Calling all soon-to-be trainee teachers! Congratulations on getting a place accepted to train as a teacher, we’re sure you’re so excited to get going in the new school year and start your training. We get asked so often what to do to prepare for a teacher training year so we thought we’d share some ideas here.
The first thing most people will suggest is to relax! Enjoy your free time, see lots of friends and family, maybe even travel - because it will be tricky to do many of these things while you’re training to teach. However, if you’re anything like us then I’m sure this isn’t really the answer you were looking for. So many new trainee teachers are so enthusiastic and just raring to go, and want to do some practical things to prepare over the summer before their training year begins. So here are 5 real things you can do to prepare to become a trainee teacher!
#1 Get your outfits ready
Don’t underestimate how helpful this is going to be! Do an inventory of your wardrobe and see how many school-appropriate outfits you currently have. Can you mix and match different items? Do you have much to choose from? Do you need to supplement your wardrobe a little with some shopping? Check out our tiktok with some Dos and Don’ts for teacher outfits below! Try actually laying out all the outfits you have and seeing how much you have. This will really help you as your time will be limited and it will be helpful to be able to quickly pull an outfit together without needing to give it much thought or spend too much time looking.
@positiveteacherco Do you have a teacher interview and need some outfit inspiration. Wondering if you can get away with a best top or black jeans? We got you covered with some basics you can recreate with what you have in your wardrobe. Obviously, you may not have the exact combo but it might give you some ideas for if your outfit is professional enough for your interview. What do you wear to interviews? #teacherinterview #teacherinterviewtips #interview #interviewoutfit #traineeteacher #teachers #teaching #teacherjob #teacheroutfit #teacherfits #primaryschoolteacheroutfit ♬ Spectrum (Say My Name) - Xd
#2 Get organised with a planner
We have created a planner specifically for trainee teachers, so grab your own copy to get prepared for your teacher training! Our Teacher Training Planners include the entire ITT framework, so you can spend some time reading this and getting your head around the different teaching standards that you’ll need to work towards understanding and embodying. It can take a little time to understand this, so spend some time over the summer looking through your planner and reading the ITT framework. Of course, the planner has so many other useful things for trainee teachers, like placement overview pages, places to track your targets, your observations, your mentor meetings, as well as a year calendar and weekly planning pages. Everything you’ll need to stay organised while training to become a teacher!
Find our Teacher Training Planners here
#3 Read some teaching books
If you’ve been assigned some books to read by your course provider, then of course you’ll want to read these. But there are so many books about teaching out there and they can’t all be covered by every course! If there are some teaching books that you are particularly interested in, like a book on behaviour management or classroom culture, then consider reading them over the summer before you start. While you’re training, you’ll have lots of reading to do of different books, textbooks, and research papers, so you may not have much time for any of these teaching books that aren’t part of your assigned reading time.
#4 Get some fun stickers and accessories
Every school is going to have a different policy so make sure you’re always aware of this, but it’s great when trainee teachers are thinking about ways they can make an impact during their training, build relationships with the students, and find interesting ways to give feedback as a student teacher. Have a look at our classroom stickers or our praise cards and consider how you could use them to meet some of the ITT framework’s teaching standards.
#5 Do some big home projects
This one isn’t directly teaching related, but it can be really helpful to your mental health while you are teaching. If you have some big home projects you want to get done, like repainting a room, having a big declutter, or getting your kitchen to tiktok-level aesthetic organisation (we can dream!) then do it now. If it’s a pressing job, it’ll be hard to find the time to get it done while you’re training so it’s best to do it now. If it’s something that will make your life a bit easier like a decluttering and organising project, you’ll be so glad so have that area of your life run more smoothly while you’re training. Or you could be super organised and batch cook a bunch of dinners for your freezer to pull out when you don’t want to cook after school! Whatever it is that’ll make your home life easier and take some stress off your plate, try and get to it this summer.
Good luck on your teacher training journey and do try to find some time to relax this summer! We share lots of tips for new and trainee teachers over on our tiktok so head over there for more advice and ideas.
