During placement today, I am aiming to see how the school sets its expectations of how pupils are expected to behave. This will be my first placement in a school therefore I am going to be mindful of how I come across to students, ensuring I also set the high standards that I am looking to observe.

Originally within my plan for the first day I was only going to observe however I found myself in an assisting role helping to reinforce teaching points of the exercises during the circuit. I feel that I reflected at the time during the lesson because just observing made me feel agitated. Therefore, I observed / supported in a KS3, and KS4 lesson. I have planned to continue in these lessons.

Period two: Again I placed myself in an observation role within the lesson, taking a seat at the back and watched how the teacher delivered the lesson to year 9 students, who are deemed as talented sportspeople as well as academics. These students were invited to take an extra qualification in the form of a B-Tec to go along side their GCSE PE. This would be deemed as meeting teaching standard 5, adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils, by acknowledging their strengths in PE, the students can gain an extra qualification. Therefore by offering this it can also challenge pupils, meeting teaching standard 1. This lesson in contrast was a classroom session where the children were asked to complete a task they were set the previous lesson. The students were very respectful towards the teacher and myself and continued to work amongst themselves on the computers. The teacher in this lesson, used teaching standard 6, make accurate and productive use of assessment very well as students showed their work to him, he then gave verbal and written assessment and guided them towards what was needed to meet the criteria that is expected, he gave assessment directly to individual students as well as collectively when the same problem arose within students work.

Period three: the final lesson of the day was a leadership class containing four students only, my placement partner and myself joined in a relaxed lesson with 6th form students debating the characteristics of good and bad leaders, using examples such as: Sir Alex Ferguson, David Cameron and Adolf Hitler. They then decided which leadership style they would fall under (autocratic democratic and laissez faire). This was obviously something new for us both; however stepping into another lesson gave us a larger insight into the school outside of traditional PE. The teacher took this lesson and gave us an insight into how to manage older students, whom are only 3 years younger than ourselves. He used a relaxed style of teaching and made it into a chatty atmosphere in which I felt got the best out of the low level group.

I was surprised however that when I went into the first lesson and gave feedback to students that they treated me like a “real” teacher. They constantly referred to me as “Sir” this for me, highlighted the expectations.

Today I believe as a whole the day went well. I believe I managed to make a good impression amongst the students and the members of staff. I also think that my objective for the day, to observe KS3 and KS4 was partly met, due to the fact I could watch three lessons and have agreed to continue to watch two of them for the entirety of the placement.

The day could have gone differently if I decided that I was going to support the whole lesson, rather than observe before entering the lesson. I would not say that this resulted in anything “bad” however I may have been able to understand the way the students are expected to behave first hand if I helped deliver the lesson first.

Capel, (2010) suggests that observations are at the heart of teaching PE effectively. Observation enables teachers to see he progress that pupils are making and also how they respond to lessons and feedback. Observations were important within the students first lesson the circuit training. Capel, (2010) argues that whilst in an ideal world your planned lesson will work perfectly, in lesson observation is important in order to change what isn’t working. This would also relate to teaching standard 5: adapt teaching to the strengths and needs of all pupils. This was evident when the teacher and myself worked within smaller groups.

High expectations where obvious throughout the day by setting out expectations early in the lesson, the teacher will then have something to drawn back on if the children misbehave or do not meet the expectations. Therefore this met teacher standard 1. Often with expectations set prior to the lesson they are met as everybody knows what to expect and how to act. Capel (2005:105) suggests that teachers need to set obtainable learning outcomes in order to achieve a positive learning climate, this means that by setting learning outcomes in the lesson then the pupils have a target to meet, and will have some self-satisfaction when they meet these targets, creating a positive learning environment. This therefore would directly support the fact that by setting high expectations, you then create a positive environment.

Today I have learnt that within a school different year groups have different expectations. This is evident within school life, an example of this would be that year 7 students are made to stand outside the changing rooms and wait for the teacher to allow them to get changed. This is contrast to 6^th form classes, which let themselves into the room and sit down to get themselves ready. Whilst this is expected in later school, it would be credit to the schools expectations moulding the students into sensible pupils.

I feel that during today I have seen how the school should operate, how students and teachers should behave. I feel as if I can apply this knowledge and understanding during the remaining weeks of my placement.

No questions arose today.

Looking back on my reflections, I believe that I did the right thing in mainly observing on my first day, and therefore getting to understand the teacher’s expectations of the students. Although I did supporting the teachers throughout the day, I feel as if observing first was beneficial.

Returning to the day, I feel as if seeing three different year groups was beneficial, as it let me see what expectations were expected throughout the whole school. It also gave me an insight on the different way of approaching students for example; a year 7 I could not have the same relationship was I could with a 6^th formers.