Strugging NQT

[januarysunsetfire]

Hi.

I've just had a message from the NQT in our department indicating they are hugely struggling with the workload: primarily marking but also planning and genera organisation.

Everything they are struggling with is pretty much the professional standards, and to be honest I don't know what to suggest!

Any advice? :)

Orangeanddemons: I'll PM you. It's a bit revealing and don't want to high jack.

Oh. I can't from my phone. Ok will post and perhaps delete later.
I work at a small (55 students) secondary school for boys with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. We teach periods 1-4 only then have lunch and extra curricular activities. Students leave at 2:30. It's a much shorter day so all staff (including all SLT, deputy heads etc) are on duty at break and eat with our students at lunch. We need the staff/student ratio and it really helps with particularly the social difficulties the students have.
Sorry OP!

There are no easy answers. Some people find teaching incredibly stressful and difficult. And that never seems to change. But it's early days to be thinking he's not cut out for the job even though it does seem like it now. Maybe he is just being too conscientious and giving himself too much extra work re marking and planning. You could ask him how long he is spending on marking and planning.

It really isn't good enough - the pupils are suffering because of his poor teaching and lack of feedback. The AH with responsibility for NQTs should take over the conversation with him and put him on warning that if he doesn't pull his finger out he will fail his NQT year. If he fails, he can never retake and never teach, so it might be better for him to resign mid-year and think hard about what he wants to do so that he has the opportunity to pick up his teaching career sometime in the future in another school. You'd be left in the lurch needing a teacher at this point in the year but better that than saddled with one who is persistently poor at his job.

As far as his workload goes, I bet as HoD you have a similar teaching load, plus all the rest of the work that goes with te role. He has just been lazy over the holidays and is trying to get out of trouble (like the children).

It's time for the talk. Tell the AH. Tell the Head. Sit him down with both of them and work out an action plan that includes weekly or even daily requirements and get in touch with the county to let them know what you are doing to support him. You will need to cover your own back on this one as much as you need to give him a fair chance to succeed.

It's really horrible (I've had to do it) but there really isn't a way around it. You don't want to launch one of those teachers

onto generations of children for the next 35 years - that's about 15000 kids he could screw over across a career.

Can you be lazy over the holidays? They are a holiday .

I can remember being overwhelmed in the first term by marking. But that sounds all head in the sand tbh. If he didn't do it before end of last term this is the bit where you pull a late/early one to get it done. He needs to twig this as with reports etc it will happen again and again.

Are these yr 10 mocks by any chance - they can be daunting if you are not used to mark scheme.

But one thing op sorry it sounds sad to say have you documented all the support you have provided, it's awful knowing you have to cover your own back too. I had two trainees in pace placement. One was a dream, one a nightmare, both had same support in terms if time, expectations set etc but then the nightmare one accused me of being unreasonable when pulled for not doing his planning, I got a more experienced mentor involved and he didn't like that. He left an awful unprofessional note.

So glad I'm out!

I have flipped this thread so am reading backwards .

I am shocked that posters are calling for disciplinary action because someone hasn't spent their HOLIDAY marking .

If someone threatened me with that I would call my union and lawyers in very quickly .

Have just read another comment that if someone is not prepared to mark over a two week holiday they have no business being in teaching .

It is a holiday .

If someone planned a working timetable for me that required me to work weekends or holidays I would tell then to fuck off to the far side if fuck.

Teachers contracts say they must work "such reasonable additional hours as may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties".

It is not a case for the union or lawyers to expect a teacher gets their marking done within a reasonable timeframe, holiday or no.

If someone told me I had to work over the holidays , I would call in the unions , make a fuss and then leave.

The same for marking assessments within a week or working at the weekend.

Apart from working in the holidays - which I never do - I do all of those things but if I was told I had to - I would refuse.

My mantra is that if it can't be done during the week and during term time it was an unreasonable request.

I am not saying that this NQT doesn't have problems but to say that teachers must be prepared to work in their holidays or weekends is wrong .

Philoslothy, I think teachers' T&Cs in Scotland might be more like what you describe, but in England teachers absolutely are expected to work outside of term time, in the evening and at weekends.

You'd be hard pushed to cover everything I described upthread (which was as a student, not even as an NQT, so much smaller workload) in working hours. There's no way an actual teacher could do it.

I don't work outside of term time and as a senior manager don't expect our staff to either.

One thing I found when I was a mentor was reminding myself that strategies we use on the kids are used because they work. If this were a sixth former, how would you respond?

Personally, I would write them out a schedule for how to spend their time, and check on a very regular basis. Eg, on Tuesday after school ends he comes to you and tells you which books he will mark, then an hour later brings you those books to be checked. Then spends from 4 to 5 planning for the next day.

I know you can't force him to stay, but if he's there anyway, he needs really strong direction. I would also keep a log. Just a list with date, time and whether he completed the work done.

The not listening when you say no - how would you respond to a student saying that? After the first time would look them straight in the face and say 'I said no' then leave it.

Fwiw, dh fired someone at his office for being like this. They gave him 3 days before he was fired. Turned out it wasn't the first, or even second time. If he refuses to follow your direction and meet your standards, then it does need to be escalated.

i totally agree, philoslothly. during term time, the school owns me utterly, and i earn my holiday. i would raise an eyebrow at and ignore anyone who insisted that i work through my holidays, and demanded evidence of it.

having said that i do sometimes use some of my holiday doing research into new ideas and resources, towards the end, when i feel refreshed, but this is interest not compulsion

I wouldn't raise an eyebrow I would very loudly play merry hell.

I'd like to know how a senior manager would respond to an angry parent wanting to know why their DC's assessment which they sat last term still wasn't marked in January, when presumably other homework will be due in for marking.

As a senior manager who doesn't expect work in the holidays, when would be a reasonable time for these kids to get their assessments back? Next week? Week after? They'd have to be marked on top of normal planning and marking so it won't be a quick turnaround.

I haven't worked during the holidays myself, but that's because I got my work done during term time. I still feel guilty and lazy!

This NQT is behind on work and not stepping up in the classroom. The holidays were an opportunity for him to get himself sorted and he hasn't, which suggests that he either doesn't understand that not doing your core work is a problem or is hiding from it because he is not coping.

There's a 'no surprises' ethic to the NQT induction year so if his mentor thinks he's not doing a good enough job, he needs to know that and be helped (possibly quite 'robustly', it sounds like) to get on top of it. It's not a disciplinary, it's a support structure - it would be utterly unfair for him to think everything is okay even if not ideal and then find himself close to or actually failing. Likewise, it's not fair to pass crap teachers just because they're on a year's contract and they'll be someone else's problem in September (this is my what OP is saying at all, I realise, but it does happen in some schools).

He's got a very light timetable and must be made to see that it's do-able or he won't cope next year.

I am not saying that he should not be marking , and we have regular random book checks . Most of our staff mark after school or in the evenings.

We would expect marking to have happened within two weeks.

I have some year 8 assessments that were done at the end of last term, I will mark them when the term starts again.

I'm a deputy head (primary though) but have had similar experiences.
Can you give him just one out of class/organisation thing to focus and one in class teaching style thing to work on per week?
So next week the focus is getting marking up to date, not just by ploughing through thoroughly marking everything but e.g. getting one of the year 7 pieces marked very well. The second can be left for them to anonymously peer mark as part of the process of giving feedback in the lesson on their assessed pieces, to help them understand what needs to be included in a good piece.
Then in class find one thing, e.g. improving his questioning, to work on.
He needs to learn that in teaching there are ways to cut corners and still be as effective.
This would help it feel less overwhelming for him.

Can you email him back saying that he really needs to get the marking done so he is up to date and can get to a good start this term? But then go on to provide support e.g. I'd list everything he has to mark (or ask him to send a list if you don't know) and suggest exactly how he marks it in a way which will get it done without him taking ages finding the perfect comment etc. Before you can tackle good marking you need to get the organisation and time management skills in place. You can later go through his marking, recognising he (hopefully) did it as you suggested, explaining that you told him to do it that way as it was an urgent situation and vital it got done to a basic good standard, and then pointing out what in an ideal situation he'd need to add/change to make it perfect making.
Yes teachers deserve a holiday but our contract says work is expected if necessary, that doesn't mean solid work for two weeks over xmas, but a day before and then two days between xmas and new year and then from 2nd jan-start of term should be enough. He is an NQT so, yes perhaps against an ideal world view of teaching workload, he should be putting the effort in and realise if he powers through this year then his life will be much easier going on. He sounds quite unprofessional emailing the day before term starts. If he didn't want to mark over the holidays he should have been thinking ahead last term of what needs doing for the first Monday back and making time last term.
Sounds like he is very disorganised and a last minute person. I can relate that this is a very frustrating thing to have a NQT struggling with as if they aren't naturally organised, it is very hard to train them to be and they can sometimes not learn from previous disasters and do it again and again. I've learnt to try and flag them early and put in strict plans of when they do what, ask them to show me their plans at set times and teach them to cut corners. (I do this in a positive, supportive, friendly manner, I realise I sound like a dragon!!).
I'd suggest a working day timetable, say it is optional but the best way to get himself on track and you'd like him to try it out (if he goes against it then he is not being receptive to help and it is an underlying laziness/attitude issue). Try and make sure he has mopped up this overload so that it doesn't drag into the new term making him constantly behind.
I do often find what defines a good NQT is excellent organisation (i.e. having the balance between having everything ready and prepared well in advance but not over-thinking and spending too long on everything), once you have that you are a long way ahead and able to focus on improving other areas.
Good luck!!

I am prevaricating over some marking right now, but that's because I couldn't be arsed to do it at the end of last term. My choice.

I feel a bit sorry for anyone who is trained in one area of education and then plunged into another for their first year. I also totally get the distraction tasks instead of getting on with marking (see above...)

I think you need to be prepared to answer why his misunderstanding of the assessment schedule has only just come to light. Do you centrally record the results of assessments? He is half a term late with his classes.

I think encouraging him to keep a timesheet is a good idea. And he needs an honest conversation about how things are going, because if this is going the way of failing him/capability, he needs to be taking advice.

Philoslophy - I think what most people have suggested is that he use the time he is already in school more productively, rather than necessarily work hols or weekends. I agree that a week to mark assessments is tight, but surely most schools have deadlines for such things?

I totally agree that he should be using his time more productively . I timetable by time strictly between 7am and 6pm in school and then have a timetable for my evening work .

We do have a two week turnaround on assessments .

There have been a number of comments about expecting teachers to work in their holiday .

The danger with the "fulfilling duties in reasonable hours" is that that it can mean giving an unreasonable number of "duties" and then telling teachers to get on with it. We should look at the time that teachers have and ask what is a reasonable expectation within that time.

I completely agree, but it doesn't sound like he's being asked to do anything unreasonable.

therefore has ran out of time for year 7
OP - are you really a secondary English teachers? [shocked].