Our Top Tips for Surviving Your NQT Year

It’s now November and you’re slowly approaching the end of your first term as an NQT — how are you finding it? Are you surviving? Have you managed to lay down the law and gain the respect of your students? Hopefully the answers to all these questions are positive ones…

However, the academic year isn't over just yet and so you still need to get through the rest of it! Here are our top tips to surviving and getting yourselves through your NQT year.

Ground Rules

We get it, you’re the new teacher and you want to come across as lovely and pleasant whilst still maintaining that level of respect. You don’t want to be the shouty teacher that exerts fear in their footsteps but you also don’t want to be the far too laid back pushover teacher. This is where it is crucial to set ground rules and sanctions; it’s also just as important that you stand by these rules throughout your NQT year. Perhaps check your school’s policy on behaviour management so that you can align your own rules with these and also to stop you from dishing out a load of detentions every time a student is out of line.

Rewards

With sanctions comes rewards and this is another one that should work alongside your school policy. However there’s nothing to stop you from keeping a box of Celebrations in your desk to reward students for good behaviour, good work and strong participation but even this must be done within reason. Remember you are their teacher, not their bestie — the student working well today can be the one that receives a sanction from you tomorrow, so be sure to remain diplomatic and only give praise where praise is due.

Need help? Ask for it

As an NQT you will have a senior member of staff that acts as your mentor. If you are struggling with the way in which to relay a certain piece of information to your class or simply don’t know the best approach in handling a student that refuses to behave — ask for help. Even if it’s just a case of you having had a bad day and needing someone to vent to, talk to your mentor or any other member of SLT. After all, they've been in teaching a lot longer than you and their advice and help can be priceless.

Keeping up with your classwork

You are going to have mounds of paperwork to get through, emails to respond to, targets to reach, marking to do, reports to write as well as lessons and homework to plan. Start early to try and keep on top of it all. However you don’t want to exhaust yourself, so ensure that you have a system in place — perhaps stop all paperwork at 8.30pm in the evening and make sure you get a good night’s sleep. Put aside a day for yourself during the weekend. It’s all good being completely up to date with your paperwork and tasks but if you’re too tired to deliver them to your class the following day, then it’s all been done in vain.

Students — Get to know them!

I'm not saying you and your students should know everything about one another but you want to know who you are teaching. This way you have a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and you will be able to work together in helping them succeed! Additionally, as you may remember school isn't easy for anyone, least of all students, they have to deal with hormones and feeling awkward in themselves. You want your students to understand that you’re not out to get them but you have their best interests at heart. You also want to be approachable so that if a student is having a school or personal issue, they feel confident in approaching you to have a chat.

Don’t forget about their parents…

You have to remember that you’re not the only adult in your students’ lives, they have their parents too — use this to your advantage and engage with them. Get them involved in their child’s learning, after all, you all want to see the same result — you want to see your students succeed. Remember that although contacting parents is predominantly associated with bad news or behaviour complaints, you can also contact parents about something amazing your student has done. It doesn't always have to be bad news!

Enjoy!

Finally, don’t forget to enjoy your NQT year! Of course it’s stressful and there’s a lot to take in but it’s also a new experience for you. You've gone from being a student to a teacher and you are educating these students and motivating them into working to the best of their abilities. A teacher, particularly a good one, is always someone a student remembers and has recognition for. This may not be right away but at some point in their lives, they will, so in effect you want to set a goal of being an influential educator to remember.