Diary of an NQT Personal assistant to 30 CEOs


“IF YOU paid your library fine at the start it wouldn’t be £1.50 now would it?” “It is called a reply slip because you are meant to


bring it back!” “Now, listen very carefully, make


sure these letters do not get lost and get given to your parents. It is very important!” Any form tutors among you


will recognise those statements. Here is my half-year update on having a collection of midgets that I sign in of a morning, and out of an afternoon. Their problems become your


problems. If they lose their kit, you pick up their kit. If they fail to attend a detention, you re-arrange it. The more mistakes they make, the more you have to do. And do they appreciate it? Do they heck. They see you as an aristocrat sees a servant – merely to scurry around and serve. I am effectively the personal assistant to 30 CEOs, all demanding their second locker key and kit delivered on demand. I cannot deal with tears. When an


11-year-old gets told off, they know and I know that nothing will end this rollicking faster than becoming a blubbering mess. Unless you are Genghis Khan you find it impossible to continue reprimanding a bawling four-foot girl. They possess no long term thinking. To


return to the example of a library fine, most adults know that paying off something that increases over time is best done at the beginning. Now obviously my credit card bills and parking tickets beg to differ but my students seem to have no concept of this. They let problems build and


Teach it like Torno! No understanding of teaching


“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s.


I am sure there is no-one in the education world who disagrees with Michael Gove and his call for ever higher standards. Mr Gove paints himself as a champion


of working class kids, ever eager to raise attainment for all, particularly those from less fortunate backgrounds. The reality is, however, a desperate figure with no understanding of the teaching profession. As a working class kid myself


who attended Hackney Downs well before Mr Gove’s hero, Sir Michael Wishaw, came to town, I think I am in a better position than him to speak on behalf of this section of society. Yes of course we want improved


teaching standards. Yes of course we want to develop youngsters to reach their potential. Who in their right mind would not want to do this? But this should not take place in a climate of fear. Over the past few weeks


we have seen a variety of announcements by Mr Gove and Sir Michael, now the chief of Ofsted, about rooting out incompetent teachers and giving headteachers the power to do this almost instantly. We are rapidly heading back


to the days when Chris Woodhead constantly criticised teachers – a period which witnessed a crisis in recruitment. Under the last government, teachers


were valued; they were seen as an integral part of the fabric of our society. Respect was a major theme. We are now held in contempt by a government which openly puts the ethics of business above those of humanity. While I agree that Sir Michael’s achievements


at Mossbourne are nothing short of extraordinary – and I have enormous respect for what he achieved in Hackney – I do not believe that creating a regime which will intimidate and belittle teachers is a sign of a healthy society. It does seem that whenever there is an economic


crisis the first profession that is targeted is teaching. Why aren’t we making an example of those that


thrive on greed? It seems that if you display ruthlessness and self-interest you are a valued member of society. Only last week I read an outrageous article


suggesting that Mr Gove would like to see parents being encouraged to go into schools and voice their opinions on teachers. Does this man know nothing about professionalism? I strongly agree with Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, who said: “This is yet another depressingly predictable announcement from a government seemingly intent on destroying the teaching profession and state education.” The government has


been in power for 18 months and the profession is well on the way to being turned upside down. In previous articles,


I have celebrated the excellent work under the last administration – introduction of the threshold, development of leadership, a professional body by way of the GTCE, and supporting the


Teaching Awards to name a few. There was a very different flavour to the profession and we had a secretary of state who held teachers in high regard.


This is not something I am detecting under Mr Gove’s stewardship. Even if he is well intentioned, does


he not realise the impact his reforms will have on good teachers? Most of us are conscientious and want to do a job to the best of our ability, his initiatives will simply serve to put extra stress on colleagues who


are already working between 60 and 70 hours a week. What with charging teachers £9,000 to


complete a PGCE and restructuring the workforce so that retirement will come at 68, recruitment will drop as graduates reject working in such circumstances. Let’s hope at some point, Mr Gove takes some time to reflect on what he is doing.


• 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 after half-term.


build and like the proverbial ostrich they bury their head as far in the sand as possible and hope for the best. They begin to slip after Christmas. It is incredible how they transform, from the perfectly uniformed, polite and angelic little tots, to the emergence of early- form teenageitis. The shoulders slump inch-by-inch and the ties become smaller in reflection of their growing indifference to life, school and rules. This then begins the merry-go-round of behaviour management. The first signs of misbehaviour (I should point out


my form are beyond lovely) and I have them in for lunch detentions and doing silent form period where they “think about what they have done”. The idea is that “hard” now will lead to “easy” later. I hope to god it works. I have to say though I have loved having a form. On a regular basis they have me in tears of laughter and make my day with ludicrously amusing behaviour. I got more presents this Christmas than I have had in my previous couple of decades and, more than that – although they probably don’t know it – they have opened my eyes to


the importance of pastoral care. I take a vested, passionate interest in their education, not solely from a


professional point of view, but from a view verging on paternal, and for all their faults (there are many) they will always be my first form.


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


TEACHER RETENTION Teachers


The government has spent millions attracting


high calibre graduates to teaching, yet one in every 10 new teachers abandons the profession after only one year.Maria Anguita investigates what goes wrong


university-based lectures to hands-on teaching, she was hopeful that as she spent more time in the classroom her confidence would increase and she would become more efficient – after all she liked kids and she loved her subject. However, by the end of her first NQT year she


B


realised that marking, lesson planning and disciplining pupils did not meet her expectation of teaching, so she dropped out of the profession she had once hoped would enable her to make a positive contribution through her work. Barbara would have been exactly the type of new


recruit that the government had in mind when it launched its teacher training bursaries to help attract high calibre graduates. However Barbara’s early departure from teaching raises the questions of why the government insists on throwing money at recruiting trainees without first screening them for unrealistic expectations, and whether the government really understands why teachers leave the profession? Figures from the General Teaching Council for


England suggest that the £38 million recruitment campaigns are certainly working. Since 2000 the number of NQTs registering each year has risen from 22,780 to 34,784 in 2011. However, last year alone, of those who qualified more than 6,000 are yet to set a foot in the classroom. In total, there are up to 25,000 registered NQTs who have never entered a classroom. Research shows that the retention rate of teachers


after five years is only 61 per cent and that each year approximately one third of the nation’s teaching force turns over. In Barbara’s group of 10 fellow trainees, two others left teaching for the same reasons as her.


Attracting the right candidate


In an economic climate where graduates are hard- pressed to find a job, and with school staff shortages widely publicised in mainstream media, teaching could be seen as sure way of finding employment. And if spending money is thrown in for training, it could present as a plum proposition to some. Last year the government continued with its efforts


of attracting first class graduates through its rather corporate-sounding Premier-Plus scheme, which awards bursaries of up to £20,000 for graduates who want to teach maths, physics, chemistry or modern foreign languages. Eligibility also entitles trainees to “one-to-one” advice and guidance, first-hand experience in a modern secondary school, invitations to “exclusive” events hosted by the Training Development Agency for Schools (TDA), and access to subject top-up courses. According to the TDA, each year the government spends around £500 million on teacher training grants and bursaries. However, sceptics argue that schemes such as these


are more gimmick than substance and whilst they do bring in new recruits, they do nothing to make sure that they have the personal qualities and skill-sets required to be a teacher. The head of languages at a north London secondary


school, who did not wish to be named, says that the problem is that the wrong types of people are being recruited into teaching in the first place. She argues that financial incentives during training


8


makes teaching appealing, but does nothing to prepare the person for the day-to-day business of being a teacher, and that efforts would be better spent on recruiting the right kind of person in the first place. She explained: “These campaigns often paint an


attractive option to the wrong kind of people. It attracts people to get in, but once they are there they find out it was not for them all along.” She says that being a native speaker of a language


or being good at their subject does not make a good teacher, and that training providers should adopt more rigorous selection criteria and communicate a more realistic portrayal of what problems they will encounter as a teacher. Meanwhile, an assistant headteacher of an inner city secondary school, also speaking anonymously, agreed


‘


These campaigns often paint an


attractive option to the wrong kind of people. It attracts people to get in, but once they


are there they find out it was not for them all along


SecEd • February 2 2012 ’


ARBARA, A 28-year-old graduate from Cambridge University with a first in geography, had not even finished her PGCE when she already suspected that dealing with unruly children and planning five lessons a day was not the job for her.


Although during her training she preferred


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