June - that weird time of the year...

Student teachers - Business Education - 2025/26

If you have secured a place on a PGDE starting in August/September - now is the time to start your personal development journey. In Business Ed, our core subjects are Business Management, Administration and IT, Accounting and Economics. There are many more new courses appearing - but get your head around these ones first. There is no way to ‘choose’ to only teach one of these subjects - you have to be competent in them all and we won’t know what your school placements will be and what subjects they offer until September.

How do you do this?

Head to the SQA website links below to find the course specifications for the National 5 courses. Make yourself familiar with the course content and assessments. Try and complete a National 5 paper - how much do you know and how much do you not know? In October you will be in front of classes that will be looking to you as the knowledge provider in the room. They can smell fear…..😆

We don’t expect you to know every course and level - but knowing where to find information is a step in the right direction.

Familiarise yourself with the General Teaching Council for Scotland - Standard for Provisional Registration - this is the document you will be measured against for the next year.

Hints and Tips - Start a word document or whatever method you prefer and add in words/phrases/terminology that you hear or come across - and create a vocabulary reference list.

Probationer Teachers - Business Education - 2025/26

Firstly - congratulations - you have completed the first year of your learning journey towards a career as a teacher in secondary education. Acronyms and jargon like AiFL, CFE, E’s and O’s, benchmarks, learning intention’s and GIRFEC are all in your vocabulary now. You have completed essays, presentations and lesson plans and are looking forward to the summer. And so you should be! But before we get there - take some time to do the following:

• Go in and check out your school - get a tour - will you have your own classroom, does the department have a staff base? Is there a fridge? Is there a kettle? Where are the toilets? You know find out the important stuff.

• How are you going to get there? Bus, train, car, bike? Is there parking? If you are getting the bus - will you be travelling with kids from your school?

• Get your timetable and have a wobble now over the thought of classes and subjects and unknowns.

• Get yourself a diary - paper or electronic - record key dates for your probation meetings and term dates. Don’t assume holiday dates or bank holidays - check out the term dates for your authority on their website.

Now there will be more - but for now - head off and enjoy the time you have now before your year starts again in August.

Newly Qualified Teachers - Business Education - 2025/26

You will now be in a strange time - you might have secured a position for the next year, you might be waiting to hear, or you might not have anywhere yet.

There is no point in me saying not to stress over this - as all three have unknown elements that will cause stress and anxiety.

Rest assured though - that our subject is in demand and there are jobs out there.

So looking positively - what can you do to prepare for the year ahead?

Check for any course specification updates for the subjects you teach. These are meant to be announced via SQA coordinators in school - but be proactive and go looking for them.

Read over the course reports from previous years.

Take some time to sit down and actually do the exams from this year - how would you answer the questions?

Think thats more than enough - take your summer to decompress and get a rest. Break out of the waiting for a bell to ring to have a snack or go to the toilet! Get some sun and binge watch some TV.

Teachers - Business Education - 2025/26

Breathe….

Sleep…..

Eat…….

Repeat…….

Summer holidays are almost here - I don’t need to tell you what to do - just get to the end of term - it’s not long!