Over the last two weeks I have been on placement in a primary school in North Ayrshire, this placement is the first of many for me during my four year degree at UWS. The purpose of this placement was to observe the majority of things that happen in and around a school and I was able to do the observations effectively by working through set tasks that were given to me by university lecturers and also with me working together with staff and pupils over a two week period. I was placed with one of my peers who also helped carry out tasks and observations.
My feelings before placement were natural nerves which I was happy about however I did have general concerns about my place in the school and in the classroom. This comes from previous voluntary work in school and not knowing my place in relation to helping and advising children, I do not want to give the impression that I allow children to run wild nor do I want others to think I have the children well disciplined. This was probably my main concern.
The concerns I had over this gradually started to fade as I spent more time with the children and also took on board what the other adults in the school were doing wither it be the teachers, parents or assistants. I was able to learn valuable ideas such as the class charter in primary 2/3, here the children at the beginning of term one discussed and agreed what they wanted and expected from themselves and from others in their learning environment therefore if anyone was not keeping to the class charter you could politely remind them that they were breaking class charter rules that they agreed on for example ‘we have the right to be listened to’ this was used if people were speaking over people or speaking out. I feel confident now that when I go on my next placement that I will know where to start in order to source guidelines and class rules for me to communicate effectively with the children.
Over the two weeks I did spend most of my placement in the p2/3 classroom, using it as my base and the teacher was assigned as my mentor however in week two I was invited up to visit p7 in the upper end of the school. I felt quite nervous about this as I thought I had found my comfort zone in the younger classes and I enjoyed the level of learning in the lower school. I was worried that I may not remember some areas of maths or that they would ask me to spell a difficult word, when really in reality when I did spend time in the p7 classroom I actually enjoyed the challenge and that the work was indeed a higher level than the p2/3 class. Looking back at this experience I must remember that I will not know everything and that there will be times I do not know what to do or how to help but it is how I deal with that situation that will help the class, for example I could open it up to discussion or ask the pupils to stop and think as a pause is a great opportunity for all to think and not necessarily negative.
Overall I feel my placement was a great success, the school, the children and the staff were so welcoming and helpful, myself and my fellow peer communicated really well and completed all tasks in good time. Although I was not particularly nervous about placement I do now feel that I will be more confident going into my year two placement and have more responsibility teaching classes.
