independent schools D GOOD INDEPENDENT What Makes A Good Teacher?
AY AND BOARDING SCHOOLS
Photograph courtesy of Parkside School
classroom skills. T
Independent schools are renowned for their strong sense of tradition, their diverse and enriching curriculum, and their successful connection with sports and extracurricular activities. However, what lies at the heart of every independent school is the quality and expertise of its teachers. So, what actually makes a good teacher?
They have four characteristics. First, they love their subject and have excellent subject knowledge (the two go together). Good subject knowledge matters not only because at the top of the ability range they need to be able to stretch pupils, but also because teachers with good knowledge tend to make lessons for younger children more interesting. Secondly, they need to have the right personality. Teaching is partly acting and acting ability helps greatly. Above all a teacher needs to be able to control a class, because without good discipline nothing worthwhile can be achieved. So that means good teachers are those whom pupils will respect - and slightly fear if necessary. They are completely in control of what’s
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eachers can inspire and motivate but there is more to being a good teacher than just
going on around them and will notice if pupils misbehave. If work is incomplete or copied from another child, good teachers will take action - punish the pupil, perhaps, or require the work to be redone. They may come across as disciplinarian but pupils come to know, over time, that they are warm and generous. But they are not to be messed with, since discipline has to come first.
Good teachers are very hard working, putting a huge effort into preparing lessons, marking work and giving extra time to children who need it. They are able to manage stress, are passionate about their school and their pupils and are keen for all to do well. Being highly organised is another essential attribute – in order to keep on top of daily tasks like switching in a few seconds from one class to another, keeping track of individuals, remembering which extra duties they are down for as well as managing record- keeping and databases.
Thirdly, good teachers need to have certain classroom skills. They need to be shown how to deliver a lesson with pace and interest, how to use digital resources effectively, how to mark work and record those marks, how to write reports, how best to teach tricky concepts,
how to ask questions of pupils in the most effective way.
Finally, they need to have high expectations of their pupils. This is a characteristic of all the best teachers who are determined that every pupil will master their subject. This attitude sets the scene for everything which follows. Pupils who produce unsatisfactory work must be made to redo it until they achieve a good level. Pupils will be regularly tested to see whether they have understood and learnt the work; those who do badly will be retested. Excellent teachers believe that it is pupil effort and teaching quality which determine how well a child does, not the ability of the child. All children will get there in the end.
So, these are characteristics of the best teachers. According to the Independent Schools Council’s 2015 census, the pupil- teacher ratio of schools in the ISC is 9:1. This compares to an average of 17:1 across all state-funded schools in 2013. This low pupil-teacher ratio reflects the commitment of many schools to teaching a wide range of subjects and is indicative of the excellent standard of teaching that independent schools offer. For more information please visit
www.isc.co.uk
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