I've made a terrible mistake

[Serena1977]

I'll be an ect2 in Sept and have a new job. Current job was maternity leave contract.

Met with head, deputy and buddy teacher (2 form entry) for the first time since interview.

They were so negative. Class has behavioural issues and are very low ability for their year they said. Reading and writing is a car crash and asked me on the spot what I will do about it. Bombarded me with statistics. Allocated an extracurricular club to me.

Then the buddy teacher asked me to plan/resource 3 lessons for transition day (on top of my obligations to my current school) and showed me the blank planning document that should be filled in. Each lesson needs a very lengthy, prescriptive planning document. Step by step, slide by slide. Previous ones are not tweaked but need to be redone every year. The paperwork is massive. Buddy teacher said if I can manage and make it here you can cope with any school.

I cried all the way home.

Since then, I have a feeling of dread and doom.

What the hell am I gonna do?

See how it goes but be prepared to resign at half term (October) and move on if you really find it unbearable.

As an ECT you'll be in demand. At this point with a new teacher Schools are still in the honeymoon phase trying to convince their new recruit how great they are. So the fact that they're that bad straight away isn't a great sign.
I think you probably could tell them it isn't for you and not even start there and still manage to get a long term supply position but that's a gamble.
The safer option though less fair on the school is to start, do your best but look for new jobs almost straight away.

I'm so sorry you have had such an awful introduction to your new job 😥

I agree with others - start, do the best you can, but job hunt for January. It sounds an awful place to work.

Look for another job now for September. You need to look after number 1.

Don't panic.

The fact that they're upfront is no bad thing - they're being honest with you about the challenges in this class and giving you the opportunity to prepare yourself for it before September. Giving you statistics is them having evidence to back up what they're saying about the needs of this class and helping to give you a picture of what to expect. Again, no bad thing.

Allocating you an extracurricular club is perfectly normal and not unreasonable in the slightest. You can't expect to start a new school and not do anything outside of classroom teaching just because you're newly qualified.

Starting any new school is going to be an adjustment and hard work for even the most experienced teachers. It does often feel overwhelming at first, but once you start you work out the shortcuts and ways around things. I very much doubt anyone in that school is writing detailed lesson plans from scratch for every single lesson. They wouldn't have time. There will be a lot of copying and pasting and reusing of last year's plans, which you'll soon get the hang of.

Try not to imagine the worst, go in with an open mind and see how you get on. If it's really as awful as you fear, you can hand in your notice immediately and be gone by Christmas, or even at half term if you're able to negotiate that with the school. However, you may be surprised and end up really liking it. You just don't know until you start. I've often been wrong with my first impressions of a school - usually the ones who tell you how wonderful they are and spin a picture of how supportive and lovely the SLT are end up being the worst!

Excellent post from @EnidSpyton. It really is a good thing that they have been upfront with you about the challenges in the class, even if it doesn't feel like it now. Absolute worst case scenario, you resign at half term to leave at Christmas; start in September with an open mind.

Thank you all for replying.

I'm feeling a lot more positive now I've had the weekend to digest all the new information and start preparing.

Everything Enid said!

You also learn a heck of a lot from such a school and class - and very quickly too! I did 1 year in a similar sounding environment, hated it and was ready to leave.by the end of September, but I stuck it out for the full year and have no idea how as it very nearly broke me. Learnt so much about teaching, challenging classes, and also about my own resilience that year. It was quite refreshing to look back and reflect when I left.

Be open minded and start positive. Find your people to help you through. Good luck

They must think you are the right person for the job though to make a positive impact as not all Heads would give a new recruit a challenging class like that…. But it is a perfect opportunity to show what you can do. I am all surprised that they’ve given you an extracurricular club though because I would think they’d like your focus to be the class and turning that around.

Lessons for transition day? We’ve never done lessons on that day. It’s more of the class to get to know the new teacher and vice versa - few activities and telling the pupils what they’ll be learning in September.

Try to make the most of it, but be prepared to resign at October half term. I don’t understand the Transition day planning though, are you going to be in for it? Are they paying you for it? You aren’t employed by them yet, so they can’t ask you to work for free. If you’re in for it, they should really provide you with plans, given that you don’t worK for them yet. I admit I am secondary, so I’ve no idea really how primary transition days work, but this can’t be reasonable, surely?

@Hayliebells
My current school are billing them for my salary for the 3 days which they agreed to pay.

The lessons are for me to see where they are at in times in terms of ability. A good idea in principle but a lot of work for me. I still need to plan/prep for the cover teacher for my own class.

Ah, as it's your current school who aren't paying you for those three days, you don't set the cover work.