Daniel Bergman
Psychology of Education
Prof. Michael Link
March 15, 2014
Teacher’s Toolbox: FAQs for NQTs
Summary
The book FAQs for NQTs (or Frequently Asked Questions for Newly Qualified Teachers) is written by Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes is an active journalist, blogger, researcher, and PhD student based in the UK. She has been running a section of the website www.eteach.com called Ask Elizabeth, where teachers - especially teachers-in-training or newly qualified teachers - can submit questions about the profession or voice their uncertainty on a particular matter. After years of compiling answers to the most frequently asked questions on the blog, Elizabeth has put them all together in this resource published in 2006. Since then she has received more questions and updated online resources, most of which have URLs referenced in the book that can be accessed for that information. Holmes’ responses are from her own experience and from a group of professionals that she has networked with who are able to provide the best information on the particulars of the subjects brought up.
Excluding the introduction, the book is laid out in ten chapters, each covering a different subject. After a brief introduction, Holmes lays out the individual topics covered, and the rest of the chapter are in question and answer form. The following are the subject headings, along with the individual topics covered in each:
Chapter 1: Job Hunting
- When to look for work
- Fast Track
- Switching from primary to secondary and vice versa
- Finding job vacancies
- Working in the independent sector
- Medical fitness to teach
- Not getting a job
- Working in a faith school
- Using qualified teacher status (QTS) elsewhere
- Making speculative applications
- Supporting statements
- Referees and references
- LEA pools
- Training and teaching in England and Wales
- Interview nerves
- Interview questions
- Asking questions in interviews
- Portfolios
- Finding accommodation
- Visiting your school before starting work
- Contracts
- Joining a union
Chapter 2: Making a Start
- Preparing to start your new job
- Induction tutor concerns
- Being a tutor
- Meeting a class before the start of term
- Setting your room up
- Career Entry and Development Profile (CEDP)
- First aid
- Assemblies
- Ofsted inspection
- Home tutoring
Chapter 3: Working on supply
- Short-term supply teaching
- Eligibility to teach on supply
- Getting supply work
- Supply and the four-term rule
- Employability after supply teaching
- Supply teaching nerves
- Behaviour management
- Being a good supply teacher
- Turning supply teaching down
- Supply and the General Teaching Council
- Long-term supply
- Induction and supply
- Covering maternity leave
Chapter 4: Induction
- Induction explained
- Starting induction
- Induction Standards
- Induction entitlements
- Extending the induction period
- Induction tutors
- The Appropriate Body
- Where induction can be completed
- Induction in Wales
- Part-time induction
- Induction in more than one school
- Switching phases
- Induction abroad
- Induction in the independent sector
- Skills test
- Induction and qualified teacher status
- Failing induction
- Induction and the GTC
- Completing induction
- Induction problems
- Taking a break from induction
- Induction and PPA time
- Induction tutor problems
- Induction observations
- Induction on supply
- Induction stress
- Formal assessments
- Unsatisfactory progress
Chapter 5: All About Workload
- Pacing yourself
- Prioritizing
- Planning
- Time management
- Managing demanding times
- Using time twice
- Taking time off
- Procrastination
Chapter 6: Behaviour
- Building working relationships with pupils
- Establishing ground rules
- School behaviour policies
- NQTs and “difficult” students
- “Nightmare” classes with reputations
- Behaviour and special education needs (SEN)
- Circle time and behaviour
- Golden time
- Persistent low-level disruption
- Having to raise your voice
- Assertiveness
- Dealing with an angry outburst
- Group disenchantment
- Winning over a “difficult” student
- Bouncing back after a bad day
Chapter 7: Working with Colleagues and Parents
- Parental involvement in school work
- Communicating about behaviour
- Dealing with chatty parents
- Operating an “open door” policy
- Critical parents
- Parent helpers
- Awkward situations
- Aggressive parents
- Complaints about homework
- Parent teacher associations (PTAs)
- Governors
- Assertiveness
- Workplace bullying
- Dominant colleagues
- Effective communication
- Working with teaching assistants (TAs)
Chapter 8: Getting Through the Year
- Avoiding getting run down
- Boosting your immune system
- Working all hours
- Getting ill at the weekend
- Voice protection
- Recognizing negative stress
- Panic attacks
- Work-life balance
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Feeling tired all the time
- Perfectionism
Chapter 9: Personal Issues
- Feeling exhausted
- Wanting to leave the profession
- Leave of absence
- Work-life balance
- QTS issues
- The Register of Teachers
- The General Teaching Council
- Teacher Reference Numbers
- Choosing a teacher union
- Pension schemes
- Pay issues
- Continuing professional development
- Working overseas
- Notice periods for moving on
Chapter 10: Hot Education Topics
- Keeping up with new ideas and initiatives
- Workforce remodelling
- Extended schools
- Higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs)
- Brain Gym
- Emotional literacy
- e-consultations
- Common Transfer File
- Creativity
- Personalized learning
- Learning mentors
- Thinking skills
- Leading Edge Partnership Programme
Each of the subsections as mentioned above are fleshed out as a coherent question, followed by about a half-page response by Holmes. For example, on page 58 under the chapter “Induction”, the question reads; “Can I start induction before being awarded QTS?” with her answer following; “No, it isn’t possible to start induction before being awarded QTS. QTS is a requirement before being able to start induction and there is no flexibility on this.”
As you can see, the topics cover a wide variety of areas, including classroom issues (discipline, working with “bad” and “gifted” students, setting up your classroom, etc.), administration issues (which staff to talk to when it comes to a particular issue, how to deal with coworkers, etc.), and even home issues (how much work should you take home, dealing with stress, work-life balance, etc.).
Resources
The book includes a number of websites to visit, including:
- Induction Periods for different countries - www.learning.wales.gov.uk, www.deni.gov.uk, www.scotland.gov.uk (pg. 50)
There are also several answers to questions that contain lists of things to look for or consider. Here are several that I found most helpful:
Below right: Page 12 deals with what to include in a letter to a school with no vacancy postings.
Below left: On page 75, this is a list of what to do for better time management.
Above: Pages 94-95 talk about how to deal with the students that you just don’t get along with.
Critique
I found the layout of the book to be quite helpful. It was fairly dry when reading through it in a straight shot, and fairly repetitive, but this was not the intention of the book. It is meant as a reference, to be able to easily look up the section of the book that you have questions on and flip to that spot. With that in mind, the layout and pacing was great.
The main issue I had with this book was that it was from the United Kingdom. That’s not to say that there’s not as much to be gained from a writer in the UK as there is from Canada or the US. Rather, there is a lot of information included in the book that is exclusive to the United Kingdom, or at least information that I have never heard of before. There was an entire chapter on “induction”, which sounds like a form of supervised and assisted teaching for teachers in their first year of hired work. Another chapter is on “supply teaching”, which seemed to me to be like subbing or term positions, but there were several policies and stipulations I’d never heard before that seemed to be specific to England. I tried to take as much information from that as I could and apply it to my practicum situation now, however there are many policies and processes that only apply to the author’s region. Aside from a few British colloquialisms and quite a bit of acronym jargon, the book was easy enough to read.
Much of the rest of the chapters were very much in agreeance with the material taught to us at the faculty at U of M. Chapter 5, which dealt with workload and pacing, was sure to insist that teachers not find their sole identities as teachers, but rather strike the balance that they need to have. Rather than living to work, Holmes advocates working to live. Much of the chapter on behavioural issues also echoed what we discussed as a class. First and foremost, having a working relationship with students of mutual respect can cut out a great deal of potential problems. As well, many behavioural issues stem from a disinterest in class material. Designing individualized material for gifted students and for those students who are struggling is a means to get around this sort of issue. On pages 91 to 92, Holmes outlines what should be done if a child gets completely out of control in class. The steps she provides are nearly identical to how we discussed them - ensure everyone’s safety first, send another student for help, and do your best to calm the distressed student.
Overall, this is a very fine resource for quick references to specific issues. However, I would not recommend anyone outside the UK to purchase this book for their personal usage. If at all possible, find a Canadian equivalent. There is a great amount of detail over a wide area of subjects in FAQs for NQTs - it’s a shame most of it is specific to Britain.
Reference
Holmes, E. (2006). FAQs for NQTs. New York, NY: Routledge.
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