Before you start work

Congratulations, you’ve got a teaching job! So how best can you prepare yourself as you wait for the beginning of term?

First of all, ensure that you start the year feeling rested, so don’t rush around doing hours of preparation and planning. That said, you want to make a good start and so it’s always an idea to take steps to ensure things run smoothly in your first few weeks.

Remember, any time you can spend in your new school before the new term is a bonus.

Visiting the school before the beginning of term
You don’t have to go into school during the holidays, but it might help if you’d at least been into your new classroom and got it set out and organised as you would like it to be. Talk to your new headteacher to see if this would be possible.

Check things such as the temperature controls in the room, decide how you will decorate the walls and think about what kind of seating arrangements you are going to set up. Also check the space you’ll be mostly using – will your pupils be able to hear and see you?

You might also like to go into school before the end of the current term so you can observe pupils you will be teaching in September. 

If you meet your prospective pupils, introduce yourself as you want to be known, aim to find some common ground with them and be really positive, telling them how much you are looking forward to teaching them.

Remember, any time you can spend in your new school before the new term is a bonus – it is not mandatory and if you can’t manage it, don’t worry.

 Download ATL's publication, Induction: making it work for you, full of further advice on how to get the most out of your first year in teaching.

Resources

• Induction: at the start, Mp3 audio, 3924 KB
• Induction: making it work for you, Pdf document, 1006 KB