PGCE Student in need of reassurance

Looking for any advice but mostly just reassurance that things will get better!

Hello, I'm a maths secondary PGCE Student. My course was going really well during my first placement, I felt like a part of my first school, had a great relationship with my mentor and really felt very confident. I was always praised for my classroom management and subject knowledge, and I had a moderation QA visitor who told me I was one of the strongest trainees he's ever seen.

Coming into my second placement, my confidence has taken a huge hit. My current placement school is very different, there is no consistency between teachers, a huge amount of permanent cover supply teachers and I barely see my mentor. Teaching lessons is hard as the behaviour system and policy here is very weak and sanctions don't seem to have any effect on students. I spend about 80% of my lessons trying to get students to stop talking over me. My mentor is never around, the teachers I share classes with are either totally hands off or step in instantly to issue sanctions without giving me a chance to react.

It has only been two weeks but I get very negative lesson feedback and feel like I haven't even had a chance to actually teach. I feel like there's no point in planning anything as it gets derailed instantly. I have discussed the issues with my training provider who gave my mentor some more training (seemingly has had no impact), and I was offered to transfer to another school but all the options are 1 hour+ commute.

What I have tried so far: -Using attention grabbers (like counting down from 5, saying that I'm still waiting for X amount of pupils) -Praising positive behaviour -Issuing sanctions accordingly and escalating them as needed -Pausing and not continuing until I have silence

Next few lessons I'm going to do a reminder of expectations and modelling what I'm looking for, as well as issuing more positive behaviour points. I know it hasn't been long being here and the students don't know me yet but I just feel really deflated and am second-guessing myself.

Additionally, my training provider is doing a lot of study sessions about jobs and applications and jobs fairs etc. This is just adding to my stress because I feel my confidence is shattered and if I did get any interviews, they'd be a mess. I'm also not even halfway through the course so it feels crazy early to me to even be thinking about jobs? Personally I want to wait a few more months to also help decide where I actually want to work and what I'm looking for, but the training provider is making me feel like I'm making a huge mistake if I don't apply now.

Overall, just feeling very overwhelmed.