get your lesson plans from Pinterest?

Una - work on gross and fine motor over the summer. Does he have a bike he could ride? Or even just taking him to the local park and letting him climb etc on the play equipment. For fine motor it could be things like playdough, (look up dough disco on YouTube!), lego, threading cheerios into a straw etc

I would also practice oral blending and segmenting with him over the summer e.g. C-a-t= cat for blending and for segmenting, start with the whole world and spit into sound e.g. Sun=s-u-n. Some children take months and months to get good at this so giving him a 2 month head start over the summer will really help.

With maths, I would focus on counting with good 1:1 correspondence e.g. when he is counting out the cheerios to thread.

habibihabibi- we use digital learning journals which saves massively on printing. I really enjoy taking pictures and writing notes for their profiles. I try and capture the moments/conversations that would have been lost if we didn't record. Our LJs also hold video so we can film things without needing to write copious notes!

user1483387861- there's always at least one or two children that move up to year 1 not being able to hold their pencil correctly. One trick that works well is to use the chunky triangular pencils. Lay it on the table and encourage your son to pick it up. This usually gets them using the tripod grip. If not, model how he needs to hold it and physically put it in his hand correctly if needed. He'll get there :)

Johnnycomelately1- every child has some likeable qualities, although some are less visible than others. Some teachers so say they don't want X or Y but if the head gets wind of it, they get them anyway! ;)

Namethatchange- same advice I have Una (above). Nothing specific for a left hander :)

Nicest thing a child has ever done? One time a good few years ago, I was having a really hard day, the class were somewhat of a nightmare. I put something on the board for them to watch before lunch and a little girl took my hand and rested it against her cheek. It was the sweetest gesture and brought tears to my eyes.

End of year gifts... the thing that means the most to me is a heart felt message in a card. I've kept every card I've ever received from a parent and like to look back at them sometimes!

SilverDoe- it's definitely possible to achieve a good work life balance. I leave for work around 7.15am and get home most days by 5. I very rarely have to do work at home but do sometimes work through part of break to lunch.

Disabrie22- I'm sorry I don't. We have never had to use it. I didn't even know it existed. But it sounds interesting! I'm going to look into it!

hidinginthetrampoline - very, very different. Although that could have changed now! I learnt a long time ago when phonics was barely even mentioned! Now I know all student teachers have extensive phonics training etc.


What do you dislike most about the job? - having to do things that we know are a complete waste of time. 

Do you get your lesson plans from Pinterest? No. I don't really like the site. It can be good for a display idea but that's about it.

He can blend and segment two or three syllable words, loves books and can decode simple sentences with a little encouragement. He gets a bit cross when letters make different sounds but I'm sure that's normal! He can recognise numbers to 10 and do basic addition.

Fine motor is pretty good, he does really fiddly 6+ lego etc. He's only very recently started to take an interest in drawing and still doesn't really produce anything recognisable but he's really interested in that at the moment so I'm hoping he'll catch up there. Pen grip is getting better.

He's good at getting dressed when in the mood, getting better with toilets though still struggles with interrupting play to go.

Gross motor we go to the park and swimming a lot, and he has a climbing frame at home. He has a balance bike (also a pedal bike but he's too small for it just yet!)

Would you recommend the profession to someone else ? My dd is about to go Into her last year of uni, of a science degree but has done quite a bit of volunteering at a few local primary schools over the past few years and is thinking she might like to go I to teaching. But speaking with a few people, everyone seems adamant it's a bad decision and from what I read on here a lot of teachers seem to hate the job or are leaving the profession

That should be one or two syllable words!

Sounds like he's doing well already Una :)

I would forgivenminds. It's a very rewarding profession but very demanding, especially in the first few years while you find your feet.

My son was rather severely language delayed and struggled a lot in his early years, particularly with his reading. We really wondered if he's ever find his feet academically.

He had a lot of wonderful teachers and got the right support. He just finished secondary school with a National Honor Society award and is off to a fine university with a merit scholarship this fall.

Thank you so much for what you do.

Thanks Dances! If it were just the academic side I wouldn't be worried, it's more the physical/social stuff. But I just have to trust he'll get there.

Lovely story about your son. Well done to him :) hearing stories like that really is a rewarding part of the job. :)

The physical stuff you can keep working on through the summer. The social too.. even it's having a child round for playdsyes/talking at the pool, park etc

How accurate do you think you and your colleagues are at picking up the various different educational needs? Can dyslexia or dyscalcula be picked up in reception for example? And autism /ADHD? - although I know that strictly speaking you as a teacher cant diagnose autism and ADHD etc, I expect you flag it to parents to see their HCP etc?

Bi11yOneMate - I'd say fairly accurate. Things definitely get easier to spot the longer you've been in the job.

We always flag things with parents so they can seek further assessment etc, often supported by a letter from us or they send us a questionnaire to fill in etc.

Children can show potential signs of dyslexia or dyscalculia in Reception but often it's just that they weren't ready and as they matured and got older, things fell into place.