Katrina Smale

Having experience in a wide variety of settings, from challenging mental health wards, to various primary and secondary school settings, has equipped me with a wide variety of skills. Gaining much of these skills prior to starting my teacher training, has proved most valuable within classrooms, in relation to my confidence in building relationships with students, challenging pupil behaviour and presenting lessons. I have learnt much about the importance of effective organisation when it comes to juggling lesson planning, assessment marking as well as keeping track of the new and varying different platforms now used in schools. In addition, the challenging behaviour of pupils within my current school, has allowed me to develop firmer behaviours management techniques, as well as allow me to explore alternative strategies.

As teachers, I believe that our job is not only to teach students, but to also inspire them to engage positively in learning and challenge themselves in order to develop knowledge and skills that they can apply in their future lives. This works alongside nurturing students’ creativity by validating their ideas, making all students feel valued and therefore able to achieve and begin to work towards working beyond their potential. Giving students the opportunity to achieve and excel enables personal growth. The importance of teacher belief in students being able to stretch their capabilities is often overlooked but is fundamental for student confidence across all abilities.

My current school operates in a mixed ability approach to grouping students. This ensures that students working at a higher level, can aid those working on slightly lower levels. Differentiation is something that I take extremely seriously, as all material needs to be able to be accessible to each student in the class. Previously working as an SEN 1:1 in a Primary School, I understand that some students require an extra level of scaffolding in order to ensure that they understand the task and can complete it to the best of their abilities.

Focusing on preparing KS3 students for KS4 expectations, is something which I believe can be achieved subtly but effectively. I personally believe that instead of placing pressure and stress on such young students by repeatedly telling them about preparing for their GCSE’s, the skills needed for KS4 can be weaved into the very fabric of the lessons, ensuring that the students are increasing their skills and knowledge best suited to enable them with skills that they will need for KS4, is most effective in preparing students for KS4 in a much calmer environment. I believe that this kind of environment, makes for much more knowledge retention than that of a stressed and uncomfortable classroom environment.

Alongside this, I ensure strict accuracy in spelling, punctuation and grammar, by developing students confidence in these areas. When marking their work, I consistently edit for these areas, for students to use as a guide for their next pieces of writing.