Interview advice

[ginlover19]

Hi all, I have an interview in a small school soon. The lesson is to be delivered to a r/1 and 2 class. I need to plan an enrichment activity with opportunities for the children to use and apply ther knowledge and skills developed in english and maths sessions.

I'm a bit stuck as to what they mean by an enrichment activity? Anyone come across this before? Do they just mean a short activity?

Any help gratefully received!

Bump

Is it honestly a mixed class of reception, year 1 and 2? I've been teaching a long time and have never heard of this happening. I've never seen two mixed year groups though aware it happens sometimes. I personally would be wary about three age ranges in one class.

Yes it honestly is. The school is very small and only has two classes. I know lots of schools with three (or more!) year groups in their classes. It is not as unusual as you think.

Wow. I've been teaching for a long time in small schools (16 per class) and never experienced this!

I have experienced y 2/3/4 in the same class. Year 4/5/6. Also one school I do supply teaching in that has two classes n/r/1/2 and 3/4/5/6. Not sure how long these small schools will be allowed to continue with budget cuts.

There are two schools round here with YR/1/2 mixes-my colleague used to teach one such class. I have to say, she said it was a nightmare-especially trying to combine continuous provision with SATs!

That sounds like a nightmare!

Take them outside and do some team sports.
Divide into mixed teams and give them all a bean bag/ball or just stand in yes or no area.

Have some correct and incorrect answers based on maths sums/signs or some based on verbs or nouns ( depends what area of grammar punctuation they have covered)

They can work as teams to decide the correct placement of the bean bag or do it individually.

Bit like the old Runaround series.

They could even answer by putting the correct total of bean bags in the correct place if it is a maths answer.

You may wish to cover onomatopoeia through a story and then get the teams to make up their own story and sound them out. You could do this with musical instruments as well.

I think I'm really struggling with the 3 year groups to make it accessible to all.

I think I'm really struggling with the 3 year groups to make it accessible to all

I think that will be a problem with the job, not just the interview!

I supported a child in a school that had three classes that were R/Y1, Y2/3 and Y4/5/6. I could never get my head around the bottom class as technically it's two different curriculums, and also how the top class worked. I was in the middle class with the child so never got to experience the others.

I'm not so sure that is is very unusual. In Scotland in more rural areas it is seen a lot - all of the 12 primary schools in my area are small and have mixed year groups, sometimes 4 different stages in one classroom. Sorry I don't know what is meant by enrichment activities but good luck op. Many teachers embark on such roles so I'm sure if you're up for doing it you will be fine!

I'm not so sure that is is very unusual. In Scotland in more rural areas it is seen a lot

From what Scottish teachers post on here, things seem very different from a curriculum point of view there-maybe having mixed year groups is less of a Problem.

Just out of curiosity, do you know how long the previous post holders have been there?

I’m not sure it’s possible to deliver effective lessons across all 3 year groups simultaneously. The range of bottom of reception to top of year 2 must be huge. I think your issue here will be ensuring that all pupils make progress whilst doing the same activity.