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.

Use Chat GPT to give you a head start

Is this a failing of the SLT? I'm not a teacher, but it seems ridiculous that you have to spend time creating all of this from scratch when the national curriculum hasn't been radically changed in years. I understand you need to tweak things to adapt to the cohort you have at the time, their abilities, learning styles etc. But to do everything from the start again is such a massive waste of time. If I was a Head Teacher I can't imagine putting myself and my staff in a position of such exposure by not having plans kept centrally for my school. I'd be gathering all plans in from each of the teachers every half term or something and saving them. Don't the SLT in schools normally do this? It seems so basic....

😂

Nightmare but yeah I had to do all that when teaching, nature of the beast

Someone has already mentioned it but the facebook groups for your age group are excellent as they are all teachers working in the same year group as you sharing ideas and resources. There will be one for Year 1.

Autumn term Y1 is essentially an extension of EYFS, treat it as such and plan as if it is. You've got EYFS experience - lean on it and use it. Can you use continuous provision if your SLT are reasonable? Don't over plan. Planbee is good for projects.

Phonics - you know how to teach phonics. The schemes are all much of a muchness with a few slight differences so you'll pick it up. The sounds at this point in the year aren't too confusing. Trust yourself.

Speak to the English subject lead and see if they can assist with previous plans or rewriting medium term plans? The Power of Reading by CLPE is good but it isn't a full scheme to follow, cherry pick from it and don't bothered reading the entire scheme plans, they can be repetitive.

Can you buddy up with the Y2 teacher for their support as well, or ask to buddy up with another local school Y1 team/ school in the academy group?

PowerPoints - don't bother unless you have to. And even then keep them minimal. Instead of showing them pictures on a PPT, physically model everything to them. Writing? Do it with a pen on flip chart paper then stick it on the wall - instantly display. Maths - use physical resources, model pictorials on flip chart papers stick it on the wall for instant display after. Go old skool - maybe that's why there aren't PPTs from last year!?

Worksheets? Use Twinkl and don't reinvent the wheel. Or otherwise keep them basic, aim for group tasks. My worksheets are often just the date and LO with a single picture, printed 6 times so one for each group and I'll scribe for them.

You're on supply which gives you the beauty of being able to walk away if it's too much. It really isn't worth battering yourself over. Your mental health is worth more.

Aim for "good enough".

I would get on teachmateai and then check the plans though and amend accordingly. I would also use Gemini and chatgtp yo get the bones and then add and adapt accordingly

This, I’m also not a teacher so maybe I’m missing something but it all seems so unnecessary?

I second this
I taught 25 years ago and had to do most of the planning from scratch as an NQT. The last year 1 teacher gave me her planning folder but it’s was a folder of chaos- could hardly read what was there- all hand written, 400 pieces of lined paper with scrawl.
There was hardly anything online at all. But also no interactive whiteboard or PowerPoint. We did everything as described above. Huge flip chart and demonstrated. Large printed pictures and posters. Actual props.
We had books then to photocopy worksheets or we made our own (often hand drawn with a ruler)
The advice this poster had given is very practical

So there are resources online?? Twinkl etc

Still shocked at my comment??

Same thing - twinkl etc

Let's not pretend it's not more complicated than what it is eh

No advice but just want to say a huge thank you to teachers and TAs who work bloody hard with little appreciation from the media and government. Thank you. 🫡

Mum planned everything pre national curriculum, pre Ofsted. I think it was much easier though.

We planned a lot. Sometimes with a colleague, mostly alone, from the NC, and when literacy hour and numeracy hour came in. Often for two year groups in one class, with two different curricula. Even had to make exercise books ourselves.

Drawing out a worksheet by hand and photocopying seems easier than computer PowerPoints etc. Also still using chalk and board or white board/paper.

It got very prescriptive after I left. It seems even more pressured now. I don't envy you. I miss the kids. I miss the creativity of teaching things in different ways. I don't miss the planning, Ofsted, head teachers who need things done in a certain way just for the he sake of it, parents whinging.(Observed as a parent at the time, from other parents)

Tbh In Year 1 it should be about getting every child to read, write and do basic maths. The rest is nice to know and interesting but really quite irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Had to pull DS out of school because at 9 years old he couldn’t read and no one was teaching him at school and he was required to do the homework which was impossible and took all the time we had so I couldn’t help him and he was almost at the point where the barrier would have come down and he would never have learned. He wasn’t the only child who didn’t stand a chance.

I thought this was normal for teaching. I left teaching quite a few years ago and spent every Sunday planning/marking etc when I was teaching. I could never use the same planning in following years as they either changed the curriculum or gave me different groups.
Longterm plans and medium term plans shouldn’t take that long to do and then every week it’s short term plans and gather up the resources. You do get quicker at planning after a week or so

OP, honestly, I'd leave and telll the supply agency why.

They won't support this workload and will find you something else. This is unsustainable.

This is exactly why the school is in RI.

I’ve been here too OP (several times actually now I think about it!) and I really empathise. I totally agree with @Makingpeace and @PalePinkPeony re the Powerpoint - stop making a Powerpoint for every single lesson and your work load will drop so, so much. You don’t need a full Powerpoint for RE, History and Geography etc - just put the learning intention and a few photos and then use your voice. Write key vocab on the board as you go. For English, I almost never use Powerpoint - just do loads of writing on the board. Cutting out a full Powerpoint for every
lesson will really help and it’ll make no difference to the children - they can’t read it all anyway!
The actual written plans can be sped through, it’s torturous but I actually just sit for a whole Saturday and Sunday at the start of each half term and write the plans for everything which isn’t English and Maths for the whole half term. I do the same for English and Maths but looser as obviously this changes day to day based on how they get in. Then it’s at least done for the half term and you’re not planning night by night.
Thinking of you OP. It’ll be a hard few weeks but once you’re on your feet you’ll be able to get ahead!
What Phonics scheme is it?

That sounds overwhelming — and honestly, no wonder you’re furious and exhausted.

Communicate upwards. Sometimes they don’t realise the scale until it’s spelled out.

Reading along with amazement. No idea how much was involved these days for teachers . Educated in 70s, 80s so obviously no computer input at all . And yet , we seemed to have ended up doing quite well in life . Sadly all these innovations have not exactly improved the lives of teachers or indeed pupils if your school is a failing one . I did wonder why teaching is no longer seen as a prestigious career. If this continues why would anyone choose to be or remain a teacher.

Plan Bee has some good history units. You can buy just the individual units so they aren't too expensive.

Kapow has a local area unit for year 1 (and many more). You might be able to get an overview for free to at least give some ideas. I'd share ours but our license has ended now.

You're long term supply ? And they 'don't like twinkl'.... Then this is completely ridiculous. I would just leave unless jobs are very hard to come by where you are. This school sounds awful.

@Se12345

The change in schools over the past couple of decades is shocking.

Thank you for being a teacher that realises this is unacceptable and attempting to improve the situation.

A shift I’ve particularly seen over the past few decades are non-teaching senior managers who in meetings or doing an excessive amount of computer based activities.

Schools need to get back to
ensuring basic provision is secure and that they are being inclusive.

Rather than spending excessive time and money on fads, fashions, resources that are used once and left in a cupboard, non-essential building ‘projects’.

Someone needs to pull up the shirkers too. They exist in every school.

The Hamiliton planning is very good.

As a TA I have supported a teacher in exactly this position. I was led to believe that it is normal to expect a teacher to plan their own lessons. You have a scheme for maths and phonics which is a big help.