We are delighted to be joined by the inspirational David Cotton to talk about supporting trainees who have missed out so much during the pandemic. Those who know David will know what a tireless champion of physics teaching he is. A genuine enthusiast, David is one of the ‘must follow’ list for physics teachers.

We have focused a lot on the effect on students and teaching, but David rightly points out that PGCE trainees and NQTs have had an impoverished introduction to the profession, and it is something we might bear in mind when our new generation of teaching heroes hit the classrooms over the next few months.

Some of the points we discussed to help are:

• Join the IoP, or at least make sure your school is an affiliate
• If your department is hosting a trainee, or you have an NQT in your department, look for opportunities to allow them to see other teachers, and for experienced teachers to support them.
• If you are a trainee or NQT, don’t worry, you have time on your side. Lean on your mentor and colleagues, and befriend your technician. Together they will help you to develop your classroom practice, as well as your repertoire of teaching tools and experiments.

David will re-join us soon for a ways-to-teach episode on sound – we can’t wait!

Links:

IoP Spark

IoP affiliate programme for schools

Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

• Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.

The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License