Hello,
I'm just coming on here for some advice to do with workload. I'm an ECT1 and have just started my first full time position as a Psychology teacher and am finding the workload really difficult to manage. I knew it would be hard, but this is beyond anything I experienced on PGCE.
At interview I was honest that on my PGCE I had only taught A-Level Psychology and was willing but not very confident in teaching GCSE Psychology or other subjects. I was reassured that they would provide me with plenty of support to help me develop in those areas once I started.
When I started, I was told on the first day (inset) that all new staff would be contacted about completing induction but this never happened and so I just had to try to learn everything through asking around. My second day I was handed a year 9 form & asked to do induction all day till the end of the week with only a printed off powerpoint slide as guidance for what to do with them.
I was given my timetable which only had only 3 lessons of A-Level Psychology (shared with another teacher), whilst the rest was GCSE and Health & Social. I also noticed that I had Y9 psychology. Since psychology isn't a subject typically taught at Y9, I asked what resources they had from last year that I could use or adapt and was told they'd never run Y9 psychology before and that the only resources they had were 16 lessons from a social science combined course they'd run with year 9 before. I asked what they'd like me to do and they just said to try centring things around the GCSE but not to worry as Y9 wasn't examined anyway. This still means though that I'm singlehandedly producing almost the entire Y9 curriculum as I'm the only one teaching Y9 Psych.
As well as having a y10 health & social class, I was also put onto Y11 health & social despite never having studied or taught the subject before. We're currently 4 weeks in and I've taught them as best as I can despite having no knowledge but luckily they're going to be taken off me next week as it turns out they timetabled me beyond my ECT hours. Since I haven't been told about what my hours should be and haven't seen my contract yet, I didn't realise until my head of department happened to look at my timetable, realised I had Y11 and was over my hours and went to fix it for me.
I also supervise an hour of Y12 and an hour of Y13 health & social per week. I was told this would just be supervision as they complete coursework but this week 10 minutes before I was about to go into my Y12's I was stopped and told that the class would be taken off my timetable and instead I needed to teach a double lesson of A-Level psychology and that I would be picking up the remaining lessons of my shared class. They asked me if I was okay with it and for fear of them putting something else on my timetable and missing out on teaching A-Level Psychology which I'm most confident in, I agreed to teach the lesson. This has put me well over my hours this week as I'm still teaching Y11 health & social.
I've also been told that my Y13 health & social I was meant to supervise will now be a ucas session where I will be responsible for teaching students to write personal statements, collecting references & signing off their ucas applications. I feel really burdened by the responsibility I have over getting these students who I barely know into university, being only 2 years out of university myself. The ucas lead in the school told management even before I knew I would be put onto it, that it wasn't suitable for an ECT 1 and that I shouldn't be on it but they basically said tough because the timetable is messed up and there's not enough staff. The timetable has been messed up since the start of term and 4 weeks in staff and students are still being moved around, seemingly with no notice. I constantly have students leaving and new students joining my classes without being told. Last week, 100 students were put on the same sports extracurricular at once whilst simultaneously there was a timetabled revision lesson with only one student.
I've also been put on two extra curricular lessons. One of which is a student community project for which the only guidance I've been given is an Ai-generated scheme of work and no resources and another is a gifted students class which I know very little about and am assisting another teacher with. I also have a research project for CPD I have to complete as well as an hours worth of ECT induction training and my weekly ECT meetings.
I don't know, everyone I seem to speak to seems like they're just as busy and overwhelmed but the message I keep being told is to "just ride the wave" and "it'll all settle by half term" but it really doesn't feel that way. I was told in my first week that it'll settle next week, then next week became the week after and the week after became half term. I'm just really struggling to balance it all at the moment. I haven't had a lunch or break since the start of term, and I'm working every evening and weekend and yet I still haven't managed to touch my marking. I was also told that the days when I'm teaching 3 lessons in a row, that someone would come to relieve me but I've asked twice and no one has come. It's especially hard since for the most part I'm teaching outside my specialism. But anyways rant over. Maybe it will settle in the end, I'll have to wait & see. thanks!