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

My second placement was in Strathearn School in Belfast.  Again, a great welcome by friendly staff and well mannered students started off a very positive and enjoyable teaching experience with many opportunities to build my confidence and extend my planning, teaching and classroom management skills. Once more I was happy to be placed with four other Queen’s students.

I really enjoyed helping with extra-curricular activities at Strathearn, including Duke of Edinburgh, Scripture Union and Athletics. I found a week-end away in White park Bay with the SU group and the D.O.E expedition especially good for building up relationships with students and staff. Attending school events such as a Ugandan Charity fundraising dinner and participating in the school relay team for the Belfast City Marathon added to how much I felt welcomed and part of the staff at Strathearn during my time there.

I found the students to be enthusiastic, keen and a pleasure to teach, which helped to subside any previous anxiety. In terms of teaching, I was left on my own with the students after a few lessons of being observed by the teachers. I found this give me a realistic perception of what it is to have your own class and my confidence increased as I felt progressively more like a responsible and trusted teacher. It was encouraging to realise that lesson preparation was increasingly getting quicker as I had been building up a collection of resources over the course of the past few months.

Near the beginning of my placement I heard the news that I had been shortlisted for a teaching post in England and two in Northern Ireland. It was a real learning curve preparing for and undertaking the interviews and I was so pleased at the end of it to be offered a temporary job in Bangor Grammar School to teach French and Spanish, starting in September.

The final weeks of my placement in Strathearn after the Easter holidays were quite busy as we had to submit our 3rd language assignment, a General Essay on an element of Educational Theory and the second half of our ICT portfolio. In the summer term it was helpful to get an insight into the procedures during the examination period and I had the opportunity to be involved in assessing speaking tests, invigilating internal and external exams and marking test papers.

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed my placement in Strathearn School and felt I could have happily kept going until the end of term. I will sincerely miss many of the students and staff.