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LETTERS Continued from page 46

Please write
The editor welcomes your letters but reserves the right to edit them. Write to Your letters, The Teacher, NUT, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD or email teacher@nut.org.uk. Letters for the Jan/Feb issue should reach us no later than 11 December.


without having their egos massaged. Does Mr Long think any significant learning can take place when teachers have to behave constantly as though they were treading through minefields?

Educational psychologists have long had the luxury of dealing with individual students and often of choosing which cases are interesting enough to take on. Not so the classroom teacher; she or he can teach efficiently only if the large majority consider it reasonable to listen, respond and follow instructions without the need for individual grooming.

Of course teachers must be respectful of children and of staff. Of course lessons must be well prepared and interestingly presented. But nothing can be learnt without routine self-control from students.

And when students get jobs, does Mr Long think their future employers are going to show the delicacy in their communications that he apparently recommends? As a retired teacher and secondary head, I despair when I see the NUT journal printing such stuff.

Name and address supplied


Rubric panic

I am head of history in a comprehensive. I found myself this term in a typical melee of duties – open evenings, self-evaluation form, lesson observations, performance management, after-school coursework sessions, trips, curriculum development, not to mention managing my department and finding time to prepare lessons, teach, and mark work.

Tiring, but I thought I could be reasonably confident. We had good results last summer and I had been on the course for the new GCSE. I had heard the lectures and read the rubric in hard copy and online.

I hadn’t opened the CD I had been sent as I thought two versions of the rubric would be enough. Then I revisited the Edexcel website and found something I hadn’t read about the new controlled assessments. I felt a wave of panic. There were clear contradictions to what I was told last summer.

We were told there would be no booklist required for the hour-long essay the students would write. Now the website said this would be required. We were told essay plans and help notes would not need to be sent to the board. Now we are told they must be.

To change the rubric after teachers have started teaching the course is totally unfair on the students. I have heard of failure to achieve top grades because teachers have made such mistakes. How can we keep abreast if the changes are made after courses are in place? With everything else we have to do, we cannot be checking the website all the time.

Theresa Grant
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