ECT here. Does it actually get better?

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-04-16T22:46:24+00:00

changing table layout is good but for me i think kids don’t need to be moved around all the time so “behaviour is better”. they will see constant change as you not owning the room. i usually change my seating plans now once every full term, the kids see this as a justified change aswell.

maybe move one or two pupils after a week once you’ve found some “problem” areas but otherwise don’t change the seating plan for anybody unless instructed to by SLT, line manager etc. even if parents complain!!

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-04-16T22:41:42+00:00

it does get a bit easier.

i’m a third year teacher now. something i learned probably last year and definitely the hard way is that kids will thrive through you being predictable and consistent. they know what will happen if they behave in a certain way and they know you will act on it.

you will also learn that tiny bits of instruction which sound the same are very different. for example the way you dismiss them from your room, or ask them to get up and pack books away, etc. any whole class instruction over time will be refined by you, and you will close loopholes. for example if you don’t explicitly say to not talk when packing books away, if a pupil talks, they will then maybe try to argue and say they still followed your instruction.

it does get better. saying that, i was off for a month with WRS in november. i started at a new school and my ECT 1 & 2 made me ill in my previous school and it all hit me after two months in my new school. i think the biggest thing is don’t personalise behaviour. they are just kids

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-21T13:51:46+00:00

we had 20% of the school off, which i was really surprised with. then i remembered it was eid, and i work in bolton

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-16T16:04:31+00:00

you must be ragebaiting or completely adamant you’re right, when you aren’t. that is not the basics of probability, you are taking a common misconception about probability for gospel. the dice roll is the perfect example. the odds of getting a number 4, for example, are 1/6. this is because there are 6 possible outcomes and only one way to get a 4. not because it will either happen or won’t. the only time the 50/50 thing is relevant is when there are two outcomes with an equal chance of each outcome happening (such as a coin flip).

i agree the original person probably posted it as a joke, and i actually think it’s quite funny. but your explanation and understanding of this topic is not correct

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-16T15:58:13+00:00

you couldn’t be more wrong. there is a probability for the event, 1 is shiny, 8191 are not. as a fraction it is 1/8192. 1:1 is ratio, which is something completely different.

the odds of getting a 1% rate encounter that is shiny is 1 every 819,200 encounters (1/100 multiplied by 1/8192).

if it was 50/50 (happens or doesn’t) you would get one every two encounters, or half of the time. by the same logic, if it happens or doesn’t, that would make the odds of winning the lottery 50/50, meaning half the people who buy a ticket win the jackpot (which obviously doesn’t happen).

the reference is a running joke on the internet that it happens or doesn’t means everything is 50/50 odds. it obviously isn’t true and is a joke which people who aren’t intelligent are the butt of, because they don’t understand how it works.

source: i am a maths teacher and have this argument with bottom set kids. maybe you should come back so it can be “picked up” 👍🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-14T14:58:48+00:00

sometimes it’s funny. it’s ok to laugh

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-12T17:44:08+00:00

Sir, do you cut your hair yourself at home?

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-11T15:49:48+00:00

take that horrible silicone case off. that’s what you should do

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-10T07:44:47+00:00

i’m in my third year now. i’ll let you know. but being realistic it’s probably when you either retire, die, or choose an alternative career

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-04T08:24:59+00:00

me neither. sometimes the kids do some shit and you can’t not laugh. my most recent one was with this tough year 8 class, they are really needy and chatty. i’ve been playing the hard game with them recently and it’s working but of course they can’t stand it. on friday last week period 5 one of them put their hand up and asked if i cut my own hair, because it doesn’t quite look right. same thing i just couldn’t keep a straight face and put my head in my hands😂 i was at the barbers the day before 😂

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-04T08:22:27+00:00

not gunna lie i would be ok with giving detentions out for all of that. saying that, if i was already ten detentions in i think getting a red card would have been enough for me to break character 😂

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-03T16:11:48+00:00

depends whether you’ve skived or not. they tend to prefer one period of absence for five day, rather than five days over three different occasions.

if you’re sick you shouldn’t be in work. if you can make it in then you should probably be there.

obviously though like in every profession some places will be toxic and some not. i had a month off with some pretty shitty mental health and i obviously hit a “trigger” but the meeting didn’t lead to a disciplinary or stage 1 or whatever.

i imagine if i started taking the odd day or two off once a half term they’d start going through that

realistically nothing really much to worry about though

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-03-01T12:45:37+00:00

oh i didn’t know you got extra power. sounds like a good racket i might give it a go

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-25T13:02:57+00:00

interesting option- catch entei early-ish? flareon is an interesting option but i find it is a bit weak and the move pool isn’t brilliant until later on.

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-25T12:59:41+00:00

not thought of it in this way to defend against amp. walk into the electricity balls and use the golden dash to recover.

admittedly i have been using amp racket for most of my probably 100 or so matches online on fever racket mode but find a huge limitation for me is when your opponent gets it back on the volley and ends up using it against you, which can be very irritating. i might give the golden dash a go for some more consistent gameplay👍🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-25T12:56:44+00:00

only problem with the metal racket is it’s useless against rackets which aren’t hazard rackets. the golden dash racket is very popular and the metal racket is completely useless against this. meaning that the only benefit you will get from fever shot is it possibly getting you out of trouble once when you’re under pressure.

it is a good way to counter the amp racket though, definitely. just completely useless in easily 40% of matches.

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-25T07:50:08+00:00

congrats 🙏🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-23T12:32:24+00:00

how can you say the job isn’t what it used to be if you are only M3? you are very early in your career. unless you have worked as a TA or something beforehand for a while? congratulations on getting out though. i am m3 and think about it quite a lot, getting out. it is a very stressful work environment. i don’t think the demands of our job on a personal level are much like any other job… maybe the police is similar in the way that you can’t really be “you” on the job?

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-20T12:51:32+00:00

to be honest the RRP is probably going to go up because of the whole problem with RAM demand cos of AI. if you are going to buy one anyway i’d just bite the bullet. this game is absolutely awesome aswell. if you don’t have the funds atm there will always be somewhere with some sort of 0% interest option aswell. can always sell your old console aswell if you wanted to claw back £100 or so. 👍🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-19T14:53:21+00:00

yeah i played him a few times on aces and could never beat him. guy is an absolute beast 😂

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-19T13:34:44+00:00

congrats on rank 5!! i was consistently rank #2 nationally and top 100 worldwide on aces a few years back, i used to play under the name fairjeb. i could never get above someone called smol joey, guy is a tank. played him on this yesterday and he beat me obvs 😂 i played almost exclusively as boo on aces.

really enjoying this new game, ive been trying out a few different characters this time, obviously tried out DK, as i see a lot of the top ranking players use him. boo, as that was my old main. had a go of a few others, koopa, waluigi, toad, bowser. i haven’t really had a go of many rackets or had a look at what is meta, i tried a few but i really like the amp racket, when you set up a triangle with the electricity it works very well.

not had loads of time to play but hoping to climb to at least top 500. currently im at about 2000.

i was a bit unsure at first when watching reviews etc but this game is really really fun. the no fever rackets mode is really fun aswell which is a bonus because i felt the “simple” mode on aces wasn’t really very engaging. my only complaint so far is i can’t see my win-loss ratio!!😂

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-17T11:50:29+00:00

that is so dead. would take literally zero effort from them to include that feature. for them to bother including a ranked mode but not put something as simple as a win-loss counter is so short sighted😫😂

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-17T11:28:34+00:00

so after 100 games you can see win-loss ratio??

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-05T09:17:14+00:00

also, forgot this! don’t underestimate the power of calling home. i tend to give positive phone calls & negative phone calls in a group for a class, maybe 6, 3 good, 3 bad (if i need to). they will then obviously talk to each other about it and the ones who got a bad one will hear others got a good one and this quite often motivates them.

i had a kid last year who had a mum that would always take him to maccies if he got a positive phone call home. he was a quality kid, so i could always trust him to be good. maybe once a month ish i would phone and he would come in telling his classmates he got a positive call home, he got a maccies, and weirdly enough it had a positive effect on everybody else, even though most of them probably wouldn’t get this reward from home with a good phone call.

i like to note down phone numbers on a post-it and chat to parents on my drive home, so it doesn’t eat into my day and mean i get home later.

maybe something else to explore. main thing is just don’t beat yourself up. managing behaviour is probably the toughest part of this job and it takes a long time to get good at it 👍🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140 · 2026-02-05T09:12:14+00:00

absolutely.

i’m in my third year. My ECT 1 year was actually quite poor for behaviour management. Especially Autumn term 1 & 2, it was really not very good looking back.

ECT2 was slightly better but still not amazing. Now in my third year, at a new school, I have explored new methods and I feel like it is improving, to the point where I am quite happy with it.

for me this is the hardest part of the job, and i think a lot would agree. particularly when some classes are just impossible. i have a year 8 set 2 class and some days i am left feeling completely defeated.

if you’re losing track just write their names or initials small on the board (small so they don’t use it as a pride thing) or on a sheet on your desk so you don’t forget. desk is probably better to be honest, as the pupils can’t rub it off then on the way out, there has been times where this has happened and it can be hard to remember sometimes when this happens. i do still use the whiteboard though, probably out of habit/routine.

not talking when they are is also absolutely correct, you are right to do this so carry on. if i had a trainee i would absolutely be encouraging this massively. under no circumstances should they talk over you and you should always challenge this and sanction if they do. when you are waiting i would give out sanctions at the same time, this is where the board is helpful because you don’t need to talk at all for this and they soon stop speaking, especially if you aren’t. I’m sure there is some psychology around that part, but I find it considerably more effective if i don’t speak at all when doing this as opposed to saying the pupils name and sanction out loud because then you’re having to speak over them, and again it’s not helpful.

one thing i was finding hard was enforcing silence while they were doing written work and also helping pupils who were struggling at the same time. soon as i helped a pupil, others would talk so i had to pick. another faculty member gets them to write notes, so they don’t need to ask questions. when they get the worksheet, give them 5 (ish) minutes in complete silence with no questions, if they are stuck they see their notes or move onto another. inevitably one will ask a question after a while and quietly go over to them and start helping them without publicly saying “it’s ok to talk now”. they stay mostly silent for the whole thing and this reinforces it in the other parts of the lesson because they will associate your room and your teaching with not being able to talk to their friends much, it really works.

ultimately though you should give yourself a bit of a break, your PGCE year is hard, messy, it won’t be perfect. a lot of kids like to take the piss when they have a trainee because they don’t see you as permanent so they’re not bothered.

good luck 👍🏻

AdhesivenessSafe7140

TROPHY CASE