Time for Education to open its eyes

I’ve seen quite a lot in my years:

• ·         Curriculum changes
• ·         New builds
• ·         BSF
• ·         Mass reliance of support staff
• ·         Academies
• ·         Trusts

Does anyone remember the days when teachers would teach? That every class would be about learning and nothing more.  Now it seems to be about making changes, personal ambition, pretty devices and engagement.  When I was a kid I was told to learn, behave and not stand with hands in my pockets.

We are seeing a very bad trend at the moment with a severe lack of consistency.  We’re moving at such a fast pace to keep everyone occupied to not actually concentrate on what’s important: LEARNING.

Regardless what you teach it’s about that one single word.

There’s a lot of criticism aimed at the government in the last 3 years:

• ·         Teacher shortages
• ·         Curriculum changes
• ·         Ofsted requirements
• ·         Budgets
• ·         Lack of consistency

Realistically Schools are as much to blame as the Government, shall we see?

Teacher shortages

I know a lot of people that don’t want to go in to teaching, not because of the  Government but because there is no consistency in a School.  I’ve worked with many good and bad teachers and I have to say those bad ones do put me off from going back to teaching.  There’s too much self-ambition and watching your own back from being stabbed in teaching.  We’re seeing a more younger breed of teachers which is great but they only seem to care about their own personal gain.  We’re seeing a lot of people choose teaching just because of the time off and all those half terms without thinking there’s a reason why teachers get that time off.  There seems to be a lack of common sense with more young people, the wise and experienced don’t seem to want to join teaching.  So how can education fix this?  By encouraging the staff to actually work together.  String up those who insist on looking down at others (I see this far too much).  Get those current teachers to treat others like human beings and stop this “our job is the most stressful in the world” because I’m sorry to say this but it’s not by far.  It’s not the most undervalued or poorly treated either.  I’ve worked with many teachers who left other jobs and they came from more stressful workplaces .e.g. armed forces, police, NHS, fire service.

Curriculum Changes

This isn’t just another Government blame fest and it shouldn’t be.  They are responsible for the big alterations which teachers are given 18 months roughly to plan ahead for but what about the little changes.  The little changes made by teachers make a big impact on teaching and learning.  I’ve seen it, I still see and I will continue to see it.  A teacher can walk in the door and want a new piece of software installed by next lesson.  Hold up? I thought teachers planned their curriculum over the next 12 months? Obviously not.  I’ve seen Schools decide to go down the iPad route with no planning or testing.  Get this done by tomorrow?  I thought teachers planned their curriculum over the next 12 months? Obviously not.  I’ve seen Schools have to spend thousands on software because the teacher realised that their current package doesn’t do what they need it to do.  I thought teachers planned their curriculum over the next 12 months? Obviously not.

Are we seeing a pattern.  When a Head Teacher states “a Teacher should know what they are doing for the School year” you just know it’s a spot on statement.

Teaching is a massive profession but like many professions you are expected to know it all, to plan ahead and when you are responsible for the teaching and learning of education you have to start looking in the mirror.

In my current job I’m held back by a long list of factors but I still do my best:

• ·         Limited team members
• ·         Limited access to unused classrooms
• ·         Limited days of closure to perform important tasks
• ·         Limited budget
• ·         No one listens to our expertise
• ·         Constant last minute requests

I still do my best regardless of the above, we still work miracles and perform jobs under insane circumstances but I won’t act like our job is the most stressful in the nation.

So what I say to teachers is stop making massive changes yourself.  Stop listening to sales reps trying to earn a living by selling you a product.  Stop trying to introduce devices to do things different.  Stop thinking about “engagement” but instead think about “learning”.  The students are there to learn if they like it or not.  When you take a hard approach to students they will either accept it or not, in which case surely you need to consider removing those kids from your lesson.  Don’t over complicate things, plan your curriculum ahead, keep it simple and back to basics.

Ofsted Requirements

These get tougher and rightly so, I strongly believe there should be a zero announcement for Ofsted and be allowed to turn up without notice.  According to teachers how they do their job on an Ofsted inspection day is how they do their job every day.  Wrong…..:

·         They remove the worst behaved students and place them in quiet areas

·         Every lesson plan is printed for the day

·         All paperwork is updated, double checked etc

·         Emergency staff meeting to go through a lot of things (including all staff emails galore)

·         Cleaners on site throughout the day

·         A thousand last minute requests

·         Staff magically become very independent when Ofsted are on site

So effectively what Ofsted could be seeing is a lie.  Just like a restaurant when a health inspector announces 2 days earlier when turning up.

Budgets

I’ve covered this in some detail in a load of other posts.  I can’t feel for Schools having budget cuts with all the waste that happens.  When you actually physically see that waste it does turn my stomach.  I’ve wasted a lot of my own personal money going out, clothes I didn’t wear, things I didn’t use….  If that had been saved… I wonder how well off I could be.

Schools have wasted a lot on money and I’ve only seen a portion of it working in my own departments.  I wonder how much more waste has been made.

I think the estimated that I had seen wasted in my time is £500K.  That’s a lot of money when that’s only what I’ve witnessed.  This would include annual licenses that didn’t get used, ideas that were scrapped half way through implementation to devices that were damaged through lack of care/supervision.  There is a general lack of care by teachers on money being wasted because each teacher will only worry about their own class, their own room and their own department.  They won’t think about the whole “big picture”.

Lack of Consistency

This is the last but not least which is teachers being shifted around, made redundant, new teachers and teachers moving on.  With each new teacher brings new methods of teaching which can be evolved around IT.  This here creates a severe lack of consistency.  A new head of department can decide they don’t want devices or perhaps they do.   Straight away you will have that current teaching and learning practise changed.  What if a department goes through 3 different heads in 2 years.  Straight away you have 3 potential changes to a department on how to do things.  A website which is used to teach students can be scrapped, altered and a new one in its place all within 2 years.  Do we get to see a picture?

As many know I’ve been a part of device scheme School for many years, I’ve seen new ways of doing it, more people involved but the same thing happens – failure which impacts on teaching and learning.  This is by no means the fault of the government but instead because a few people thought it would be a bright idea to help engage students.  The result of this would be years of students struggling with all kinds of issues losing important teaching and learning time.  This again is not the fault of the Government but instead the direct fault of those teachers.

When you work out how much time is lost 10 minutes a lesson what does that add up to in a > day > week > month and School year it has to be a very large amount.  Anyone want to do the maths on that one?  When you consider how much teachers go ballistic at students for wasting 10 minutes in a lesson you have to wonder why are we blaming the Government?

I’ve seen endless amount of jobs all last minute and needing to be done for next period.  Some are huge tasks and can take hours or even days.  Surely this shouldn’t happen for someone who has to plan the next 12 months?  Surely we need things to stop changing just because it’s “my way or the highway”.

Students need consistency this is a message teachers often say to the Government.  I say that to you teachers that you need to stop creating last minute jobs.  You need to stick to the basics and stop worrying about self-ambition or trying to look good on your performance management reviews.  Otherwise isn’t it full of hypocrisy for you to be criticising the Government eveyr five minutes when you don’t like it back?

The issue with Schools is the lack of blame on one self.  A teacher will rarely be willing to admit that the fault is their own.  It’s not their fault behaviour is the problem, it’s not their fault that uniform is an issue, it’s not their fault that students are not paying attention and don’t get results.  It’s not their fault that Ofsted inspections don’t result in a good or outstanding result.  It’s not their fault corridors are littered.  Fact is, teachers are as much to blame as anyone.  I’ve had plenty of teachers claim “it wasn’t me, wasn’t my class” over the years.  Even when you prove it to them with real evidence – their look is gobsmacked because you’ve caught them in the act.  There will be no apology, there will be no admission of a mistake but a simple tail tucked between their legs and walked away.  At times they may still try and blame someone else……

Just a note about all those half terms:  You’re expected to use some of it to plan your lessons for the next 12 months.  You’re expected to take the same time off as any profession in a year or if you work over time every week that’s also why you get all those days off.  This quote came from several leadership members (including HTs) over my entire education working life.

Some of the things I’ve said are not nice but in my job I need everyone to report every single problem with IT regardless if it’s in my power or not.  If it’s not my power (budget or something else) I can simply state that but I would also pass it on to those above.  I wouldn’t just pretend it doesn’t exist.

Schools are being heavily criticised and rightly so.  When you dig your own hole while the Government is digging one for you – don’t complain if it’s too easy to fall in one.