Diary of an NQT Parents’ evening for beginners


IF YOU could look at it entirely objectively teaching is quite a bizarre job. You wake up, go to a room where only adults are allowed to hide, read out a list of someone else’s children, and then spend the day instructing several groups of brats to undertake a range of activities. Obviously we know the essential nature and importance of education but if an alien were to land tomorrow they might be confused as to what exactly is going on. That said, nothing is quite


as bizarre as parents’ evening, especially as an NQT. One of the ironies of teaching is that you don’t get trained for large parts of your job that you could really use help with. Sure you get told how to design


meaningful pleneries and even understand data, but where are the important lessons? Where is rudimentary photocopier maintenance? Where is parents’ evening 101? You get yourself a job and before you know it you are sitting behind a desk looking into the eyes of two people who know one of your students better than you could ever imagine asserting euphemistically that their son/daughter is “lively but sometimes too lively”. Am I qualified for this? Do I not need to


pass some sort of test on parents’ evenings? These eager-faced parents wait expectantly on the other side of a protective mark book barrier as you frantically scour the page looking for one scrap of information to indicate which one of the grotty teenagers is theirs. They notice your dilated pupils and see straight


Teach it like Torno! Hard times


“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” Charles Dickens.


So, 2012 is predicted to be a momentous year. And, indeed, it may be for many reasons. The coming of the Olympic Games, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, and the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens (on February 7). It is the latter which I believe will


prove to be most significant. As I have continually suggested, the future will see us reverting to the past. One of my Christmas presents was a book by Claire Tomalin called Charles Dickens – A Life. A fantastic book which focused


upon the great man himself in all of his guises as well as his characters. I could not help thinking that Michael Gove would fit very well in a Dickens book. He would have got along with Thomas Gradgrind, the Victorian school master in Hard Times: “Now, what I want is, Facts – Facts alone are wanted in life.” The parallels with the


Victorian era should not be overlooked – a Queen that has spent nearly 60 years on the throne, a government that is encouraging a “laissez faire” attitude in relation to welfare, and a proposal to delay pensions until the age of 68. Alongside this, from September


candidates who wish to gain a PGCE place will be faced with a bill of £9,000. You would have thought the government would be paying graduates to become teachers – instead it’s the other way round. Let’s reverse this. Currently if someone wants


to stand as an MP they have to pay a deposit of £500. What would happen if this suddenly became £9,000? There would be an outcry. Potential MPs would argue that they are being denied access to their chosen profession – surely this is what is happening to aspiring teachers. I understand that for some graduates who achieve


a first class or upper second degree, there will be the chance of a bursary which will cover the fees, but the details still remain unclear. For those who achieve below this it appears the door is very much closed to them. Some would defend this by arguing


that the government is recruiting a higher calibre of teacher, but this is too simplistic and ignores the fact that many of our most inspirational teachers failed to achieve a First or a 2.1. This can only add to a two-tier education system. Returning to the Dickensian theme, I can imagine


if he were alive today Dickens might be tempted to write about the ghost of teaching yet to come. On the one hand a staffroom full


of old codgers on their last legs no longer able to teach or motivate their students, but desperate to go off into the sunset with a degree of dignity intact. On the other, enthusiastic kids up


to their eyes in debt and condemned to years of repayments and a curriculum based on Victorian values. Alongside this headteachers who have been rapidly promoted from


the private sector in order to show us how it should be done. Gove appears as a combination


of Scrooge and Gradgrind. The final scene ends with Gove waking up and realising it was all a dream. He comes to his senses and recognises how fortunate he is to be education secretary. He goes from criticising to being the champion of the teaching profession. League tables are finally abolished and teachers are given pay


rises. Pure fantasy, but one can dream! Nevertheless we must face the coming year with a growing sense of optimism and


attempt to instil a notion of hope into the youngsters we teach. If we don’t then who will? We are certainly living in hard times and it will be the determination and fortitude of the teaching


profession that prepares us for the future. Whatever this year brings we must encourage


our students to strive to do their best, to achieve GCSEs and A levels and to apply to university. Yes, it will prove to be expensive, but like ages past education will again turn out to be the key to a brighter future.


• David Torn is a professional tutor at St Edward’s School in Essex. He is a former Teacher of the Year for London and co-author of Brilliant Secondary School Teacher. He is passionate that the purpose of education is to change lives. He returns in a fortnight.


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through the facade; you haven’t a clue which one of the 30 they are. Oh god this class has three girls called Chanel. How is that even possible and which one is which? They look at you – doubting if you are old enough to give genuinely worthwhile feedback. You can tell they secretly loathe you and think you are ruining the minds of the child they have spent 15 years trying to sculpt. And what if they ask questions?


Please don’t ask any questions! Isn’t it enough that I know they are on track for a 5b. Surely that incomprehensible amalgamation of numbers and letters is all you require, now leave me alone and


let me move on the the next set of parents, who look furious because I am running 15 minutes late. The good thing about parents’


evening is they do offer you a bit of control. You can be candid and honest, and more importantly tell mummy and daddy what their perfect child is like when away


from them. You can try and be inspiring as a teacher but it isn’t easy. If you get parents to inspire their children to work harder it becomes easier. If student’s aren’t scared of you, they normally are of their parents. In fact,


99 per cent of parents are supportive and enthusiastic about their child’s education, and building a relationship with them means that the threat of a call home has all the more power.


• Tomas Duckling is a history NQT at Queens’ School in Hertfordshire. He returns in next week.


PSHE Female gen


It is thought that 23,000 girls under 15 in England and


Wales are at severe risk of female genital mutilation, an illegal practice that makes even simple things like going to the toilet a very painful experience. Sue Learner looks at what schools are doing to raise awareness


‘I


WAS FREQUENTLYabsent from school due to abdominal pains and heavy menstruation and I did not feel I could approach any of my teachers as I was too scared they would think I was a freak or pass judgement on my culture.” Mariam Jelle, 19, lives in London. At the age of nine, she was taken back to Somalia


in the school holidays and underwent female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is defined by the World Health Organisation


(WHO) as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”. There are four types of FGM. Type 3 is the most


mutilating and involves total removal of the clitoris, labia and a narrowing of the whole vagina. The families of victims in Britain are originally


from countries in Africa such as Somalia, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Nigeria, but it is also practised in Indonesia and Malaysia and some of the Middle East. The charity, Forward (Foundation for Women’s


Health Research and Development), carried out a study in 2007, which estimated that 66,000 women resident in England and Wales had undergone female genital mutilation and 23,000 girls under the age of 15 were at risk of female genital mutilation. Thousands of British school girls are genitally


mutilated every year during the summer holidays. Some are taken abroad back to their country of origin while others are “cut” in the UK at “cutting parties” for a number of girls at the same time to save money. FGM is often carried out by older women with no medial qualifications and basic tools such as scissors, knives, razor blades and pieces of broken glass are used with little or no anaesthetic. A number


of schools in London


are doing their best to raise awareness of this practice, while Bristol City Council and Bristol Primary Care Trust, which are leading on this issue, want to see lessons on FGM taught as part of PSHE across all of its secondary schools. Julie Coulthard, PSHE consultant for Bristol City


Council, told SecEd: “Just before the summer, we had a big launch and we gave FGM lesson packs to all PSHE leaders at all our secondary schools. There are lessons which can be embedded into sex and relationships education (SRE) or standalone lessons for targeted groups.” Over the past few years, every school in Bristol has


had training on FGM. Ms Coulthard continued: “With primary schools it was whole-school training, but with secondary schools it has been senior school leaders and/ or pastoral staff. We do have a large number of families in Bristol that come from a ‘cutting’ tradition so we have been responding to a need. We have thousands of girls potentially at risk in Bristol and schools are very much on the frontline.” Bristol’s proactive approach has resulted in a


number of interventions particularly in the case of extended holidays. “When teachers have found girls are being taken


away on extended holidays, parents have been warned that the practice is illegal if carried out on a UK national or permanent UK resident, even if it takes place in another country where it is legal,” Ms Coulthard explained.


Can you imagine the headline in the UK if a


young girl in London was pinned down and had her genitals cut off with a dirty razor and then stitched up leaving a matchstick-sized hole.


Every day a young girl has her rights stolen from her. She is tortured and left mutilated. FGM is torture and it has to be stopped


SecEd • January 19 2012 ’


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