Part 3: Trust and Respect

1. Acting and behaving in ways that develop a culture of trust and respect through, for example, being trusting and respectful of others within the school, and with all those involved in influencing the lives of learners in and beyond the learning community.

• I’ve always believed that ‘with respect, comes respect’. Mutual respect for whoever you are working with be it pupils, staff, parents etc. is really important in creating a good working relationship.
• Beyond the learning community: Engaging with parents as to what is going on in the child’s school life and looking for feedback on how the child is getting on at home. Providing the link for parents to talk to you directly will be something they respect you for. Parents will be able to address issues with you in confidence and trust that they will be dealt with effectively.

1. Providing and ensuring a safe and secure environment for all learners within a caring and compassionate ethos and with an understanding of wellbeing.

• Taking areas such as bullying very seriously within the classroom.
• Looking at areas of mental health, self-esteem etc. and displaying an openness to talk about these issues regularly.
• I’ve always really liked the idea of a ‘happiness high five’ in the morning, with each pupil giving their teacher a ‘high 5’ it would be very easy to see which pupils weren’t coming into school in a good state of mind from this. School should be a happy place for pupils and as a teacher I would endeavour to provide this environment.
• Promoting the idea that struggling with work is a GOOD thing as it shows you are challenging yourself and learning. Being open to discussions about how to improve in certain areas and not get stressed over work. By creating this relationship at primary school level, they will be more likely to discuss their struggles as they progress into secondary school.

1. Demonstrating a commitment to motivating and inspiring learners, acknowledging their social and economic context, individuality and specific learning needs and taking into consideration barriers to learning.

• REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED. I think as you progress through any career it would be very easy to start seeing it as ‘just a job’. I think it’s important to keep in mind the reasons you want to be a teacher.
• Commitment to looking at new and exciting ways of getting children to engage with their learnings. Lots of pupils will not be able to engage with traditional learning methods. What else can we do?
• Allowing children to express individuality in their work. Encouraging pupils to be who they are throughout life.
• When receiving a new intake of pupils, discussing the children with the previous teacher to have an understanding of what works, and what doesn’t, for individual pupils.
• Letting children express themselves and their likes/dislikes by encouraging ‘who am I?’ work. Examples, allowing pupils to give presentations on their hobbies to the class.
• Taking into account particular barriers to learning. Does this pupil have access to research resources at home? If not, will I contact the parents to ask them to take them to the library? Will I offer extra time on the computer during break/lunch etc.