With teaching, it is not only important that you find a job that fits in with what you are looking for but also that you find a school that does. Many schools have quite a lot of say over how they are run and therefore you might find that the policies and procedures at one school differ quite drastically from another.

When looking to apply for a teaching job be sure to read all the recent Ofsted reports that are available and have a good look through their website and recent news letters. You will often be able to find a leaflet of the schools policies and procedures online which will give you the opportunity to read through before deciding whether to apply for the job.

If you are get to the stage where you are invited in for an interview, make a note of any questions that you would like to ask them that are important to you. It may be their policy on behaviour or bulling or if he school sends out homework and how often? This can then allow you some thinking time before you have to accept a position to ensure that it is right for you.

As a teacher, you will already know how precious time in the class room is. The days start to fly by and you need to ensure that you have taught the students all they need to know to progress further in their education. If you are a teacher of a reception or year one class then you may need to help the children to settle more so than you would older children. You can easily waste an hour throughout the day asking children to hang up their coats, sit on the carpet or tidy away.

To allow you to free up as much of this time as possible for teaching, it is important that you give them plenty of structure and that you establish early on what is expected of them. Make sure there is designated places for their water bottles, book bags etc and if you find that it is simply not working sending them all out together, then send them in small groups. Always make sure that you have them all sat down and quiet before you start explaining what the task is that they must complete and how long they have to work on it.

As a teacher, there are always ways in which you can improve and offer a better education to your pupils. Regardless of the age of pupils you teach, there are new ways in teaching and offering help and support than can literally change a pupils prospects.

During the summer holidays is the perfect time to rethink the way in which you teach and start to consider changes you may want to make when you go back in September. Firstly you need to know that you have your classroom in order. You may need to give up a few days of your holiday in order to go in to the class, but this will give you the chance to rearrange furniture if needed and set up displays, all of which is very hard with a class full of children.

Try and get ahead with your planning and make sure that you have all the resources you need. You may want to have a rough plan of what you are going to do taking you up to half term and then on a weekly basis create a more detailed lesson plan and print off materials etc that will be needed.

If you found that you struggled with classroom control, then do some research and try and find out different ways in which you can deal with disruptive pupils to get the best outcome.

If you work in a school or an environment that offers learning such as a nursery or college, one of the most stressful things you can hear is that Ofsted are coming in to your school. It’s not that the school is necessarily doing anything wrong or has anything to hide, but the whole process is said to be extremely stressful and can put added pressure on a teacher’s already busy schedule.

Ofsted are there to inspect these places of learning to check how they are doing in different areas. The areas that they come out to check are split in to:

Overall effectiveness, Effectiveness of leadership and management, Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, Personal development / behaviour and welfare, Outcomes for children and learners and The effectiveness of early years and sixth form provision, where applicable.

Once the inspection has taken place it usually takes a few weeks for the report to be published. Even if the school knows how well they have done, they are not allowed to say until the inspection has been published. These grades can be Outstanding, Good, Notice to Improve or inadequate. Depending on the outcome, Ofsted may have to return within 12 months to check if progress has been made.