Your First Teaching Week: Turn School Induction into Useful Questions

Your first teaching week is a chance to learn how one particular school works. It is not a test of how quickly you can introduce every activity you know. A useful induction leaves you with names, routines, responsibilities and enough information to plan lessons that fit the learners in front of you.

Keep a small working notebook organised around questions you can resolve. Separate urgent safety information from teaching preferences and administrative details. That prevents an unanswered question about photocopying from receiving the same attention as an unclear procedure for a missing child.

Before the first class: establish responsibility

Ask who is responsible for your induction and who covers when that person is unavailable. Confirm the reporting route for safeguarding concerns, illness, injury, behaviour incidents and emergencies. Find out how attendance is recorded and what happens if a learner arrives late or leaves early. Follow the school's authorised procedures rather than creating an informal arrangement with a parent.

Walk through the classroom and exit routes with a colleague. Ask about equipment you may use, restricted areas and the process for requesting help without leaving pupils unsupervised. If an essential safety procedure is unclear, raise it before teaching independently. A confident manner cannot compensate for not knowing whom to contact.

Learn the curriculum before replacing it

Request the current unit, recent lesson records and the expected learning outcomes. Ask what learners have already studied, how progress is assessed and which materials are compulsory. A class may recognise vocabulary on a page but still need support using it in conversation; do not infer mastery from a completed workbook alone.

Check your freedom to adapt. Can you change the sequence, add a task or use your own images? Ask how copyright, printing and digital tools are handled. Cambridge English's teacher resources include lesson plans and level-specific materials, but an external resource should serve your school's objective rather than displace it simply because it looks polished.

Observe one routine closely

If observation is available, choose a few concrete questions. How does the teacher gain attention? How are materials distributed? How do learners ask for help? What happens between an individual task and pair work? These details may tell you more about a workable first lesson than collecting a long list of games.

Discuss what you saw without presenting it as a judgement. A routine that seems unusual may respond to room layout, learner needs or a school policy you have not encountered. Equally, ask respectfully about anything that concerns you; induction should not require silently accepting unsafe practice.

Make the first lesson informative

Plan a familiar, accessible task with a clear outcome. For example, learners could ask a partner about two everyday preferences and report one answer. Model the exchange, provide useful language and observe who can begin, who needs a prompt and who can extend an answer. This is an informal planning check, not a public ranking of ability.

Avoid asking children to disclose private family information as an icebreaker. Offer fictional choices or classroom topics, and allow learners to pass on personal questions. Learn names carefully, ask about pronunciation and use the school's preferred records rather than posting a photograph of the class list on your own device.

End with something you can inspect quickly, such as one completed sentence or a short paired response. Use it to choose the next lesson's starting point. Your aim is evidence you can act on, not a dramatic performance that leaves no time to notice learning.

Agree how adults will work together

If a teaching assistant or local teacher joins you, schedule a short conversation before class. Explain the learning goal and the parts where support is most useful. Ask for their knowledge of learners and existing routines. Agree who handles instructions, observation, additional explanation and communication with families.

Do not assume that a colleague's role is translation or behaviour control. Responsibilities depend on the school and the person's expertise. Share materials early enough for meaningful input. After class, ask one focused question, such as which instruction learners found difficult, and agree a small adjustment together.

Close the week with a practical review

Keep brief notes after each lesson: what learners managed, what prevented participation and what you will change. Distinguish a task-design problem from a behaviour judgement. If several learners could not start, the next move might be a clearer model rather than a stricter warning.

At the end of the week, check outstanding questions with your mentor or manager. Confirm planning deadlines, assessment expectations and the channel for ongoing support. Choose one routine to stabilise and one teaching skill to develop next. A successful first week does not mean everything ran smoothly. It means you now understand the setting better, have raised essential concerns and can explain why your next lesson will be more suitable than your first.