Placement!

I was placed in Cefn Fforest Primary School for my week placement for my Educational Studies course, initially I was inevitably nervous and a little overwhelmed by what my role was going to be whilst on placement.  I met with the senior teacher of the Infant department where she took me to the class I stayed for my full duration on of my placement at. The class was a mixture of year one and two pupils which ranged from the age of 4-7 years old.

When I met the teacher of the class she emphasised that the Christmas period in school is the most chaotic and least structured period of the school term. This was entirely down to rehearsals of the Christmas concert, Christmas crafts and end of year assessments. The teacher and teaching assistant were very welcoming and showed me around the classroom.

From first thoughts I gained the view that the class and school itself was very inclusive as I learnt that special needs pupils were working alongside the able pupils. I was told that the pupil had three hours support every day with a specialised teacher whilst in the class room. But due to on-going illnesses he isn’t in often and therefore the specialised teacher was not often around.

Once the children were all settled the register was taken, dinner money etc. and this is where I realised that a lot of welsh was incorporated into the day which is encouraging in the sense that a lot of children were eager to talk in welsh.

What I found particularly interesting was how visual the environment is. The children’s good work is celebrated on the boards around the classroom. The children are eager to please the teacher and the teachers are very aware of this. Hence why there are awards for good behaviour such as teacher’s helper. I can’t help but see the Reggio approach fall into place as the environment is the third teacher in the classroom, as on the boards there are learning tools such as number lines, spelling bee and pictures. Within the children’s learning, independence is highly encouraged by the teacher. At break time the teacher emphasised this and said that she is essentially the pupil’s guidance into learning for themselves.

I was asked to assess pupils of their mathematical skills as standard procedure. What I found rather interesting was that the teachers found assessments frustrating and unnecessary as they all knew what levels each child was at but required evidence to prove this.  In the classroom there are four groups, working from the able to the less able that require extra help. Evidently the more able groups were year 2 and less able year 1.

There were lots Christmas concert rehearsals which was inevitably stressful but the way in which the teachers kept the children engaged was rather clever. There was a lot of movement going on which is helpful stimulating their minds. The teachers emphasised certain words because of their importance which was clearly evident.

Because it was Christmas time a lot of activities are based around the holiday. Maths and ICT are paired up quite frequently within the classroom where children work in pairs and discuss the activities set on the computer. The activities are based around Christmas therefore the learning element is not evident to children.

In the afternoon I had to work on a one to one basis with the SEN pupil which was very challenging. He refused to do his work and then become quite aggressive when I reminded him it was compulsory. Once he calmed down it appeared to me that the child was very knowledgeable of the work, but struggled when it came to writing it down on paper.

At dinner time I had the chance to talk to the class teacher where she told me a few things that were confidential. She claimed that the lack of resourcing and funding her hands are tied and cannot do what she wants to do with the classroom etc. Due to restrictions there are things she intended on putting up on display that she was forbidden not to, she appeared to be very frustrated by the lack of time and understanding the governors had for teachers. She claimed that it’s a long process of reaching what she calls the “golden classroom.”

I also had the opportunity to go on school trips which were very enjoyable and very stressful to say the least.  can safely say I thoroughly enjoyed my time on placement and is looking forward to the next. I gained and learnt from new experiences that will positively impact on my knowledge and understanding of my course.