Success as a new teacher

When I first saw the question about my greatest achievements as an NQT, the first thing that popped into my head was my first class assembly. I teach year 1 at the moment, so they’re children who are 5 and 6. And our first class assembly, which was back in the autumn term, was stressful for myself and probably for the children too. But watching it and watching them become actors, singers, news presenters made me so proud, and I could tell made them proud and made their parents proud. So that was probably what springs to my head when I think of a greatest achievement.

But I would also say there’s loads of little achievements that just add up to become something great, so when a child tells you that they’ve named their teddy after you or they’ve created something for you at home and brought it in or they just hit the nail on the head on a concept that’s taken so long to get to. I think it’s a stressful job teaching, and it’s a to-do list that never ends, but there are so many little moments that add up to something great. So one of the greatest successes I’ve had so far is when my class got up and performed in front of the school.

It was definitely one of the proudest moments that I’ve had so far. So every teacher had the responsibility to choose a poem for their class to perform for Poetry Slam Week. I chose “I Saw My Teacher on a Saturday” by Dave Crawley. And although some of the rehearsals were very stressful, when they got up to perform it, I was so impressed with the effort and the execution, the expression that every child had. I was just very proud of them all. So a way to celebrate, the children got some more gems in a jar. And because the gem jar was now full, they got to do their reward. The reward that they chose was making slime.

And although making slime was a very messy experience, I wouldn’t change anything at all. It was definitely a very proud moment from when they performed the poem, and they deserved the reward.