It has to start somewhere!

September 2019 I started mainly teaching Functional Skills English and Maths. I wasn’t very confident teaching GCSE, but I inherited a GCSE group, then two groups. I had to quickly bring my skills up to date. It had been a good few years since I taught a GCSE lesson, plus I did not have the initial launch training everyone else had. It was hard work, but I did what I needed to do. 

Then Covid hit and everything changed. We went to online learning, like everyone else, working from home, socially battling. Professionally, this was the opportunity I needed! My girls had reached an age that I could leave them to do what I needed and know the house would be messy, but remain in one piece. It gave me the time to get my head around the GCSE, so Sept 2020 I would be firing on all cylinders. I had nailed the curriculum, so I was confident that I was ready. It helped that we started collaborative planning, as I had a chance to learn from my colleagues. Everything was split, we all planned our tiny section and put it together. My planning workload had reduced to just planning my maths, my contributions to GCSE English and Functional skills and adjusting the lesson templates to suit my classes.

The year flew by. We went back into another lockdown, luckily I moved house just as we were about to enter that second lockdown. In amongst the boxes of two households becoming one, I sat diligently delivering my bank of lessons, trying to build a rapport with students online. When we were eventually able to go back in, the students were so happy to see a familiar face, (be it behind a mask.) I started to build a bond with these students. Unbeknown to me at the time, it would see us through the following 12 months. (Year 1 of 2.0)



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Hello!

I started my 2.0 lift journey in June 2021. I played with the idea of writing a blog from day one, but wasn’t sure I was ready to tell the world my story. It all started as a little project to find out how viable 2.0 would be as a qualification. ‘My little project’ has now turned into a cross college wide program of study. So this blog will be me looking back over the past 2 years and sharing my observations for anyone who is looking to dip their toe, or for those of you who have already taken the plunge into 2.0, but want a different perspective. Here you will find my highs and lows, successes and failures. I hope you find it insightful. Enjoy!

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