Within my placement there are many teams who work together to benefit the education of each child. The school as a whole has a very strong team spirit and friendly atmosphere.

Out with the main body of staff in the school there are other members of the education sector who form support teams for the school. These are people such as:

:) The child psychologists who can be called upon to observe children with challenging behaviours and hopefully diagnose the problem and help with the understanding and control of it.

:) The community forms a main part of the network supporting the school. They have formed a 'Friends of St Fergus' committee which raises funds for the school and decides where to allocate these funds.

Communication

In St Fergus primary school there are a number of ways in which the team can communicate with each other.

* By talking on a one to one basis for example the primary six/seven job share teachers when the information only concerns themselves.

* By e-mailing or faxing if the information is being passed to team members out with the school and the information is written. The phone is more commonly used to get a faster response instead of relying on somebody checking e-mails or being in the office where the fax machine is.

* Newsletters are sent out every month to all the staff and parents with information concerning the school. Also a note is put round the class rooms every morning from the head teacher with matters arising for that day such as whether the children are allowed on the grass or not and if there are any changes or visits which must be remembered during the day.

* The staff unofficially meet after school for a cup of tea in the staff room and discuss matters. Also staff meeting are help periodically which give members information of any matters the school is involved in. also having a notice board allows any information to be accessible to everybody.

Purpose

The team I am mainly involved in is the staff in St Fergus primary school. This team is committed to ensuring all children receive a positive, secure and complete learning experience.

The teams out with the school such as the 'Friends of St Fergus' committee are concerned with raising funds to resource the school and give the children extra learning experiences such as trips.

The support networks are in place to accommodate more challenging children within the education system to offer support and advice to the school and parents in order to help the individual child.

Duties

The head teacher of the school is in charge of the overall day to day running of the whole school and ensuring teachers get adequate support and information to help their job. She must attend meetings about the school with the education board and deals with any serious disciplinary situations which may arise in the school. This role is the most challenging in the school as it is the top of the ladder in the school for gaining decisions and information.

The teachers roles are to supply the children with the learning they need to move on and the encouragement to develop further. They must plan their class activities to ensure all areas of the curriculum is covered and that the day to day running of the class is smooth.

My duties are to ensure that the children abide by the schools policies and procedures. To learn from observing the teachers and other members of staff. My role as the student also requires me to act responsibly and using my own common sense when faced with any situation. I also have to ensure that I allocate enough time and inform the staff when I have certain activities I need to do for my college work.

My Role

As the student in my placement my role is to support the other staff members by carrying out tasks asked of me and working together as a team member.

Supervising groups of children and where appropriate teaching them new skills and developing existing ones. Observing activities and offering help and extra explanation to children and adapting the activities if they appear at the wrong standard for the child.

I am expected to plan activities for the children in line with the curriculum and themes being covered in class. By doing this I am completing college work and also bringing new, fresh ideas to the school and gaining valuable experience.

As well as working as part of a valued team within the school I also need the support of the team to keep me on the correct track with my own activities and dealing with any new experiences I come across.

I believe I have fitted very well into the team at St Fergus and have thoroughly enjoyed my learning experience. The reasons why I am so confident with how well I get on with my colleagues in my placement is because I was invited to be a member of staff on the upper stages school ski trip in January which shows how much the school values me as a responsible and trustworthy team member. I was included in the Christmas staff night out and some of the staff offered to pick me up to save us all driving. In the staff room I always feel as though my input in discussions is valued which has certainly made me very comfortable as a team member and built up my self confidence in the placement.

Reflection

I know there will always be people who are not as much of a team player as others and that it is important to remain professional for the good of the institution and the children so working closely with another student who I found it difficult to form a relationship with, has certainly developed my ability to be tactful around them when I disagreed and allow a situation or confrontation to drop for the benefit of the children if I couldn't foresee a positive outcome.

In the future I shall have to learn new ways to communicate and include those less willing to become a team member to ensure that the team doesn't break down.

My observation skills for non-verbal reactions has definitely been developed and my ability to predict how someone will react to a situation in a positive or negative way and as a result being able to prepare myself, and if necessary adapt the situation, to accommodate the person. This proves very necessary working with children and also for becoming a new member of an existing team as the skill of being able to observe the situations and pick up on any unofficial roles within the team is very important to help fit into the routine already in place and not upset things.

Gemma Veitch P2VH/F041A/M