Part one

Your first week — the checklist

Nobody expects you to be brilliant in week one. They expect you to be organised, calm and consistent. Here's the minimum that gets you there.

Learn names — seating plan on paper, in your hand. Names are 80% of your authority.
Write your routines down before you teach them: how they enter, where bags go, how you take the register, how they leave. Say them, then practise them.
Know the escalation path — who to send for, what the on-call system is, where the referral form lives. Ask before you need it.
Save three lessons you can teach cold. A backup lesson is a parachute.
Find your person — one colleague who answers questions without judgement. Ask them what the unwritten rules are.
Plan your marking days now, not when the pile arrives.
Book your protected time in your calendar. If it isn't in the calendar, it isn't protected.
Say no to one thing. It's kinder than dropping it in week six.

Rule for the term: be boringly consistent.

New teachers get in trouble not by being too strict or too soft, but by being unpredictable. Same routine, same boundary, same reaction, every lesson. Consistency buys you more than cleverness ever will.

Part two

The first five minutes of every lesson

Behaviour problems are 90% prevention. Do these five and most of your battles never happen.

Stand at the doorGreet them by name as they come in. It sets the tone before a single word is taught, and you spot the mood of the room early.
Have a "do now" on the boardSomething they can start without you. Two minutes of silence while you take the register is gold. It means your lesson starts when you say, not when the bell does.
Give the instruction once, clearlyThen wait. Silence is a teaching tool. Don't talk over them — that teaches them it's fine to talk over you.
Name the positive before the negative"Right, that side's ready. Three… two…" Praise the ones doing it right; the rest follow.
Tell them what success looks likeOne sentence: "By the end, you'll be able to explain X." They work harder when they know where they're going.

Part three

What to actually say when behaviour kicks off

Voices you've never been taught to use, in the moments nobody trained you for. Keep it short, low and private where you can.

Low-level disruption (chatting, phone out, tapping)

"[Name], eyes up here thanks." — then carry straight on with the lesson.

Use the name, not the behaviour. Don't stop the flow to lecture. The first prompt is a nudge, not a punishment.

"[Name] — that's a warning. Next time it's [the consequence]." Then move on. No debate.

Say what the consequence is and mean it. A warning you never follow through on teaches them warnings are free.

When they argue ("That's not fair")

"Maybe. We'll talk about it at the end. Right now, [instruction]."

Never win a fight in front of the crowd. This ends it without losing face for either of you — and you follow up privately.

When they refuse outright

"You can do it here, or in [the other room] with [colleague]. Your choice — you've got ten seconds."

A choice with two outcomes you're happy with. Then wait. Whatever they choose, deliver it calmly. Calm beats loud every single time.

When the whole room is off

Stop. Stand still. Silence. Count it down — "three, two, one." Then: "Right — book on the desk, pens down, I'll wait."

Don't compete with noise. Punish the whole room and you lose the good ones. Reset the room, then re-teach the routine you skipped.

The line to never cross: sarcasm, shouting, and holding a grudge into the next lesson.

Kids forgive a sanction. They don't forgive being humiliated. Everything above works because you stay calm, brief and consistent.

Part four

A lesson plan that works (and takes 4 minutes)

Forget the university template. Plan the five moments that decide whether the lesson lands.

Do nowOne task, on the board, needs no input. Two minutes. Buys you a calm start.
The one thingWrite down the single sentence you want every child to be able to say by the end. If you can't write it, the lesson isn't planned.
Model it, then let them tryShow the worked example first. Then give them a task with the first one done for them. Nobody starts from blank.
Move and checkWhile they work, don't sit. Look over shoulders. You're not marking — you're finding the two or three who are lost while there's still time.
End by asking, not tellingLast two minutes: they say what they learned in their own words. That's your real assessment.

TOPIC: ______________________________ The ONE thing they should be able to say by the end: "______________________________________________" DO NOW (2 min): ________________________________ MODEL: what I'll show them first: __________________ THEIR TASK: ___________________________________ WHO I NEED TO CHECK ON (watch these 3): __________ EXIT QUESTION: "In your own words, why...?"

Part five

Marking without drowning

Marking is where new teachers lose their evenings and their weekends. Cut it down without cutting quality.

Mark less, more often

A quick lap of the room while they work beats an hour with a red pen afterwards. Catch it live — the feedback is faster and they can act on it.

Whole-class feedback

Don't write the same comment 30 times. Read a set, spot the three common errors, and re-teach those to everyone next lesson. One prep, thirty children helped.

Two stars, one question

Two things they did well, one question that makes them think. It's quicker to write than a paragraph and it does more.

Time-box it

Set a timer. Mark for 40 minutes, then stop. Diminishing returns are real, and so is burnout.

The one to protect: don't mark everything.

Choose the work that tells you the most, mark that properly, and let the rest do its job as practice. "Everything marked" is not the same as "everything learned."

Part six

Emails home that don't backfire

Parents are your allies — if the first message isn't a complaint. Send good news early, so bad news is trusted.

Positive email (send three of these in week one)

Subject: [Name] — good news Dear [Parent], Just a quick note to say [Name] has made a strong start in my class. [One specific thing: they helped another pupil / their effort on X was excellent.] I wanted you to hear that before anything else. Best wishes, [Your name]

Concern email (calm, specific, no blame)

Subject: [Name] — a quick heads-up Dear [Parent], I'm writing so you hear this from me early, and because [Name] is worth the effort. In [subject] recently, I've noticed [specific, factual thing]. It's affecting [specific: their work / their focus / others' learning]. I've already [what you've tried in class]. I'd like to work with you on it — would [day] after school suit a short phone call? [Name] is a [credit: bright / likeable / capable] pupil and I want this sorted quickly. Best wishes, [Your name]

Rules: no sarcasm, no capitals, no "your child always…"

Fact, impact, what you've done, what you want next. If you'd be happy for the head to read it out loud, it's ready to send.

Part seven

When a lesson flops

It will happen. It happens to everyone, including the teachers you think have it sorted. Here's the recovery.

Don't panic mid-lessonIf it's going badly, stop the activity. Reset, go back to something they can do, and end on a win. A mediocre lesson that ends calm beats a disaster that spirals.
Ask: was it them, or was it me?Was the task too hard, too easy, too long, too unclear? Nine times out of ten it's the task, not the class. That's fixable.
Re-teach, don't re-punishIf they didn't get it, that's information, not defiance. Teach it again a different way next lesson.
Write down one changeOne line in your planner. That's the whole debrief — you don't need a post-mortem.
Move on by 4pmThe lesson is over. Taking it home doesn't help them and it costs you. Tomorrow's lesson is the one that counts.

Part eight

How do you know if they actually got it?

This is the hardest skill of year one — and the one nobody teaches you.

You'll finish a lesson, ask "any questions?", get thirty blank faces, and have absolutely no idea who understood the thing you just spent an hour teaching. Hands stay down. Homework proves nothing any more. And by the time the test tells you, the class has moved on and that child is lost.

The honest answer is that the only check that can't be faked is a child explaining it back in their own words — but you can't sit with thirty of them in three minutes.

That's the one gap this pack can't close with a page of advice. So we built the tool for it.

Get It? — two minutes, whole class, no marking

Type the topic you just taught. Every pupil explains it privately on their phone, in their own words. You get green, amber and red across the class — and the exact child who's quietly faking it — before you've left the room.

Try it free on one class See how it works

Free while in beta · pupils need no account · set up in under a minute

The New Teacher
Survival Pack.

What's inside