|
|
According to the UK´s Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), enquiries for teacher training programmes have soared as the global markets have plummetted. How will they survive...? The news of a sudden boost in applications to UK teacher training institutes suggest that the global financial crisis is to bounce record numbers of new teachers from the trading floor into the classroom. According also to the TDA inquiries from people considering teaching as a profession has risen by almost 34% since March, 2008. Comparisons are marked: from March to September last year its website received 758,308 unique web hits; the same period this year registered over a million: 1,018,580. As reported in the UK`s Guardian Newspaper (Sept 8th 2008), Graham Holley, the TDA's chief executive, observed: "These are worrying and unstable times for everyone, and it may be that people are looking towards teaching as a secure as well as rewarding career. Teaching offers a competitive salary and enables career changers to utilise talents honed in their current job - from communication and leadership skills to team management. This surge of inquiries strongly suggests that we can continue to draw from a quality pool of candidates to provide a high standard of education for children in the future."
Recently evicted traders and insurance brokers considering a move into education, however, might wish to pause before they apply their skills and competences to the world of educating the nation`s young. How will they survive in the world of national league tables, a questioning media and invasive bureaucratic transparency? For the sake of argument, here are a list of questions that might make that pause a long one. 1. Money? Ah, that`s it, let´s get to the heart of things. The Guradian reported that "The classroom-teacher salary range is £20,500 to £61,000". To clarify the matter, according to the TDA website: "All qualified teachers are paid according to pay scales, updated each September by the Government. You will start on the 'main' pay scale and each year, subject to performance, you will move up a step until you reach the maximum level or move on to a scale associated with a different position or level of experience." Which means that: "...from September 2008 you can expect to start as a newly qualified teacher in England and Wales on £20,627 a year (or £25,000 if you work in inner London)." This would typically cover the average 35-hour week but doesn’t recognise the extra hours that are likely to keep you in school beyond the assumed 3.30 finish line. Watch out for those hours for which you are on cover (known only that morning) and those lunchtime duties. Department, school and team meetings, detention duties, and `social` gatherings usually extend to 5.00. Christmas and Summer Shows that must be rehearsed are good in soaking up residual energy. Parent’s/guardian evenings are the killer - up to 9 in the night can be expected. The cummulative wave means that two/three such meetings will take place each week by the end of the year. While homework is easily set, time must be set aside for its urgent return. At least two hours should be set aside for this each and every evening. if you miss a day of work it will have an impact on up to 150 students - and their parents, guardians and your collegaues who will be covering for you. Furthermore, depending on systems used, significant time is taken up for report writing. A first-year teacher can expect to oversee six classes in each of which can be between 25-30 students. So anything up to 180 reports can be written in a single annual cycle. Again, depending on the school, each of these is carefully scrutinized by line managers, school deputies and, of course, parents. In any one week, therefore, the stipulated 35 hours can easily extend to 70 hours, for which there are no bumper Christmas bonuses of the kind that have kept you entertained in City or Ibiza strip clubs. Speaking of which, holidays are invariably the time when the body closes down all too quickly and becomes suddenly susceptible to the kiddy viruses that it has steeled itself against during term time. Time management - that links the hours, the days, weeks and months - is perhaps the most single skill most needed for the Newly Qualified Teacher.
2.To deflect any grumbling, you will be reminded by your line-manager that you are a `professional`. This is code for doing the honorable thing - working hard beyond the call of duty and for very little. Monitoring your progress is, of course, a thorough appraisal system that will weave itself into your working life. It will be one of several levels of scrutiny that will build around you – that main one, of course, is the one-week OFSTED inspection for which a school must prepare at least nine months in advance. 3. All of which begs the question, why have you been employed? Whether you are an avid fan of George Orwell or are excited by the upswings in a hedge fund portfoio - you are likely to have been accepted to the training school because of your grasp of your specialist subject - and desperate need to communicate your love of it. As Robin Williams could envision, you will arrive to inspire and make their lives extraordinary. You will need this as very little else will motivate you as you negotiate the myriad of nettlesome challenges that will come your way once employed. Being given the same time and space with up to 25 youngsters is a major responsibility for anyone. The fact that you are expected to teach them FOR PUBLIC EXAMS is the additional quandary as the results of those exams by school and subject are, unlike a tidily hidden sub-prime secret, immediately open to inspector, parental and public enquiry, and extended questioning. If the students do well it is their success, in fact, everyone - `stakeholders`- line up for a portion of that pie. If, however, there seems to be a dip in `expectations` there is only one person to blame. Yes, the Great Enthusiast who perhaps now needs more in-house training. 4.Culture. You have been encouraged in your previous employment to do a bit of shouting, whether that be to a computer screen, yelling across the trading floor or bellowing in a restaurant. Unfortunately, this precisely what isn’t required in the classroom (unless you are considering sports and drama of course). Basic civility to both colleague sand students - and their often awkward demanding parents and guardians - will be a priority. If needed, a quick course in anger management is then advised.
5. Model Behaviour. Which leads us to your work as a Tutor to a class of 11-16 year olds. In this you will be expected to further their understanding of Social Ethics, Morality and Health. This will involve the NQT in leading discussions and work programmes in, say, Civic Duty, Diversity, Citizenship and aspects of Sex Education, no to mention Gender Relations. The recent `Toolkit` from Education Minister Ed Balls provides a contribution "to the prevention of violent extremism. It shows how schools can help pupils of all ages to develop the knowledge and skills to challenge and debate, through programmes such as Seal in primary schools and Citizenship in secondary schools, and encourages an ethos which promotes respect and engagement with the wider community around the school." (Guardian, Wednesday October 08 2008). It is assumed by all stakeholders - parents, guardians, city counsellors, school inspectors, governors, line managers, colleagues and not to mention the young souls in your care - that you and you alone will be an exemplary model in all such issues of teaching. CODA ALAN TAYLOR gained his teacher training from the Department of Education, University of Oxford and has taught in Secondary and Further Education institutions in the UK. He is presently Guest Lecturer at the Free University of Berlin where for Summer 2008 he presented `American Yodas`, a taught programme of lectures and seminars that analysed the representation of teaching and learning in US film. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
