May Log

It’s May and that faithful week of SATs came for years 2 and 6. I had the pleasure of being one of the members of staff to invigilate a couple of the tests and it was so reassuring to see them all taking it so seriously and working hard. Other to that May has been quite a chilled month, as well as a day trip to Gordon Brown with my class we also had Sports Day. The summer terms are so much different to the earlier terms, not only does the weather make daily duty a more blissful time, but by summer term your rounding up the year and finishing off, all things are set in place as they will be until the end of the year. At least it feels that way. Just this week I had time to work on the Macbeth themed room, across the corridor from my class, which has been quite fun and, I’m excited about how it will look when it’s complete. The class has been allocated their section of Macbeth that they are to perform for the Shakespeare competition, and it’s now just getting them to rehearse and perfect it. There are some strong actors in the group and it looks like it is coming together well. I had the opportunity to rehearse with those who have speaking parts and it was a pleasure! I miss being involved in drama, and to see the progress of these year 5’s acting after just half an hour with them is amazing! The more they practice the better they’ll become and I really hope I can lead rehearsals again!

This month I’ve also taught again, this time it was the Grammar starter for twenty minutes. It was great to have another go at leading the class, and this time I felt more confident in leading. However, I have to be conscious of time, as it goes so quickly. Since we have Grammar after break, it can often take the pupils some time to settle down before we can get to work. I had prepared some sentences for them to label whether they were simple, compound or complex sentences. For the extension task they would have to modify the sentence to be a different type of sentence. I thought I made my instructions clear, however when they started the task, a lot of them were writing out the whole sentence before labelling what type of sentence  it was. So in 20 minutes a lot of them were unable to finish the task even though I think they understood it.

My Netball team accomplished their first win this month! They all as players just keep developing. After their first game the other coaches and I decided the team would benefit from having set positions from now on, based on their strengths and it has certainly paid off! They’re all working at their best which benefits them as a team, we even know are most effective combinations. So hopefully we can start to arrange more games. Now the weather is a lot brighter we’ve been training outside too, which they have absolutely loved, and it also gives them a better feel for when they play on real sized courts in games. 

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April Log

So we’re now less than 3 months until the end of my placement! As well as celebrating my birthday in April, just a week I also had my debut of leading the class! I taught maths starter for 20 minutes. After liaising with the class teacher we both agreed it would be a great opportunity for me to gain experience in actually leading part of a lesson. I based it on the topic they were doing earlier that week which was negative numbers, by having an online interactive activity to do with temperature and thermometers. I was quite nervous at first but knowing the class, and them knowing me, gave me a touch of confidence, as they had a rather excited reaction when the class teacher told them I would be teaching the starter. Teaching the starter was an interesting experience, it felt so different to be working from the front of the class rather than from the back or sitting amongst the children’s tables. Usually being the extra pair of eyes in the class you can spot ever so easily when a child is distracted, but trying to keep an eye out for that, at the same time as giving a good delivery to the eyes and faces peering at you takes some serious multitasking! Having the kids already know about the topic, was a definite help, because it meant that it was an activity they would feel comfortable and confident having a go at, even if I hadn’t explained it clearly, having done negative number related work over the past couple days. I think the real task would be teaching a new topic from scratch, where the delivery would need to be clear and accurate for them to be able to grasp the idea and learn from me. However, before I do that I plan to teach a starter again, perhaps in Grammar. The feedback from the teacher was really helpful so hopefully I can improve next time.

The LSA’s and staff had training on Science this month which was quite a fun and interactive session, with lots of sorting and questions to get your brain going. It tackled a lot of statements we make that might not be scientifically true and reminded us of the importance of using the correct language with children to make them understand. Sometimes it was statements you wouldn’t think twice about like leaving the children to believe that the sugar disappears when put in hot tea, when really it dissolves and doesn’t disappear because it’s still there!

I've also been making a real push this term to be more cosistent with those I take out for Interventions or IEPs (Individual Learning Plans). Even leading those kind of sessions contribute to my experience and growth in delivering to the whole class. It's also been amazing to have that consistency with the kids knowing the routine of coming out of class with me and the expectations I have when working with them. It's nice to know that entering the final parts of my placement I'm still taking steps to build and develop on what I'm learning.

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March Log

The Girls' at Hampstead School for the Maths competition

So the month of March has just flown by! The girls I accompanied to the Maths competition on International Women’s Day, did well coming half way up the rankings, 12^th out of 24 teams. It was definitely an experience, as it was not at all what I had imagined. Once the competition started, as the supervising teacher we had to be mixed up as to which school we were working with, you would be the ‘go to’ person for another school’s team during the rounds and mark that schools answers at the end of the round. It was only in between and at breaks that I really got to find out how my girls were doing. However I still enjoyed it, it was a nice day out with some excellent students, it was nice to see teams of girls enthusiastic about learning wrecking their brains to try and get the answers to these difficult questions way beyond their level, and actually succeeding. I had the proud privilege of presenting the participation certificates to the girls from our school in the Celebration Assembly the following week.

Year 5 and 6 Girls Team of HPS feeling triumphant at the Maths competition

Presenting the certificates to the Girls' in Celebration Assembly

Something I really do enjoy about the job is that although you have a routine that you follow each day is different from the last. Whether it’s what the children are learning, something new or a continuation, or when they have a fun day, you have a fun day too! To celebrate ‘World Book Day’, Harlesden primary had a Fairy-tale and Disney Day! All the children had to come dressed as fairy-tale characters and so did the staff! I came as Esmerelda for ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and although I didn’t rip the runway in the final Assembly like the Children and some of the other staff did, I had a whale of a time as one of the judges of the competition.

This month the Year 5 class I’m working also started their work on Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’! We went to watch a performance of it at Salisbury school in Queen’s Park, where a couple of the schools involved with the Shakespeare Company competition watched also. Last year’s Year 5’s at Harlesden were winners with ‘Hamlet’ so we’ll have to see if this year’s Year 5’s can do the same. As a Literature student myself who has studied this play, time and again, I was very excited about the class starting Macbeth! My excitement seemed to rub off on the class although after watching it, although they enjoyed it, they couldn’t understand the level of enthusiasm I had for the play, although it seems to be growing. They had a workshop on the opening scenes at Harlesden Library the same week, and on the last week of term had an actor come in to do a workshop with them as well. So with most of their first interactions with ‘Macbeth’ being active lessons, it’s a great foundation and introduction to Shakespeare which by the current look of High school curriculum will benefit them in the future. I can’t wait to see what they get to produce this term. The class teacher encourage us as adults to get involved with the workshops the actor runs and that has been so much for me. I think part of the thrill is that I have a confidence in the knowledge I have about Shakespeare, drama and the actual play! So I feel happy to help them understand and educate them about an area of Literature I love studying myself!   

 Year 5 Macbeth Workshop at Harlesden Library 

'The Witches' First encounter with 'Macbeth' and  'Banquo' 

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February Log

The further I get into my placement the quicker it seems to go! Just coming back from a half term holidays, we've now have a four week term up until Easter. Before the half term I had my progress review with Sarah Wawn (Acting Headteacher) who met up with the Class teacher I'm working with to assess me. It went a lot better than I could've imagined with lots of 4's and even some 5's for outstanding! Working in a school can be quite manic! Your role is never black and white and you sometimes wonder whether you're prioritising correctly. It was good to have reassurance that I'm making progress and doing well.

When talking with Sarah we also spoke about a possible switch into Key Stage 1 for one or two weeks just to get some experience working with slightly younger kids. We also spoke about me spending two weeks in a high school to get some experience there, but it would have to arranged by myself and just confirmed with her, so hopefully I can start looking into that.

At the beginning of the month in one of our Support staff meetings we had an awareness session on FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). It is now law that staff working in schools in the UK have awareness training as it is quite popular in some cultures for it to be performed on girls as young as five years old, even though in a lot of the countries they go to in order to have it done it is illegal. It is a violation of child protection, and as weighty as the topic was, I think it was necessary that we were informed about it and the procedures and steps to take if we ever suspect something. It was another wakeup call about how working in school or with children and young people, you really do have a huge responsibility to them.

During my half term holiday, I took a trip to Canterbury back to my university where it seemed almost like a different world. I met up with my academic advisor who reassured me that I would soon get back into the swing of studying next year, and we had a brief conversation about module selection. My modules for my final year have to be selected near the end of March. So soon I will have to start looking into which ones I want to choose. It was another reminder of how quickly my placement is going and will all be coming to an end soon.

Until then I plan to do all I can to make this placement an experience I will have no regrets about. I recently accepted the challenge to train the top 3 girls in Maths years 5&6 for a maths competition next month. Although they haven’t got much time with the competition taking place on 8^th March on International Women’s Day, we plan to try and work through the practice questions and do the best that we can. The competition is being hosted by Hampstead High School whose students I believe will also have a go at the challenge. Looking at questions it has been challenging for even me to do them, having been away from looking at this level of Maths and logic questions for so long, but hopefully they’ll do okay. I'll let you know in my next entry how it went! 

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January Log

So after two weeks of a Christmas break (for which of the most part I was ill with a bug), I was back at Harlesden Primary for a new term. However this term was off to an odd start; since my class had not only lost their support teacher, but for the first two weeks of term their class teacher was away on a placement as well, which meant they had a supply teacher. The thought of a class of about thirty nine to ten year olds who had been out of routine school routine for two weeks, settling back down into routine smoothly under a person who they don’t know and doesn’t know them (having only taught them one afternoon before) was a myth. If you’ve ever had a supply teacher at school, you know the initial situation. The students automatically assume their greater knowledge of the school enables them to take advantage of this new supply teacher. As a result these first two weeks demanded a lot more from me as the classes LSA. I was forced to step up my game on controlling and disciplining the class which allowed me to see how vital my time, knowledge and with relationship with the students were. They knew I had knowledge of what their rules were, and the sanctions that followed if they didn’t follow them. I knew their routine and rewards systems, do’s and don’ts, which the supply teacher to some degree would have rely on to get by and not be led astray by the kids. My knowledge and influence over the class made me feel very responsible, but I support and cooperation was there. It was a relief and funny to see the class straighten out drastically due to someone else’s words on the surprise return of their class teacher to take them to their first swimming lesson.

As it is their year groups turn for swimming this term, each week, we escort the class to Willesden Sports Centre where they have their lesson. The routine is quite a drilling one which consists of the children being whisked away from the playground before the end of lunch to do a quick afternoon registration, before quickly trooping out the school to board the coach or school bus and be on our way. As I do the second shift lunchtime supervision, this means that on that Tuesday I will held to round up my class early to go up to class to register and leave the playground as soon as the bell rings to get my bags and be ready to leave with my class. Initially leaving go register after lunch and then leave was taking too long, and the class were getting to their swimming lesson late, giving them less time, but it has been under adaptation ever since and appears now to be working well! I do miss my fifteen minutes of break after my lunch duty, but the class teacher is forever encouraging me to take it on our return or later, although I never manage or see fit on our return to school to take it. The window to the poolside in the sports centre café proves to be nice, calm break from the fast pace hectic school environment anyway which suffices I suppose.

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