I don’t like rollercoasters!

Adrenaline does not impress me.  I prefer to be calm and in control as much as possible.  To achieve this as a HOD, I have set up systems and routines for my lesson planning which I will share here.

1. Medium-term planning (termly).

For this I use an excel spreadsheet with a tab per class and the dates down the first column.  I add in any INSET days, mufti days etc.

• It saves me time when planning each week as I don’t need to flit to the scheme of work constantly when I do my initial plan for my requisitions.
• It ensures I hit any deadlines (although I’m not a slave to it and do frequently mix it up as I go along).
•  This is when I choose my route through the course for each class and recognise the compromises I might need to make e.g. not introducing a new concept on Friday Period 6/Mufti day or planning to put long practicals into double lessons.

2. Weekly planning for requisition writing.

I write out my requsitions on a Sunday for 2 weeks hence.  I know they are likely to change but prefer to do this the weekend before they are due so that I don’t have any big planning tasks to do, for my own teaching, during the week. I tend to know the activities I will want to use these days, and if I don’t get to them in the lesson I requested them, we have ‘Please Leave’ cards so that it doesn’t get packed away and I can bump it to the next lesson. 

• First, I refer to my long term plan and make a note into my planner as a quick reminder of what the lesson will be about. 
• I use this to write my requisition sheet which I print and put into my planner to be altered if needed before it is due in on Thursday.

3. Weekly planning of lessons.

• I have a master folder containing 5 folders labelled with the days of the week.  Each day has a set of folders for the classes I teach that day labelled 1. Yr9 etc. (the 1. is the period of the day).  So every lesson I teach has a folder.

• The Sunday before I make a copy of the weekly folder and label it with the number of the week and the date that the week commences on e.g. 1. Sept 2nd. (the 1. keeps them in order in the folder).
•  As I plan my week I put any resources I might need into these class folders.  The minimum requirement is a ‘Do Now’ task which is often the first slide of a powerpoint and contains a list of retrieval questions.  
• As I go, I add any detail to my planner.
• I make a list of any copying I need onto a post-it note with the day, class name and number of copies needed.

4. Photocopying resources (Monday morning/after school)

• I photocopy the resources I will need for the week and put them into a set of drawers labelled with the class names.

When I have done this I can get my head out of the boat and relax into the week ahead.  Yes things change – but I can tweak and fiddle as much as I like in the week, safe in the knowledge that I am not just about to suddenly plummet down an unexpected drop (to return to my roller coaster analogy!).

My aim is – not to have to use too much of my limited working memory during the day on having to think about my next lesson.  If needed, I should be able to go into any lesson and click on the folder, click on the starter, and have some time to get my head around who is in front of me and what they need next. (Or deal with the person at the door who needs something from me five minutes ago).  I seldom need to rely on this.  But the knowledge that I can is something I, personally, really need to be able to enjoy my week.