TeacherTalk: New Beginnings

Welcome to our educational blog. Here we explore all things pertinent to education, discuss current topics and provide tips, from research and educational experts, to aid practice.

Introduction

Whether you’re an established teacher or beginning your teaching journey, the start of a new term and especially new year, brings with it challenges, opportunities and probably a pinch of the unknown. 

No matter how established you are, everyone experiences feelings of anxiety, excitement and anticipation as you start a new year; role; school or meet your students and classes for the first time. 

So, how do you ensure you make the most of this opportunity and fresh start? - Just take  a look at our key areas for consideration. 

Strategies to Success

1. Know your content and curriculum 

In reality, this could be an entire series of blogs but in short, never underestimate the knowledge you need to deliver your curriculum content and subject(s) effectively. It may be that you are an established teacher, utilising and adapting your content for new classes and students. It may be that you are entirely new to a school or that now you teach additional subjects or texts within your role. Knowledge is power and knowing your curriculum and subject is key! You can find each curriculum here and ensure you’ve checked out the wealth of resources and information from the EEF, regarding every critical topic within education. The EEF is evidence based to support teaching and learning and quite frankly, they are a must read! There’s also the Council for Subject Association Directory, which has a free digital guide to 32 subjects.  If you are an established teacher and leader and really want to question the impact and importance of curriculum, take a read of Ruth Ashbee’s book on Curriculum: Theory, Culture and the Subject Specialisms (2021) to truly consider the key elements of curriculum theory and design. 

2. Classes, students and form groups 

New school years bring new students and classes as our brains are given the ever challenging task to remember 100s of names in an instant. Take time to engage with your students and tutor group. Talk to them, form professional relationships and bonds. Research shows that when students trust and respect us, they are more likely to work positively within our lessons, making teaching for us and learning for them, a joy (Hinz et al., 2023) Similarly, Roffey noted that: "Positive relationships in schools are central to the wellbeing of both students and teachers and underpin an effective learning environment." (2012) 

3. Building and establishing effective routines and systems 

As a teacher, we all strive for a classroom that has a consistently positive behaviour for learning environment. In reality, this can be a challenge to achieve as we navigate the many possibilities within lessons, whilst some classes or students need time to respond, trust and become part of your classroom routines. Ross  McGill @TeacherToolkit, shares his 10 steps for ‘building behaviour ethos’, which are: As a leader, if you haven’t read it already, we have two blogs on ‘Building a Behaviour curriculum’ with Tom Bellwood, where we explore the significant impact of positive behaviour curriculum upon students within our schools. Tom has visited over 100 schools to research behaviour as a leading ‘Behaviour Hub’ and the evidence shows the power of the 5 core principles, routinely found in schools with effective behaviour curriculums. Have a read of Blog 1 and 2 here. 

4. What strategies for learning are effective and how do you know they work?

Research shows that some classroom strategies have more impact upon pupil learning than others (Hattie: 2009, 2011, 2013, EEF: 2024) and whilst I’d never plan a lesson purely based off this, it’s crucial to understand how utilising these strategies can have a profound, positive impact, upon pupil learning and attainment, when done effectively. Take feedback for example; it’s nice to know that the hours you spend marking summative pieces of work, providing formative and oral feedback truly makes a difference upon pupil learning, when it’s done effectively. 

Hattie’s now infamous ‘Visible learning’ (2009) research considered the effect size of 138 influences upon teaching and learning outcomes. Now at 195, covering over 1200 meta-analyses, questioning ‘what works best in education’. The top 5, were: Acceleration, behaviour, reciprocal teaching, feedback and spaced practice. Similarly, the EEF constantly update their most effective classroom methods based upon evidence informed research. Their top 5 are currently: Feedback; metacognition; peer tutoring; early years intervention and one to one tuition. 

5. Find a support network

Most subject and phases have DfE networks or curriculum hubs that you can take part in to collaborate with your peers. Think about social media as a platform to network:

1. Facebook groups can be particularly helpful
2. Edu-Twitter
3. Forums
4. Blogs

Be mindful when using online platforms that the accounts you use may reflect on you as a person. There is no harm in having a second account for these platforms which represents the professional version of yourself.

Take part in clubs and social events run by your school to connect with colleagues, from football, to quiz nights and yoga, these individuals become your support network , sounding board and share your passion for our profession.

6. Know and live the processes, policies and systems in place. 

There’s nothing worse than being mid lesson, using a new IT system and technology causing mayhem. It happens but you can minimise the stress by ensuring you know how to use the systems and programmes in place at your school. To ease your days, spend time learning and understanding the systems and policies in place. Are there shortcuts you could know to work more efficiently and effectively? If you are new to google classroom, we have  some amazing free CPD at the end of this blog and our incredible youtube page @ChilternTeachingSchoolHub where you’ll find a wealth of resources to hone your skillset from curriculum to google drives - it’s all there! 

7. Be Organised 

While this may seem obvious it is important to keep on top of your planning, marking, feedback and the general organisation around each day. Find a way that works for you and stick to it. Have your seating plans ready with post-it notes to go on desks or an image to show on the pp. Don’t let chaos ensue when things could be calm and controlled. Likewise, ensure your lessons are planned - in advance! I know colleagues who plan a term in advance, others a fortnight, some, a lesson - No matter which method you choose, always ensure you are organised before your students or tutor group walk into your room so that whatever other challenges or opportunities may arise, your lesson, content and structure is never compromised. This means you can focus on the teaching and learning, not where your sheets have ended up or what slide may be coming next. 

However you want your lessons and start to the year, term, week or even day to begin is entirely within your control. 

8. Prioritise

We can’t do everything, all at once - Urgent tasks are the tasks that have a deadline and will need immediate attention. Important tasks are those which can have a big impact on a situation but may not be as time dependent so ensure you prioritise what needs to be done, when and try not to let your list of ‘things to do’ get overwhelming. A lot of colleagues, myself included, used to have a ‘to do’ system, where I placed post-it notes upon an action board. My columns were titled ‘Do Now, Do Soon, In Progress and Done’ whilst others I know, had days of the week or fortnight, depending upon their timetable. Whatever your method, be consistent in your approach and ensure those urgent tasks are done on time. 

What would you have done differently? What and who can you learn from?

9. Managing your own expectations 

So many teachers feel like they should know it all having completed their ECT years - It is ok not to be a finished article. Every teacher, no matter what stage of their career or how many years they have been teaching, will always have ways to improve. A mindset of continual professional development is a key to success, where your learning and professional growth is never finished. 

10. Wellbeing 

To succeed and be the best that you can be, you need to look after yourself, especially during periods of change and transition when workload can be more intense. Research shows that regular breaks and time for you leads to more efficient working. It’s important to take time to unwind. Make sure that you dedicate time in the week and holidays where you completely disengage. Within education, the job is never done and there will always be more to do but some things can wait, not everything is important or urgent. Take time to spend on your hobbies and with your families - switch off, relax and recharge. 

11. Enjoy what you do!

I’ll continue to say and believe that there’s no other profession as worthwhile as education; just think about the difference you make every day to a child, a tutor group, a class and a colleague. No matter how old, we can all think about our favourite teacher from school and how they changed our world. A student you teach will be looking back in the future and thinking about the impact you made on them - it’s incredible. 

Also remember that you are human - Don’t be too hard on yourself. You will make mistakes, get things wrong, miss a deadline and get chased for it. But you are not alone; we all face these challenges. 

To conclude

Enjoy each opportunity as you make a difference to so many students on a daily basis. Just think - Will you become the teacher that inspired students when they look back on their years at school? Will you become the teacher that collaborated so brilliantly with their colleagues and peers? Will you be the individual that continues to strive for the best for all? It’s a profession full of possibilities - especially as we start a new year so make the most of them all.