Diary of an NQT My first complaint letter


LiKe a Catholic’s confirmation and a Jewish boy’s Bar Mitzvah i have passed my right of passage in the teaching world. You guessed it – my first complaint letter. i should start at the beginning. i was having trouble with a very


lively year 7 boy. not rude or badly behaved, but just unable to concentrate and so fidgety you would think he was wearing chilli-coated underwear. First i checked for sen concerns and was told he was extremely bright (his work for me would indicate otherwise). so i differentiated work but had to give him continual warnings. My next step had to be detention after school. i spent 15 minutes discussing


my concerns and my behaviour demands, we spoke at length about the need to “focus” and agreed that this should be his target over the coming weeks. We wrote this target down. The next day, the young man


was back to his usual distracted self, and at one point i stopped him from turning around and asked him: “do you remember what we spoke about in your detention?” he nodded. i continued: “Well can you remind me of the word we spoke about?” no response. i prompted: “it began with an F.” next the boy proudly bellowed: “F.U.C...”


i think you can guess the next letter. obviously i was quite taken aback, the class went wild, i sent the boy out and issued him with another detention for his outburst. Two days later the letter came.apparently i was


so scary that this child could not concentrate and on some days could not even eat his lunch.his parents


were furious: “My child has never sworn and, being from a Christian background, will never swear. instead he truly believed focus was spelt ‘fuckus’ and was trying to impress Mr duckling.” other situations had been confused, one lesson he entered the class on all fours, i sent him out to wait and then try again. This was construed as “apparently my son tells me Mr duckling does not allow him to enter with the others and instead is kept in a different hall and walked in last like a criminal”. on another occasion i asked the class to draw a spider diagram, i modeled a spider diagram, explained


spider diagrams and drew a spider diagram on the board. he drew a crab. This was seen as “repressing his creative side”. as is often the case, the


biggest problem of all appears to be a lack of communication. after the letter i invited the parents to come in and meet me alongside their son. When we all sat in a room together the chinese whispers stopped. When confronted with his exercise book and asked about the true situations his story folded and i began to feel very sorry for his parents who had so gallantly defended him against the violent oppressor. They began to realise the injustices he painted were exaggerated if not fabricated. The parents


apologised, extended their direct contact details for updates of his behaviour and left to deal with their son at home. so went the first complaint of my teaching career and i severely doubt the last.


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


Cut out the middle man Once a teacher...


The CoMMission on school Reform in scotland, set up by think-tank Reform scotland, and headed by the former general secretary of the educational institute of scotland, Keir Bloomer, hopes to publish an interim report in the spring. Ross Martin, former Labour education chair in


West Lothian, and advisor to the Commission, said that they wanted to find out “where we’ve moved away from that old template mentality of the bog standard comprehensive”. This seemingly odd pairing, a former union leader


in Mr Bloomer and a former Labour councillor in Mr Martin (failed new Labour candidate in Falkirk West overdenis Canavan) seemed to be opposing a council-managed system of comprehensive education. neither, however, had made some dramatic, unforeseen leap of faith. Mr Bloomer has long


advocated that schools could be managed by charities or other voluntary organisations. he sees, rightly, local authority management as stultifying creativity in schools. There have been other, parallel pressures for reform, including don Ledingham and east Lothian’s unsuccessful attempt to establish community control of schools. Mr Martin argued for a return


to school Boards with enhanced powers but he also stated that the precondition of high quality secondary schools is “truly comprehensive catchment areas”. he marred his case, however, by


describing his own former school – of which i was once headteacher – as a “sink” school, tawdry rhetoric appealing to defensive social conservatives. in aligning with Reform scotland, despite


all-party representation on its advisory board, Mr Bloomer and Mr Martin are allying with a Conservative-leaning organisation (nothing wrong with cross-party thinking but this is a bit different). Two of Reform scotland’s three employees are


former Conservative Party officials. one, alison Miller, wrote an article in 2007 arguing against any capping of the numbers at the planned replacement for edinburgh’s Portobello high. she wrote: “There is choice of schools for parents who can afford it; those who can buy a house in a nice neighbourhood or move into the independent sector; yet Labour seem determined to deny this choice to so many parents


across the city by placing caps on our schools. Why shouldn’t good schools be allowed to expand to allow more pupils to benefit from the wonderful teaching on offer?” What is missing from all such arguments for


parental choice, from those who want selection on the cheap, is a clear, ethical perspective on the education appropriate for those whose parents do not choose to send them to schools in neighbouring affluent areas. What is to remain for them? or are the educational fate and destination of the undeserving poor irrelevant to Ms Miller et al? The give-away in Mr Martin’s position is again the tawdry rhetoric, “the bog standard comprehensive”, a phrase redolent of splenetic Conservatism, a genuflection to those he requires to bring on board. What is happening is that quite


diverse groups, all unhappy with the status quo in terms of school governance and frustrated local aspirations, are desperately coming


together. it is understandable. The burgeoning local authority machine micro-manages schools and frustrates adventurous innovation. The


powers of the plethora of strategic and regulatory bodies, councils, government, the inspectorate, the health and safety industry, multiply. Comprehensive education,


substantially


undermined by parental choice, is perceived, rightly, as an


increasingly two-tier system. Change and simplification are indeed essential. schools need clearer direction on the big strategic issues and less interference in day- to-day management. They need fewer layers of management but the genuine radicals, committed to social equality,


must beware the allies they seek. in a small country like scotland, with a well functioning national Parliament, perhaps the first part of the answer is simple:


cut out the middle-man and make schools, like universities, a remit of national rather than local government.


• Alex Wood has been a teacher for 38 years. Prior to his recent retirement he was headteacher of Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh. He is currently an associate with the Scottish Centre for Studies in School Administration at Edinburgh University. He returns in a fortnight.


SEN


ADHD: Imp T


Up to 400,000 children are said to have ADHD in the UK. Dr Madan Mall and Dr Paul Holland consider the causes and impact of the condition and discuss evidence of polarised behaviour in sufferers


he diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) has become one of the most controversial debates within psychology and psychiatry (schmitz, Filippone & edelman, 2003). as a result professionals have experienced


conflicting messages from both experts and the media. This is perhaps due to the emergence of two “camps” providing contrasting evidence either in favour of (Barkley et al, 2002) or against (Baldwin, 2000; Baughman & hovey, 2006; Breggin, 2002) the existence ofadhd.


Causes


Research evidence seems to provide some support for both directions which confirms differences in expert opinion. Rutter (1982) describedadhd as a condition of brain dysfunction and Myttas (2005) claimedadhd to be a genetically determined, neuropsychiatric condition that “constitutes a major educational, social, cognitive and emotional handicap for those affected”, and that people withadhd “run a high risk of alcohol and substance abuse, criminal behaviour, poor psycho- social functioning and psychiatric disorders” (p1). soppitt & Watts (2007) argue thatadhd is possibly


caused by an imbalance of chemicals affecting specific parts of the brain that deal with attention, impulses and concentration. it is suggested that there are deficits in the “dopamine-decarboxylase” which affects “focused attention” (Myttas, 2007).however, the anatomical and neuro-chemical abnormalities theory has been refuted by neurologist dr Baughman (2006). other causes of adhd have been suggested to be


in-born temperament, lead poisoning, allergies, and hypo-glycaemia (Wender, 2000). Research conducted by Zametkin (1990) of the national institute of Mental health found that individuals withadhd tend to have reduced blood flow in the frontal lobes of the brain as well as a decline in the use of glucose. Food additives cannot be underestimated for the effects they have on behaviour (Feingold, 1973, cited in Rimland, 1983). Theoretical explanation and research evidence remains inconclusive to offer a firm explanation of the causes ofadhd.


Prevalence


The age of onset in the Usa and UK is approximately 5.5 years (UCB Pharma, 2006). over the decade 1990 to 2000, the diagnosis of adhd in children has increased dramatically. The national institute of Mental health (niMh, 2003) estimated that three to five per cent of children in america have adhd, approximately two million children. in australia, Collier (2003) estimated 50,000


children to have been diagnosed and in the UK, it has been estimated that adhd affects five per cent, approximately 400,000 children (soppitt & Watts, 2007). authors have indicated that the diagnosis ofadhd


is about three to four times more common in males than females (Ross & Ross, 1982; gaub & Carlson, 1997). The gender imbalance may be inflated due to referral biases whereby more boys are referred for aggressive and disruptive behaviour than girls (Kutcher, aman, Brooks, Buitelaar, Vaandaalan & Fegert, 2004) and that the core symptom in females is inattention (hinshaw, 2002). With the increase ofadhd diagnosis, theamerican


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sales of the drug methylphenidate (which treatsadhd) have increased by nearly 500 per cent from 1991 to 1999 (Woodworth, 2000). The national figures in the UK for written prescriptions increased from 2,000 in 1991 to


346,000 in 2004, a 180 per cent increase (Quramby, 2005). due to these increases, some authors feel that adhd is over-diagnosed (green, Wong,atkins, Taylor & Feinleib, 1999; Taylor &hemsley, 1995).others feel thatadhd is under-diagnosed and often left untreated (Kewley, 1998; 1999; Macnair, 2004).


Associated problems


Children with adhd are reported to present a host of associated problems. These include poor academic achievement, behavioural difficulties, family problems, emotional difficulties, as well as social and medical problems (Robin, 1998; Barkley, 1998; Wender, 2000). While this may also be the case for a large number


of children at differing stages of their development, for children with adhd it is the high levels of intensity and persistency with which they occur that is significant (Mall, 2010).


The study


a total of 17 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, diagnosed with adhd as children, were recruited from various locations in england. eight participants took part in semi-structured interviews while the rest attended focus groups. all interview material was digitally recorded


and each transcript was analysed. There emerged an overarching core category of “polarisation”. This seems to be the essence of, and fundamental factor in, all of the reported accounts provided by the participants. it is not to be mistaken with bi-polar disorder, which refers to manic depression. The concept of polarisation was experienced by


all of the participants in this study where there were elements of “either/or” or “black/white” thinking styles. in the light of these opposites, the term “polarisational


existence” was coined as a theoretical model to explain the experiential phenomenon of the participants. The majority of people experience being happy


or sad, feel energetic or lethargic, have full focus of attention or are unable to concentrate; there are times when they have an urge to do something (impulse) or feel unmotivated. however, the individuals interviewed reported their


experience as extremely intense at all times and across all domains. Thoughts, emotions and behaviours are said to be polarised, occurring in every environment, situation and circumstance. The concept of polarisation has many dimensional


factors, which are polarised, alternating and unpredictable for the individual. This experience is non-static but has its own levels of intensity. adhd children can be co-operative or un-co-


operative, relaxed or very excited, full of attention or inattention, charming or unpleasant. Participants highlighted that there is no timescale for remaining at either pole nor any real defining situation where these poles are witnessed. Three of the seven themes will be discussed.


Emotional


The emotional theme identified the mood states which dramatically fluctuate from one extreme to the other. These emotions can be either “constructive” (feeling happy, relaxed and excited) or “destructive” (feeling sad, anxious, becoming angry with self and others). The unpredictable and dramatic fluctuation of the extreme intensity of emotions led to participants lacking awareness as to why they felt the way they did, thus causing confusion for the individual about the phenomenon experienced (see graphic, above right). as an example, one participant reported that “i’d be crying and i don’t know why and then the next


ADHD children can be relaxed or excited, full of attention or inattention, charming or unpleasant.


Participants highlighted that there is no timescale for remaining at either pole nor any defining situation where these poles are witnessed


SecEd • January 26 2012 ’


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