Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Another headteacheer bites the dust
After 17 years as a headteacher, Richard Arrowsmith is retiring early, fed up with the endless initiatives of a government that refuses to listen to those who work in schools
Tuesday August 8, 2006
The Guardian
The early retirement of a secondary school head is not really national news. Even when he has had 17 years' experience of headship in two schools, and a total of 34 years in seven schools. But I am just too fed up with too many things. The problems of excessive bureaucracy, ridiculous deadlines and unconvincing consultation processes keep duplicating with each new initiative and, more seriously, the ongoing conflicts between educational ideals and political ideals show no sign of abating. Heads are asked to do far too much where the interest of the child is not the primary motive.
It seems to me that most major planks of policy introduced during my 17 years as a headteacher in two comprehensives have run into problems that were foreseen by us in schools.
How many people remember John Patten having to apologise for the national curriculum being too prescriptive? It was unsustainable, and everybody except the politicians knew that. There was another apology for the fiasco of Charles Clarke's first schools budget, though none for the disgraceful way in which languages were dropped at GCSE level two years ago. We know Clarke was taken completely by surprise by the massive fall in numbers taking languages that followed. Yet he was probably the only person - apart from those in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) - to have this reaction.
A civil servant once spoke to me of the "unintended outcomes" of policy. Unintended they may be, but unforeseeable they are not.
Political agendas
We have had successive governments with big political agendas. "Parental choice" is being driven through the system, not because it improves schools, but because it attracts votes and is felt to be "a good thing". Everyone knows that the exercise of choice by one person can limit the choice of another.
Everyone in schools also knows that parental choice means that, ultimately, successful curriculum continuity from key stage 2 to key stage 3 cannot be achieved. If we had started out by asking how we can improve continuity between primary and secondary, we would quickly have identified parental choice as one of the biggest obstacles to progress. So which is more important: the political ideal of parental choice or the educational ideal of curriculum continuity?
If I had not already decided to call it a day this summer at the age of 57, I would have done so when it was announced recently that £15,000 is going to local authorities to appoint advisers to help parents choose schools, in case they cannot understand league tables and Ofsted reports. The idea that these sources of information capture the spirit and essence of schools is laughable.
I could probably think of 15,000 better ways of spending that money - but no one would be listening.
Similarly with "raising standards". No one can argue with the idea that we want every child to do as well as possible. But teachers know that a heavy emphasis on improved performance for all will not lead to uniform progress. Secondary schools are seeing an influx of young people who have been "boosted" and intervened with ad nauseam. The very vehicle that was meant to be their salvation - the curriculum - has been identified by them as the source of their disaffection and failure.
If we had started with the question "how can we use a big injection of fresh money to improve the standards of all children?", we might now be in a different place. Instead, it became a political imperative to meet targets set for specific age groups at specific times, thus dividing children into those who did and those who didn't make the grade.
End of term
At the end of my 101st term, I find that I am less concerned with my legacy than the prime minister is in his third. Experience has taught me many things. Rapid and radical change can occur only when everyone is on board and believes the gains will outweigh the losses. This has not been achieved in schools.
You cannot issue edicts and expect other people to pick up and run with ideas that are barely formed and only rough in outline. You are bound to get the proverbial camel instead of the racehorse.
It is obvious that the prime minister's personal agenda for education is very forceful and supersedes all else. Governments cannot work like this. No wonder the DfES has an appalling reputation among teachers for poor planning, poor communication and even worse implementation.
Headteachers would not have been among the many people who were surprised by John Reid's recent revelations about the ineptitude of the Home Office. They would have smiled quietly about accusations of "shocking inefficiency" levelled at ministers and civil servants.
Serious problems
Left hands that do not communicate with right, and personnel who constantly move on from key jobs pose serious problems for schools. We would have given anything to hear Alan Johnson go into the DfES and say the same thing, for it would be equally true. Alas, the face changes (again), but the message remains the same: reform must go on. We must accelerate the pace of "radical change" and standards need to rise even faster, with more and more demanding targets.
If this is to be the way forward, the DfES does not need heads like me. They need a more compliant, less challenging group of heads who will think only within the parameters they are allowed.
There are many things I feel strongly about. The fraudulent use of the term "value-added" is one. To me, the value a school adds to a child is difficult to measure and is found in exciting experiences, opportunities to take responsibility and residential visits. It is certainly nothing to do with the small statistical variations between dubious sets of data predictions.
I hate the over-emphasis on data and targets, which has misled everyone, including the DfES and Ofsted, into forming judgments about schools that are not valid. The real issues affecting achievement are often things that cannot be measured. I am a person who is not motivated by targets, and a lot of children are not, but the prime minister is guilty of the very criticism he levels at us by insisting on one-size-fits-all systems of judgment.
It angers me that the role of Ofsted is to measure the comparability between schools instead of celebrating the diversity between them. The use of Ofsted to police the government's flavours of the month is dreadful.
I am frustrated by huge inequalities in school funding while the same expectations of all are set. I am irritated beyond words at opportunities missed by totally unrealistic deadlines. I deplore the political rhetoric about making it easy for schools to manage poor behaviour while, beneath the surface, there are constant attempts to make exclusion harder and harder.
It is offensive that we should be berated about our work-life balance when we have so little control over the tons of work coming across the desk. It is a government blithely unaware of the contradictions that run through most of its policies that gives schools and authorities such huge problems.
My farewell is not a bitter one. I have enjoyed all my seven schools, and many notable achievements have been recorded for individual students and teachers.
It is clear that the gap between the rhetoric and the reality is not closing, however, and I do not want to reach the point where the frustrations outweigh the pleasures. For the future benefit of education, I hope the DfES can find ways of being in touch with its critical friends. We may oppose aspects of their policies and thinking, but that experience and foresight really can be of value.
· Richard Arrowsmith was head of The Grove school in Market Drayton, Shropshire
education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1838983,00.html
Tuesday August 8, 2006
The Guardian
The early retirement of a secondary school head is not really national news. Even when he has had 17 years' experience of headship in two schools, and a total of 34 years in seven schools. But I am just too fed up with too many things. The problems of excessive bureaucracy, ridiculous deadlines and unconvincing consultation processes keep duplicating with each new initiative and, more seriously, the ongoing conflicts between educational ideals and political ideals show no sign of abating. Heads are asked to do far too much where the interest of the child is not the primary motive.
It seems to me that most major planks of policy introduced during my 17 years as a headteacher in two comprehensives have run into problems that were foreseen by us in schools.
How many people remember John Patten having to apologise for the national curriculum being too prescriptive? It was unsustainable, and everybody except the politicians knew that. There was another apology for the fiasco of Charles Clarke's first schools budget, though none for the disgraceful way in which languages were dropped at GCSE level two years ago. We know Clarke was taken completely by surprise by the massive fall in numbers taking languages that followed. Yet he was probably the only person - apart from those in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) - to have this reaction.
A civil servant once spoke to me of the "unintended outcomes" of policy. Unintended they may be, but unforeseeable they are not.
Political agendas
We have had successive governments with big political agendas. "Parental choice" is being driven through the system, not because it improves schools, but because it attracts votes and is felt to be "a good thing". Everyone knows that the exercise of choice by one person can limit the choice of another.
Everyone in schools also knows that parental choice means that, ultimately, successful curriculum continuity from key stage 2 to key stage 3 cannot be achieved. If we had started out by asking how we can improve continuity between primary and secondary, we would quickly have identified parental choice as one of the biggest obstacles to progress. So which is more important: the political ideal of parental choice or the educational ideal of curriculum continuity?
If I had not already decided to call it a day this summer at the age of 57, I would have done so when it was announced recently that £15,000 is going to local authorities to appoint advisers to help parents choose schools, in case they cannot understand league tables and Ofsted reports. The idea that these sources of information capture the spirit and essence of schools is laughable.
I could probably think of 15,000 better ways of spending that money - but no one would be listening.
Similarly with "raising standards". No one can argue with the idea that we want every child to do as well as possible. But teachers know that a heavy emphasis on improved performance for all will not lead to uniform progress. Secondary schools are seeing an influx of young people who have been "boosted" and intervened with ad nauseam. The very vehicle that was meant to be their salvation - the curriculum - has been identified by them as the source of their disaffection and failure.
If we had started with the question "how can we use a big injection of fresh money to improve the standards of all children?", we might now be in a different place. Instead, it became a political imperative to meet targets set for specific age groups at specific times, thus dividing children into those who did and those who didn't make the grade.
End of term
At the end of my 101st term, I find that I am less concerned with my legacy than the prime minister is in his third. Experience has taught me many things. Rapid and radical change can occur only when everyone is on board and believes the gains will outweigh the losses. This has not been achieved in schools.
You cannot issue edicts and expect other people to pick up and run with ideas that are barely formed and only rough in outline. You are bound to get the proverbial camel instead of the racehorse.
It is obvious that the prime minister's personal agenda for education is very forceful and supersedes all else. Governments cannot work like this. No wonder the DfES has an appalling reputation among teachers for poor planning, poor communication and even worse implementation.
Headteachers would not have been among the many people who were surprised by John Reid's recent revelations about the ineptitude of the Home Office. They would have smiled quietly about accusations of "shocking inefficiency" levelled at ministers and civil servants.
Serious problems
Left hands that do not communicate with right, and personnel who constantly move on from key jobs pose serious problems for schools. We would have given anything to hear Alan Johnson go into the DfES and say the same thing, for it would be equally true. Alas, the face changes (again), but the message remains the same: reform must go on. We must accelerate the pace of "radical change" and standards need to rise even faster, with more and more demanding targets.
If this is to be the way forward, the DfES does not need heads like me. They need a more compliant, less challenging group of heads who will think only within the parameters they are allowed.
There are many things I feel strongly about. The fraudulent use of the term "value-added" is one. To me, the value a school adds to a child is difficult to measure and is found in exciting experiences, opportunities to take responsibility and residential visits. It is certainly nothing to do with the small statistical variations between dubious sets of data predictions.
I hate the over-emphasis on data and targets, which has misled everyone, including the DfES and Ofsted, into forming judgments about schools that are not valid. The real issues affecting achievement are often things that cannot be measured. I am a person who is not motivated by targets, and a lot of children are not, but the prime minister is guilty of the very criticism he levels at us by insisting on one-size-fits-all systems of judgment.
It angers me that the role of Ofsted is to measure the comparability between schools instead of celebrating the diversity between them. The use of Ofsted to police the government's flavours of the month is dreadful.
I am frustrated by huge inequalities in school funding while the same expectations of all are set. I am irritated beyond words at opportunities missed by totally unrealistic deadlines. I deplore the political rhetoric about making it easy for schools to manage poor behaviour while, beneath the surface, there are constant attempts to make exclusion harder and harder.
It is offensive that we should be berated about our work-life balance when we have so little control over the tons of work coming across the desk. It is a government blithely unaware of the contradictions that run through most of its policies that gives schools and authorities such huge problems.
My farewell is not a bitter one. I have enjoyed all my seven schools, and many notable achievements have been recorded for individual students and teachers.
It is clear that the gap between the rhetoric and the reality is not closing, however, and I do not want to reach the point where the frustrations outweigh the pleasures. For the future benefit of education, I hope the DfES can find ways of being in touch with its critical friends. We may oppose aspects of their policies and thinking, but that experience and foresight really can be of value.
· Richard Arrowsmith was head of The Grove school in Market Drayton, Shropshire
education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1838983,00.html
Friday, March 28, 2008
Stress forces teachers to quit
29 February 2000
BBC News
More than half of England's teachers expect to leave the profession within a decade because of stress, bureaucracy and heavy workloads, according to a survey.
Figures show that 53% of teachers and lecturers in primary, secondary and university education do not expect to be teaching in 10 years' time.
This includes more than a third of the youngest teachers and lecturers - those aged up to 34 - who expect to quit, despite only relatively recently embarking on their careers.
In the ICM telephone poll, published on Tuesday in The Guardian newspaper, heavy workload was cited as the biggest issue for teachers who said they wanted to leave. This was followed by bureaucracy and stress.
Teachers feel pressured by too much paperwork
The findings were no surprise to the teaching unions, which renewed their call on the government to cut teachers' workloads.
Doug McAvoy, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "For the children's sake, we hope teachers won't leave the profession.
"But it is a measure of how far the government has ignored teachers' concerns that so many wish to do so."
Nigel de Gruchy, General Secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said: "More and more teachers will quit unless the government acts to reduce workload with a contract protecting staff from unlimited hours and ever-increasing demands."
Shadow Education Secretary Theresa May said: "This government is overloading teachers with bureaucracy and has failed to deliver on its promises of more money.
"Little wonder teachers are disillusioned and threatening to quit."
Pay reforms
But a spokeswoman for Department for Education said teacher recruitment was healthy in primary schools and improving in the secondary sector, where there were shortages in some subjects.
Numbers leaving the profession early had remained steady over a number of years at 2% to 3%, and 30,000 newly-qualified teachers were joining every year.
She also pointed to government pay reforms which would give many of those responding to the poll the prospect of higher salaries.
Performance-related pay was "geared at retaining teachers who have been working in the profession for up to 10 years", she said.
"Previously, they would have found their careers capped. Now they will be able to apply for higher pay and career opportunities."
Separate interviews with parents for the survey suggested the vast majority were supportive of teachers, with 93% of primary school teachers and 89% of secondary school teachers seen as competent or highly competent.
Helpline
Just over nine out of 10 parents with children in state schools said they were happy with the quality of education on offer.
In inner city schools the positive response rose to 96%.
Nearly seven out of 10 parents said they thought the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, was doing a "very or fairly good" job.
On homework, nearly one in five said children should start as young as four, and more than half said seven-year-olds should be doing up to 30 minutes a night.
A spokesman for Teacherline, the telephone helpline for teachers launched in October, said the service had already received 5,000 calls.
"A lot of teachers talk about workload and stress, a lot of teachers talk about Ofsted inspections, and problems with relationships with colleagues."
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/660906.stm
BBC News
More than half of England's teachers expect to leave the profession within a decade because of stress, bureaucracy and heavy workloads, according to a survey.
Figures show that 53% of teachers and lecturers in primary, secondary and university education do not expect to be teaching in 10 years' time.
This includes more than a third of the youngest teachers and lecturers - those aged up to 34 - who expect to quit, despite only relatively recently embarking on their careers.
In the ICM telephone poll, published on Tuesday in The Guardian newspaper, heavy workload was cited as the biggest issue for teachers who said they wanted to leave. This was followed by bureaucracy and stress.
Teachers feel pressured by too much paperwork
The findings were no surprise to the teaching unions, which renewed their call on the government to cut teachers' workloads.
Doug McAvoy, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "For the children's sake, we hope teachers won't leave the profession.
"But it is a measure of how far the government has ignored teachers' concerns that so many wish to do so."
Nigel de Gruchy, General Secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said: "More and more teachers will quit unless the government acts to reduce workload with a contract protecting staff from unlimited hours and ever-increasing demands."
Shadow Education Secretary Theresa May said: "This government is overloading teachers with bureaucracy and has failed to deliver on its promises of more money.
"Little wonder teachers are disillusioned and threatening to quit."
Pay reforms
But a spokeswoman for Department for Education said teacher recruitment was healthy in primary schools and improving in the secondary sector, where there were shortages in some subjects.
Numbers leaving the profession early had remained steady over a number of years at 2% to 3%, and 30,000 newly-qualified teachers were joining every year.
She also pointed to government pay reforms which would give many of those responding to the poll the prospect of higher salaries.
Performance-related pay was "geared at retaining teachers who have been working in the profession for up to 10 years", she said.
"Previously, they would have found their careers capped. Now they will be able to apply for higher pay and career opportunities."
Separate interviews with parents for the survey suggested the vast majority were supportive of teachers, with 93% of primary school teachers and 89% of secondary school teachers seen as competent or highly competent.
Helpline
Just over nine out of 10 parents with children in state schools said they were happy with the quality of education on offer.
In inner city schools the positive response rose to 96%.
Nearly seven out of 10 parents said they thought the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, was doing a "very or fairly good" job.
On homework, nearly one in five said children should start as young as four, and more than half said seven-year-olds should be doing up to 30 minutes a night.
A spokesman for Teacherline, the telephone helpline for teachers launched in October, said the service had already received 5,000 calls.
"A lot of teachers talk about workload and stress, a lot of teachers talk about Ofsted inspections, and problems with relationships with colleagues."
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/660906.stm
Racism in England
Today, my boyfriend was (once again) victim of a racism attack. He is Indian and the kindest hearted person I have ever met. We are planning to get engaged really soon and I feel really lucky to have him by my side. I just don’t understand what is going on with people here in Hatfield, and I want to believe that this only happens in here, due to the clash of a decrepit society with the local students.
This morning I left for my job in Stevenage and I requested my boyfriend to make a copy of a key that I needed.
He entered on one local shop, and asked how much it would cost to make a simple key. The person behind the counter said that it would be £3 something. My boyfriend was intrigued, since one of his friends paid much less for a same kind of key. Because he thought he was being deceived, he mentioned the fact – politely! And God knows how my boyfriend is, he is a non-violent person, really nice heart, the best! And it is not because he is my boyfriend…Anyway, confronted with the fact that he was probably charging more than he should, the person that works in that shoe-fixing-key-making place started shouting at my boyfriend, telling him that if he wasn’t happy he could always go to Welwyn Garden City and that actually he was not going to serve him anymore, adding to a “great finale” a most outrageous “Fu** Off”.
My boyfriend was literally kicked out of the store.This afternoon, after I came back from work, we passed in front of that local shop mainly because I decided that I wanted to name and shame that bast***. I took a good look at the guy who discriminated my boyfriend, he saw us and I made sure he saw us good, because I was watching him as well.
And this was not the first time he had problems… He was once attacked. One other day, we were walking from his place to mine when these guys in a black car approached and threw an egg at him. Luckily it only broke on the floor, so it didn’t stain any clothes… But I was with him, and that attack had terrible effects on me. I lost all the respect for the English society… After all, the so-called hooligans are hooligans everywhere, anywhere…
(crazyveggie.wordpress.com/2007/01/09/racism-in-england-again)
This morning I left for my job in Stevenage and I requested my boyfriend to make a copy of a key that I needed.
He entered on one local shop, and asked how much it would cost to make a simple key. The person behind the counter said that it would be £3 something. My boyfriend was intrigued, since one of his friends paid much less for a same kind of key. Because he thought he was being deceived, he mentioned the fact – politely! And God knows how my boyfriend is, he is a non-violent person, really nice heart, the best! And it is not because he is my boyfriend…Anyway, confronted with the fact that he was probably charging more than he should, the person that works in that shoe-fixing-key-making place started shouting at my boyfriend, telling him that if he wasn’t happy he could always go to Welwyn Garden City and that actually he was not going to serve him anymore, adding to a “great finale” a most outrageous “Fu** Off”.
My boyfriend was literally kicked out of the store.This afternoon, after I came back from work, we passed in front of that local shop mainly because I decided that I wanted to name and shame that bast***. I took a good look at the guy who discriminated my boyfriend, he saw us and I made sure he saw us good, because I was watching him as well.
And this was not the first time he had problems… He was once attacked. One other day, we were walking from his place to mine when these guys in a black car approached and threw an egg at him. Luckily it only broke on the floor, so it didn’t stain any clothes… But I was with him, and that attack had terrible effects on me. I lost all the respect for the English society… After all, the so-called hooligans are hooligans everywhere, anywhere…
(crazyveggie.wordpress.com/2007/01/09/racism-in-england-again)
Quitting Teaching
BBC News
16 April 2000
This was eight years ago. You can see how things have not improved much. Teacher salaries are still low, especially when you compare teacher wages in England to other careers. Discipline in British schools is not important, but trivial things that make the school look good, not make students learn, are very important to schools. This is what it is like to teach in England.
Andrew Riddles has been a secondary school history teacher for six years. Here he explains why he is walking away from the profession to start a new career.
Last week, a very nice man offered me a job.
Not a high ranking job, not a head of department role, not a post with huge responsibilities.
In fact I am now to be termed a "junior". To be exact I will be a junior HTML hand-coder, one of these new media careers of which we read so much.
It is more grandiose than it sounds, but considering that I am entering this new career with no qualifications or experience I was surprised to be offered a salary which is pretty much the same as the salary I earn now.
And this is after six years in the teaching profession.
With shares options, bonuses, health care and free soft drinks, I will be better off on my first day in my new career than after dedicating most of my 20s to being a secondary school teacher.
'I am leaving for myself'
I used to have a dream that when I eventually left teaching I would make a grand gesture to some final professional insult during a staff meeting.
But now the decision time has come it is nothing so complex, nor heroic. I am leaving for myself and nothing more or better than that.
I cannot pretend that the new earning potential is not a major reason for leaving teaching.
But along with the increasing penury if I stayed in the teaching profession, I could have also looked forward to an increased workload, which can make unacceptable demands on teachers' personal time.
Persecution
Nor can I hope to understand the way in which we treat children.
Childhood is meant to be in some way precious and we believe that children need to be protected, whilst having instilled in them a sense of right and wrong and a intellectual basis for their futures.
Why is it, then, that I have to tell students - good, hard-working students who are under a huge amount of school-based and external pressure - to go home to change their black socks for white ones to conform to school uniform rules? What do they gain from that?
An appalling number of students I have taught have escaped persecution or war in other countries. Several I know have seen their parents die, violently or otherwise.
I can no longer send such children home in disgrace to change their socks.
Moral conscience
This is just one example. The list of ludicrous and bafflingly irrelevant orders I issue to intelligent young people on a daily basis is beyond the number I would expect to come out with whilst chairing a moderately lengthy game of "Simon says".
We continually tell children how to behave and how essentially "childish" they are, and then we tell them that they have to take the examinations which determine what they will do for the rest of their lives.
Failure is unacceptable. As time has passed I have moved from feeling uneasy with this to feeling morally opposed to it.
And so off I go, into a new career where the workload is probably just as heavy, but where I hope I will not be bullied and will not have to bully anyone else into working.
I hope to be able do my job, and just my job, not spending more time on pointless admin tasks than on my designated role.
I will be paid properly. And best of all, I will be respected.
(news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/713413.stm)
16 April 2000
This was eight years ago. You can see how things have not improved much. Teacher salaries are still low, especially when you compare teacher wages in England to other careers. Discipline in British schools is not important, but trivial things that make the school look good, not make students learn, are very important to schools. This is what it is like to teach in England.
Andrew Riddles has been a secondary school history teacher for six years. Here he explains why he is walking away from the profession to start a new career.
Last week, a very nice man offered me a job.
Not a high ranking job, not a head of department role, not a post with huge responsibilities.
In fact I am now to be termed a "junior". To be exact I will be a junior HTML hand-coder, one of these new media careers of which we read so much.
It is more grandiose than it sounds, but considering that I am entering this new career with no qualifications or experience I was surprised to be offered a salary which is pretty much the same as the salary I earn now.
And this is after six years in the teaching profession.
With shares options, bonuses, health care and free soft drinks, I will be better off on my first day in my new career than after dedicating most of my 20s to being a secondary school teacher.
'I am leaving for myself'
I used to have a dream that when I eventually left teaching I would make a grand gesture to some final professional insult during a staff meeting.
But now the decision time has come it is nothing so complex, nor heroic. I am leaving for myself and nothing more or better than that.
I cannot pretend that the new earning potential is not a major reason for leaving teaching.
But along with the increasing penury if I stayed in the teaching profession, I could have also looked forward to an increased workload, which can make unacceptable demands on teachers' personal time.
Persecution
Nor can I hope to understand the way in which we treat children.
Childhood is meant to be in some way precious and we believe that children need to be protected, whilst having instilled in them a sense of right and wrong and a intellectual basis for their futures.
Why is it, then, that I have to tell students - good, hard-working students who are under a huge amount of school-based and external pressure - to go home to change their black socks for white ones to conform to school uniform rules? What do they gain from that?
An appalling number of students I have taught have escaped persecution or war in other countries. Several I know have seen their parents die, violently or otherwise.
I can no longer send such children home in disgrace to change their socks.
Moral conscience
This is just one example. The list of ludicrous and bafflingly irrelevant orders I issue to intelligent young people on a daily basis is beyond the number I would expect to come out with whilst chairing a moderately lengthy game of "Simon says".
We continually tell children how to behave and how essentially "childish" they are, and then we tell them that they have to take the examinations which determine what they will do for the rest of their lives.
Failure is unacceptable. As time has passed I have moved from feeling uneasy with this to feeling morally opposed to it.
And so off I go, into a new career where the workload is probably just as heavy, but where I hope I will not be bullied and will not have to bully anyone else into working.
I hope to be able do my job, and just my job, not spending more time on pointless admin tasks than on my designated role.
I will be paid properly. And best of all, I will be respected.
(news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/713413.stm)
What is it like teaching in Britain
This post is about discipline in British or English schools and about what behaviour is like and about how teachers feel
Teachers for the most part no longer want to be teachers. The losses to the teaching profession are huge, it is now seen as the ultimate backup plan to graduates. Teachers are overworked pittifully paid and treated like crap. Why on earth would they want to extend that for a couple of grand a year as a head. instead of looking to increase upper level promotion we should be considering ways in which to make teaching a viable profession again.
To do this we would ned to reqork the ridiculous curriculums and exam structure. As with anything else in englad failures are legislated for making the whole mess even more confusing than it was before. And ultimately less workable.
gmabarrett in losing our heads
These 'younger professionals', these 'bright new trainees' tend to be people who've failed to get off the the ground in their first choice of career and have turned to teaching as the last chance saloon before the scrapheap.
Teaching is a crap job and teachers are too busy trying to just survive or find a way out to plot their route to 'the top'.
alvanoto in losing our heads
I was a Damn! good teacher at an inner city london high school, where few fear to tread, except NQT�s, who had no other option and viewed their pennace as a rapid stepping stone,( similar to the motives of many poor US army reservists seeking to finance College). I ditched it all because of the daily hypocracy I was bombarded with , the blantanat lies we told each other with a straight face, while flagrantly distorting results to look good ( meet targets). And I won�t even get into the subliminal coaching at SATS and GCSE ( read here Cloze exercises a 10 year old could effortlessly do). I was tired of the endless inane meetings line managers and heads timetabled, discussions that led to no-where because either we were tacitly discouraged from talking openly about policies and intiatives whose failure was breathtaking but were, nontheless, manically pursued by managers, or we had to play a game of hubristic monopoly. If that wasn�t enough, we were subjected to the seemingly inexaustable parade before us of expert educators ( failed comedians) regailing us with their wit during the regular inset days, trotting out the same hackneyed vacious cliches and forcing us to participate in silly americo-psychological games, more appropriate for the kindegarden, which were pointless and humiliating.
So why should one move onto management, when it means that one�s voice is even more muzzled when dealing with he many complex issues schools face. What kind of a person would want to enter manangement, be satisfied with themeselves at the prospect that numerous policy intiatives, (which they police with the reward of extra points or the threat of a performance review ), are simply different forms of windowdressing and serve to mask the real problems?
Why become part of the heirarchy that sends out non-managerial teachers to enact dictates with the same deluded
ferevour of a General Haig?�
Just one example: A school which shall remain nameless, but serves as the beacon of �Inclusion�, enrolled many seriously autistic and downsyndrone students.
Ministers, deputy ministers, etc. etc, during the weekly assembly came and went with a stagering frequency, praising the Head and management for successfully implemnting their policy.
Problem was those in the trenches had no training in how to deal with these students. More sadly, how to teache them maximise their potential . I had five in a class of 28!
In short they were dumped in the bottom sets of classes, leashed to teacher�s assistant who likewise had no formal and even informal training to be able to teach them.
So, what could I do but shamefully supply them with a pen or pencil to doodle with, while I furtively tried to teach the others in the bottom set. I was forced to act in an unethical way with these students. when i raised the absurdity of the situation, I was bluntly told o do the best I could.
I duly resigned and have no thoughts teaching again.
Teaching involves an ethical basis and it seemed to me that the cost of entering management jettison this core.
A cost too high for me.
lapot in losing our heads
Yep I am one of these weak teachers, I feel like I have no control of the majority of my classes. My year 10s came in today sat down and chatted taking absolutely no notice of me. I tried to settle them and start the lesson but they laughed at me and started to complain that they have 'done this already.' They went on and on eventually I put the classroom rules on the smartboard and told them to copy them down in silence. They started to copy them but wouldn't shut up. In the end I just sat at my desk to be honest I really didn't know what to do with them. In another class yesterday I was called a horrible name I told the offender to leave the classroom and go to where my pt mentor was. She refused so I had to escort her out to the corridor, the rest of the class at this point became very disruptive. Anyway afterwards my pt gave me into trouble for the way I handled it and asked 'have you actually tried being nice to them?' He also asked why are you picking on her when it is clear that the rest of the class are just as bad. Anyway at the end of lunch the offending pupil arrived at my classroom with a half baked excuse that she was actually calling herself the name and she was sorry. I had been crying so I just told her to go. Today I tackled my mentor over what consequence this pupil was going to face. He said that he had spoken to her and she had given him the same excuse and he had told her to just go and talk to me about it. Hence her arrival with her her apology. He also said that compared to the subsequent disruption in my class when I was dealing with this pupil, the name she called me 'paled into insignificance.' 'You're the teacher shes a child what would be gained from taking this further.' Anyway I went and spoke to another teacher of this class and observed him teaching the class today. The class were much better with him. His techniques were similar to mine but really when he told them to do something they did it, with me they just argue.
I'm crying at the moment feel so hopeless the problems I have just ranted about are just a small percentage of all of them. It doesn't help that the school I teach in does blame teachers for pupil misbehaviour. I have tried different things, making sure my lessons are interesting, using the school's (crap) discipline system as consistently as possible, praise, awards, notes in homework diaries for parents etc etc but nothing works.
"Jane the stressed" in So bad at behaviour management I want to quit
Get out of the school you are in. Your mental health is more important than having to go through hell on a daily basis. All these books on behaviour management - sorry but they don't work. It comes from experience and nothing but time will get you this!
Teaching is a horrible demoralising job. I would even go so far as to say get out of it while you are young and can afford to walk away. It really is not worth it and unless you can get into a good school where kids actually want to learn you will be up against it I am afraid. Sorry to sound so doomy - this is my truth, take it as you will.
"bananasplit" in So bad at behaviour management I want to quit.
Just had a really awful afternoon. Straight after lunch I had year 9 set 3. There are usually five or six in this class who are really hard to handle and I tend to dread having them. Today however I was in a really good mood because I was on a behaviour for learning course last week and was looking forward to using some of my newly gained techniques with them.
However the class had other ideas and the usual suspects were even worse than usual. All my newly learnt techniques went flying out the window and for the first time I felt that I was in no way in control of the class.
The next class I had my year 10's who I usually enjoy teaching. Today though I turned rund to find a note on the board saying "Are you pregnant miss?" (which obviously I'm not!).
Anyway upshot was that after school I ended up in tears with my head of department and I now feel really embarassed. It was really no worth crying about. This is a second career for me and I thought I would be mature enough to be able to cope with bad behaviour etc..
Anyway I just wanted to know if others have been brought to tears infront of staff?
moonberry in "Why did I start to cry?"
Is anyone else the same.. i feel so tired all the time... i am going up to bed at 8.30 to read a book and go to sleep... i am up again at 6.00!
my lessons have really taken a slump... i am getting to the point where i am getting the kids to do presentations on the topics we should be covering... I know i really am not being fair to them but i just have no energy in me to plan amazing lessons and battle with them all the time. At least this way they are quiet!
I just feel that i just need to chill for a week at Christmas and then once refreshed can plan some stunning lessons... All i can think about is how tired i am. I have never been like this before i have always been very concientious and organised but even my house looks a mess.... just dont feel like i am coping at all well... mentor is off sick as well (and next to useless) and i am setting her work!!!!!
Munchkin77 in "I feel so drained and feel like i am losing teh will to live!"
My Year 10's have been driving me insane since the start of term. I finally had enough today and walked out twenty mins before the end. My second in department was supportive, but now I'm worried that it's going to look bad tomorrow when my head of department comes back. Feel really stressed. Don't want to go in tomorrow at all.
Also one of the kids went to the toilet after I left and caught me crying in the corrider. What to do?!
pamela2612 in "WALKED OUT"
I feel that I am in some way being set up to fail my NQT year. This term, my first, I have had 2 satisfactory obs and 2 goods (although one made it very clear that it was only just good!). I am due two more before Christmas. Problem is classroom management and for my last observation the teacher was very critical of my relationship with the students. Even asked them for comments which were then included on the form. This, by the way, was for an AS class and I don't feel terribly secure about the knowledge I have of the subject either. I was told that although I have already passed my first term, I will not be passing next term unless I sort this out. I have spent most of the weekend in tears, thoroughly dreading the next three weeks as I feel watched constantly and, I have to say, a bit bullied by this.
I know I'm rambling - the tears are flowing as I type, and I'm not really sure what I'm asking for. Advice? Support? I just feel so desperately miserable.
Mrs Never Ready in "demoralised NQT"
I'm an NQT who sailed through the PGCE. I am at a good, supportive primary school but after four weeks I have been signed off with anxiety. Symptoms began in the second week of the job. My performance in the job was good (children settled and good relations built, good first observation, visitor to classroom organised, trip organised, etc.), but physical symptoms set in - not sleeping, crying, being sick, numbness. Saw GP who prescribed anti-anxiety/depression medication and has signed me off for two weeks (taking me until half term). School are being incredibly supportive and saying to take as long as I need and that health comes first. However, it's called into question for me whether I should pursue the job at the cost of my health. I was a TA before training with no health problems and, despite lower pay, job satisfaction.
Anyone else in a similar situation and what are you planning to do?
McCall in "Any NQTs signed off/in similar position?"
I've got all of these symptoms too and know that a doctor would sign me off. I'm sticking it out at school though as I hate to let people down, even at the cost of my own health (and nobody else could make sense of my planning anyhow!). Colleagues say it gets easier with time but I'm really not coping or keeping up, let alone enjoying it and inspiring the class. It's all well and good trying to keep going to complete the induction, as everyone says I should, but I'm sure that I'm not being an effective teacher and the children, the school and my fellow teachers there deserve very much better. My decision is made.
Just re-read my post and it sounds as though I'd decided to stay in position, come whatever. That's not the case! I'm sticking at it in the short term rather than being signed off but I have now set the resignation ball in motion.
whoatetheflakes in "Any NQTs signed off/in similar position?"
Help, I have had the worst day possible and as the title of my post suggests I have no job to look forward to after the holidays.
Here's the thing:
I am an NQT and in Spetember I was visiting schools with my CV's. One school that I went to offered me a job on the spot, that of co-ordinating Extended Schools with the option of a maternity cover after Christmas. As jobs are scare here in NI, I decided to take it. The principal told me that the maternity cover was in a difficult class, an MLD/SEN unit. Being up for a challenge, I decided to go for it and the arrangement was that I spent every Tuesday in the class to gain experience.
Anyway, due to the teacher being sick I have been in this class teaching for the last few days. After a week I feel that I have been through hell. Today I got shouted at by a pupil and had a ruler thrown at me. There was a physical fight and one other child went so mental that he actually tried to tear the skin off his face and poke his eyes with a sharp pencil. One child sits constantly making gun noises at me (which as you can imagine is a tad unnerving). There is another child who actually goes into some sort of fit and rocks back and forth all the time whilst screaming. It really is like a mad house in there. This is only the tip of the iceberg really and it is the SAME THING EVERYDAY.
These are primary school children by the way.
To cut a long story short I was taking to the Vice principal today (HT is now long term sick) and I told him that I can't work in this kind of an environment. He agreed that it is madness to consider putting an NQT in this kind of a job. My situation now is that I have NO WORK after Christmas. I am 28, have a mortgage and bills and I am so panicing. Day from hell, any words of encouragement please? All I have done today is cry:(
lottie3d in "Day from hell and now I have NO JOB after Christmas"
(sorry, this is going to be one those 'feel sorry for me' threads)
Had a rubbish day and I feel useless. My class are lovely (i teach year 4) but they are really starting to get to me.
Behaviour isn't a major issue (just a few that try their luck now and then) but they just don't seem to be learning anything.
Today I had so many blank faces looking at me, either because they weren't listening or they were just confused.
I know it's the time of year and they've had enough but I just want to push them that bit more.
They are becoming really lazy in their work and sometimes they just don't even try.
I'm fed up with giving work back that isn't to their best ability.
I've really got to push them this year because there is still a huge chunk of them at level 2 in maths and writing - which is really getting me down.
What can I do to put a bit of life back in them? (and me!)
captain oats in "Fed up and useless"
Teachers for the most part no longer want to be teachers. The losses to the teaching profession are huge, it is now seen as the ultimate backup plan to graduates. Teachers are overworked pittifully paid and treated like crap. Why on earth would they want to extend that for a couple of grand a year as a head. instead of looking to increase upper level promotion we should be considering ways in which to make teaching a viable profession again.
To do this we would ned to reqork the ridiculous curriculums and exam structure. As with anything else in englad failures are legislated for making the whole mess even more confusing than it was before. And ultimately less workable.
gmabarrett in losing our heads
These 'younger professionals', these 'bright new trainees' tend to be people who've failed to get off the the ground in their first choice of career and have turned to teaching as the last chance saloon before the scrapheap.
Teaching is a crap job and teachers are too busy trying to just survive or find a way out to plot their route to 'the top'.
alvanoto in losing our heads
I was a Damn! good teacher at an inner city london high school, where few fear to tread, except NQT�s, who had no other option and viewed their pennace as a rapid stepping stone,( similar to the motives of many poor US army reservists seeking to finance College). I ditched it all because of the daily hypocracy I was bombarded with , the blantanat lies we told each other with a straight face, while flagrantly distorting results to look good ( meet targets). And I won�t even get into the subliminal coaching at SATS and GCSE ( read here Cloze exercises a 10 year old could effortlessly do). I was tired of the endless inane meetings line managers and heads timetabled, discussions that led to no-where because either we were tacitly discouraged from talking openly about policies and intiatives whose failure was breathtaking but were, nontheless, manically pursued by managers, or we had to play a game of hubristic monopoly. If that wasn�t enough, we were subjected to the seemingly inexaustable parade before us of expert educators ( failed comedians) regailing us with their wit during the regular inset days, trotting out the same hackneyed vacious cliches and forcing us to participate in silly americo-psychological games, more appropriate for the kindegarden, which were pointless and humiliating.
So why should one move onto management, when it means that one�s voice is even more muzzled when dealing with he many complex issues schools face. What kind of a person would want to enter manangement, be satisfied with themeselves at the prospect that numerous policy intiatives, (which they police with the reward of extra points or the threat of a performance review ), are simply different forms of windowdressing and serve to mask the real problems?
Why become part of the heirarchy that sends out non-managerial teachers to enact dictates with the same deluded
ferevour of a General Haig?�
Just one example: A school which shall remain nameless, but serves as the beacon of �Inclusion�, enrolled many seriously autistic and downsyndrone students.
Ministers, deputy ministers, etc. etc, during the weekly assembly came and went with a stagering frequency, praising the Head and management for successfully implemnting their policy.
Problem was those in the trenches had no training in how to deal with these students. More sadly, how to teache them maximise their potential . I had five in a class of 28!
In short they were dumped in the bottom sets of classes, leashed to teacher�s assistant who likewise had no formal and even informal training to be able to teach them.
So, what could I do but shamefully supply them with a pen or pencil to doodle with, while I furtively tried to teach the others in the bottom set. I was forced to act in an unethical way with these students. when i raised the absurdity of the situation, I was bluntly told o do the best I could.
I duly resigned and have no thoughts teaching again.
Teaching involves an ethical basis and it seemed to me that the cost of entering management jettison this core.
A cost too high for me.
lapot in losing our heads
Yep I am one of these weak teachers, I feel like I have no control of the majority of my classes. My year 10s came in today sat down and chatted taking absolutely no notice of me. I tried to settle them and start the lesson but they laughed at me and started to complain that they have 'done this already.' They went on and on eventually I put the classroom rules on the smartboard and told them to copy them down in silence. They started to copy them but wouldn't shut up. In the end I just sat at my desk to be honest I really didn't know what to do with them. In another class yesterday I was called a horrible name I told the offender to leave the classroom and go to where my pt mentor was. She refused so I had to escort her out to the corridor, the rest of the class at this point became very disruptive. Anyway afterwards my pt gave me into trouble for the way I handled it and asked 'have you actually tried being nice to them?' He also asked why are you picking on her when it is clear that the rest of the class are just as bad. Anyway at the end of lunch the offending pupil arrived at my classroom with a half baked excuse that she was actually calling herself the name and she was sorry. I had been crying so I just told her to go. Today I tackled my mentor over what consequence this pupil was going to face. He said that he had spoken to her and she had given him the same excuse and he had told her to just go and talk to me about it. Hence her arrival with her her apology. He also said that compared to the subsequent disruption in my class when I was dealing with this pupil, the name she called me 'paled into insignificance.' 'You're the teacher shes a child what would be gained from taking this further.' Anyway I went and spoke to another teacher of this class and observed him teaching the class today. The class were much better with him. His techniques were similar to mine but really when he told them to do something they did it, with me they just argue.
I'm crying at the moment feel so hopeless the problems I have just ranted about are just a small percentage of all of them. It doesn't help that the school I teach in does blame teachers for pupil misbehaviour. I have tried different things, making sure my lessons are interesting, using the school's (crap) discipline system as consistently as possible, praise, awards, notes in homework diaries for parents etc etc but nothing works.
"Jane the stressed" in So bad at behaviour management I want to quit
Get out of the school you are in. Your mental health is more important than having to go through hell on a daily basis. All these books on behaviour management - sorry but they don't work. It comes from experience and nothing but time will get you this!
Teaching is a horrible demoralising job. I would even go so far as to say get out of it while you are young and can afford to walk away. It really is not worth it and unless you can get into a good school where kids actually want to learn you will be up against it I am afraid. Sorry to sound so doomy - this is my truth, take it as you will.
"bananasplit" in So bad at behaviour management I want to quit.
Just had a really awful afternoon. Straight after lunch I had year 9 set 3. There are usually five or six in this class who are really hard to handle and I tend to dread having them. Today however I was in a really good mood because I was on a behaviour for learning course last week and was looking forward to using some of my newly gained techniques with them.
However the class had other ideas and the usual suspects were even worse than usual. All my newly learnt techniques went flying out the window and for the first time I felt that I was in no way in control of the class.
The next class I had my year 10's who I usually enjoy teaching. Today though I turned rund to find a note on the board saying "Are you pregnant miss?" (which obviously I'm not!).
Anyway upshot was that after school I ended up in tears with my head of department and I now feel really embarassed. It was really no worth crying about. This is a second career for me and I thought I would be mature enough to be able to cope with bad behaviour etc..
Anyway I just wanted to know if others have been brought to tears infront of staff?
moonberry in "Why did I start to cry?"
Is anyone else the same.. i feel so tired all the time... i am going up to bed at 8.30 to read a book and go to sleep... i am up again at 6.00!
my lessons have really taken a slump... i am getting to the point where i am getting the kids to do presentations on the topics we should be covering... I know i really am not being fair to them but i just have no energy in me to plan amazing lessons and battle with them all the time. At least this way they are quiet!
I just feel that i just need to chill for a week at Christmas and then once refreshed can plan some stunning lessons... All i can think about is how tired i am. I have never been like this before i have always been very concientious and organised but even my house looks a mess.... just dont feel like i am coping at all well... mentor is off sick as well (and next to useless) and i am setting her work!!!!!
Munchkin77 in "I feel so drained and feel like i am losing teh will to live!"
My Year 10's have been driving me insane since the start of term. I finally had enough today and walked out twenty mins before the end. My second in department was supportive, but now I'm worried that it's going to look bad tomorrow when my head of department comes back. Feel really stressed. Don't want to go in tomorrow at all.
Also one of the kids went to the toilet after I left and caught me crying in the corrider. What to do?!
pamela2612 in "WALKED OUT"
I feel that I am in some way being set up to fail my NQT year. This term, my first, I have had 2 satisfactory obs and 2 goods (although one made it very clear that it was only just good!). I am due two more before Christmas. Problem is classroom management and for my last observation the teacher was very critical of my relationship with the students. Even asked them for comments which were then included on the form. This, by the way, was for an AS class and I don't feel terribly secure about the knowledge I have of the subject either. I was told that although I have already passed my first term, I will not be passing next term unless I sort this out. I have spent most of the weekend in tears, thoroughly dreading the next three weeks as I feel watched constantly and, I have to say, a bit bullied by this.
I know I'm rambling - the tears are flowing as I type, and I'm not really sure what I'm asking for. Advice? Support? I just feel so desperately miserable.
Mrs Never Ready in "demoralised NQT"
I'm an NQT who sailed through the PGCE. I am at a good, supportive primary school but after four weeks I have been signed off with anxiety. Symptoms began in the second week of the job. My performance in the job was good (children settled and good relations built, good first observation, visitor to classroom organised, trip organised, etc.), but physical symptoms set in - not sleeping, crying, being sick, numbness. Saw GP who prescribed anti-anxiety/depression medication and has signed me off for two weeks (taking me until half term). School are being incredibly supportive and saying to take as long as I need and that health comes first. However, it's called into question for me whether I should pursue the job at the cost of my health. I was a TA before training with no health problems and, despite lower pay, job satisfaction.
Anyone else in a similar situation and what are you planning to do?
McCall in "Any NQTs signed off/in similar position?"
I've got all of these symptoms too and know that a doctor would sign me off. I'm sticking it out at school though as I hate to let people down, even at the cost of my own health (and nobody else could make sense of my planning anyhow!). Colleagues say it gets easier with time but I'm really not coping or keeping up, let alone enjoying it and inspiring the class. It's all well and good trying to keep going to complete the induction, as everyone says I should, but I'm sure that I'm not being an effective teacher and the children, the school and my fellow teachers there deserve very much better. My decision is made.
Just re-read my post and it sounds as though I'd decided to stay in position, come whatever. That's not the case! I'm sticking at it in the short term rather than being signed off but I have now set the resignation ball in motion.
whoatetheflakes in "Any NQTs signed off/in similar position?"
Help, I have had the worst day possible and as the title of my post suggests I have no job to look forward to after the holidays.
Here's the thing:
I am an NQT and in Spetember I was visiting schools with my CV's. One school that I went to offered me a job on the spot, that of co-ordinating Extended Schools with the option of a maternity cover after Christmas. As jobs are scare here in NI, I decided to take it. The principal told me that the maternity cover was in a difficult class, an MLD/SEN unit. Being up for a challenge, I decided to go for it and the arrangement was that I spent every Tuesday in the class to gain experience.
Anyway, due to the teacher being sick I have been in this class teaching for the last few days. After a week I feel that I have been through hell. Today I got shouted at by a pupil and had a ruler thrown at me. There was a physical fight and one other child went so mental that he actually tried to tear the skin off his face and poke his eyes with a sharp pencil. One child sits constantly making gun noises at me (which as you can imagine is a tad unnerving). There is another child who actually goes into some sort of fit and rocks back and forth all the time whilst screaming. It really is like a mad house in there. This is only the tip of the iceberg really and it is the SAME THING EVERYDAY.
These are primary school children by the way.
To cut a long story short I was taking to the Vice principal today (HT is now long term sick) and I told him that I can't work in this kind of an environment. He agreed that it is madness to consider putting an NQT in this kind of a job. My situation now is that I have NO WORK after Christmas. I am 28, have a mortgage and bills and I am so panicing. Day from hell, any words of encouragement please? All I have done today is cry:(
lottie3d in "Day from hell and now I have NO JOB after Christmas"
(sorry, this is going to be one those 'feel sorry for me' threads)
Had a rubbish day and I feel useless. My class are lovely (i teach year 4) but they are really starting to get to me.
Behaviour isn't a major issue (just a few that try their luck now and then) but they just don't seem to be learning anything.
Today I had so many blank faces looking at me, either because they weren't listening or they were just confused.
I know it's the time of year and they've had enough but I just want to push them that bit more.
They are becoming really lazy in their work and sometimes they just don't even try.
I'm fed up with giving work back that isn't to their best ability.
I've really got to push them this year because there is still a huge chunk of them at level 2 in maths and writing - which is really getting me down.
What can I do to put a bit of life back in them? (and me!)
captain oats in "Fed up and useless"
Discipline in British Schools
TES hosts an Internet forum specifically for the teaching community. Here, teachers can talk about issues related to their job, their subject or their opinions. The following are titles and links to threads created in the TES forums. These might give you good insight into what teaching in England is like and what discipline in British or English schools are like. Click on each title to link to the original thread.
Help - everything's overwhelming me!
Help Nightmare year 8 class!
Behaviour managment - help!!
Starting to feel exhausted!!!!
I hate my class!
Assaulted, seriously had enough - dreading next lesson
behaviour: at wit's end.
how can i continue after this?
throwing the towel in
I just want to leave
I don't want to quit but i feel awful...
NQT thinking of quitting
End of my tether
TEACHER SUICIDES
PGCE student taking over nightmare year 10 class
Don't want to go in Year 6 on Thurs
6th formers turned against me nitemare
Head caught talking about me
Is this behaviour normal????
Its always my fault!
Pupils turning up to their lessons 'drugged' up...
Kids Bullying Teachers - Does it happen?
Year 4 tantrums
Stress due to bad behaviour and lack of support
Exploitation of some overseas teachers
Exploiting Overseas Trained Teachers
Questions that illustrate the mess our education system has become
Schools don't fail Children, Parents Do...
anyone still up? I have to deal with this situation in the morning...
Child not responding and getting angry! any suggestions of how to deal with this?
Primary "gang" behaviour
Anyone got any good tips for dealing with noisy, silly Year 9 classes!
Help - everything's overwhelming me!
Help Nightmare year 8 class!
Behaviour managment - help!!
Starting to feel exhausted!!!!
I hate my class!
Assaulted, seriously had enough - dreading next lesson
behaviour: at wit's end.
how can i continue after this?
throwing the towel in
I just want to leave
I don't want to quit but i feel awful...
NQT thinking of quitting
End of my tether
TEACHER SUICIDES
PGCE student taking over nightmare year 10 class
Don't want to go in Year 6 on Thurs
6th formers turned against me nitemare
Head caught talking about me
Is this behaviour normal????
Its always my fault!
Pupils turning up to their lessons 'drugged' up...
Kids Bullying Teachers - Does it happen?
Year 4 tantrums
Stress due to bad behaviour and lack of support
Exploitation of some overseas teachers
Exploiting Overseas Trained Teachers
Questions that illustrate the mess our education system has become
Schools don't fail Children, Parents Do...
anyone still up? I have to deal with this situation in the morning...
Child not responding and getting angry! any suggestions of how to deal with this?
Primary "gang" behaviour
Anyone got any good tips for dealing with noisy, silly Year 9 classes!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
What is it like to be a foreign teacher in England?
This post includes comments made by overseas and British teachers. Read here for what discipline in England is like.
Today was yet another awful day. What a surprise. I keep thinking that I really want to quit and just come home. Every time I think about coming home it is like a weight has been lifted off of me. Do I just miss the familiarity of home and the support of my friends and family, or is this job really not worth it? I honestly can't decide and it is excruciating going over it again and again in my head.
Some of the kids I teach are downright mean. They say and do things just to try and get a reaction out of me and I am so confused as to what to do. I had another lesson evaluation today and of course it went to shit. The kids were out of control and I couldn't do anything to stop them. The person watching this lesson is my "professional mentor" and she tried to be really supportive which was nice of her. She tried to point out the positives of which there weren't many. But when she talked about what was wrong with the lesson, she didn't offer any practical advice. I can point out a million things that I am doing wrong, but I have no idea how to set it right. We spent like an hour and a half after school talking about it and she decided that I wasn't getting enough support from my department. So she brought in a senior teacher from my department and the three of us discussed things I could do, but we never reached any decisions. I kept on trying to hammer down specifics, but the other two would just go off on tangents saying you could try this, or sometimes this works, or how about that....the only real consensus that was made was that there is no answer.
So I am back at square one and feel like shit. Is it me? Am I just such a shit teacher that I can't possibly succeed and should just give up? Or is it just my environment? What can I do to get more support? I ask for help, I literally cry for help, and I still end up more confused than ever.
I am at a loss and I just don't know what to do. Should I just give up and come home?
Anonymous
Hello, I FEEL LIKE RUBBISH TEACHING HERE!!I'm a music teacher and not to sound like egotistical or anything...have had more training from the U.S. than they do here. I have been here 4 years and temped in sh** schools because other schools were afraid of how long I'd stay or taking on an "overseas teacher". I was consistently blamed for the kids' bad behaviour, given horrible classes and felt ganged up on by staff repeatedly. I worked my a** off and learned of stuff to improve on from my references to other employers. I am a very good teacher, but its like they took their vengance out me when the references came up...do I really deserve that? Its a nightmare trying to get qualified teacher's status..when I've already spent 5 1/2 years on a degree. Teaching in England has frustrated me completely and the references I got are unfair and biased and frankly ruined my career. But what can I do about it, I have no rights!! This is all why, for the last year I've been doing an office job instead of teaching! i never thought it would come to this...
rosy1912 in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I have come to England from Australia last September. The comprehensive school that I am at, the kids are totally out-of-control and I been off sick because of this. I want to teach not to discipline all the time. It doesn't look good, its not working. I dont know what to do. I have applied to TES for independant schools as I feel all comprehensive schools will have the same lack of respect and bad behaviour-but i feel this is useless as I am getting letter after letter saying they have appointed someone else-also this is only my second year out and I dont have QTS(another problem)-however,I do have a 10 year visa. The ofsteds are all the same and my school is CONSIDERED A GOOD SCHOOL!-goodness knows what a bad school would be like! In TES i have applied for 27 jobs and not one interview! I have only got a couple of months to do anything. After that I will have to book airplane-We are a family of 4.
artbot in 'I am going home......'
A very dear friend of mine is currently going through hell because of peer colleagues. The head apparently is throwing in with them, by prosecuting a frivolous complaint. The poor fellow is off work because of this, possibly could end up dead because he can't handle the amount of stress that this is causing. All because he sought help elsewhere when no one at the school - head or governors - paid attention to his complaints. Yet the complaints of the main colleague who bullied and harrassed him is being taken seriously. His record at the school is above reproach - several years he was at that school, through many an inspection (4, I think) where he was rated good or better. Yet that all seems to count for nothing when a manipulative junior colleague manages to wrap the head teacher around his little finger. She (the head) had a duty of care that she ignored. Hopefully my friend will be able to prove this shortly!
Forgot to mention - my friend is foreign born. Living here for over 10 years, though. He had already resigned his position due to the bullying at the school and was going to teach in another country for a while. He loved teaching here, though, and had had no plans to go until the bullying intensified. I wonder if this is an appeasement process for the bullying teacher, that the head feels that since the teacher is going and going out of the country, this action can be taken with impugnity as it may not affect the man's chances? My friend thinks that she doesn't realise that records follow, even if not intentionally so or deliberately so.Sorry - I'm so angry for him. It's truly an injustice to destroy a good teacher's career, using his foreign-ness as a cover for this action. Stepping down from the podium now....
oldster in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
Expect nothing. To acknowledge his contribution, skills and care for his students would be to acknowledge him as a human being. Obviously, as they are doing this to him in the first place, they don't recognise his basic humanity, never mind the wonderful things that make him a unique individual and, as you say, good teacher. My husband had to do something similar in his last school when administration told him that "doing a paddy" was acceptable language for him to have to tolerate amongst staff (as an Irishman), administration did not apologise for treating him as an overseas trained teacher despite his being trained in Northern Ireland and holding superior qualifications to his HOD, his HOD walked into his classes and berated him in front of students on points of methodology and so forth. In the end, he applied for another job before the HOD could get overly creative (particularly since this HOD was a union rep and therefore knew the ins and outs of the system). My husband took down all of his display materials, his demonstrations and his tools that he had brought in to supplement that of the department's as they were lacking certain basic equipment.No one said anything except the technician...who later resigned himself in disgust.
moroba in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
After one term in England I am tired of being treated badly by the staff at my school. I am annoyed that my 10 years experience does not make me 'qualified' to teach in this country. I am furious that my classes consist entirely of bottom sets of Year 9s and 10s, while English NQT's are given A level classes. Mostly, I am amazed that I am blamed for the behaviour of students in my class. It seems that, in this country, kids are not responsible for their own actions. Sorry if this sounds negative, but I really feel that this school system needs to look at what overseas teachers can contribute instead of seeing them as a liability. If asked (which will never happen) I could share my experiences with a more progressive approach to teaching and learning, comment on the benefits of teaching groups that are truly mixed ability, compare curriculum, exams and assessment models. Why do the English believe that this is the best school system in the world?
scout finch in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I was recruited from Australia and went to Manchester.
I registered with two agencies who promised me more Primary work than I could handle.
I made sure they understood that I wasn't wealthy, had committments at home and would go to London if my chances would be better. No, they were very clear about the LOADS of available positions, day to day, short term and long term. It would be up to me to decide.
Well, I was stupid enough to tell them I had a car and so they used me to fill classes, miles away from home, that no one else would go to.
Also, I told them what grades I'd teach and they offered me only those I didn't want.
It was blackmail. If you don't take what is offered then you don't get calls.
What really p...ed me off was that they continued to advertise on their websites that lots of work was available.
I see others on these boards saying there isn't much work. Take care to save your pennies, as the lean times are still to come.
Toomanycountries in Agency Lies
Welcome to England.And of course, none of this is ever said to anyone's face. Oh no-o-o-o. Only ever, ever behind someone's back, preferrably after being disgustingly pleasant to the individual in front of all concerned in order to make the shallow, backstabbing character assassination all the more delicious once the subject has absented the room or moved out of earshot. Better yet if the individual concerned is close enough to only hear parts of the conversation so the gossipers can grow suddenly silent at key intervals, giggle and look guilty. Perpetual insecurity, emotional immaturity, vindictiveness and manipulation are cultural hallmarks along with a self-satsifying smug arrogance based upon purposeful ignorance that is a source of actual pride in the company of others...intelligence, talent, enthusiasm and a genuine desire to learn are to be shunned at all cost, particularly when evidenced in foreigners. A sense of humour based upon actual joy, as opposed to a satiric, biting wit, is also to be frowned upon.You wouldn't want these bitter individuals on your side, hollybridge. They clam up when actually confronted face to face, only daring to be so nasty when annonymous or amongst friends; they are the epitome of the passive-agressive personality. And you're right. They don't like their problems solved because they'd have nothing to whinge about, then.Although I have met exceptions to the rule. There are some genuinely wonderful people, here. Most that I have encountered have travelled and lived elsewhere for extended periods of time, which may or may not have had something to do with it.I'll be moving on soon, I think, though. I think it's a poor match of personality and culture.
moroba 'Sidebar about this forum'
I'm also from the US - taught there for 6 years at the high school level. I find the behaviour of the students (and some of the staff) here shocking. I really hate the 'pass the buck' system of discipline at my school (may be different elsewhere, I only have experience in one UK school). If a kid disrupts or causes problems I have to hand it off to the HOY or HOD which to me feels like I have no power - the kids know I personally can't do anything to them. After a problem has been passed on it can take a week for anything to be done. I thought we learned in teaching school (or child psychology) that discipline needs to be administered shortly after the 'crime' for it to be effective. I have students who are booked into detentions until NEXT half term for things they've done this term! The detentions mean nothing to them and most of them cannot remember what they did to get the detention - useless. In the states (2 different schools) teachers contact parents directly and all naughty kids are dealt with by the same person (the VP of discipline). As it is at my school here, a kid can disrupt all his/her classes in a day but see a different person for each disruption - HOY, HOD, other senior management.... it's nuts and it doesn't work.Any other experiences out there?
lyle8855 in 'Student behaviour/SMT support'
The UK school system is significantly different than almost any other system in the world, particularly compared to North American systems. Over 3 years I have found the basic skills of students to be significantly lower, due to the fact there is no need to 'pass' anything, they are simply passed on. Several of my year 11 students currently at a 12 year old reading/writing age are strong examples of this. The behaviour is significantly worse here than to any school I have taught at in Canada. Those who say it is similar and there are bad schools/students in both countries are diluting themselves into believing something that is simply not true.
Now that said, I wouldn't trade my experience here for anything. I have been in a special measures school (came out in December) and it is particularly difficult. I am now confident that I could teacher anywhere successfully. If you are mentally strong, and expecting a massive change you should be okay but I won't lie to you, my wife and I are 2 of the only OTT's to last as long as 3 years in our school. Most wash out in the first 3-4 months (we lost 4 before Christmas last year!). It is an experience well worth trying although most of the horror stories you have heard are probably true.
Good luck, k
kforde in Are UK kids/teaching situations really as bad as people say?
I enjoy learning and thoroughly enjoy teaching. I absolutely love working with the kids here, even if some of their behaviour would never be tolerated in other systems in which I have taught. That's the fault of the system, not the kids. Even the racism I get at times is due to ignorance rather than genuine hostility, and often a direct response aimed at educating the individual concerned is usually enough. I've only had one or two genuinely nasty kids with which to work.The staff, on the other hand, is another thing all together. Senior staff have actually been quite good to me, though hideous to my N. Irish husband. They have recognised my skills, experience and professionalism, even as I have had to jump through the statutory hoops to get qualified. Many of the assumptions made about OTT by the system are downright racism and ignorant; again, that's the system and the people who designed it, not the poor folk who have to work with it. I do find it amusing, though, the way the system appears to assume methodology used here is inherently superior to everywhere else, particularly on matters where its patently obvious to everyone involved but the politicians and a handful of theorists that the methodology is failing miserably as opposed to that used everywhere else.Middle management and fellow colleagues generally have been nothing short of hostile, insecure, vindictive and downright racist. Current school is a bit of an exception. Staff outside my subject area are wonderful to work and talk with. Most of the staff in my department are less than accepting, although one particular staff member is democratically horrible to all staff so I can't really say that it's because I'm foreign. In other schools I worked in, fellow staff made fun of my accent, constantly correcting the way I said "schedule", I got sent to the head for not "knowing my place" by suggesting ways of improving grammar teaching at a department meeting when feedback was requested (later proved right by an outside consultant initially brought in to prove I didn't know what I was talking about...was told to keep my mouth shut despite being right because my fellow staff members were too insecure to handle the truth). I got classes taken away from me during training because the students remarked to the HOD about my depth of subject knowledge and how I made learning fun. It took three months for staff to even acknowledge my existence beyond the barest pleasantries while NQTs and PGCSE students from England were given the warmest of welcomes.Probably won't stay in the system. I can accept immaturity and insecurity among teenagers; it's their job after all to push boundaries and find who they are. I don't have the same patience and understanding with staff, who are supposed to have grown up and become trained professionals.
moroba in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
In my first job here I was bullying, degraded, put down in front of students and made to feel like scum by my HOD. He was upset that he didn't get a say in my employment (I was interviewed and offered a position on the spot by the head teacher). He was of the attitude that if students aren't writing, they aren't learning. He would waltz into my lessons and berate me in front of students if he felt they hadn't written enough in their books. He would give them (and in turn, me) detentions for spurious reasons. He would sit in the staffroom and boast of how he had already gotten rid of 6 teachers, and did anyone want him to help out in their department.I lasted 2 terms there. The kids were a challenge, but I could handle them, they're kids. It was the lack of support from management I couldn't handle. Some of the staff were lovely, very supportive and offered to back me up should I make a complaint. Others made racist and sexist comments and laid bets on when I would leave (I lasted longest of all the Australian teachers employed - their were 4 of us).My current school is a world away. The Head and managers are brilliant. Very supportive of me and are very open to innovations and ways of teaching they haven't seen before. I will eventually have to go through the OTTP to get QTS, but I'm not being rushed (and am being paid decently, as it's not an LEA school). My only bugbear now is book marking. What an absolute waste of time. 98% of the kids don't look at the comments and don't want you to write in their books how they can improve. It completely does my head in.I will be going home in a few years, certainly before I have school age children. I will not inflict a system where exam results are everything on my children. Also, I would die if I had to work here for another 30 years. I really would.
ladelley in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I have similar experience with the UK system. It wasn't until I became HOD I was able to reslove any problem myself and kids started to relise not to mess with me. In NZ you deal with the problem first, contact parents, run detention, place them in the school detention doing your work! Then if that fails the HOD or HoY steps in to help you and not take over. Unless you as the teacher are seen by the kid as resolving the issue the class room behaviour is very hard to change. But I suppose my biggest issue with the system in my UK school is the paper work require for this disruptive kid.This is just the situation at my UK school, school policy states teachers can't contact parents directly with out permission. Who would have thought! I'll be happy to get my NZ kids back but I prefer the UK pay.
VC_kiwi in 'Student behaviour/SMT support'
I am a Canadian who taught in the UK last year… Most of the secondary schools that would take a flyer on an OTT (Overseas Trained Teacher) are schools in rougher areas, or with a rougher reputation that puts British teachers off from applying.Behaviour in schools is also VERY different from behaviour seen in North American schools. Even at rough schools, the worst I have had to face in Canada is students skipping (bunking in England), or students swearing at me. In English schools if that is all you have to face at quite a few schools then you are doing extremely well! At my school in the UK, I knew five teachers who left in the first four months due to student behaviour and effort. Salaries are also lower, although starting salaries are higher than over here. However, if you have no experience, you get paid on the OTT scale, which is thousands of pounds less than what a British trained teacher makes. You would need to go through TQS (Teacher Qualification Service) to become certified to teach in Britain, and which also enables you to register with the GTC (General Teacher Council).Your initial OTT evaluation of documents is made by NARIC (do a websearch or follow the links on this site) and costs money. For an in-depth analysis of your transcripts and degrees, it is more money, and is done after the initial application.Students in Britian do a GTP or PGCE entry, or else do a Teacher degree at a Teacher Training uni or college. GTP is Graduate Training Program and is aimed at attracting people from other industries into education; for example, I worked with a GTP student who worked in computers in London for 20 years, made his loot, and was ready for a change. The PGCE is Post Graduate Course in Education for those who received a degree in a subject and then decided to teach in that subject. It is similar to a post degree professional program. Anyways, if you are looking to teach, big cities and supply agencies (given your lack of experience) are better than trying on your own. Me, I had 12 years experience overseas and in Canada at a variety of levels and subjects. I managed to find my own position after my wife received a job offer in another industry to work in England. In the end we enjoyed our time, but the expense of living in England caused us to rethink our plan of staying long term and we moved home. (a dilapidated row house (a line of 20) with a tiny front yard and no furnishings, usually no cabinets, closets etc, would have set us back $250,000 Cdn even without furniture, appliances and cabinets. A regular house such as you would buy here for $300,000 is over $1,000,000 in England, at least in the south where we lived.Hope this helps - don't give up, just be aware! You will also need a work permit unless you apply on the holiday makers visa or have right of abode through parents or grandparents (but not great-grandparents).
shadocg in 'frustrated and wondering'
I don't think I prepared myself for just how hard it would be. Today was brutal. The kids were totally out of control and I am at a loss as to how to handle it. I spent half of my weekend planning (Sunday I went to Guildford to try and do something touristy) and I feel totally behind and unprepared.
It is so hard to explain unless you are experiencing it. I know nothing about the school system and I am just trying to survive day-to-day. Which I am totally failing to do. There are other new teachers who are having a rough time, but everyone kind of flinches when they learn that I am a first year teacher and I am from Canada. Kind of like a double whammy.
I feel unbelieveably homesick and totally isolated. This is definitely the hardest thing I've ever had to do. And that includes 4 years of Engineering. At least then I had some control over the outcome - study hard, learn the material, pass the exams. If only this was so simple. That is half of the problem - if I knew what to do to make it better than I'd do it!
Sometimes I wonder if I have made a big mistake. I have left all of my family and friends, a good job, my apartment that I loved, my cats and all of my posessions to feel totally useless, frustrated and exasperated. It is so tempting to haul ass back home and forget I ever heard of Ash Manor. But I know that if I don't give it a fair chance than I'll regret it. So I keep telling myself anyway.
On a brighter note, I went on a historical walking tour of Guildford yesterday and I got to see a castle and church that were first built around 1050ish. Pretty amazing. I'll post some pictures whenever I get a chance.
Back to planning lessons that I won't be able to complete for a bunch of kids that don't give a shit. Yaaaay me.
Anonymous
scout finch - don't waste any time putting any documentation together to show what you can bring to education here - as nobody will ever ask for it.A Kiwi teacher that was here for two years, brought all kinds of resources with her. She was scoffed at by the 'long term teachers' in her department, told it wouldn't work etc. She left prior to Christmas. Guess what - they're now starting to use some of her things - singing the praises of the materials/resources and taking full credit for it!While she was here, they treated her like shit
bandh in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
That is what it is like to be a teacher in England. It does not matter where you came from, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, America (United States), Canada or anywhere else.
Today was yet another awful day. What a surprise. I keep thinking that I really want to quit and just come home. Every time I think about coming home it is like a weight has been lifted off of me. Do I just miss the familiarity of home and the support of my friends and family, or is this job really not worth it? I honestly can't decide and it is excruciating going over it again and again in my head.
Some of the kids I teach are downright mean. They say and do things just to try and get a reaction out of me and I am so confused as to what to do. I had another lesson evaluation today and of course it went to shit. The kids were out of control and I couldn't do anything to stop them. The person watching this lesson is my "professional mentor" and she tried to be really supportive which was nice of her. She tried to point out the positives of which there weren't many. But when she talked about what was wrong with the lesson, she didn't offer any practical advice. I can point out a million things that I am doing wrong, but I have no idea how to set it right. We spent like an hour and a half after school talking about it and she decided that I wasn't getting enough support from my department. So she brought in a senior teacher from my department and the three of us discussed things I could do, but we never reached any decisions. I kept on trying to hammer down specifics, but the other two would just go off on tangents saying you could try this, or sometimes this works, or how about that....the only real consensus that was made was that there is no answer.
So I am back at square one and feel like shit. Is it me? Am I just such a shit teacher that I can't possibly succeed and should just give up? Or is it just my environment? What can I do to get more support? I ask for help, I literally cry for help, and I still end up more confused than ever.
I am at a loss and I just don't know what to do. Should I just give up and come home?
Anonymous
Hello, I FEEL LIKE RUBBISH TEACHING HERE!!I'm a music teacher and not to sound like egotistical or anything...have had more training from the U.S. than they do here. I have been here 4 years and temped in sh** schools because other schools were afraid of how long I'd stay or taking on an "overseas teacher". I was consistently blamed for the kids' bad behaviour, given horrible classes and felt ganged up on by staff repeatedly. I worked my a** off and learned of stuff to improve on from my references to other employers. I am a very good teacher, but its like they took their vengance out me when the references came up...do I really deserve that? Its a nightmare trying to get qualified teacher's status..when I've already spent 5 1/2 years on a degree. Teaching in England has frustrated me completely and the references I got are unfair and biased and frankly ruined my career. But what can I do about it, I have no rights!! This is all why, for the last year I've been doing an office job instead of teaching! i never thought it would come to this...
rosy1912 in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I have come to England from Australia last September. The comprehensive school that I am at, the kids are totally out-of-control and I been off sick because of this. I want to teach not to discipline all the time. It doesn't look good, its not working. I dont know what to do. I have applied to TES for independant schools as I feel all comprehensive schools will have the same lack of respect and bad behaviour-but i feel this is useless as I am getting letter after letter saying they have appointed someone else-also this is only my second year out and I dont have QTS(another problem)-however,I do have a 10 year visa. The ofsteds are all the same and my school is CONSIDERED A GOOD SCHOOL!-goodness knows what a bad school would be like! In TES i have applied for 27 jobs and not one interview! I have only got a couple of months to do anything. After that I will have to book airplane-We are a family of 4.
artbot in 'I am going home......'
A very dear friend of mine is currently going through hell because of peer colleagues. The head apparently is throwing in with them, by prosecuting a frivolous complaint. The poor fellow is off work because of this, possibly could end up dead because he can't handle the amount of stress that this is causing. All because he sought help elsewhere when no one at the school - head or governors - paid attention to his complaints. Yet the complaints of the main colleague who bullied and harrassed him is being taken seriously. His record at the school is above reproach - several years he was at that school, through many an inspection (4, I think) where he was rated good or better. Yet that all seems to count for nothing when a manipulative junior colleague manages to wrap the head teacher around his little finger. She (the head) had a duty of care that she ignored. Hopefully my friend will be able to prove this shortly!
Forgot to mention - my friend is foreign born. Living here for over 10 years, though. He had already resigned his position due to the bullying at the school and was going to teach in another country for a while. He loved teaching here, though, and had had no plans to go until the bullying intensified. I wonder if this is an appeasement process for the bullying teacher, that the head feels that since the teacher is going and going out of the country, this action can be taken with impugnity as it may not affect the man's chances? My friend thinks that she doesn't realise that records follow, even if not intentionally so or deliberately so.Sorry - I'm so angry for him. It's truly an injustice to destroy a good teacher's career, using his foreign-ness as a cover for this action. Stepping down from the podium now....
oldster in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
Expect nothing. To acknowledge his contribution, skills and care for his students would be to acknowledge him as a human being. Obviously, as they are doing this to him in the first place, they don't recognise his basic humanity, never mind the wonderful things that make him a unique individual and, as you say, good teacher. My husband had to do something similar in his last school when administration told him that "doing a paddy" was acceptable language for him to have to tolerate amongst staff (as an Irishman), administration did not apologise for treating him as an overseas trained teacher despite his being trained in Northern Ireland and holding superior qualifications to his HOD, his HOD walked into his classes and berated him in front of students on points of methodology and so forth. In the end, he applied for another job before the HOD could get overly creative (particularly since this HOD was a union rep and therefore knew the ins and outs of the system). My husband took down all of his display materials, his demonstrations and his tools that he had brought in to supplement that of the department's as they were lacking certain basic equipment.No one said anything except the technician...who later resigned himself in disgust.
moroba in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
After one term in England I am tired of being treated badly by the staff at my school. I am annoyed that my 10 years experience does not make me 'qualified' to teach in this country. I am furious that my classes consist entirely of bottom sets of Year 9s and 10s, while English NQT's are given A level classes. Mostly, I am amazed that I am blamed for the behaviour of students in my class. It seems that, in this country, kids are not responsible for their own actions. Sorry if this sounds negative, but I really feel that this school system needs to look at what overseas teachers can contribute instead of seeing them as a liability. If asked (which will never happen) I could share my experiences with a more progressive approach to teaching and learning, comment on the benefits of teaching groups that are truly mixed ability, compare curriculum, exams and assessment models. Why do the English believe that this is the best school system in the world?
scout finch in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I was recruited from Australia and went to Manchester.
I registered with two agencies who promised me more Primary work than I could handle.
I made sure they understood that I wasn't wealthy, had committments at home and would go to London if my chances would be better. No, they were very clear about the LOADS of available positions, day to day, short term and long term. It would be up to me to decide.
Well, I was stupid enough to tell them I had a car and so they used me to fill classes, miles away from home, that no one else would go to.
Also, I told them what grades I'd teach and they offered me only those I didn't want.
It was blackmail. If you don't take what is offered then you don't get calls.
What really p...ed me off was that they continued to advertise on their websites that lots of work was available.
I see others on these boards saying there isn't much work. Take care to save your pennies, as the lean times are still to come.
Toomanycountries in Agency Lies
Welcome to England.And of course, none of this is ever said to anyone's face. Oh no-o-o-o. Only ever, ever behind someone's back, preferrably after being disgustingly pleasant to the individual in front of all concerned in order to make the shallow, backstabbing character assassination all the more delicious once the subject has absented the room or moved out of earshot. Better yet if the individual concerned is close enough to only hear parts of the conversation so the gossipers can grow suddenly silent at key intervals, giggle and look guilty. Perpetual insecurity, emotional immaturity, vindictiveness and manipulation are cultural hallmarks along with a self-satsifying smug arrogance based upon purposeful ignorance that is a source of actual pride in the company of others...intelligence, talent, enthusiasm and a genuine desire to learn are to be shunned at all cost, particularly when evidenced in foreigners. A sense of humour based upon actual joy, as opposed to a satiric, biting wit, is also to be frowned upon.You wouldn't want these bitter individuals on your side, hollybridge. They clam up when actually confronted face to face, only daring to be so nasty when annonymous or amongst friends; they are the epitome of the passive-agressive personality. And you're right. They don't like their problems solved because they'd have nothing to whinge about, then.Although I have met exceptions to the rule. There are some genuinely wonderful people, here. Most that I have encountered have travelled and lived elsewhere for extended periods of time, which may or may not have had something to do with it.I'll be moving on soon, I think, though. I think it's a poor match of personality and culture.
moroba 'Sidebar about this forum'
I'm also from the US - taught there for 6 years at the high school level. I find the behaviour of the students (and some of the staff) here shocking. I really hate the 'pass the buck' system of discipline at my school (may be different elsewhere, I only have experience in one UK school). If a kid disrupts or causes problems I have to hand it off to the HOY or HOD which to me feels like I have no power - the kids know I personally can't do anything to them. After a problem has been passed on it can take a week for anything to be done. I thought we learned in teaching school (or child psychology) that discipline needs to be administered shortly after the 'crime' for it to be effective. I have students who are booked into detentions until NEXT half term for things they've done this term! The detentions mean nothing to them and most of them cannot remember what they did to get the detention - useless. In the states (2 different schools) teachers contact parents directly and all naughty kids are dealt with by the same person (the VP of discipline). As it is at my school here, a kid can disrupt all his/her classes in a day but see a different person for each disruption - HOY, HOD, other senior management.... it's nuts and it doesn't work.Any other experiences out there?
lyle8855 in 'Student behaviour/SMT support'
The UK school system is significantly different than almost any other system in the world, particularly compared to North American systems. Over 3 years I have found the basic skills of students to be significantly lower, due to the fact there is no need to 'pass' anything, they are simply passed on. Several of my year 11 students currently at a 12 year old reading/writing age are strong examples of this. The behaviour is significantly worse here than to any school I have taught at in Canada. Those who say it is similar and there are bad schools/students in both countries are diluting themselves into believing something that is simply not true.
Now that said, I wouldn't trade my experience here for anything. I have been in a special measures school (came out in December) and it is particularly difficult. I am now confident that I could teacher anywhere successfully. If you are mentally strong, and expecting a massive change you should be okay but I won't lie to you, my wife and I are 2 of the only OTT's to last as long as 3 years in our school. Most wash out in the first 3-4 months (we lost 4 before Christmas last year!). It is an experience well worth trying although most of the horror stories you have heard are probably true.
Good luck, k
kforde in Are UK kids/teaching situations really as bad as people say?
I enjoy learning and thoroughly enjoy teaching. I absolutely love working with the kids here, even if some of their behaviour would never be tolerated in other systems in which I have taught. That's the fault of the system, not the kids. Even the racism I get at times is due to ignorance rather than genuine hostility, and often a direct response aimed at educating the individual concerned is usually enough. I've only had one or two genuinely nasty kids with which to work.The staff, on the other hand, is another thing all together. Senior staff have actually been quite good to me, though hideous to my N. Irish husband. They have recognised my skills, experience and professionalism, even as I have had to jump through the statutory hoops to get qualified. Many of the assumptions made about OTT by the system are downright racism and ignorant; again, that's the system and the people who designed it, not the poor folk who have to work with it. I do find it amusing, though, the way the system appears to assume methodology used here is inherently superior to everywhere else, particularly on matters where its patently obvious to everyone involved but the politicians and a handful of theorists that the methodology is failing miserably as opposed to that used everywhere else.Middle management and fellow colleagues generally have been nothing short of hostile, insecure, vindictive and downright racist. Current school is a bit of an exception. Staff outside my subject area are wonderful to work and talk with. Most of the staff in my department are less than accepting, although one particular staff member is democratically horrible to all staff so I can't really say that it's because I'm foreign. In other schools I worked in, fellow staff made fun of my accent, constantly correcting the way I said "schedule", I got sent to the head for not "knowing my place" by suggesting ways of improving grammar teaching at a department meeting when feedback was requested (later proved right by an outside consultant initially brought in to prove I didn't know what I was talking about...was told to keep my mouth shut despite being right because my fellow staff members were too insecure to handle the truth). I got classes taken away from me during training because the students remarked to the HOD about my depth of subject knowledge and how I made learning fun. It took three months for staff to even acknowledge my existence beyond the barest pleasantries while NQTs and PGCSE students from England were given the warmest of welcomes.Probably won't stay in the system. I can accept immaturity and insecurity among teenagers; it's their job after all to push boundaries and find who they are. I don't have the same patience and understanding with staff, who are supposed to have grown up and become trained professionals.
moroba in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
In my first job here I was bullying, degraded, put down in front of students and made to feel like scum by my HOD. He was upset that he didn't get a say in my employment (I was interviewed and offered a position on the spot by the head teacher). He was of the attitude that if students aren't writing, they aren't learning. He would waltz into my lessons and berate me in front of students if he felt they hadn't written enough in their books. He would give them (and in turn, me) detentions for spurious reasons. He would sit in the staffroom and boast of how he had already gotten rid of 6 teachers, and did anyone want him to help out in their department.I lasted 2 terms there. The kids were a challenge, but I could handle them, they're kids. It was the lack of support from management I couldn't handle. Some of the staff were lovely, very supportive and offered to back me up should I make a complaint. Others made racist and sexist comments and laid bets on when I would leave (I lasted longest of all the Australian teachers employed - their were 4 of us).My current school is a world away. The Head and managers are brilliant. Very supportive of me and are very open to innovations and ways of teaching they haven't seen before. I will eventually have to go through the OTTP to get QTS, but I'm not being rushed (and am being paid decently, as it's not an LEA school). My only bugbear now is book marking. What an absolute waste of time. 98% of the kids don't look at the comments and don't want you to write in their books how they can improve. It completely does my head in.I will be going home in a few years, certainly before I have school age children. I will not inflict a system where exam results are everything on my children. Also, I would die if I had to work here for another 30 years. I really would.
ladelley in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I have similar experience with the UK system. It wasn't until I became HOD I was able to reslove any problem myself and kids started to relise not to mess with me. In NZ you deal with the problem first, contact parents, run detention, place them in the school detention doing your work! Then if that fails the HOD or HoY steps in to help you and not take over. Unless you as the teacher are seen by the kid as resolving the issue the class room behaviour is very hard to change. But I suppose my biggest issue with the system in my UK school is the paper work require for this disruptive kid.This is just the situation at my UK school, school policy states teachers can't contact parents directly with out permission. Who would have thought! I'll be happy to get my NZ kids back but I prefer the UK pay.
VC_kiwi in 'Student behaviour/SMT support'
I am a Canadian who taught in the UK last year… Most of the secondary schools that would take a flyer on an OTT (Overseas Trained Teacher) are schools in rougher areas, or with a rougher reputation that puts British teachers off from applying.Behaviour in schools is also VERY different from behaviour seen in North American schools. Even at rough schools, the worst I have had to face in Canada is students skipping (bunking in England), or students swearing at me. In English schools if that is all you have to face at quite a few schools then you are doing extremely well! At my school in the UK, I knew five teachers who left in the first four months due to student behaviour and effort. Salaries are also lower, although starting salaries are higher than over here. However, if you have no experience, you get paid on the OTT scale, which is thousands of pounds less than what a British trained teacher makes. You would need to go through TQS (Teacher Qualification Service) to become certified to teach in Britain, and which also enables you to register with the GTC (General Teacher Council).Your initial OTT evaluation of documents is made by NARIC (do a websearch or follow the links on this site) and costs money. For an in-depth analysis of your transcripts and degrees, it is more money, and is done after the initial application.Students in Britian do a GTP or PGCE entry, or else do a Teacher degree at a Teacher Training uni or college. GTP is Graduate Training Program and is aimed at attracting people from other industries into education; for example, I worked with a GTP student who worked in computers in London for 20 years, made his loot, and was ready for a change. The PGCE is Post Graduate Course in Education for those who received a degree in a subject and then decided to teach in that subject. It is similar to a post degree professional program. Anyways, if you are looking to teach, big cities and supply agencies (given your lack of experience) are better than trying on your own. Me, I had 12 years experience overseas and in Canada at a variety of levels and subjects. I managed to find my own position after my wife received a job offer in another industry to work in England. In the end we enjoyed our time, but the expense of living in England caused us to rethink our plan of staying long term and we moved home. (a dilapidated row house (a line of 20) with a tiny front yard and no furnishings, usually no cabinets, closets etc, would have set us back $250,000 Cdn even without furniture, appliances and cabinets. A regular house such as you would buy here for $300,000 is over $1,000,000 in England, at least in the south where we lived.Hope this helps - don't give up, just be aware! You will also need a work permit unless you apply on the holiday makers visa or have right of abode through parents or grandparents (but not great-grandparents).
shadocg in 'frustrated and wondering'
I don't think I prepared myself for just how hard it would be. Today was brutal. The kids were totally out of control and I am at a loss as to how to handle it. I spent half of my weekend planning (Sunday I went to Guildford to try and do something touristy) and I feel totally behind and unprepared.
It is so hard to explain unless you are experiencing it. I know nothing about the school system and I am just trying to survive day-to-day. Which I am totally failing to do. There are other new teachers who are having a rough time, but everyone kind of flinches when they learn that I am a first year teacher and I am from Canada. Kind of like a double whammy.
I feel unbelieveably homesick and totally isolated. This is definitely the hardest thing I've ever had to do. And that includes 4 years of Engineering. At least then I had some control over the outcome - study hard, learn the material, pass the exams. If only this was so simple. That is half of the problem - if I knew what to do to make it better than I'd do it!
Sometimes I wonder if I have made a big mistake. I have left all of my family and friends, a good job, my apartment that I loved, my cats and all of my posessions to feel totally useless, frustrated and exasperated. It is so tempting to haul ass back home and forget I ever heard of Ash Manor. But I know that if I don't give it a fair chance than I'll regret it. So I keep telling myself anyway.
On a brighter note, I went on a historical walking tour of Guildford yesterday and I got to see a castle and church that were first built around 1050ish. Pretty amazing. I'll post some pictures whenever I get a chance.
Back to planning lessons that I won't be able to complete for a bunch of kids that don't give a shit. Yaaaay me.
Anonymous
scout finch - don't waste any time putting any documentation together to show what you can bring to education here - as nobody will ever ask for it.A Kiwi teacher that was here for two years, brought all kinds of resources with her. She was scoffed at by the 'long term teachers' in her department, told it wouldn't work etc. She left prior to Christmas. Guess what - they're now starting to use some of her things - singing the praises of the materials/resources and taking full credit for it!While she was here, they treated her like shit
bandh in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
[Sorry if this sounds negative, but I really feel that this school system needs to look at what overseas teachers can contribute instead of seeing them as a liability.]Welcome to the world of the overseass trained teacher in the UK. The hint of anything outside the usual tick-box sends all the insecures into a manic panic! I am a well qualified OTT with a proven track record in education in 2 countries yet I could only stick less than 2 years in this system. I opted out because of the treatment metered out to OTTs - from the staffroom to OFSTED (who wanted to splash UNQUALIFIED onto the report - imagine explaining that to parents?) The attitude of some colleagues bordered on bullying & racism . . . opt out if you can
dee7 in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
I read this with interest because it rings bells. Over fifty per cent of all UK teachers are also deemed "unqualified" ( FE trained teachers) and its been a bone of contention since 1989.And its 1989 that is the crucial date.Teaching in Britain hasnt always been like this. After the second world war we did have a world beating education system - kids were responsible for their own actions, teaching was not done by numbers, students were excluded for poor behaviour, exam results were not doctored by teachers desperate to meet " targets". ALL teachers who were trained and/or experienced were "qualified" - honest! All that changed in the mid 1980's ( started in 1985), now I would agree with you - its total cr*p and getting worse if it is in fact possible to get worse.I too have thought of packing my bags and leaving but the trouble is, the UK teacher simply isnt good enough in reputation to go anywhere else now. I am a good teacher but I know that the Birtish education system is so bad no one would give me any merit which is a pity.
barriesmart in 'feel like a second class citizen?'
To all who care, I am another OTT who has worked in the UK for the past 3 years. My wife and I were originally with an agency (who never mentioned the necessity of QTS), but decided to sign on with our school after 2 years after being offered head of department positions. Now here is what I don't understand, why is a QTS required when we have both proven ourselves time and time again to not only the SLT, but also to OFSTED and HMI through countless inspections. Until last week we were a special measures school in very real threat of closure. Now if we can both teach in a school like that, and successfully I might add, haven't we done our part to prove we are capable. I can understand the reasoning behind it, I genuinely can, however in practice the entire process is horribly flawed. As far as I am aware the UK is the only country that will hire you, let you teach with overseas qualifications, establish yourself in a school and community, and then after 4 years say sorry you aren't actually qualified to work in our country, start jumping through those hoops. If the QTS process was really designed to weed out bad teachers and set a standard for satisfactory educators it would be a requirement for ALL OTT (not only commonwealth, but an arguement for another time!) teachers to go through the process during their first year teaching in this country. Although if that became the requirement there would be a significant drop in any OTT's coming over, and I suppose the view point is that it is better to have enough "unqualified" teachers for 4 years than a desparate lack of "qualified" teachers every year.I don't really expect any replies, particularly since there is already a glut of QTS complaints, but I feel better for voicing some frustrations. So to all who take the time to read thank you.Cheers,
kforde in 'More QTS Complaining'
And as I expected, it did not go well. Although I am proud of myself for not crying while I was in the meeting! A small victory for me. Basically, I met with them to officially resign. Of course, they were not pleasant.
When I first got there, the head said, "well what do you have to say for yourself" which I was not expecting. I said that I was here to officially resign effective immediately. He then accused me of telling my agency that I did not have any mentors at my school, which just isn't true. I told him that I informed the agency that I was assigned mentors and that they just didn't support me enough. Everything I said was twisted and thrown back in my face to make me look the fool. I was told that "this is not over" as I am in breach of contract and this is a legal matter. They also said that both the school and agency will be contacting my Canadian references to tell them how unprofessional I have been.
After about 2 min into the meeting, I realized that they weren't listening to me and I knew I was not going to get my point across, so I just shut up, shrugged my shoulders and let them talk. The whole situation was so intimidating that I just couldn't get my wits about me to try and tell my side of the story. And everything I tried to say was twisted and thrown back at me as if I am to blame for everything. Granted, I am the one who is leaving without giving notice, but this did not happen over night. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes at which point the Head said, "obviously this is getting us no where and you just want us to let you off easy so you can escape." I just got up and walked out of the room. And that's it.
I have no idea what will happen from here on in, but I am at the point that I don't care. I am so relieved that I don't need to go back there anymore and I just want to close this chapter on my life and forget that I ever set foot in that school.
Anonymous
No it is not that bad.
It is much, much worse.
Just look in the headlines for the amount of gun related crime and the number of yufs stabbed and or shot in the last week.
A friend visited a hospital because of a suspected heart attack. On A&E that night there were 3 separate stabbings involving young teenagers and 3 kids (around 13-14) who had been severely injured in a drink-related road accident.
If your intended school is in Hampstead or somewhere nice, it is probably but have no illusions.
smirk in Are UK kids/teaching situations really as bad as people say?
There are crap schools everywhere. If you've seen one you've seen them all. I've taught in them in both Canada and England.
The difficulty with teaching in the Uk is that the shortages of teachers are in the crap schools (largely) and places where you can't afford to live. The nice jobs are taken by teachers with QTS and the leftovers are for OTT's. Also, if you are not familiar with the area you will not know (until you get there) what kind of school it is likely to be.
canadashirleyblue in Are UK kids/teaching situations really as bad as people say?
The last posting is absolutely true.
If you start walking north or east from Liverpool Street station in the City of London- one of the wealthiest areas of the planet- you soon walk into various parts of the East End. The degree of ghettoisation is amazing. It is impossible to tell from a map what a place is like and where the unofficial boundaries between poor and well-off areas are.
Even places like Brighton, Scarborough et al. are now full of homless druggies living in hotels. Very sad.
Gun and knife related violence has never been more common. Prisons have never been more full of young people. The suicide rate among young males in prison is shameful.
Drugs are a big part of teenage life in the UK, even among rich kids. Cannabis has had a profound effect on behaviour in the last few years, and has even caused an increase in the number of teenagers seeking help for severe depression or other psychiatric problems.
Then there is also the question of teenage pregnancies, which are at an all time high. Binge drinking, obesity and smoking... OK, issues in other countries as well, but in the league tables for pregnancy the UK leads the way!
It is now even higher than Ireland!
canadashirleyblue in Are UK kids/teaching situations really as bad as people say?
HiI have had some messages of support and follow-up from users of the TES site, and thought I would advise what happened to me after my QTS debacle of 2006. Some users may remember I was teaching quite happily in a borough school until a serious and debilitating condition reared its head. I went on extended sick leave, during this time having physio to try and fix my personal condition. Things suddenly came to a head for me personally, when my specialist advised I would require costly surgery. The very day I was admitted to hospital, I received a call from my head to advise there was something that needed to be discussed and I should come into school immediately.
Fearing the worst, I declined and said 'If its my job you're taking, you might as well spare me the agony until next week. I am sitting here on the eve of surgery already nerved up and cannot address your request right now'.No sooner had I come out of surgery than my husband tentatively bought in a letter to my hospital bed, for me to open. It was an official letter from my school's borough, advising that as I was an OTT and had exceeded the '4 year rule' (a rule I had never even heard about until this point), my employment woulld come to a conclusion with immediate effect.Suffering from the effects of major surgery, I was beset with the fact that I was being ousted, based on some rule I had never heard of. I'd already been teaching in the UK for 9 years, and had been at this school for at least 5 years!
Upon leaving hospital, I went into overdrive and started pursuing as best I could all the information I could find on this ruling, including signing up to the TES website. In not so many words, since I was an OTT, I was told by some unhelpful souls at various departments including my own borough, that I should have known about this ruling. 'Surely, you have coffee and chats with fellow Antipodeans'? Er well, actually no. My school comprised a full complement of British teachers. I was the token Antipodean.. Perhaps that was integral to my downfall in the state system.
It was never about having to engage in the qualification conversion, most of the terminology for which I have since put to the back of my mind. It was all about NOT KNOWING. Knowing could have made a real difference to my teaching career. I could willingly have engaged in the appropriate courses through the auspices of my borough before it was too late. Instead, my borough, the board of governors and everyone else decided to place their hands in the sand and only when a case presented itself in the borough, did department heads start to roll and a full cull of OTTs exceeding the 4 year rule take place. I am a casualty of this system.
However, there is no point in crying over spilt milk. I have since gone on to teach on a supply basis and granted, whilst I won't ever be able to take a borough contract again, strangely I could accept a term placing..., Work that one out. The system is so crazy, that I could theoretically return to my old school, on term supply, yet when I was terminated last year, I was made to feel I had less right to be in my classroom, than my less-qualified classroom assistant!Perhaps the most amazing part about all this QTS, is the EU constitution which allows for teachers from newer entrant countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia and so on, to teach here and not have to comply with the same rulings accorded to OTTs from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. English is my mother tongue. English is not the mother tongue of a Czech trained teacher of Czech natgionality....
I rest my case.
However, although I'm not on some sort of crusade, here, it would be very helpful if things were more transparent.Judging by this site and this forum, there are plenty of confused teachers out there. Not all of us go home after a 2 year working holiday. Some of us are here for an extended period and have indefinite leave to remain. It seems it is this cross-section of people who have been caught in ther crossfire, perhaps even those who extend their working holiday to skilled worker status and hope to stay on. Be careful, you can't exceed the 4-year rule.Things will come about circle, they always do. Britain will be screaming for teachers again one day, just as they did in the late 90s, when I arrived.Good luck to all OTTs, and apologies again, as usual for the verbosity of this new message.
Mel Chanel in 'OUTCOME OF QTS - IT'S RIDICULOUS - THE MEL CHANEL STORY'
"Hey there everyone.. Im considering coming over to the U.K. to teach in September"
Oh for goodness sake!The UK is full of brats who don't want to learn. Exams are dumbed down to inflate pass rates. Papers are leaked or at least hinted at to ensure passes...
Plagiarism generally goes undetected; agencies abound who will write your coursework...and it's all 'research'.
If you're over 45 you won't even get a job as you'll be too highly paid.Therefore the ONLY reason young teachers are employed is because...they are young. Nothing to do with actual ability.
That tells you everything about the teaching profession.Stay away from the UK - unless you plan to set up a school for asylum seekers and then you'll probably get a grant to pay for their taxis to lessons.
(You may think the above is a rant but asylum seekers get taxis to sign on the dole (see www.bbc.co.uk) and also Welsh lecturers get a grant to research the effects of...beer)UK is long gone - stay out!!!!
David in 'Teacher Recruitment Agencies'
I have found as a teacher in two countries, that overall the way behaviour is dealt with in the UK is rather alarming. I taught for 8 years in the US (US citizen), in three different counties, in two states - very diverse areas. In all areas, it did depend on how the head teacher handled things, but also in all areas there were clear, defined, cut and dried codes of conduct. Here, there seems to be nothing. What I also found was the way teachers talked to pupils here and in the US was quite different. In the US, we're taught to praise or condemn the behaviour, not the child. "Good boy" and "Good girl" are almost illegal. Yet here it's commonly used. Praise was more obvious in US schools - "I like the way..." kind of thing, which I use here. But there are a lot of commands I've heard given, a lot of sarcasm (not in a fun way, I mean) used without even a "please" from the teacher. We have an occasional US-trained supply teacher and she rarely has behaviour problems, I think because she speaks to them so pleasantly, yet firmly. Tells them what is expected rather than what not to do. I've been in two primary schools in the UK, in two different areas - very different areas (albeit similar SES areas, different type of clientele). Mind, this is primary school! When I taught in secondary, I was appalled by the behaviour here. Teachers weren't allowed to contact parents - all had to go through the HoY, and if s/he fell down on the job, so to speak, the teacher was left looking like a fool. That's only 1 school's experience, however, so it may be that that was an exception. As for support, I can't say I wasn't supported in the secondary, but it was ineffective. I had no sanctions besides detentions, which don't really work. In primary, I've had good support, but that is because I demanded it. I kept records and submitted things in writing. If I hadn't, the head might have just left me as she left others in my school.Just my tuppence worth!
slieber24 in 'Student behaviour/SMT support'
Having observed this time and again (I'm a widely travelled one, btw), may I please apologise on behalf of the British people for the actions of those who have caused you to form such a low opinion. (hangs head in shame)
RogerRabbitX in 'Sidebar about this forum'
That is what it is like to be a teacher in England. It does not matter where you came from, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, America (United States), Canada or anywhere else.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Teacher's Salary/Wage and Cost of Living in England
The disastrous impact of school disciplinary processes upon the individual accused was highlighted here a few weeks ago, and struck a chord with many users of the TES website. In response to this, TES reader E.A. Francis explains how you can protect yourself against such harmful claims. Source: TES
Established and experienced teachers are being forced out of their chosen vocation, through what they have described as malicious and fabricated allegations against them by their colleagues.
So what can you do to help yourself?
Here is a check list to help you to protect yourself:
1. Have you got every single accusation in writing? If not, the procedure must not continue.
2. Do you still have to work with your accuser? If so, why is this being allowed?
3. Contact your union. If they are unhelpful, call an Employment Solicitor. Ensure you are talking to a solicitor who specialises in Employment Law. You can telephone around and ask the receptionists in Law Firms. They may even be able to recommend a local EL solicitor, should they not specialise themselves.
"Do not discuss this with any member of staff, no matter how friendly you are with them. Moral cowardice kicks in because people will be frightened of their own careers and will not want to be seen supporting you."
Do not be afraid of doing this. If you know these allegations are unfounded, do something immediately. Do not wait around to get more and more ill. A solicitor has the potential and the understanding to reassure you within your first free-of-charge half an hour.
4. If your union is helpful, still call a solicitor for the same reasons. Unions have their limitations, Employment Law lawyers do not. It is a possibility that your union representative wants a quick conclusion. This usually means a quiet resignation. The first meeting with a solicitor is free of charge. Should you appoint a solicitor, you will receive an estimation of costs. Most will be around £500-£800, providing things do not get complicated. It will be the best £500 you have ever spent.
5. It will doubtless get to the point of organising a Compromise Agreement and your solicitor will negotiate a lump sum of ‘hush’ money way over the amount of their bill. The most valuable input they will have is to ensure every stage of the process is being carried out lawfully. They are also able to link your situation with breaches in Acts of Parliament or the school’s own policy document.
6. Do you have a copy of the school’s grievance and disciplinary procedure? If not, do not proceed until you do. When you have this procedure, ensure it is being followed to the letter throughout the entire process because it probably will not be. Show this to your solicitor.
7. Do not discuss this with any member of staff, no matter how friendly you are with them. Moral cowardice kicks in because people will be frightened of their own careers and will not want to be seen supporting you. This is not wrong, it is human nature. If they are brave and support you, they may be ‘warned off’ doing so. You will feel isolated and alone, but if you know this is going to happen, you are better prepared for it.
8. Do you have someone to attend the first meeting with you? You can take either your union representative or a colleague. Some people may not even be in a union, but do not worry. Join one straight away; they will not help you, but you but you can at least copy all of your letters to them. The union may have a hardship fund to help you with legal costs, even if you have only just joined.
"Take your own minutes, preferably taken by your companion, and make notes yourself. Pass these on, with the minutes from HR or SMT, to your union and solicitor. Trust me, they will differ."
9. Request the form and fill it in. Be careful who you select, should you need a colleague to attend the meetings. You may have to ask a number of them, as they could say no. What you must bear in mind is that they now know what you are being put through, so they must understand that confidentiality is paramount. This need not be leaked at all. There will be witnesses and they may be biased against you, so if it is becomes common knowledge around the school, ensure it is not because of you. If you have not found a companion, do not attend any interview until you do.
10. Do not be afraid to refuse to answer a question put to you; neither should you worry about being unable to answer a question. You may be asked about something you cannot recall. Fine, say so. If you are unsure of a question, make notes to your companion. If you are still unsure, do not answer the question.
11. Take your own minutes, preferably taken by your companion, and make notes yourself. Pass these on, with the minutes from HR or SMT, to your union and solicitor. Trust me, they will differ. Subtle changes in emphasis could mean the difference between you sounding frustrated and you sounding aggressive. Benign words or questions you have asked may be conveniently altered. For example, you could ask who supported the ‘aggrieved’ within the school. The investigators could ask you who suspect. You offer a few names as thoughts. The people may then be told you claimed they were supportive and how do they feel about that? Emphasis changed, another person aggrieved. Do not accept the minutes until you agree with them. Then and only then, sign them.
12. You will receive a copy of the grievance report and its findings. Ensure you agree with the accounts of your meetings. If you consider any part of the first report to be biased against you, allow your solicitor to write a letter to the school and refuse to continue in the process until you feel you are being reported on fairly and without bias.
13. If a hearing is decided upon, ensure the reasons for this hearing are set in writing and are just. If you haven’t already, visit your doctor, because by this time you will not be able to eat, sleep or function normally, and listen to their advice.
"Stop worrying about future employers, your reputation, what others are thinking and, more importantly, stop any feelings of guilt. There is life after that school."
14. If you are suspended prior to the hearing, do not accept that you are unable to collect your property. Remember, this is staff against staff. If you have not committed an act of abuse towards anyone then why are you still there in the first place? If you are suspended, contact your solicitor immediately and question the legalities of the suspension. If you are advised by your doctor to remain away from work at any point during the procedure, take that advice. Listen to your doctor. Do not struggle in because you fear the worst if you do not attend work. The worst has happened anyway.
15. Do not resign before the hearing; you may be advised by SMT to do just that. Don’t, unless you are negotiating a Compromise Agreement you are happy with, via your solicitor.
16. Do not be fobbed off with a promise of payment to the end of the term if you resign immediately. You may be tempted by the promise of an excellent reference and pay to the end of term. Do not accept it.
17. If you do not agree with the outcome of the hearing, appeal against the decision. You should have fourteen days in which to do this. Talk to your solicitor. If the appeal is upheld, revisit your doctor and seek their advice.
18. If you honestly believe you have been set up in any way, shape or form, submit a grievance against your school. Your solicitor will help you do this. Send it to the person responsible for all school governors within the LEA. If you send it to the school, the Head Teacher will doubtless open it.
19. Sit back, take your doctor’s advice and leave everything up to your solicitor. By this time, their solicitor will be negotiating with yours. Wait for an outcome and trust your solicitor to get a fair result.
20. If your solicitor suggests a tribunal, listen to them. Do not roll over and play dead. The more people act in this way, the less confident SMTs will be about using this system to get shot of you.
Stop worrying about future employers, your reputation, what others are thinking and, more importantly, stop any feelings of guilt. Concentrate on getting emotionally strong again and regaining your health. There is life after that school.
In order to continue raising awareness, people have to share accounts. Once the problems are widely recognised, current policy has more chance of being evaluatated and positive change can be affected carefully but definitely.
"It will mean the difference between you saying, "They broke me and you lost my job due to having to resign and then my career went" and you saying "They tried to break me and the outcome of the Compromise Agreement was negotiated on my terms. I then had a break and got another job"."
The most important factor is to not get so ill that you lose your ability and your will to fight against what you believe is corruption. If you search your heart and still find what has happened to you to be unfounded in any shape or form, stand up and refuse to accept this miscarriage of justice. You will leave the school, but how you leave will determine your recovery.
It will mean the difference between you saying, “They broke me and you lost my job due to having to resign and then my career went” and you saying “They tried to break me and the outcome of the Compromise Agreement was negotiated on my terms. I then had a break and got another job.”
I would like to highlight support systems already available for those suffering at this time.
www.bullyonline.org
This website offers support, advice and guidance and makes you appreciate that you are simply one out of thousands.
www.acas.org.uk
For excellent broad advice including mediation (waiting lists are long for mediation).
www.adviceguide.org.uk/what_you_need_to_know_dealing_with_grievances.doc
Here you can download valuable information from the CAB.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/care4teachers/#detail
Here, you can sign a petition requesting a fairer deal from Head Teachers.
www.TeacherStress.co.uk
www.ruined-damaged-destroyed@hotmail.co.uk
Email address for those who need to let off steam or link with others by email, to form a self-help group. If there is any advice we can offer, we will. (We do know our limitations and will refer you to appropriate sites if your problem is complicated). Simply having an empathic ear can be enough for some and a life saver for others.
Established and experienced teachers are being forced out of their chosen vocation, through what they have described as malicious and fabricated allegations against them by their colleagues.
So what can you do to help yourself?
Here is a check list to help you to protect yourself:
1. Have you got every single accusation in writing? If not, the procedure must not continue.
2. Do you still have to work with your accuser? If so, why is this being allowed?
3. Contact your union. If they are unhelpful, call an Employment Solicitor. Ensure you are talking to a solicitor who specialises in Employment Law. You can telephone around and ask the receptionists in Law Firms. They may even be able to recommend a local EL solicitor, should they not specialise themselves.
"Do not discuss this with any member of staff, no matter how friendly you are with them. Moral cowardice kicks in because people will be frightened of their own careers and will not want to be seen supporting you."
Do not be afraid of doing this. If you know these allegations are unfounded, do something immediately. Do not wait around to get more and more ill. A solicitor has the potential and the understanding to reassure you within your first free-of-charge half an hour.
4. If your union is helpful, still call a solicitor for the same reasons. Unions have their limitations, Employment Law lawyers do not. It is a possibility that your union representative wants a quick conclusion. This usually means a quiet resignation. The first meeting with a solicitor is free of charge. Should you appoint a solicitor, you will receive an estimation of costs. Most will be around £500-£800, providing things do not get complicated. It will be the best £500 you have ever spent.
5. It will doubtless get to the point of organising a Compromise Agreement and your solicitor will negotiate a lump sum of ‘hush’ money way over the amount of their bill. The most valuable input they will have is to ensure every stage of the process is being carried out lawfully. They are also able to link your situation with breaches in Acts of Parliament or the school’s own policy document.
6. Do you have a copy of the school’s grievance and disciplinary procedure? If not, do not proceed until you do. When you have this procedure, ensure it is being followed to the letter throughout the entire process because it probably will not be. Show this to your solicitor.
7. Do not discuss this with any member of staff, no matter how friendly you are with them. Moral cowardice kicks in because people will be frightened of their own careers and will not want to be seen supporting you. This is not wrong, it is human nature. If they are brave and support you, they may be ‘warned off’ doing so. You will feel isolated and alone, but if you know this is going to happen, you are better prepared for it.
8. Do you have someone to attend the first meeting with you? You can take either your union representative or a colleague. Some people may not even be in a union, but do not worry. Join one straight away; they will not help you, but you but you can at least copy all of your letters to them. The union may have a hardship fund to help you with legal costs, even if you have only just joined.
"Take your own minutes, preferably taken by your companion, and make notes yourself. Pass these on, with the minutes from HR or SMT, to your union and solicitor. Trust me, they will differ."
9. Request the form and fill it in. Be careful who you select, should you need a colleague to attend the meetings. You may have to ask a number of them, as they could say no. What you must bear in mind is that they now know what you are being put through, so they must understand that confidentiality is paramount. This need not be leaked at all. There will be witnesses and they may be biased against you, so if it is becomes common knowledge around the school, ensure it is not because of you. If you have not found a companion, do not attend any interview until you do.
10. Do not be afraid to refuse to answer a question put to you; neither should you worry about being unable to answer a question. You may be asked about something you cannot recall. Fine, say so. If you are unsure of a question, make notes to your companion. If you are still unsure, do not answer the question.
11. Take your own minutes, preferably taken by your companion, and make notes yourself. Pass these on, with the minutes from HR or SMT, to your union and solicitor. Trust me, they will differ. Subtle changes in emphasis could mean the difference between you sounding frustrated and you sounding aggressive. Benign words or questions you have asked may be conveniently altered. For example, you could ask who supported the ‘aggrieved’ within the school. The investigators could ask you who suspect. You offer a few names as thoughts. The people may then be told you claimed they were supportive and how do they feel about that? Emphasis changed, another person aggrieved. Do not accept the minutes until you agree with them. Then and only then, sign them.
12. You will receive a copy of the grievance report and its findings. Ensure you agree with the accounts of your meetings. If you consider any part of the first report to be biased against you, allow your solicitor to write a letter to the school and refuse to continue in the process until you feel you are being reported on fairly and without bias.
13. If a hearing is decided upon, ensure the reasons for this hearing are set in writing and are just. If you haven’t already, visit your doctor, because by this time you will not be able to eat, sleep or function normally, and listen to their advice.
"Stop worrying about future employers, your reputation, what others are thinking and, more importantly, stop any feelings of guilt. There is life after that school."
14. If you are suspended prior to the hearing, do not accept that you are unable to collect your property. Remember, this is staff against staff. If you have not committed an act of abuse towards anyone then why are you still there in the first place? If you are suspended, contact your solicitor immediately and question the legalities of the suspension. If you are advised by your doctor to remain away from work at any point during the procedure, take that advice. Listen to your doctor. Do not struggle in because you fear the worst if you do not attend work. The worst has happened anyway.
15. Do not resign before the hearing; you may be advised by SMT to do just that. Don’t, unless you are negotiating a Compromise Agreement you are happy with, via your solicitor.
16. Do not be fobbed off with a promise of payment to the end of the term if you resign immediately. You may be tempted by the promise of an excellent reference and pay to the end of term. Do not accept it.
17. If you do not agree with the outcome of the hearing, appeal against the decision. You should have fourteen days in which to do this. Talk to your solicitor. If the appeal is upheld, revisit your doctor and seek their advice.
18. If you honestly believe you have been set up in any way, shape or form, submit a grievance against your school. Your solicitor will help you do this. Send it to the person responsible for all school governors within the LEA. If you send it to the school, the Head Teacher will doubtless open it.
19. Sit back, take your doctor’s advice and leave everything up to your solicitor. By this time, their solicitor will be negotiating with yours. Wait for an outcome and trust your solicitor to get a fair result.
20. If your solicitor suggests a tribunal, listen to them. Do not roll over and play dead. The more people act in this way, the less confident SMTs will be about using this system to get shot of you.
Stop worrying about future employers, your reputation, what others are thinking and, more importantly, stop any feelings of guilt. Concentrate on getting emotionally strong again and regaining your health. There is life after that school.
In order to continue raising awareness, people have to share accounts. Once the problems are widely recognised, current policy has more chance of being evaluatated and positive change can be affected carefully but definitely.
"It will mean the difference between you saying, "They broke me and you lost my job due to having to resign and then my career went" and you saying "They tried to break me and the outcome of the Compromise Agreement was negotiated on my terms. I then had a break and got another job"."
The most important factor is to not get so ill that you lose your ability and your will to fight against what you believe is corruption. If you search your heart and still find what has happened to you to be unfounded in any shape or form, stand up and refuse to accept this miscarriage of justice. You will leave the school, but how you leave will determine your recovery.
It will mean the difference between you saying, “They broke me and you lost my job due to having to resign and then my career went” and you saying “They tried to break me and the outcome of the Compromise Agreement was negotiated on my terms. I then had a break and got another job.”
I would like to highlight support systems already available for those suffering at this time.
www.bullyonline.org
This website offers support, advice and guidance and makes you appreciate that you are simply one out of thousands.
www.acas.org.uk
For excellent broad advice including mediation (waiting lists are long for mediation).
www.adviceguide.org.uk/what_you_need_to_know_dealing_with_grievances.doc
Here you can download valuable information from the CAB.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/care4teachers/#detail
Here, you can sign a petition requesting a fairer deal from Head Teachers.
www.TeacherStress.co.uk
www.ruined-damaged-destroyed@hotmail.co.uk
Email address for those who need to let off steam or link with others by email, to form a self-help group. If there is any advice we can offer, we will. (We do know our limitations and will refer you to appropriate sites if your problem is complicated). Simply having an empathic ear can be enough for some and a life saver for others.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Teacher's Salary/Wage and Cost of Living in England
Teacher's salaries and wages for unqualified teachers (i.e. teachers without QTS) in the United Kingdom
http://teachinengland.blogspot.com/2008/02/teaching-in-englandthe-uk-teachers.html
This is a blog about teaching in the UK.
http://teachinengland.blogspot.com/2008/02/teaching-in-englandthe-uk-teachers.html
This is a blog about teaching in the UK.
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