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A year in the life of a PGCE student - Secondary placement

Many people warned me before I began this course that it was extremely demanding and time consuming. It wasn’t until I got into the thick of my first placement that I realised what they had been talking about.

Ashfield Girls High School was a great school to start off in for many reasons. It was rebuilt last year and has a vibrant new look with top of the range indoor and outdoor facilities. It is also recognised as an ICT specialist school so I was spoilt with laptops, interactive white boards and new software at my disposal. The school is keen to take student teachers on board.  I was fortunate to be with five others; four from the University of Ulster and one from Queen’s, covering a variety of subject areas.

The teacher tutor in charge of us was extremely supportive. She organised weekly tutorials and was available to discuss any issues we had. There were a lot of extra-curricular activities on offer at the school. I personally got involved with hockey club, scripture union and Friday lunchtime chill zone. This was a great way to get to know some of the students and other teachers.

In terms of teaching, we were given a half timetable, so we had a lot of free periods to observe other teachers and prepare our own lessons. I was given Key Stage 3 (yr 8 - yr10) French and Spanish classes to teach and assigned a GCSE class in both languages for team teaching. The teachers in my department were very generous about sharing resources which formed a great foundation for me to build on when it came to preparing lessons. However it still took a lot of time at the beginning planning and evaluating classes. Thankfully towards the end of the placement I was beginning to get the hang of it and it was taking me a lot less time. I had two visits from my assessor during my first placement; one before Christmas and one after. These were not pre-warned so I always had to have my file and lesson plans at the ready for inspection. I found the feedback from both observations encouraging, positive and constructive. Although it can add a little extra pressure having other adults in the room observing you, I found it helpful when other student teachers and staff sat in and commented on some of my lessons.

Overall I enjoyed my 11 week secondary placement, very different from my previous experience in primary. Ultimately I was sorry to leave but I am delighted to be back at Queens for the next 4 weeks.