PP2: First Impressions

I've spent two days at my PP2 school, which is just the right amount of time to make a completely uninformed judgement of it. Whatever opinions I'm about to give will have almost certainly change in three weeks.

These first two days have been induction days for me and the other 6 PGCEs. The days were properly arranged with a timetable and everything. I got a tour, a visit to the EAL centre, lesson observations, talks about safeguarding... I even got a thick staff handbook full of useful info.

Let me compare this to the induction I got at my PP1 school... Oh wait, I didn't get one. I didn't meet my professional mentor for a few weeks, and didn't have an actual conversation until my last day. My subject mentor was excellent, but of course he had a full teaching timetable so couldn't spare much time on my first day for stuff like that.

That's the weird thing: I haven't even met all the maths teachers yet. At PP1, the maths teachers spent all their spare time in the maths office. So I became close to them very fast. At PP2, there isn't a maths office!! All teachers hang out in the staffroom together. I met the head of maths who I've concluded must be my subject mentor. I'll be spending more time with him on Friday I think, and hopefully I'll get a timetable soon.

The school is so cool: it has so many extra-curricular things and some really random bits (apparently I can go and get my nails done on a Friday in the hair and beauty department!). The maths results are impressive, and the CVA is outstanding. Student satisfaction surveys show that the pupils love their school. It's really friendly, partly because it's tiny.

I think I'll be very happy here, but I'm not currently sure about the subject support I'll be getting. I'll have to wait and see.

Emma x x x

: 01 Feb 2011 17:42 |  Tags: Pp2 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem