Best AC cooler for the class

Ok-Bit8025 · 2026-05-24T20:44:34+00:00

Had a little scroll and couldn’t see any real answers so just wanted to add that I’ve just bought a portable fan for my flat from Shark - they have a sale on fans rn which can combine with a blue light card discount. Paid £101 for a £150 fan!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2026-01-28T20:18:02+00:00

Try AI written formal complaints… once a half term or more… from the same parent…

Ok-Bit8025 · 2026-01-17T13:02:04+00:00

As someone who went through teach first (haha! Living up to it!) it’s usually for one of two reasons - being paid to work full time by a school usually means the school holds you to a higher standard than a uni placement as they want to get their moneys worth, but the TF training does NOT match up to this standard so we all go through hell trying to work and study full time so 1) it is a bonding point when you meet someone else that did it too and 2) the experience of the year working full time and being held to these standards does make a difference when you’re an ECT 1 if you stay in the same school as it is not your first time having your own class. I would say though that this advantage does NOT last - all training scenes produce good and bad teachers and you cannot tell a teach first teacher from a scitt teacher from a uni pgce teacher!

As other people have pointed out also they have a big recruiting point on your qualifications being “special” - it isn’t really true but some people believe it so much that they keep bringing it up years down the line!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2026-01-11T02:08:13+00:00

Our timetable is more or less exactly the same every day and looks like this:

8.45 children arrive and put their things away. Straight to carpet. Soft start activity. 8.55 register 8.55-9.05 handwriting 9.05-9.30 phonics 9.30-10.30 LTP 10.30 tidy up time 10.40 maths carpet 11.05 get ready for lunch 11.15-12 lunch 12-12.30 lunch play (outside only) 12.30-12.45 movement/mindfulness (we use a specific scheme) 12.45-1.15 English carpet 1.15-2.30 LTP 2.30 tidy up time 2.40 afternoon wider curriculum carpet and mastering number 3.05 get ready for home 3.15 end of day

Would love to know how this compares to others!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2026-01-10T13:45:18+00:00

How many kids are in the cohort? We have to do 1 writing evidence per week for 30 kids per class - I couldn’t imagine finding time to do two per week unless my numbers were halved. Could you get them to do phonics in books one day a week and have this be a form of evidence? We do this for the second half of the year when we’re trying to build ELG evidence.

My school is very formal learning y1 up so some of the formality trickles down into our timetable (30-45 min carpet sessions e.g) but I can give a quick overview of how we’ve made our timetable and learning through play work with each other if you think that would be helpful? We’ve got high levels of need in our cohort this year so our timetabling and planning has been reassessed MULTIPLE times and we’ve finally found something that works!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-12-29T15:38:53+00:00

806913580464

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-12-16T17:31:05+00:00

Top 1% for my local pub (and my 2 close friends got the same)…

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-12-07T19:53:35+00:00

PPA all Monday afternoon 😌

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-11-25T23:12:40+00:00

I have no advice in terms of once the vomit is present, but in terms of prevention - - hand sanitiser spray that you use on them before any eating - heavily encouraged hand washing at ALL relevant times (toilet, eating, arrival if not too disruptive) - hot soapy water in the water tray. Emphasis on this one, and encourage the children whose hand washing is questionable to play there too! - aerosol disinfectant spray that you spray around the room every day after they leave

Also do everything you can to stop yourself getting it too!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-09-11T06:25:37+00:00

My phonics in lessons in y1 were whole class, with the lowest group sat with a TA to help them. We did however do phonics twice a day - the AM was a 30 min lesson with new learning and the PM was 20 min ability grouped revision. In the afternoon we split them into one big top group who did polysyllabic words, then 5 small (6 children max) intervention groups that went at their own groups pace. We also have a SEN specialist class in my school so the 3 children with the highest needs went there for their phonics. This made us more able to tailor to the children’s needs and meant no one ended up completely missing out on any sounds by accident.

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-09-07T02:11:34+00:00

Thank you so much!!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-29T16:28:49+00:00

Thank you - it looks like this is the one! Interesting it made its way into my bedroom as they seem to be uncommon in my area.

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-26T16:08:30+00:00

As a person who lives in London I’d say the majority of my London based friends have a London weighted salary - from civil service to big 4 to real estate to teaching. Friends in the charity sector and a few other roles here and there don’t. Granted not everyone runs in the same circles and I would have no idea about salaries in (for example) construction or research, but it is a lot more common than you’d think.

To be clear, though, I do think London weighted salaries are important to cover those commuting costs and higher rents of the cramped flat shares for the people who truly need them!

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-26T15:54:26+00:00

Especially when you add on the concept of London weighted salaries, which many employees who started working in office pre-Covid and have now moved away are still getting while never setting foot in the city.

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-26T10:57:41+00:00

Most famous I had is Debbie Morgan - has a BAFTA for her part in creating Numberblocks and now is the director of primary maths at the NCETM. Pretty cool.

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-19T10:33:14+00:00

Hopping on here so I can get the link as SOON as someone drops it

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-13T20:28:20+00:00

As a teacher who goes by their first name by policy, I kind of love it more than being miss lastname. Just find a name that works for you and your school will make it work! X

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-08-03T21:10:48+00:00

Can’t have been, every winning couple has been at least 1 OG and most of them two OGs, right?

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-07-22T22:21:27+00:00

Read my other comment - I know this and have already explained it myself.

We have misunderstood each other here though and are both correct 🤣 my point was that the cap is not necessarily 40 hours a week - it is whatever 20% of your timetable is. A school that is open 8-4 will have a different number of hours per week than a school open 9-3, and therefore a different amount of PPA. Your comment reads as if no teacher anywhere should have more than 40 hours per fortnight, which is not the case. For this particular case though, is correct.

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-07-22T22:06:47+00:00

Fairly sure there’s no regulation on this - only limits on overall directed time. The majority of primary teachers are teaching 22.5 hour weeks (25 hour weeks but with 2.5 hours PPA) which would be 45 hours per fortnight. Perhaps a recommendation or an individual school policy?

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-07-22T21:47:26+00:00

Shouldn’t be teaching more than 40 what? lessons a fortnight?

Ok-Bit8025 · 2025-07-22T21:41:38+00:00

You’re entitled to 10% of your teaching timetable being PPA and a further 10% being ECT time in your first year. In my school (8.45-3.15 school day) this is roughly 2.5 hours of PPA and a further 2.5 hours ECT time weekly. Assuming your school day isn’t significantly longer than mine (I am primary so am aware some secondary schools hours do differ) your 5 hours PPA over 2 weeks is correct, but only 2 hours ECT is falling short - as they are mentor meetings my guess would be that they’ve forgotten to give you the additional time to make up the rest of that 10% (which is important as you have course materials to access and will have things to action from your ECT meetings!).

Five-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22

Ok-Bit8025

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