Category: General School Day

TS 8 – Fulfil wider professional responsibilities

Image - Posted on by Elizabeth Andriane Papanastasiou
Autumn and Spring Term poster advertising my ‘Get fit with Miss’ club

TS 8: Fulfilling wider responsibilities
– Make a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school

Having established myself as a teacher at my block placement school, and as I am a Schools Direct student, I was required to develop and implement an enrichment activity. Seeing these student with endless energy as well as a keenness for taking pride in their appearance, I decided to utilise my fitness background and introduce a girls only fitness club.

Having started to form good relationships with some of the year 10 girls, I thought I may at least have a few attendees and the rest would follow! That was my aim!

I had quite a pleasant surprise during the last of my Get Fit with Miss sessions before my short departure. There was an atmosphere of sadness, and students were adamant they would come as soon as I returned.

Embedding an enrichment activity strengthened the relationships I built with students throughout the school year, through understanding them as individuals outside of the classroom and recognising their strengths which I could hone in on during lessons too. I used my club as a means of demonstrating a change in student engagement as I completed an essay for professional studies addressing disengagement. I asked students to complete a questionnaire about the club and how it made them feel.

Get fit with Miss Feedback-12j90jp

My club raised some great questions around health and fitness. More importantly, it gave students a safe place to come and learn more about their body and their own capabilities. Students would often talk about ‘Body Image’ and how they felt uncomfortable in their own skin. By using this time and space as a way to vent these anxieties, I found that students responded well in lessons as they grew in confidence, recognising that they should not ‘give up’ so easily. I realise the value of a wider range of enrichment clubs as I spoke with other members of staff who took students swimming, for CCF and in debate clubs.

‘Get fit with Miss’ really was a great way to establish myself in school and I am really looking forward to an opportunity to implement an enrichment activity during my NQT year.

Monday Mindfulness in the Staff Room

Posted on by Elizabeth Andriane Papanastasiou

Monday morning marks the beginning of the week but also the opportunity to change something. To do something new. To make a difference to one student, teach them one word or key term or challenge them to think outside of the box.

With a new pastor to lead collective prayer for the cohort on a Monday, we bow our heads. Most do, some don’t. Curious glances from those not lost in thought, deep expressions from those who are. Collectively, we are here, in that moment.

Good Morning Monday

Posted on by Elizabeth Andriane Papanastasiou

The theme for the week in School is thankfulness.  As the mornings become darker and colder, line up is chilly.  The morning prayer can be that little piece of warmth.  Collective worship. Students take so long just lining up but I realise that they move around and fidget because they are chilly. And restless, of course. I see some of them with such expressions that can only indicate they are lost in thought. It takes my mind back to when I was their age. The year 10’s, at 14 years old have so many thoughts these days about how they look and feel as opposed to dreaming about where to go and how to get there. I know because I speak to them about this. Some of them can’t see beyond their homes and school, and the town centre they frequent at weekends.

This little glimpse of routine at school is something they reject, but at the same time, something they crave.