My school placements have given me good experience of two completely different schools...

I came straight out of doing a Geography degree at university onto the PGCE course at UEA. I chose the PGCE course as a route to QTS because it was university based and I felt I needed some time in university learning about teaching in a secondary school before actually doing it! I chose to go to UEA because it has a good reputation for geography.

My training involved attending lectures, professional development seminars and curriculum sessions for the first few weeks. Then first placement commenced and finished at Christmas. By then a copy of the first assignment had to be handed in. After Christmas we were given some time to go back to our schools and collect data for our second assignment. Our third assignment had to be handed in after we had been at our second placement a couple of weeks just getting settled. Then the second placement basically continues until the end of the course.

There are about 20 trainees in my Geography group. The group is very mixed and contains people from a diverse age range. The university sessions have been very informative and helpful. The assignments were hard work but the criteria set out gives exact guidelines on how to pass each assignment.

My school placements have given me good experience of two completely different schools. My first placement was in a Catholic school in the centre of Norwich. It was a very pleasant school with pleasant pupils. The majority were well-behaved and attentive. My second placement was at a huge school in Norwich where pupils ranged from being highly intelligent to those with statements who can't actually read or write properly. Many more pupils had behavioural problems and were therefore more challenging.

The most significant thing that I have learnt on my school placements is that praise is much more effective than reprimand. You must go into a lesson with a positive attitude no matter how bad you feel about the previous lesson. This will help you to convey positive vibes to the pupils and use praise effectively. It will also help you deal calmly and consistently with situations if they arise.

The greatest support should be that of the mentor. If you have any problems with your mentor you should contact the course tutor, who is also very supportive. My first placement mentor was absolutely lovely and he was very supportive. Other staff have also been very supportive to me in both my placement schools.

Three tips for someone taking the PGCE would be:

  1. Don't give up!
  2. The kids are not there to like you, they are there to learn - so just make your lessons as stimulating as possible because this is all you can do! Don't try to befriend the kids - you are their teacher!
  3. When you have a tough class think about who the problem pupils are. It is normally only a few pupils who misbehave, this means that the majority of the class are following your instructions.

The greatest challenge I have faced so far is with particularly challenging pupils at my second placement school. The highlight is just being able to teach pupils such interesting topics!