The new Autumn term will be a real milestone for me in that it is my 100th term in teaching. I remember a class asking to leave a lesson early in my career because they wanted to set up a surprise for their form teacher who was "in his hundredth year" according to the class.
I am now that teacher and wonder if my Y7 class will think I am in my 100th year rather than term!
As a young teacher the older members of staff seemed so old and I wonder if today's new teachers think the same about me. Age is a funny thing. The stereotype of teachers my age is that we are not too keen on change. This couldn't be farther from the truth for me. Next term sees me teaching Maths rather than Science, a change I really welcome because I don't want to become stale. It also sees the introduction of a new school management database, and this will bring more change than can be imagined.
All things considered, I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to September. This doesn't mean I am not enjoying the summer break but just that I like to enjoy all parts of the year.
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Thursday, 17 May 2012
School Inspections
A few thoughts have struck me recently about the whole area of accountability in schools. It is almost impossible to argue against schools and teachers being accountable but, in a way, that is what I am about to do!
As a scientist measurement has always been a key part of everything I do. A guiding principle of good science is that when taking a measurement you should do it in a way that doesn't affect what you are measuring. This isn't always easy but we do try.
In school inspections the very opposite is true. Being inspected completely changes normal routines in a school. Teachers don't teach in the way that they normally do and spend hours more preparing. No teacher could possibly work at this level for more than a few days so inspections aren't looking at real teaching. I can think of colleagues in the past who have been fantastic at teaching one-off special lessons and are great at turning it on when they need to. This isn't how they teach for most of the time. A genuine inspection system ought to be looking at what is normally going on in schools.
Assessment through the dreaded SATs system is another attempt at measuring what is going on. I would challenge any teacher of Y6 pupils to claim that they don't aim towards the tests. They would be foolish not to because this is largely how they and their school are judged. Are we really saying that being able to regurgitate a few key facts is what makes up a good all round education. I think not. Again the very act of measurement is seriously affecting what normally happens.
The obvious conclusion here is that neither SATs or inspections are valid measurements. Why do we waste so much money on them in this case?
As a scientist measurement has always been a key part of everything I do. A guiding principle of good science is that when taking a measurement you should do it in a way that doesn't affect what you are measuring. This isn't always easy but we do try.
In school inspections the very opposite is true. Being inspected completely changes normal routines in a school. Teachers don't teach in the way that they normally do and spend hours more preparing. No teacher could possibly work at this level for more than a few days so inspections aren't looking at real teaching. I can think of colleagues in the past who have been fantastic at teaching one-off special lessons and are great at turning it on when they need to. This isn't how they teach for most of the time. A genuine inspection system ought to be looking at what is normally going on in schools.
Assessment through the dreaded SATs system is another attempt at measuring what is going on. I would challenge any teacher of Y6 pupils to claim that they don't aim towards the tests. They would be foolish not to because this is largely how they and their school are judged. Are we really saying that being able to regurgitate a few key facts is what makes up a good all round education. I think not. Again the very act of measurement is seriously affecting what normally happens.
The obvious conclusion here is that neither SATs or inspections are valid measurements. Why do we waste so much money on them in this case?
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Bullying
As a deputy head one of the things which I often have to deal with is incidents of bullying. This has become a very emotional word which is bandied around very quickly.
Some parents and children seem to regard any individual act of unpleasantness as "bullying". Clearly it is part of my role to deal with these unpleasant acts but that doesn't make them bullying.
If we use the "B" word too loosely it can be quite harmful because it can disguise the real incidents which are so important for us to address. Bullying clearly involves persistent behaviour. However, just like a rugby player can get a yellow card if for his first offence if his team has been persistently offending, there can be occasions when a single action by a pupil can amount to bullying if he is targeting a child who is on the receiving end of this sort of behaviour.
This was brought home to me by the reactions of a number of parents of boys involved in just this sort of incident at lunchtime yesterday. One boy is unfortunately on the receiving end of regular low level bullying and 3 others came to see me to tell me that they were quite concerned for him but that he would just say that it was OK. I could see that the 3 who were reporting it were really trying to help and knew I had to do something.
At first the victim tried to say that nothing had happened but after a while he did tell me almost exactly the same as the 3 who had reported what was going on.
I then spoke to the 3 culprits, and to their credit, their stories were almost identical too. They hadn't been regularly involved but I did tell them that the fact that the victim was regularly being picked on, and they knew it, meant that they were part of the bullying. They all accepted the fact that they deserved to be punished and I am sure they will go out of their way to help because they are good lads at heart.
However, it was amazing to receive an email from one of their parents really concerned about the fact that I had said that his son had been a bully. Unpalatable to this parent as it might have been I do believe that a single act can be bullying and think that this parent and I will have to agree to disagree.
Some parents and children seem to regard any individual act of unpleasantness as "bullying". Clearly it is part of my role to deal with these unpleasant acts but that doesn't make them bullying.
If we use the "B" word too loosely it can be quite harmful because it can disguise the real incidents which are so important for us to address. Bullying clearly involves persistent behaviour. However, just like a rugby player can get a yellow card if for his first offence if his team has been persistently offending, there can be occasions when a single action by a pupil can amount to bullying if he is targeting a child who is on the receiving end of this sort of behaviour.
This was brought home to me by the reactions of a number of parents of boys involved in just this sort of incident at lunchtime yesterday. One boy is unfortunately on the receiving end of regular low level bullying and 3 others came to see me to tell me that they were quite concerned for him but that he would just say that it was OK. I could see that the 3 who were reporting it were really trying to help and knew I had to do something.
At first the victim tried to say that nothing had happened but after a while he did tell me almost exactly the same as the 3 who had reported what was going on.
I then spoke to the 3 culprits, and to their credit, their stories were almost identical too. They hadn't been regularly involved but I did tell them that the fact that the victim was regularly being picked on, and they knew it, meant that they were part of the bullying. They all accepted the fact that they deserved to be punished and I am sure they will go out of their way to help because they are good lads at heart.
However, it was amazing to receive an email from one of their parents really concerned about the fact that I had said that his son had been a bully. Unpalatable to this parent as it might have been I do believe that a single act can be bullying and think that this parent and I will have to agree to disagree.
Monday, 6 February 2012
The Importance of Failure
For almost all of my teaching career, and perhaps even longer, there has been so much emphasis on success. Children are praised for sitting still for 5 minutes, for saying thank you, for picking up a piece of litter... all good things, but surely our expectations of children haven't slipped so much that we are now surprised when they do things that were considered normal when we were younger.
I am probably sounding like a typical old duffer now but there is another side. I firmly believe that the most important thing that we should be giving our pupils is the opportunity to fail. This will sound like educational heresy to many, but I really do believe that we need to create an atmosphere in our classrooms where it is perfectly acceptable to make mistakes and get things wrong. Mistakes need to be seen as learning opportunities rather than problems.
Another key thing about the over-emphasis on success is that we have created a generation which prefers not to try something than risk getting it wrong. I am sure that most teachers will recognise this. The one thing that pupils will need in their future lives is resilience and far to many otherwise excellent teachers are taking this away every time they prevent pupils make mistakes.
I am probably sounding like a typical old duffer now but there is another side. I firmly believe that the most important thing that we should be giving our pupils is the opportunity to fail. This will sound like educational heresy to many, but I really do believe that we need to create an atmosphere in our classrooms where it is perfectly acceptable to make mistakes and get things wrong. Mistakes need to be seen as learning opportunities rather than problems.
Another key thing about the over-emphasis on success is that we have created a generation which prefers not to try something than risk getting it wrong. I am sure that most teachers will recognise this. The one thing that pupils will need in their future lives is resilience and far to many otherwise excellent teachers are taking this away every time they prevent pupils make mistakes.
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