First year in Y6 - advice?

[BettyCrockaShit]

Hi all,

I've recently completed my teacher training and have been placed in Y6 for my NQT year (my final placement was in Y5). This has prompted some pretty polarised opinions among teacher friends of mine - some say it'll be fine, others predict it'll be the most stressful year of my life.

Any potential pitfalls/tips I should be looking out for that I may not know about?

You will be fine. The most important thing is for you to be really organised but there are a few key things to remember:

It's not all about SATs although it might feel like it.
You need to ensure that you teach a balanced curriculum. If you go in too heavy on SATs or SATs prep, the children will switch off. It's about preparing them whilst not making it the main focus of the year. Some Year Six teachers elect to start sending home exams quite early in the year and I'd actively advise against that (actually I'd advise against sending exams home at all).

Gap filling
You need to be really confident with what the children should already know. You will find that there are always noticeable gaps in their knowledge and you will need to fill relatively quickly so that you can teach the Year Six content.

Independent Writing
The writing that you use to assess the children must be entirely independent and any corrections or editations must come from the children. This means that they need to be trained to take responsibility for this very early on in the year as you will only be able to give limited feedback from the midpoint of the year onwards. They also need to know what they are expected to include so that they can ensure they do.

Top of the school
The children will be seen as the role models of the school and will be used as such. You will often be asked to volunteer children to help at different events or with different tasks. This is great for them but can be frustrating if it means they are pulled out of half of a maths lesson that you know they need.

Thanks so much for sharing your ideas @Iamnotthe1. All really helpful points I'll be taking with me in September!