Who are you planning for?

Hi all,

I wanted to talk about something quite controversial today, planning. Love it or hate it, as teachers, we all have to plan, and while different schools have different rules and regulations for planning, the most important thing to be sure of is who you are planning for.

Let's get one thing straight, Ofsted can't, and won't, ask to see plans. So why are they such a big part of school life? The most logical, and reasonable reason I can see for writing detailed plans, is so that if for some reason you are not teaching your class and someone is covering, they can see what you have done and what they need to do.

NQT's also tend to need to plan a lot and in detail (I know I did), making sure they know what they are teaching, what resources they need and being bale to refer to differentiation, particularly with a new class. I fully support NQT planning, but what about for more experienced teachers?

Often, when you have a dreaded observation, whoever is carrying it out, will ask to see your plan, and in these incidences, it is always good to have one, but for the everyday? How detailed do your plans really need to be?

Planning has become a bit of a box ticking activity for a lot of teacher, I find myself writing several different plans for each lesson I teach. For example, a weekly plan for myself, showing the lessons I plan to teach, and a weekly plan laid out the way SLT want it, which I personally do not find helpful. If this plan is unhelpful to me, as the teacher, why in the world am I forced to complete this each week? Completing plans solely for the purpose of it being 'policy' seems pointless to me, and not only that, but also a waste of time.

Saying this, you need your plans, they can support you when you want to prove your curriculum coverage or your differentiation. Although, this leads on to another question, why do teachers so regularly have to prove themselves? Why aren't they trusted?

These are the big questions we need to be asking, and for now, I don't have the answers and I don't know who does.

Until next time

Miss C