Last few weeks of my PGCE and I am so tired - how will I cope next year as an NQT

[SarfEast1cated]

I have a DD 10yrs, and my DH works fulltime but can drop off and pick up quite often. I get to school at 7am and leave at 6.45. I am teaching full time, but just can't find to get everything done - marking, planning - it all takes more time than I have and I keep dropping the ball on lots of things (guided reading preparation for eg). (each 1 hour lesson takes at least 1.5 hrs to plan and mark to a decent standard). I have no idea how I'm going to cope at my new job in an Ofsted Outstanding school. I feel if I worked 3 days a week I would be able to get it all done in 5 days, but can't afford not to be full-time. How am I going to make it work?

Will you have a year group partner to plan with or are plans in place to adapt? That always makes a big difference.
Guided reading there are books you can use with differentiated questioning.. We use reading explorers.
I did 0.6 and that was busy enough so fair play for doing full time.

Because the more you do it, the quicker you will get at planning. Again, with experience you will get quicker at marking. You will get quicker at everything else too. Hopefully the school you are going to has plans already in place for your year group and/or a year group partner you can plan with this year. My saviour as an NQT in a 2 form entry school was planning the history and delivering it to two classes while my year group partner did the geography. The PPA teacher doing the science for the other class shared all her planning and resources with me too.

If you've got this far you'll already be hyper organised. Don't forget tricks like planning an oral English lesson or practical Maths lesson on days when you have 2 sets of foundation subject books to mark in the afternoon. Don't give yourself 4 sets of books to mark on staff meeting day.

Above all else, get a really, really good break over the summer. When I went in to meet my mentor/year group partner in the July before I started my NQT year, I asked her what I should do over the summer. She looked at me as if I was strange and told me to get a good rest. Such good advice! (Other gems from her included don't plan anything until you've got to know the children as you'll only end up re-planning anyway and it will be a lot quicker when you know the children you are planning for. She did enough to get through the first week and then shut herself away the first weekend of term to sort everything else. And don't go in the staffroom in the last week of term as everyone is tired and is likely to say things they regret. A very sensible woman!!)

Lower your standards. You aren't scrutinised as much as you were in your PGCE year so can get away with the odd lazy lesson. Get yourself on twitter, follow some primary teachers who tweet resources and steal as much from other people as possible.

This time of year is always difficult, but being 'the student' is very hard. Everything you are doing is scrutinised and you have your uni work on top of it.

I would be far more worried about students who assumed they were going to breeze in and life would be peachy :)

My NQT year was hard but a million times easier and more enjoyable than PGCE year.

An outstanding school is very often a great place to work because it means the systems are in place and can mean you actually work less because teaching quality is good so you have support, planning in place, good management etc.

You can do it. It does get a lot easier after NQT year.

I am just going into the final week of my PGCE and I feel exactly the same - I am on my knees! My mentor has said that I just need to take it a half term (or even a week) at a time. Obviously she doesn't mean not to plan ahead but thinking about what we need to do over the next year is scary! We'll get there though and it gets easier after that.

Congratulations on getting through the PGCE and finding a job - enjoy that for a bit before you start worrying about next year (and I will try to follow that advice too).

Thanks everyone, you've made me feel a lot better, especially your comment about the 'outstanding' school being organised Samoa! I will keep my fingers crossed that when I turn up they'll be a term full of plans waiting for me!
I loved this comment too icecream 'don't plan anything until you've got to know the children as you'll only end up re-planning anyway and it will be a lot quicker when you know the children you are planning for' very good point.
Lichfield I'm a mature student too, so look like I should be an experienced teacher as well.
Nobel good idea - any names of people I should follow? I have lowered my expectations and am no longer hoping for 'outstanding'. A good (and being mainly sane) will be fine for me!
Maya well done us!
Maya

DS is just coming to the end of his NQT year in an outstanding secondary. He found the first half term pretty tough but realised this was completely normal. Since then he has enjoyed it more and more as he has become more familiar with the way things work in the school. He has also built up a good friendship group.

Good luck in your new job, you'll be fine

The most important thing is to make the children and their parents have confidence in you so lots of feedback and firm but fair rules. There will be set stuff to do that is already planned. Also, don't try and be brilliant at everything so my first year (secondary) my key thing was getting my teaching of year 11 an 10 right. As well as year 7. The next year, having got those sorted, focussed on year 9 and 8. It is much better than being a student, honestly.

You will have a bit more time because you won't be doing all the uni essay stuff.

Hopefully you'll have some repeat lessons so it won't be like planning 23 lessons a week. School may be well resourced with plans you can adapt. Make sure you're not marking any more than you need.
Try and mark maybe 1/4 of the classes books in lesson (as in go around and mark while they work).
It won't be easy but it will be fine. Good luck!

Also remember that for PGCE you are planning for both yourself and others to see - as your file can be scrutinised at any point.

Depending on the school, you are usually only planning for your own information / to clarify your own thought process (and may well be building on school-supplied medium term or even detailed planning) so the need to document every detail is much less.

Have you been into your new school yet? Have they given you Medium Term or longer term plans already in place, or could they do so0? Is it a 1-form entry or will there be a year group team?

As a mature NQT, I found that the only way i could survive was by being super-organised in the holidays, so anything that could be planned in advance - e.g. topic, science, art / dt - were planned a half term at least in advance by the end of the holiday, and then tweaked as needed. that then meant that the things I needed to plan week by week - Maths / English - could be done as weekly plans each weekend. (You will not be able to do it during the working week, at least at first)

Good luck!