Started the placement of my dreams 1st day was awful help!

[Peonysandblueglass]

I am in my penultimate year of a primary teaching degree, I have been doing very well and have been enjoying all aspects of my course. My placement mentors always tell me to let them know when I have qualified because they would consider me for a job.
I competed against other students to get an SEN placement and was one of the lucky ones.
Today I turned up at a SEN school. My mentor has never mentored before, she is only 22 years old (I am 30)
She ignored me for most of the day.
I made a list of all of the unfortunate aspects of today

Uni only gave us a 20 minute preparation lecture for SEN (we were promised 2 hours.

my tutor wouldn't sign application form so office visibly and audibly impatient and annoyed with me.

Mentor not able to spend much time with me.

My tutor from uni did not email me back or answer phone when trying to sort out application form.

No one was there to greet me then receptionist was cross with me
for not seeing her when the head had shown me around.

At end of day when asking mentor for time she didn't listen continued to fill out form.

Photocopier was broken so couldn't take copies of class assessment and tracking to prep for next week.

Asked to sit on carpet outside of room with a child on my own so child could play on iPad.

Waited for meeting to start for an hour after school day ended, told that.

Went to planning meeting not 1 teacher present all TA's gossiping Me and only 3 others out of about 10 contributed to ideas, including me, sign language lesson had people making rude obscene jokes about the sign for prostitute.

Sat in staff room alone.

No one there in the am to tell me about signing in or out.

Mentor went to teacher staff meeting but wanted me to go to TA meeting.

Feel unhappy about the direction of the placement.

Mentor took no interest in her role, hardly taught, children watched Youtube music videos for the vast majority of the day.

A child came in in the morning and 2 TA's made rude remarks about the fact that she came in in socks and sandals.

Teacher not in room for most of day mainly due to 1:1 with very poorly boy.

ICT not 1 child was listening.

How canI cover learning objectives, e.g meet TS when I'm only teaching 1st week mentor not there on Thursday or Friday so how can she mark my weekly review against the teacher standards?

Has anyone else had bad placement experiences?

Excuse errors (on iPhone)

How annoying. They should be treating you like an equal member of staff. Have you spoken to the uni? Surely your UT or someone should be able to have a word?

As for lack of preparation by university, unfortunately sometimes the deep end is the only option. I've just started my PGCE masters level research with next to no preparation other than a list of terms associated with research (empirical, methodology etc) with no explanation. (still have to dictionary most of them!)

I would have a serious chat with tutor and/or course leader. I'm sure they would rather know your concerns. Maybe give it a week, compile a list of problems then have a word.

Best of luck!

Hi. Sorry you have had a bad day. Tomorrow might be a whole lot better. If it isn't remember that you just have to stick the placement for a short time.

However, I do feel that some of the things on your list are a bit precious (sorry).

I dont know exactly what a SEN school entails but I can imagine it is very different in atmosphere and expectations than another setting. Perhaps you should stand back a bit and just take it in for a few days before judging. I say this because I was very judgy when I saw my mentor making cups of tea for a bottom set class once many moons ago and god forbid not doing any learning. However I feel like a right tit looking back because they were learning social skills and were forming a relationship with the teacher. So it was just a one off treat lesson.

ict not one child was listening - perhaps but there could be a million reasons why not. Could you honestly do better?

ta meeting - perhaps the school wanted you to meet and form relationships with these colleagues and understand their role? Its not a slur on you being asked to attend its an opportunity. Well done for mucking in with ideas though.

Also the staff might be bitchy and cliquey (?) But they also might warm to you after a bit. Try the good old compliments and biscuits method.

the bit of your post that is important is the mentor not having time for you /not being timetabled with you. This is vital. You need the support to succeed in your placement. Keep a diary of all problems (reasonable ones) and keep in regular contact with your uni tutor. It might be that the teacher was ultra busy today, problems in home life etc, didn't want to be a mentor you never know til you've given it a few weeks).

I havent been intentionally harsh here and I really hope it improves for you. Keep us updated?

That is annoying. Don't have much advice but you're not alone with the bad experiences. I did the GTP - don't know what the equivalent is now - and was in at the deep end from day 1. However, the school didn't do what most of the schools with GTP students did, ie allow them to observe lessons, then help out, then teach part lessons, then whole lessons with another teacher present. Oh no. My school thought, great, we have a GTP student, ergo we don't need anyone to do maternity cover for Miss X. So I had a timetable of classes to teach (albeit not a full timetable as Miss X was also head of 6th form so had fewer teaching hours due to her other responsibilities). I didn't have a clue what I was doing. One class of 30 had ten children with SEN, including a blind child and 3 with autism (!) and I had them 3 x a week on my own, though occasionally a TA would show up specifically to help one child who was more severely autistic. Also had a Yr9 bottom set 3 x a week - fewer pupils, though half of them turned up hungover or stoned and the other staff just said 'Be grateful they're in school at all!' I felt totally unsupported and left the school after a term. Had I had the support I was supposed to have, I probably would have stuck at teaching, but I felt like I was headed for a breakdown so I quit.

Chat to your university tutors, but as others say, give it another few days just in case that isn't the norm.

Doesn't sound like your too keen on TA's.
Maybe they need to natter, gossip, giggle, to get through trying days.

Teacher not in room for most of day mainly due to 1:1 with very poorly boy. Sometimes things like his happen in schools!

Thanks for perspective, I think I was just panicking a bit and totally understand that some days are just bad.
I did really like the TA's, they were very friendly to me but were giving me many instructions I need to be working with my mentor so Im ready to do the teaching that uni expects and that i need jn order to pass my course.
Im back in for a four week block on monday and am really lOoking forward to going in with a fresh, resilient anc positive attitude and just getting through it.
I think my expectations were too high because my last placement was one of thr happiest/busiest times of my life!
Ill let you know how I get on. Thanks.

Good luck next week, would love to hear how it goes.

It does sound like a tough placement, please don't see the TA's in too bad a light, most of us totally adore the children we are priviledge to work with and will willingly and happily do anything to support our teachers.

Do ask for what you need, TA's are driven by a desire to help, no task to small, one of my teachers said yes this week when I asked her if she'd like me to bring a coffee down to her, (SAT's week - teachers drained) I was so pleased she said yes, normally she says no as she is very respectful and would hate to take advantage in any way - I felt great to be needed.

TA's wont generally have a PGCE so wont know what paper-work you need, but ask them to talk about interventions they run and you'll soon be inundated with heaps of information from Access to Maths data through to Precision Teaching graphs, exemplars of children's work IEP's etc

And most of all enjoy - sitting on the floor with a child and an ipad ? Seize the day ! it could be the greatest half hour of that child's day, bring it to life for them, throw yourself into the child's world, its' a great place to be.