Settling-In Checklist | Preparation For Your School Community Project

Over the next 4 weeks, you need to become an expert on your new school by carrying out useful research and meeting the people who make up your school community. Spending time on this and completing your Settling-In Checklist as you go will help you to understand your school’s culture, routines, and expectations, and enable you to settle in both confidently and professionally.

Even if you are already familiar with your school, completing this activity will provide fresh insights and help you to connect with new members of staff. It’s a valuable opportunity to deepen your understanding of your school environment and strengthen your overall training experience.

Please begin conducting research on your school. Complete the following:
– Use a school map to identify and visit all the key departments and buildings on the site, learning about the school’s history, staff, alumni, achievements, last 2 Ofsted inspection outcomes, school ethos and values, etc. among other things.
– Use the Settling In Checklist as a structured guide to ensure that you’re completing the practical steps and gathering the key information required both for this and future tasks – for example, future assignments that require an understanding of both safeguarding and behaviour for learning.

Connect with People in the School
Engage in conversations with a range of staff members across the school – including teaching, support, and leadership staff – to gain insight into their roles and contributions. Ask them what they believe the school does particularly well, how they would describe the school’s culture in a few words, and what one change or improvement they would make if given the opportunity. These discussions will offer valuable perspectives and may help to generate ideas for your School Community Project, which you’ll start in Week 5.

The above tasks need to be started during Week 1 and finished by the end of Week 4. It can take time to arrange meetings and fit your research in, so we’re giving you 4 weeks to plan and complete the paperwork.

If you have any questions after reading the above instructions, please contact the Teaching and Learning team at teachingandlearning@grad2teach.ac.uk
We’re happy to help!

If you have completed your ‘Settling-In Checklist’ then please use the upload box below to upload it. You can upload a scanned version of it if your notes are handwritten, but remember, they need to be legible!

Your document needs to be uploaded as a PDF and labelled with your initials followed by ‘Settling-In Checklist’ e.g. AE Settling-In Checklist