The New Teachers Times - Flipbook - Page 24
'NQT year is nothing
like your training
year'
After finishing my training
year, I was ready and
unbelievably excited for my
NQT year. I trained through a
SCITT, thus spending the
majority of my training year
in one placement school. I
absolutely loved it and did
not want to leave, so I didn’t!
Luckily a position had
opened up in the school: I
applied and got the job
(yay!). I knew the school, the
staff and the students. I was
in a great position for the
upcoming year as an NQT. It
was not long before I realised
that your NQT year is nothing
like your training year. It was
something that everyone had
Everything had changed.
As crazy as it sounds, I
am the teacher in the
classroom.
said to me, but I never
fully appreciated it!
I am the one who decides
i
if a student can leave the
classroom to go to the toilet.
I am the one who is in charge
of making sure the register is
done and on time. I am the one
who has to respond to parents
and colleagues and remember
to make sure all behaviour
codes for my tutor group are
on SIMS every week.
The bottom line: I am the one
in charge! I am ‘the decisive
element’ (If you haven’t heard
that phrase before, google it seriously, it’s worth it). The
bottom line is, the buck stops
with me. There isn’t anyone in
the classroom you can go to,
just to double check you are
on the right track. It was this
that I found the hardest.
Anika Popat
Secondary
Teacher in
Milton
Keynes