You can see for miles along the corridor. After a week, the only familiar face in assembly belongs to the clock. And when you say hello to the head, she can’t quite pull your name out of her mental filing cabinet. Welcome to the big school.

All vast comprehensives are not the same, but the problem for teachers in them is universal: how do you make your mark in a school with more than 800 pupils? Not that you’re a fame junkie, but everyone wants to feel they matter to the place where they work.

It’s easier for some than others. The resistant materials teacher whose pupils make a life-size elephant for the hall has the edge, as does the PEteacher who grooms a county-standard hurdling team. But it’s harder for those who toil at geometry and French grammar.

You could always do a sponsored parachute jump to raise funds for new sports equipment, but the best ideas tend to be educational rather than sensational.

Communication is the main idea. After all, you’re trying to communicate how good you are. Use the Web for setting up e-mail exchanges with foreign schools. It’s a creative tool not just for language teaching, but for humanities in general. The children get help with their cultural studies and your international swapshop takes off to great acclaim.

Partnership is another good word. Can you usefully link up with local businesses who might like to use your sports centre or language lab in exchange for their expertise in careers advice? What about linking up with one of your feeder primaries for a Year 6 club, either at their place or yours, with a project as its centrepiece?

Interdisciplinarity is hard to say but very effective when it comes to making your mark. It may take a while for you to find a suitable colleague you can work with, but one advantage of a big school is that you have a good-sized pool to choose from once you’ve dreamt up the idea. DT and IT teachers are a good match with lots of subjects; drama can bring history to life; PE and biology can link up over health topics.

How to keep your enthusiasm in check

1. Don’t rush it. If you don’t get to know the ethos of the school before you try to make a name for yourself, the one you get may not be flattering.

2. Don’t volunteer wildly for everything. You’ll be exhausted and the name you get will be “dogsbody”.

3. Target your efforts and run ideas past the head. You want herhim to know, and you don’t want to waste your time. Equally, don’t waste the head’s time with things that haven’t been properly considered.

4. Consider funding implications and see what sponsorship you might be able to get out of any school-business partnerships.

5. Use the summer term for feel-good one-offs: a pupil skipathon for health, or an outdoor Shakespeare-in-a-nutshell production. And there must be something the maths people can do outside.

6. Don’t try to foster a reputation as a character. These things best happen naturally. There’s a fine line between character and weirdo.