Welcome back everyone, I hope you have all had an amazing summer break!
As the new year starts I enjoy the challenge of establishing high expectations and new routines with my brand new classes. I read an article recently that quoted “You establish, what you establish” which resonated with me. Having high expectations and ensuring we consistently reinforce them is such an important feature of brilliant teaching. When we make a big fuss about the small things like uniform, presentation, having a calculator… the message we are sending to our students is that we care, believe in our students and know that they can achieve great things if they work hard. To help outline your expectations I have updated the welcome lesson from last year. Please feel free to edit and use.
As you will see this presentation references a student questionnaire. Last year I was inspired by Laura at NES as she gave her new Y11 classes a student questionnaire to complete during their first lesson. Often I use students questionnaires to help evaluate my own teaching practice at the end of a year/key stage however this year I intend to use them at the start. I think this could help us get to know our students more quickly and start the process of building positive working relationships with them by making them feel heard. Please feel free to use/edit this too!
That is all for now – I know how much information there is at the start of every new academic year! More to follow from me about the use of synoptic questions, low stakes testing and summer examination results later in the week.
If you need anything please do get in touch
Louise