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Diary of an NQT Day one – meeting my form


AND THEY’RE off. Monday morning it was straight in at the deep end. Clearly some members of the SLT (senior


leadership team – took me a while to work that out!) had worked flat out over the weekend. The school was looking good


and most things seemed to have been figured out by the 8.30am briefing. If I’m honest I hadn’t done


too much over the weekend as I was still unsure where to begin! As I mentioned before, my colleagues had assured me not to worry as all would become clear as the week progressed, the main thing I should worry about was facing my form for the first time. In many ways it was a


new start for everyone, as this year the school has moved to a new vertical tutoring system. Basically this means that there are members of every year group now all in the same form. For example, in my form I have: five year 9s; five year 10s; five year 11s; three year 12s and three year 13s.


As far as I can tell the idea behind


this system is fairly simple: younger members of the form will learn to behave in a mature way by following the examples of the older members of the form. Those older members of the form also learn how


to act in positions of responsibility looking after the younger members of school. It’s basically the same sort of system that’s in the Harry Potter books, so naturally the kids get it far faster than the staff. (Well the teachers that haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books – there’s at least one!)


During my PGCE, I was lucky enough to do my


final placement at a school that had been using this system for five years and everyone in the form that I was attached to loved the system. There was a real sense of family and belonging as you really get to know the pupils in your form. It took me a while to get my head around this system to start with, but once I had, I was a complete convert, and missed “my” form when I left.


Of course I quickly realised


– at about five past nine on Monday morning – that my previous experience was in a school full of students who didn’t know any different. Gazing over 26 rather


fed up faces, I realised I’d have to provide a lot of the initial enthusiasm for the


system. The pupils didn’t really know one another, and my five year 9s looked petrified of the sullen year


13 at the back of the room! I’d looked up a few ice-breaking games over the weekend (it’s hard to find any that don’t involve drinking) and I was provided with one or two ideas which


I decided to try out. These didn’t work too well on Monday, but winning the “sporting challenge” the next day


started to bond everyone together. It’ll probably take a while before different year


groups progress from courteous grunts to actually talking with one another, but I’m sure it’ll happen eventually!


• Our NQT diarist this year writes anonymously and is a teacher of science from a secondary school in the East of England. He returns next week.


The real drama of schools Moral support


I HAPPENED by chance to catch an episode of the television drama Waterloo Road recently. In just one day at this fictional school, one teacher had an inappropriate relationship with a student, while another had her tone of teaching questioned after flirting with students. One colleague was unable to cope with a gifted


student, the new head struggled to return to work after an 18-month absence, and the entire teaching staff was berated for their inability to deal with pupil discipline. Meanwhile, a student went missing. This, of course, is just


television, but it did get me thinking about how teachers are depicted on television and in the media in general. A cursory glance through the television schedule hints at some less than positive portrayals of teachers. In The Simpsons, for example, teacher Edna Krabappel is depicted as a once optimistic teacher, now frustrated by the system. Edna habitually fails to control her class and is even fired in one episode for her excessive drinking. In US hitGlee, Emma Pillsbury,


the guidance counsellor, is living with an obsessive compulsive disorder, while teacher and glee club coach Will Schuester must surely have a strong case of workplace bullying against the indomitable Sue Sylvester. Teachers in soaps routinely have


inappropriate relationships with their students, leave classes unattended at a moment’s notice, and become embroiled in the personal lives of their pupils and/or families. One current soap teacher has already been


imprisoned for kidnapping a former student, but is still working as a teacher thanks to a pseudonym. While I appreciate the passion for teaching, it is hard to ignore the utter disregard for safeguarding. This is not just a recent phenomenon either.


Classic school dramas such as Grange Hill were filled with questionable teaching role models. Strict deputy head Mr Bronson, for example, was feared and reviled by both his students and viewers alike. It is also not just limited to television. Whoopi


Goldberg’s Deloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act 2 may well help her music class win the state championship and thereby save the school, but there are serious questions about the work/life


balance of a teacher who is forced to conceal their entire identity to fit into a school. Likewise, Julia Roberts’ newly qualified Katherine


Watson in Mona Lisa Smile may successfully open the eyes of her blinkered art students, but her difference in teaching style ultimately means she is forced to leave her position after just one year. Maybe I am going too far? This is, after all, just entertainment. It does not reflect the reality of the classroom or the staffroom. We suspend our disbelief in our search for entertainment. Or do we? For many years, we have


researched and discussed the adverse effects that sex, violence and bad language on television have on our children. The television channels and regulators offer warnings, advice and even watersheds to reduce the exposure of our children to these harmful


images and sounds. However, if we accept that


the depiction of violence, sex or bad language on television can have a detrimental effect on our children, is it really such a stretch to consider a link between the negative representation of teachers on television and our children’s


perception of them? A recent study by Nottingham University examined the portrayal of headteachers in children’s fiction. It found that of the 19 headteachers studied, nine were portrayed as evil or authoritarian, six were remote and only one was considered a positive role model: Albus


Dumbledore, Harry Potter’s headteacher. I am not saying that the entertainment value of our


favourite shows and films should be compromised or that we should not see the everyday trials and tribulations of teachers – some bad – but where are our positive role models? Where are the truly great teachers that inspire,


encourage and motivate the children, young people and young adults they teach, that we know exist in schools, colleges and universities everywhere?


• Julian Stanley is chief executive of the Teacher Support Network. Visit www.teachersupport.info or call 08000 562 261 (England), 08000 855088 (Wales). Moral support returns in two weeks.


NATIONAL SCHOOLS FILM WEEK An on-scre


Jerome Monahan looks at the films and curriculum


opportunities that next month’s National Schools Film Week 2010 has to offer schools across the UK


and range from blockbusters to independent films, big budget to arthouse, all in an array of languages. It will be the 15th NSFW and it takes place in


M


England, Wales and Northern Ireland from October 14 to 22 and in Scotland from October 28 to November 5. As well as free screenings, organisers Film


Education also provide a raft of teaching resources to help teachers relate the films to the classroom. Festival director Nick Walker told SecEd: “This


year we are at pains to point out that there should be a great deal more to the experience than just a fun outing to the movies. “One of the unique selling points of the festival is


the offer we make to schools to negotiate what films are shown in the final programme; ideally marrying their curriculum needs with our goal of extending children’s film experience beyond familiar Hollywood fare. “Such partnership is crucial,” Ian Wall the director


of Film Education continued. “Indeed, without it, I doubt NSFW would have lasted so long nor have grown to the point that this year we anticipate we’ll beat the 2009 record when 400,000 primary and secondary pupils attended a screening. “NSFW has become the most ambitious and


sophisticated young people’s film festival in the world,” he added. In addition to the direct contact it has with schools,


NSFW has established significant local presence by building regional relationships with local authorities or cinemas with a strong commitment to film education. Mr Walker continued: “Thanks to such hubs we hope


to extend the NSFW offer into a coherent pattern of all- year-round cinema screenings and educational events.” For example, Sharon Vernon, business development


manager for the Ellesmere Port Education Improvement Partnership in the North West of England said they had honed their approach to NSFW over the past four years. “Our schools look forward to it and this year we anticipate offering seats to more than 2,000 children and young people,” she added. “We have managed to fit it in with our writing skills


programme locally, with Film Education resources related to most of the films adding value to our own CPD programme and in-school work.” Another hub is co-ordinated by Cambridgeshire


Film Consortium’s education officer Trish Sheil, who added: “Having thrashed out a list of interesting and


challenging films with Film Education, it is my role to work with teachers so that we get good attendance and to bring in experts from local colleges and universities to provide talks at the screenings.” Highlights of this year’s offering will be a showing


of FW Murnau’s 1922 silent vampire classicNosferatu. Ms Sheil continued: “It has been chosen deliberately


to tie in with the Welsh Board’s film studies curriculum. “As well as an academic introduction, the film will


benefit from a big-screen showing, but in some ways the biggest victory associated with all NSFW events is getting children and young people used only to multiplexes into our arthouse cinema – somewhere they may not have had the confidence to go before. “At every NSFW event,” agreed Marion Campbell


the education outreach officer at Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast – home to another Film Education hub – “there will be pupils and students that have little or no experience of going to the cinema.” It is a matter of concern too for Glasgow-based


storyteller Michael Kerins, one of a network of NSFW contributors. “Sadly, the days of Saturday morning cinema and acting out the parts on the walk home from the local cinema are long gone,” he said. “A NSFW screening is a rare chance for lots of


children and young people to get into one of the cathedrals of art that are cinemas and to experience the emotions a film can generate in the dark with 400 other people at the same time.” It is in response to the potential unfamiliarity with the social norms associated with cinemas that


ORE THAN 200 films will be showing at more than 500 screens across the UK as part of next month’s National Schools Film Week (NSFW). The screenings are all free for teachers and their students


Silver screen: Students are enthralled during last year’s National Schools Film Week (main image). This year Africa United (above) will be among the films on show across the UK


8 SecEd • September 16 2010


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