The first day of the school year is always a nervous one. As your alarm goes off and you move through your morning routine, you fret about whether you really are as ready as you hoped to be.

But this year, right from the off, it seemed to go well. The team came together, the resources I had prepared worked, the children were a delight - especially the new pupil who settled into the daily routine well.

That first day can make such a difference to how you perceive the early weeks of term. But how did the rest of the year go?

Incredibly fulfilling

With the help of three teaching assistants and two lunchtime assistants, I teach a class of nine Year 2 and 3 pupils with various special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It is an incredibly fulfilling job.

I was nervous because it was the first time I would be teaching a pupil who was new to the school. This can be tough, as we have very clear expectations and routines and, while children are learning the ropes, behaviour can become quite unsettled. But we got the right support in place and I was so thrilled it paid off. The pupil thrived.

Essential to the process was my holding regular meetings throughout the year about the expectations and daily routines for this pupil. I learned an important lesson that I will remember for the rest of my career: continual communication with every member of the class team is essential and they need to have a genuine input into what happens. Do that, and so much more is achievable than would otherwise be the case.

I want to acknowledge how well the pupils have progressed this year. One example really stands out: a pupil began the year using a wheelchair while out in the community and, by the end of the year, was walking holding someone’s hand. It’s moments such as these that show what pupils can achieve by focusing on the possibility of success and not the limits of their abilities.

This is something I have become stronger at over the year, as I have tried to push my pupils to go above and beyond in every lesson.

Straitened circumstances

The financial difficulties in the SEND sector have been well publicised, but I think it is important to highlight how much of an effect poor funding is having on the children in our schools. It is the one thing that has caused me the most issues in the past 12 months.

The biggest impact I have seen in my school is the capacity for the leadership team to bring staff in when colleagues are absent. This has resulted in classes running on lower numbers of staff and lessons having to be adjusted accordingly.

Most of our lessons require the class to be split into numerous smaller groups. However, because of funding constraints, this does not always happen when colleagues are off. Teaching often becomes about whole-group lessons rather than concentrated and individually focused sessions.

The lack of funding has also affected the school’s ability to purchase resources to support lessons. Let me be clear: this is not stopping me or other teachers from providing motivating and enriching lessons. It just means we are having to adapt the way that lessons are accessed. I have noticed this particularly when planning and delivering history, as I have had to borrow resources from another school.

On the occasions that we managed to get cover from another class, I wanted to ensure my pupils felt supported but also that the person covering felt supported. Having unfamiliar faces in class was an added pressure for me, as I needed to explain individual needs each morning and to keep pupils learning to a high standard.

Expecting the unexpected

I am thoroughly looking forward to my next year of teaching, even though I envisage it being busy again. I am going to try to put what I have learned from this year into practice and not become too hung up when something does not happen quite as intended.

I would also like to explore different lesson themes that could help pupils to achieve more.

One crucial thing I would like to develop further as the year progresses is my confidence in leading training sessions for other teachers and support staff. I believe this will help me in becoming even more confident in managing my team and other professionals.

Reflection like this is essential. The process of evaluating and changing as you go through the year and move into the next is how we develop as teachers and it’s how we improve learning for our students.

Helen Kuhn is a classroom teacher at Frank Wise School in Banbury, Oxfordshire

This is the last in a four-part series about the year in teaching

This article originally appeared in the 30 August 2019 issue under the headline “If there’s no one to help carry the weight, you feel it”