Last Monday, 6th February, I began my second placement at Slough Grammar school. The first week was spent doing observations; these observations were primarily focused across the 6th form as I have had little experience of this key stage at The Langley Academy. It was very interesting to see a variety of lessons: Chemistry, Classics, English and Geography and watch the different teaching styles to match. I'm sure this will put me in good stead considering I will be teaching some Geography lessons across KS5.
In addition to all the 6th form observations, I did also watch some KS3+4 Lessons (Mostly Geography but aslo English and Chemistry.) I believe this week has given me a good insight into how these students respond, engage and interact during lessons.
From what I have seen in this first week, there are some key differences that I have picked up upon. The majority of students at Slough Grammar are more independent in their attitude to class work, and as a result don't require the same amount of 'spoon feeding' as some of the lower ability students at Langley Academy. The majority of lessons are not pitched at that much of a higher level, as I was expecting but are quicker paced and students will expand upon questions to a greater extent. Also, quite a lot of the class sizes are smaller, particulalry KS3, this definitely has impacts upon behaviour, work levels and pace. All of these factors I will need to take into consideration when planning and delivering lessons.
As well as observing lessons, I also shadowed a Yr 9 pupil for a day. I had done this before but only for certain lessons, so it was interesting to see how a student responds under different environments, teachers, amongst other students etc through the course of a day. In terms of pastoral experence, I've been placed within a Year 9 tutor group. This, again, will be another new experience for me as I have only worked with vertical tutor groups in the past.
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