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Staffroom confidential

Teachers’ tips

Last issue Claire asked how other schools deal with overly generous end-of-term gifts.

 Lucky you!

I read Claire’s letter, and all I could think was ‘lucky you’! Not all teachers get lots of gifts, and in what is sometimes a thankless job, these things can be appreciated.

I don’t like excessive waste either, but instead of asking parents not to buy gifts (which could offend them), why not take the toiletries to a charity shop or a woman’s refuge and/or the chocolates to the Salvation Army or local homeless shelter, where such treats would be gratefully received? That way parents are none the wiser, your waistline is saved, and you make other, less fortunate, people very happy?

Annie, County Durham

Charity collection

For a couple of years I have been collecting unwanted gifts from colleagues at my school and taking them to my local cat protection charity. Many are sold or raffled, the proceeds going to help the animals.

The charity is sufficiently far from the school so

it’s unlikely anyone’s feelings will be hurt by spotting their gift at a charity fair. Many charities could be helped in this way.

Tracy, Croydon

The joy of giving

When your young charges give you their gifts, look at the joy in their faces, the pleasure they get from your warm response, not at the price labels.

You have no duty to direct how others support charity or spend, but you do have a duty to your students. Enjoy their giving, and if your bathroom or waistline’s groaning with the results, do some giving yourself. Hold a tombola for Oxfam, or a bubble poem competition with a bubbly prize. Feel the joy!

Kate, Gloucestershire

Next issue

I sometimes feel I would like to rate my head teacher on her performance – how else will she know about her management skills? Evaluation of the head shouldn’t be left just to Ofsted; it should work both ways.

Do other schools have a way of giving staff a say on how they are managed by their head teacher?

Joy, by email

Reader’s rant: Is the grass always greener?

“So you’re a teacher now? Must be pretty cushy with all those holidays,” says a friend. “Actually, it’s much harder and more stressful than you might think,” I reply.

“What are you complaining about? You only work 9 ‘til 3; you get lessons off for planning stuff you’ve been teaching for years; you get tea breaks and lunch breaks; the pay’s not bad these days; and you get 13 weeks’ paid holiday a year. Why don’t you teachers stop moaning and just get on with your job like everybody else?”

I’ve been teaching maths in a secondary school for the past four years and you might think I’d feel like thumping him. But, oddly enough, I don’t feel upset, insulted or angered.

Why not? After all, I work much longer hours than he assumes; I have difficult children to deal with; I have to mark books and homework; I have to prepare lessons every evening; I have to attend meetings and parents’ evenings in my own time; and the fantastically long holidays are inflexibly linked to the peak period when prices hit the roof. Surely more than enough reason to feel a little insulted?

Having changed to teaching after 20 years in engineering, I can compare the high points and pitfalls of a teaching and non-teaching career – an advantage few colleagues share.

It seems many teachers think they get a raw deal and work harder and longer than anyone else for less pay. They appear unaware of (or ignore) the fact that in other occupations, especially in the private sector, people work very hard, too.

As an engineer contracted for 37 hours a week, I regularly put in 50 hours or more. My lunch ‘break’ lasted ten minutes, most of it spent working at my desk. If things went wrong or deadlines loomed, weekend work (unpaid) was non-negotiable. It was not unheard of to cancel a holiday during a crisis.

You hear the phrases ‘below-inflation pay award’ and ‘pay falling by x per cent in real terms’, but what about a zero pay award, or pay cut in real terms? I have experienced both. I have been made redundant five times. Once, when the company was liquidated, I received nothing – not even my last day’s pay.

When I tell teacher colleagues, they listen in disbelief. I’m not saying it is harder out there, or that they should feel sympathy for those in other jobs. I am trying to show that teachers are not alone when it comes to hard work, long hours and stressful conditions.

So though my friend is unaware of the challenges of teaching, I can sympathise with his point of view. Perhaps we need to take a step back to consider whether the grass really is greener on the other side. After all, how do they know what it is like for us? More to the point, how do we know what it is like for them?

Andy Ashwell, by email

Send your contributions for A funny thing happened, The things pupils say, Teachers’ tips and Reader’s rant to: The Teacher, NUT, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD or email them to teacher@nut. org.uk. Deadline for next issue: Friday 30 July. Please include your contact details.