Trying to work with inexperienced teachers without looking like an arsey old biddy

[MollyYehYehYeh]

I have been teaching P1 (sort of equivalent to English Reception classes) for the last five years, but I'll be moving to P2 in August. That's fine.

However, the teacher who has been allocated P1 is clueless- e.g. at the induction session, with 25 totally unknown four year olds and one TA, she planned a ridiculously complicated series of stations which included independent finger painting

The HT came to me and asked why I didn't advise her differently... she didn't come to ask me and I feel it's not my place to ask her- I'm not promoted or anything.

She is very enthusiastic and did put a lot of effort into what she planned.

Actually as I'm typing this I feel more and more like it isn't my job to be mentoring her, so any advice along this line would be great

New teachers need to learn from their own mistakes. If you see anything dangerous then intervene by all means, otherwise just offer an open ear and the new colleague might ask you for advice next time.

Let her know that mistakes happen and are ok but that you are happy to be a sounding board if she wants. Having a more experienced person around who can offer a helpful ear without judging is so useful but it hard to get the balance right.

You are not her mentor, but the head should either think of someone who could formally support her, be the one who points out what’s going to go wrong, or just roll with it and hope she’s a fast learner.
I’m an old, experienced teacher. I tend to offer support and suggestions when asked, or when necessary. But only once on any subject, and I never go down the ‘I told you so’ route, thereby hopefully avoiding nagging and smugness.
Teaching is largely about learning on the job, adapting as you go. Those of us that have been doing it longer than 5 years are a dwindling minority.

My ancient colleagues (including myself) have found that new teachers are not interested in advice from old farts like us. I once had a teacher with 3 weeks' experience tell me that the groupings I had passed on to her were all wrong and she would need to reassess all the children. Needless to say she didn't get any job at our school in the future!

New teachers should learn from their mistakes, but I'm also of the view that it takes a village.

New teachers are increasingly coming through thinking they should be a completed teacher in their NQT year and worry thay asking for help makes them look rubbish, the whole fake it til you make it thing. Others are arrogant and think they know it all and are going to save the world as a teaching superhero who knows it all.

They need to hear advice and input from experienced colleagues because they're still on a rapid learning curve. The former tend to be open to the support and grateful. The latter are cocky pains in the arses who'll either leave or find themself on SLT by 25 because they are good at hot air.

The key is sharing and advising without making them feel small and being there with a cuppa if they try something and it falls flat and their confidence is down.

Is she an NQT, or just someone moving from another year?

If she is an NQT, then presumably the school will allocate a mentor ?

Usually, an NQT (or indeed anyone new to Reception / P1) is given a pretty experienced TA, who will help them along their way, hasn't that happened?

For most staff, they don't really want the teacher who has moved out of the job that they are doing, sticking their oar in all the time (I think that would apply to anyone doing a new job, tbh).