Teaching year 1, no partner teacher and no previous planning, planning everything from scratch. Furious, tired and stressed. It’s only the first week back.

[Se12345]

Started a year 1 teacher role at a new school. The school has no previous planning from the year before. They follow white rose but English is a new scheme so PowerPoints are made from scratch.
History, geography and science from scratch. Re and PHSE is jigsaw but needs reading through long plans. Their phonics scheme is new to me let alone the sounds they learn in year 1. I come from EYFS. I found myself working every night planning and all weekend. To create 6 week plans from scratch looking at medium term plans, to then make PowerPoint lessons, learning objective files, worksheets. I feel stressed. The previous year- they had too many teachers and they said the supply didn’t plan well and didn’t put planning up. They are waiting for ofsted and are requies improvement. I cannot go further back as all their schemes changed. Anyone ever did this? One form school.

Can I just point out to any non teachers reading that all the planning and subscriptions that we are suggesting the OP buys will be from her own money. She might be able to claim it back but probably not.

English is https://clpe.org.uk CLPE- long written plans you have to read through, annotate and make a PowerPoint out of. As there’s no PowerPoints that come with the scheme. Topic - Geo is Local Area, science is seasonal changes, history is meant to be UK. We are doing books like In Our Hands and pet potato.

I had this when I started. No planning left and we didn't use schemes so everything from scratch, 1 form entry and I was new to teaching. Luckily now going into my 5th year in same year group. Chat got is definitely your friend here and wish it had been a thing then. Twinkl science is really good now. Are you in a mat are there teachers in other schools who could share.

Oh my. Definitely join a union you may need one..go to SLT and tell them you need time to plan. This is madness. In NI we wouldn't use PowerPoint for every lesson at all. For maths ..you would have some info on the screen, tie that in with some table top resource, maybe a suitable video if a new concept... and then some work in books. Don't make PowerPoints.

Could you use White Rose for Science too?

Twinkl have history & geography

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/planit-geography-primary-teaching-resources/planit-geography-primary-teaching-resources-year-one/planit-geography-primary-teaching-resources-ks1-our-local-area-travelling-ted

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/planit-history-primary-teaching-resources/planit-history-primary-teaching-resources-ks1/planit-history-primary-teaching-resources-ks1-the-great-fire-of-london

I think it's what teaching WAS. When I started in the early 90s there were no templates for anything and we all wrote our own curriculum each term. It was an enormous workload. It feels like it's gone so far the other way now with everything prescribed and no room for creativity but a happy medium would be nice.

They don’t like Twinkl- I’m moving up from here and there and anything I find online needs adapting as well which still takes a lot of time. And I’m long term supply btw- so all this hard work and might. It be there next year - and might be in a school where I can never use this planning again.

I've been in this situation and it's shit. No wonder they are RI- it sounds like they have a way to go sorting things out.

If it's CLPE I'd strongly suggest finding other schools that have taught it either by putting feelers out through the school (if they are RI they should have a network of schools supporting them) or failing that going on TES and buying the planning. Then you can adapt it as you want. I find it a real pain to plan from the long plans for CLPE.

I'd keep asking subject leads and management as well.

Other stuff Twinkl until you are told otherwise? It's ridiculous they don't have planning for anything. What happened the year before last?

I suspect it will all change after Ofsted so no point killing yourself making everything from scratch (my current school had 3 curriculum in 4 years- thankfully we stuck at one eventually!).

Your school must have curriculum plans for each subject and year group. These are the outline ( and should be on the school website).

Planning from these should be adaptive to your class. Planning isn't the same year on year as the children are different.

Oh just seen this. Is there a science scheme they are following?

No scheme for science history geography.

Yes but you still teach the same basic content. Planning from scratch each year is a colossal waste of time better spent on adapting it for individual children etc.

What do other teachers do? Are there any plans from the year before last?

That is what I am doing. But there’s not much support or any example to follow to know I’m doing the right thing. I’m just hoping I am. I’m not an ECT but it’s my first year out of EYFS. Still need to get my head around their phonics scheme and year - level phonics as I knew EYFS phonics inside out.

I hope they’re paying you AWR. If you’re long term supply and it gets too much you can quit. Speak to the Head and your agency and say you want more PPA. The school can turn around and get rid of you at any moment and you are busting a gut for them. So unfair!

AI can do all this for you. Has the school not invested in an AI tool ?

I actually think some twinkl schemes are great. Also Ofsted wouldn't mind if you were all using it as long as there was consistency and adaptation and a coherent school vision.
Cornerstones is very good if someone you know has a log in. Or white rose science?

If you are long term supply, can you get out? It sounds awful and you have no commitment to them. Your agency could find you a much better position.

Use AI! AI can plan and make all PPTs for you. Will save hours. That's what I do!

Paid to scale like a normal teacher. Tomorrow is their first week back- haven’t had chance to plan afternoon subjects properly so planned introduction lessons to most. And when I went for guidance and said I had access very late to all the planning details and should I give them transition time instead- they basically said teach the subject and do CIL- I was expecting something like - you haven’t been able to plan and we don’t expect you to plan over the weekend- which I did all weekend now for the week after- as I know ppa won’t be enough. They didn’t tell me not to worry. So I couldn’t say much. My ppa is tomorrow afternoon. I don’t think I can ask for more

If you are long term supply then walk. Bollocks to them and their OFSTED if you aren’t getting support.

I think you need to damage limit and at least say that you'll be teaching White Rose directly from the slides.

Get your Head to support you in only doing tasks that directly benefit learning for the children. Anything that is red tape takes a back seat (although doing an MTP will probably help your planning and also be a good all round document to show you are running an effective curriculum). If Ofsted return they will hopefully see you have your priorities right in a very challenging environment. If they don't and the school stays RI then what's the Head going to do? Make your life hell or support you to avoid a return to the shit show they had the year before?

Everything else about contacting sister schools in the Academy (or diocese?) is a great idea.

They've got to cut you some slack. How are you going to be an effective teacher if you are burnt out and exhausted?

This is why so many teachers quit unfortunately.

Even if you had it all planned, the school can suddenly demand it written in a different planning format, or with a special logo on each slide, or changed in another way.

Each year, whether starting from scratch or converting from another format, it can easily take many times the PPA allowance for the week.

It doesn't benefit the kids or their learning in any way.

It's one of the many reasons I teach supply these days. I teach whatever the LO is (if it's not planned fully and given to me ready to teach) without having to write the plans in the prescribed format, or prepare the PowerPoint correctly according to school rules - I simply just teach the learning objective, mark the work and move on.

The need to constantly re-invent the week is ridiculous.

The Power of Reading CLPE approach is fantastic but definitely requires you to have had some input in order to plan adequately from the sequences. I would definitely speak to your literacy lead and ask for them to either spend some time with you to bring you up to speed and/or arrange for you to attend a CLPE course. DM me if you need any help.

It is really hard just to plan from those long CLPE plans. A course would be ideal but in the interim I'd see if you can get someone else's planning to adapt.
Ask the subject leads?