Diary of an NQT My first inspection...


THE CALL came just after Monday briefing, sending the office staff scurrying about the school, coming into lessons with tiny bits of paper with the words every teacher had been dreading for weeks: “Ofsted is coming.” When I joined the school, I looked


up the last Ofsted report. Reading it, I could barely recognise the school I was about to work at. The school had been graded as “satisfactory”, yet in my opinion it was far better than this. It’s harder now to be graded satisfactory, but the school has been working hard to address the issues that had been raised during the last inspection. To say that some teachers


were worrying about the inspection would be an understatement. However, the NQTs were relatively keen. We’d just spent a year having someone point out the errors in our lesson plans, checking that students were learning, and that our teaching included the latest ideas. Plus we had the advantage that we couldn’t get officially graded, only observed and given feedback – phew! The inspectors came to see me twice


during the 48-hour inspection. The first occasion was during form-time about 10 minutes after they’d addressed us at a morning meeting. Having dealt with the usual admin tasks, I’d just told my form that they needed to be on their best behaviour for the next 48-hours, to do what teachers ask of them, and be willing to try new things in lessons. As a treat, I’d allowed them to chat and relax for the last two minutes of form time. Naturally it was


Teach it like Torno! A new year’s epiphany


“There is nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Welcome back and happy 2011. I know. The


Christmas holidays are far too short and here you are back at school already. Don’t moan though, remember you had those snow days in early December. And may I remind you we could be “in this together” for longer than you may think. They say that a week in politics is


a long time. They are not wrong. The last six months have been an eternity. But what will this new year bring I wonder? David Cameron gave us a bit of a clue on December 1 last year when he declared that he “would rather be a child of Thatcher than a son of Brown”. I always suspected this was the case. Therefore the cutting of benefits, raising of tuition fees and general hammering of the ordinary individual make perfect sense – a stark return to the values of Victorian Britain. Can we expect this to begin taking shape in 2011? I certainly hope not. Be afraid – be very afraid! However, if you are to believe


the Tories, the next few years will see radical improvements in our education system and a return to Britain competing with the very best nations. Moreover, there will be an injection of the “right kind” of people to teach in our classrooms. What they mean by this is people who have never shown an interest in education until now and are more motivated by money than people. There will also be an expansion of


the Teach First programme to enable the “very best” graduates to grace our classrooms with the skills required to regenerate our students who have missed out on opportunities due to inadequate teaching. What a load of patronising tosh. If these people were really interested in teaching they would have attempted it earlier through the PGCE or GTP routes. Instead they profess to have had a road to Damascus experience and now see the light. The truth is many of these new entrants are so


called “experts” with over-inflated egos obsessed with getting to the top and if this is not to be they will sneak back into their corporate world having taught first, and found it wasn’t for them.


The reality is colleagues that we need to fight back


in 2011 and not be held hostage by this ideological attempt by the Tories to hijack education. Take history in schools as an example. The Tories


are reviewing the curriculum because children are “growing up without knowing about the story of their nation”. The reality is that most schools teach a good diet of British history. I attended an ITN programme called The Big Debate in which schools minister Nick Gibb claimed that many trainee history teachers were unable to name two 19th century prime ministers. However, when I asked him to name two leading members of the Chartist movement in the 1830s he was unable to do so. The question remains – whose history is it anyway? Another example is the attack on vocational courses. I thought the rationale behind these was to enable those who were less academic to excel. Well what chance do they have now? And even if they achieved in the way the Tories want them to, their chances of attending university have been diminished because of the ridiculous hike in fees. Despite the feeble arguments from the coalition about graduates not paying back until they earn £21,000, the fact is that just when they are looking to leave home, settle down with a family and look forward to life they will have mini-mortgages to pay. Will the children of the millionaire cabinet members


feel the same pain – I don’t think so somehow! It is clear for anyone to see. This is not just a change to the curriculum, it’s much more than that. It is an attack on the very fabric of state


schooling and those whom we serve. The next 12 months will be crucial to the future of our nation and we must face it with courage. If the students are not in a position to speak up for themselves then we must do it for them.


• David Torn is professional tutor and advanced skills teacher at St Edward’s Comprehensive School in Essex. He is the London Secondary School Teacher of the Year 2007 and is passionate that the purpose of education is to change lives. He returns in a fortnight.


at that point that the lead inspector came knocking at my door. Without pausing I greeted them and explained


that we’d end form-time finishing off our debate on “what’s a hero”, selecting two of the best students to have opposing sides they needed to sum up the argument and then as a class we’d vote. My form did me proud, and the inspector left, unaware that I’d just ad-libbed my way through. Something told me that


it wasn’t the last I’d seen of the inspectors. I figured that they would come and see me the next day while I was teaching physics to my least favourite class, whose books I’d forgotten to take home to mark over the weekend. Thus I spent the first night of the inspection frantically marking a class set of books and planning a stunning lesson on just about the hardest topic in physics – half-life. And sure enough, the next day the inspector came in half-way through the lesson, when all the students were rolling dice and trying to plot graphs of their results. She stayed until the end, even joining in at one point – it was rather disturbing, she looked like she might have


even enjoyed the lesson! By the end of the inspection everyone, staff


and students alike, were knackered. Thankfully it was Friday and the weekend was approaching. The inspection took place before the holidays and now I’m back, we are waiting for our results…


• 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.


COMMUNITY SCHOOLS


A new public- private


partnership in Northern


Ireland has seen five state schools rebuilt and open up their doors to the local community. Emma Cowland speaks to the key players to look at the impact of the project


‘F


OR TOO long schools have been under-used by the community. A school that shuts its gates at the end of the day is just a building, an empty shell that is no use to anyone.” That is the view of Alison Mungavin, principal of Ashfield Girls’ School in East Belfast.


Ashfield Girls’ School is one of five state-controlled


schools in north and east Belfast to have undergone a dramatic rebuild as part of a new public-private social enterprise – the Belfast Strategic Partnership. The Partnership, which is part of the Northern


Ireland Executive’s investment strategy, is led by public services company Amey and supported by the Strategic Investment Board (SIB). It was set up to simultaneously improve the learning experience of students and re-engage the community with local schools. Peter Dornan, social enterprise manager for Amey,


explained the rationale behind the initiative: “In 2004, Amey took part in a tendering process organised by the Belfast Education and Library Board who challenged us to modernise five schools and come up with a strategy that would enhance links between the schools involved and the local community. “At the time, north and inner east Belfast had one


of the highest deprivation rates and some of the lowest attainment rates in the country. There was also a level of mistrust among the local community towards the education system, so it was vital that we came up with a plan that would tackle these issues and help restore faith in the school system. “Our solution was to establish a public-private


partnership that involved transforming five schools into dynamic buildings with state-of-the-art facilities. These facilities would then be rented out for community use; any profit raised would be used to aid community development.” The five schools chosen were Ashfield Girls’ School,


Grosvenor Grammar, Belfast Boys’ Model School, Belfast Model School for Girls, and Orangefield Primary School. Rather than running the project as an Amey initiative,


it was agreed that a charity should be set up to manage the community use of the school facilities. The charity, Artemis, now runs an online booking system, which allows different people and community groups, such as parents, faith groups, sports clubs and local businesses, to hire the facilities out at affordable rates. Mr Dornan continued: “There are three prices


– commercial, community, and a discounted rate, which can be anything from half price to almost


ro N


nothing. A community partnership liaison board, which includes the principals of each school and a number of community stakeholders, sets the policies and procedures, and then Artemis assesses the community needs and agrees which groups should be prioritised and given discounts. “Artemis also ensures that any profit made is


appropriately distributed to agreed target groups in the community. For example, we are currently looking at setting up midnight soccer clubs to help alleviate anti- social behaviour during the holiday period.” John Adamson, SIB project director, described how


the SIB advised on the partnership strategy in the early stages and has continued to provide on-going support. He explained: “Seeing it go from concept to a live


project has been extremely rewarding. In particular, I have been impressed by the North Belfast City Learning Centre, a cross-departmental pilot project which we helped set up and secure funding for. This element of the partnership has played a vital role in ensuring that both school and community facilities meet the educational and social needs of the north Belfast area.” Johnny Graham, principal of the Belfast Model


School for Girls (BMSG), agreed that the duel benefits the project is bringing to students and the community is a key achievement. He said: “We open our doors from 7am until 10pm


and our facilities, including an ‘Electronic Village Hall’ with over 60 computers, a performing arts theatre, a hair and beauty salon, and a crèche are proving to be fantastic resources for our students and the wider community. “The crèche in particular is a great example of how


facilities can be used to benefit local people, as well as the students. It is a fully functioning crèche, which local parents can use at a competitive rate. However, it also provides our early years diploma students with an ideal work placement opportunity. “At BMSG there has always been a high demand


for the course, but without the on-site facilities we were only able to offer five or six places – we now have 25 girls taking the diploma.” Ms Mungavin has also seen immediate benefits as a


result of the community using the school. She said: “I believe the impact of the Belfast Strategic Partnership will be far-reaching. Ashfield now has a first class school building with fantastic facilities. Our dance studio in particular has proven to be extremely popular with both our students and the local community. It has enabled us to support the ‘Rock Challenge’ initiative, a healthy lifestyle dance competition which has brought parents and other local people into the school, many of whom had not been involved with the school previously. “However, speaking as a principal, the greatest


8 SecEd • January 6 2011


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