When does planning get easier?

[CuckooCuckooClock]

I'm in my third year now and still teaching loads of stuff for the first time and having to plan from scratch (well, tes) for most lessons.

I was talking to an experienced teacher recently and he was saying that his planning now is essentially one phrase like "the heart" for instance, and he has a bank of resources to select from and can just deliver the lesson.

When will this happen for me? I still feel like I have so much to learn and most of my lessons are a bit shit tbh because I'm still getting to grips with how it all fits together and which bits the kids really need to know and which bits they will struggle with.

If you're an experienced teacher, when did you start to feel like you had planning under control?

I know it's shit with no scheme.
My HoD plucks the rota out of mid air and with some classes I have 25 hours of content to fit into 10 hours and others I have 10 hours of content to teach in 25 hours.

When I worked in mainstream we used to get together as a department at lunchtime and after school most days. Coffee, biscuits, chat about the day, what was coming up, problems, successes... So useful. And we had fully resourced SoW for KS3 and KS4 (not A level). We divvied it all up and wrote them in gained time in the summer time. Revised every year.

We are wedded to Edexcel GCSEs, so we are using Pearson resource for KS3 (Exploring Science) and KS4.

I don’t use their lesson planning service (but it is good), but use their worksheets and assessment services. We have subscribed to Pearson Active Learn.

I’m really happy with it. It really cuts down on the time I spend on planning, and has resources to nudge students towards taking responsibility for their own learning.

So, sadly, the answer is it gets easier when you are in a good department. Because you then have time to plan well, thoughtfully, thinking about progression (so the same person would plan the same topic across both key stages) not get through the week.

Have you got another job yet, or are you just planning on moving schools?

I would suggest buying a scheme of work and some textbooks just to get you through to the summer.

I am really struggling to get my round the fact that you have neither a departmental scheme or work not a textbook. I wouldn’t know where to start.

I'm just planning on moving. Haven't applied for anything yet.
I don't think I can afford to buy a scheme and textbooks (won't that cost a fortune?)

thefallen
That sounds amazing. Do schools like that really exist? Sounds like a dream.

Ok, you need to start looking now - jobs for September are coming out and I know my school has already appointed a science teacher.

Look on TES for schemes of work, textbooks on EBay?

I have been looking for jobs but haven't found anything suitable yet. I only work 3 days a week because my dc are small.

Wrt schemes of work, in my school the dept will allocate a SOW to a member if staff to write for the whole dept, including creating ir linking to resources as needed. It's all then shared on the staff network. So basically, in a dept of 6, you write one SOW but get 5 done for you. You can then just adapt them to suit yourself and your classes.

What area of the country are you?? We always seem to need scientists! I can walk into ks3 and wing it but I just don't need to, in the past 3 years my faculty have rewritten ALL KS3, KS4 has been done as we go through it and KS5 was rewritten due to changes a couple of years ago. We have PP and there are textbooks but rarely use them (they are scruffy and have many penises drawn in them!!)
What happens if a student changes classes? How can you track progress without common teaching/assessment? How can you develop skills across units?? I'm all for personalisation and adaption but the core needs to be constant surely? What does your school say? Hod? I would start there, seems a huge waste of time for everyone to plan separately...could you make use of a TD day to centralise resources/lessons?? Do you have a shared area on school computers you could all share resources??

Most jobs will be advertised as full time but they might be prepared to offer part time if you contact them.

Sounds like you have a crap HOD. I'm not teaching full time in a secondary school any more but was HOD for 15 years across two different schools and we had a shared area on our network where all SOW and resources were kept and individuals could dip in and out. I actually quite enjoy planning, as it's creative, and I like that, but I got to the stage about 10 years ago where I basically had everything set up and was just tweaking as I go. Then I created new SOW because I was getting bored of them, and obviously had to develop new stuff for KS4 and KS5 as changes happened. But the point is, any other teacher coming into my dept would be able to access everything on the shared area and then use what was there for their own lessons. Last year, I had two non-specialists and a member of SLT teaching in my dept and all three used what was there. As a HOD it meant that I could keep track of what was going on, and that everyone in, say, Year 8, was getting the same content no matter who the teacher was, which made things easier when they got to KS4. I can't now imagine why a dept wouldn't want to work like that. My old colleague (the SLT one) is in a new school now and asked "what's your shared area like" at interview. She got this response -->

So in response to your question, OP, it depends on your HOD. Ideally, in the early stages of your career, someone should be giving you real, practical support with that!

We have dept. Assessments based on the lesson objectives at ks3 and on the exam spec at ks4 and ks5. The rota specifies which section of the spec we should teach and when the assessments are and students can move classes after an assessment.
I put all my resources on the shared drive but no one else does and I don't think anyone uses mine. They might but no one has ever said anything.

noble I have asked schools to consider part time (that's how I got this job - it was advertised at full time) but I think schools need to be desperate (like mine!) because part time is such hassle.

evil
Thanks. Yes HoD isn't great. He's new too so in fairness to him he has taken on a mess of a dept. he did say we would write sow in gained time this summer but in the mean time ......

noble I will look on tes for some sow. I'm loathe to spend my own money out of principle (and I took a big pay cut to become a teacher so still trying to be frugal) but I guess it'll make my life easier.

Gosh. That’s awful. I am a single person department, and teach across 11 year groups. When I started in my current job 3 years ago there was not a single SoW for any year group. I was expected to have these on the system within 3 weeks of starting, and we got inspected 5 weeks in. I have literally never been so stressed in my entire life. I purchased schemes of work for year groups and adapted them for the intranet etc. The expectation should be that if you break your arm and are off work for three weeks that supply should be able to come in and start from where you’ve stopped. I deviate from these all the time of course and am lucky that I don’t teach a core subject so have quite a lot of freedom, but they are all there. My assessment pieces for KS3 are fixed but everything else is flexible. I also plan lessons using a single word and in the car on the way to work. (10 years qualified)

Another here who thinks you're struggling because your HOD and team are awful and unsupportive.

Aim for a new school. Science teachers are rare gems.

I agree you need a new school.

One which shares resources on an effective shared area.

I plan my best lessons in the shower 😂 and have done since about 4/5 years in I’d say.

Thanks all. Reassuring that in a couple of years (hopefully) I should have a handle on the planning.
Have just ordered some better textbooks on the back of this thread so I can at least plan a few lessons around those.

Why on earth are teachers so protective of their lesson plans?
I have a DC doing teacher training. His first school had a database of lesson plans but at the current one it's every man for himself unless you are friends
It beggars belief that teachers all over the country are simultaneously planning the same lessons. No wonder the work load is so high with many hours a week of lesson planning. Why on earth isn't there a bank of lesson plans with access to everyone to use and tweak according to need?

qax
It depends on how organised the school is.

One of my training schools the guidance I had was 'teach shakespeare this term'. Staff picked all their own texts etc. Some benefits to ths but lots if downsides too.

At my last few schools we have had centrally planned schemes of work and banks of resources. We were/are expected to adapt to meet our classes. Lifting and teaching wasn't ideal (but we all valued the odd lesson of it to relieve workload pressures).
One school had bad schemes. Bad schemes in ny opinion are worse than no scheme. You end up with other people's crap planning, lazyeffort but then becaude it's the scheme you're expected to follow it so it's more work making a crap scheme decent than it is teaching from nothing

It takes time and effort to write a good scheme of work but it's worth it.

Sounds awful. There are better schools out there. We advertise almost all of our posts as suitable for full or part-time, but are also open to being asked. And we have SOW online which get rewritten on an ongoing basis, although KS3 has had to wait for a while because of the new GCSE and A level specs. But also, our teachers talk to each other, a quick word before a lesson, 15 minutes whilst eating a sarnie, after school meetings specifically designed to look at ways of teaching x for the nonspecialist within a Faculty. People share resources, links, quizzes, news reports. It's not perfect, but it sounds like it in comparison to your school. Do look for better (or come to us if you are in the South!

Qax,

It’s intellectual property.

There are plenty of rubbish lesson plans and resources in hyperspace. Sharing doesn’t mean quality. It is beggar’s belief how many spelling and grammar mistakes are on TES Resources.

A teacher is a professional and it is their personal responsibility that everything that goes out to students is of the highest standard.

I find creating resources from scratch is quicker than fixing the TES ones. I did worksheet creation on my PGCE in the pre-internet days, so I know I can do it!

I wouldn’t object to producing a bespoke worksheet, say, once a week. Any more than that would eat into the time I need for everything else.

Let me guess....independent school? Can’t see any state school getting away without a SOW and substantial evidence of planning.

Better luck with your next school!