Your NQT year is your first step into the big wide world of teaching, and many people find that their previously acquired teacher training routines quickly fly out of the window the moment their teaching load is increased. However, this does not need to be the case.I consider myself as a bit of an organisation and structure queen, so I thought I would share what my typical day as an NQT (and RQT) was like, and maybe there might be something in there that helps your days go a little bit smoother. Obviously, things do not always go to plan and you have to adapt, but I found that sticking to this routine stopped me from running around shouting “I’m late! I’m late!”
MONDAY
5:30 Alarm time! Obviously, if you don’t pile as much makeup onto your face as I do, you will be able to spend more time in that cosy bed of yours. I love waking up early because it means I always feel relaxed as it gets rid of that in-a-rush-panic that I can’t quite deal with. I’m also much more of a morning person than evening person, so figure out when you are most productive and make the most of that time.
6:45 Leave for work. I am lucky enough to live very close to my school so I walk to work. It allows me to clear my head before the day starts, but I also loved previous getting the train as I could tap away writing a to-do list on my phone or get lost in a book.
7:00 Arrive at school. I love getting to school early as I am a real morning person (hence the need to also be asleep by 9!). When I started my NQT year I got to work at 7:45, however as the girls are allowed into the form room at 8:00, 15 minutes of quiet wasn’t quite enough for me! Between 7 and 8 is always my time to get last minute bits together. It will always involve around 10 minutes of printing/photocopying, and then the rest is either pulling together a last minute power point or marking. With a coded feedback sheet, I can mark 2 sets of year 8 books before the girls arrive at 8 o’clock.
Above: coded feedback. Decide on 5/6 common mistakes you know your class will make and simply write the corresponding number on their work. In the lesson, they stick in the sheet, highlight their target and respond!
8:00 This is when my form group would start arriving. If I needed to, I would carry on marking/lesson planning, but you will find that, especially if you are given a year 7 form group, they don’t really like being in a room without talking to you! Especially at the start of the year, spend time getting to know them in the mornings. The ones that get in at 8 on the dot are especially handy- mine like to staple workbooks for me and tidy the form room!
8:00–3:00 As an NQT, I had 18 lessons a week with 6 frees and 1 mentor meeting. My frees were not evenly spread which actually meant that every Monday I had 3 free periods (heaven!) What this meant was that I could plan my lessons for the week in those 3 hours. This was great as it allowed my mind to feel at ease knowing that I wouldn’t have any last minute planning to do. As I said in my NQT tips post, remember to utilise the shared area of your school and Twitter. There is usually no need to create something from scratch, but always remember to tweak things to suit the needs of your students. As my lesson planning was complete after Monday, that meant that I still had 3 frees left to mark. I would spend all 3 of these frees marking, which meant by the end of the week I had usually marked every book once. I could then choose to go marking free the following week, or take another look at the books!
3:00–4:00 This time was usually taken up by meetings. It could be year team meetings, English team meetings, or random meetings you didn’t know were going to happen. I would always leave this time blank in my diary because something would always spring up. If it didn’t, I would find myself in the room next door with the other English NQT and have a good natter/gossip/debrief about the day!
4:00–5:00 Sometimes I would have extra work to do. During crunch times e.g. data deadlines/mocks/after a parents evening, you can stray from the routine slightly. If this had happened, I would just stay a little later to get back on track. I would only ever have to do this around twice a week though, otherwise I would always leave around 4/4:30.
5:00 onward — Netflix/eat too much chocolate/gin & tonic(s)/Twitter/bubble bath/gym/sleep!
Weekends — It was rare for me to work during the weekends. If I did, it was always because I wanted to rather than I needed to. Something that I would often do (and still do!) is scroll through Twitter and email myself things that looked interesting. I could then take a quick look on Monday morning and implement them when needed.
Holidays — I always work for around 2 solid days in a half-term. In this time, if I am just tweaking pre-existing lessons, I can get around 2 weeks of lessons resourced and created. This is something that I started doing in my PGCE year and it helped me massively as it meant that when I slipped from routine, I would always be far enough ahead for it not to matter.
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Written by guest blogger Alice.
I’m Alice, I am now in my third year of teaching in an Inner London comprehensive school for girls. This September I began my role of Head of KS3 English, whilst also running English Boss with my three colleagues (and best friends!)
Follow Alice and the English boss on Twitter @MissAliceKS3 @EnglishBosss
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