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Dear Secretary of State for Education – as of 5th July 2024

/ Mr J Dexter / Leave a comment

Who am I to nudge any politician ? I’m a devoted teacher ( 26,000 lessons) that is I devoted my entire career and  a lot of extra hours to teaching from 1981 to 2017 when I left and worked for my local authority – in a way something I might have done years before BUT I loved teaching and schools and yes I loved the children, my staff and our learning together. I think they loved me – watch this if you aren’t sure – it says more than any awards.

05-07-24

Dear (new) Secretary of State for Education

You are the 24th SoS since I started working in schools in 1981 and either the 18th Tory or the 6th Labour leader of the sector I loved. There are a number of issues in Education needing urgent attention post-election here are my thoughts for what they are worth. ANY politician or party needing more info, you know where to find me! In order 10/10

1 SEND – too many councils taking too long to sort them for families but more important not enough resource in the system to support those EHCP – so you might suspect the tardiness is about funding. Families struggle to access special school places – many perhaps don’t need (or want a special school) but if we are honest too many schools are not inclusive and therefore make excuses not to take some children with SEND needs. Sometimes this is very subtle – an open evening where for some reason the SEND team aren’t available! Sort funding, review SEND and implement the Timpson review on inclusive practice. I’m not against exclusions including permanent exclusion. Behaviour is really really important but – once you exclude the naughtiest pupil in the school, you then have to deal with……..the naughtiest pupil in the school. No doubt ( see below) we need better local services here to help. Look at helping make schools more inclusive or rewarding those that are. It is a great joy for a school community to have all sorts of children along with their interests, ambitions, needs. There is a place for Special Schools but these ought really be for those with much more complex need. Do simple arithmetic – 15% of pupils have SEND – what % should be in Special and therefore how do we help that majority in the maintained sector? Remember these families often have the hardest of times and feel they are constantly battling.

2 Teachers – it’s no good having great buildings if there are not great teachers or even enough teachers. There is an urgent need to review pay and conditions and talk with TU and with staff. Why are they leaving ? Why are so many retiring early? Why isn’t my secondary age child taught by a graduate or expert in that subject? Some of this is pay and conditions – graduates command better pay elsewhere – elsewhere in other sectors or elsewhere in the world. Some is due to autonomy and the school structure and regulation. Teachers might hate Ofsted not because of fear of accountability but because so often their leaders say ( rightly or wrongly) Ofsted (and the MAT) demand X or Y. Personally I loved teaching, I loved planning every day, every year, working out new content or even old content,  new ideas, new ways to get over hard Chemistry and new ways to assess, or to help my students. I did not like being told how to teach – once a deputy told me I needed to return to the old ways of science ie heading/method/diagram/results/conclusion. I asked why when exams did not examine like that and science didn’t really work like that and how did he know when I was a mini expert in teaching and in my subjects (RSC award winner!) …. But if you keep getting “the MAT says so” or the LA says so” or “Ofsted demands ” it is soul destroying. BUT there is also something about the curriculum fit for children and young people. Please don’t negelect CPD, keep it local too learn from those around the corner doing better, use Univeristy ITT and research, forget the blob nonsense. There is great expertise to tap into but if you keep hubs move on from nepotism.

Many in a class are disillusioned, disengaged – it may be them of course BUT imagine what subject you hated most at school – for me that’s Art. Now imagine you have to do that all day every day except for a few hours of your favourite subject. Imagine all the creative stuff being downgraded, imagine all the extracurricular gone- few teams, no regular concerts or shows… and that school is dry. My old head allocated 1200 of 1265 hours and then said …” You have 65 hours unallocated, do something with children – a lunch time activity, an after school class , run a team, take a trip away…” difficult to argue and so we had one of the most rich extra curricular offers and we knew our children and families all the better I’ve blogged elsewhere on that.

I had the privilege as a local Director to visit many local schools and often, very often I met ex pupils, inspired by our school to teach, to be a SENCO, to be a TA to be a business manager. It made me very very proud, yep morally onto the high ground. Young people should want this wonderful job it shouldn’t be difficult to attract them again. [There’s a whole section here on why be a teacher!]

So this needs 

3 A review of curriculum to fit a 21st Century world, a world where knowledge helps but a decent crap detector is better – where you learn how to find knowledge and discern its value, where you learn from an expert who absolutely loves and inspires you in their subject – how lucky was I to work in a school full of staff like that? And consider how assessment helps learning NOT constantly measuring it (P8 EBacc etc) these measures crudely comparing children or schools – move on- you know Gove, he might have been wrong! and by the way you need to do this for FE colleges too – FE could make the biggest of differences to your ambitions but fund them, listen to them – to quote Sir Keir Stamer ” If you spent more time listening you might not be so out of touch” Oh and by the way listen to professionals across the spectrum no decisions for the media, none – that gets us nowhere ( See Brexit).

Rethink P8 it’s distorting classrooms – sure Maths and English are important but we don’t need a formula to tell us and an emphasis that promotes subjects or demeans others – it may be too late for music, Design, Performance subjects but bring back a fair choice and subjects by their own value and merit- not the values of one politician (Gove) or favouritism.

4 Ofsted Much is written on this, here is my view. Get rid of judgments – I have always hated them, even when we sat on “Outstanding” for over 10 years. What did it mean? If you asked the staff, children or parents about our school they would mostly be positive, they would say some things, the music, concerts, sporting occasions, wider opportunities and outcomes were good and often amazingly brilliant. They would say mostly their children liked coming to school though not every day! You see they might also add some days were pretty ropey, some days behaviours deteriorated and some stuff really needed to change. Other parents in Nottingham might say – we knew that this school was Outstanding, thanks for the info but we will never get in ( which is true we usually had 500+ applications). How dare anyone sum up the work of 1200 children 130 teachers and support staff over 195 days in one word. There is an argument to get rid of Ofsted but I suspect that’s a step too far even for a radical majority led government, sadly. So Ofsted reports should be like the local area SEND reviews done by Ofsted and CQC. Spend time, not just a day – praise what is going well ( so we know and carry that on) tell us stuff you think we need to work on and tell us anything urgent needing attention. If if if the list of improvements needed is too long make us do an action plan and revisit in the year, give the LA or MAT some resource to help. One big issue here is the almost unspoken politics. The regulation is a way to create more academies -a one way move if your inspection is poor. 

There is always a political argument that “Parents need to know and surveys show they like Ofsted”. This is somewhat disingenuous and naïve. As above a school rated good ( which now covers a huge spectrum, maybe brilliant some days and struggling on others. It may change in a short period of time ( we once had 6 English staff off on maternity leave, that was a challenge!). There is an argument about it helping when choosing a school but parents do not choose a school – they express a preference and in most areas they have no choice – in fact the schools effectively choose them  especially if oversubscribed. There is a really tough issue her for a school labelled RI ( requires improvement) as parents see this as a ‘bad’ school and try to avoid it for their children and as some teachers may shun the ‘opportunity’ to work there. If anyone has been at school appeal panel they hear all these arguments – and the panel have to try and explain that an RI school isn’t that bad, it will get better, lots of children do well there etc. In the light of the tragedy of Ruth Parry and the mishandling of that by Ofsted, the least we can do is stop the one word judgment and at least get rid of those media stories ( our local Nottm Post “Here are all the outstanding schools in Nottingham” – which our local news outlet ran with 5 errors and no context that the framework has changed that 15% O became 12% O)). Make the media, make the parents read the reports and remind them some are 5 years out of date and were done by two adults in one day. It’s a pressure on inspectors too. Would we do this to industries? Imagine I visited Boots ( I am a scientist) and with a couple of colleagues found want and all over the papers Boots judged RI – and by the way we will be back in a few years, and the press ask about the consequences for profits and jobs and maybe even the companies existence. I realise in education we are talking public money but believe me we are accountable

5 The System. We now have MATs, we have some LAs still running schools – often Primaries and Special. There has always been a feeling the latter are second class, in terms of funding and favouritism. Just as an example when a poorly achieving school is moved to a MAT the Trust may get extra funding – perhaps if the LA had received that, the school wouldn’t have fallen over.  There are really good MATs, I’ve worked with some in Nottingham, there are also poor ones, there were poor LAs and I’ve worked in some good ones ( Oxfordshire under Sir Tim Brighouse). This shouldn’t be about ministerial or political whims – such as ‘all schools should be academies’ or ‘stand alone academies can’t stand alone any more’ or bring back more grammars. Do some proper research on what works and what doesn’t; take time listen to a wide view run away from nepotism. make a long term strategic plan and win over cross party support to rebuild over 10 years

6 Governance – here is a question, when a parent has a complaint how easily is it resolved? Not the persistent offender parent the serial complainer, just the parent who feels their child isn’t say getting adequate support? They might try and talk to teachers, TAs, maybe the head but if not resolvable where then? My experience in an LA was that many exasperated parents turn to the LA, who has no powers over MATs. They might threaten Ofsted but they will rarely intervene unless it feels like a big safeguarding matter and then will seek info from others. Some schools now have little local governance. MAT governors at Trust level are very removed from the needs and the joys of the local school. Then there is the unspoken sponsorship – businesses or even political interests, donors to the parties, nepotism over schools -it’s not good enough. Run the school, hold people to account, support and challenge. Our CoG always rang me to see how things were going, she turned up at every concert, every Governor meeting, and every sub committee meeting, her children came to the school, she supported PTA events – she loved the school and when she was critical we all listened, we listened all the more carefully for this lady loved the school.

7 Universal Services Since council budgets have been cut schools are the places for many vulnerable and disadvantaged families to turn – for food, for clothing, for holiday hunger for help and for love etc. Schools helping them with paperwork etc. Teachers wanted to teach they might be Ok with pastoral work they understand wider responsibility but they’ve got tied up with too much universal support. Please urgently help sort the finances of councils for Children’s services esp for Children in Care where placements and costs, thanks to a market economy are ridiculously high and yet the children still get a poor service. Talk to Councillors and Officers who know their communities well and start working on solutions, and please talk to children in care. Think about libraries, children’s centres, youth services. You know why? They often reinforce good behaviours and help keep people on track – look at the Pythian community in Nottingham; look at the work of early years…..

Oh and whilst I mention it – councils are in a good position to create great partnerships – schools colleges Universities, other provision like AP and Early years but alongside cultural and sporting partners – they did really good stuff in the pandemic – give them resource for this and please please help with place planning – opening or closing schools is so painfully slow because of the academy obsessions.

8 Mental Health – why is that so bad here in the Uk compared to most other European Countries? Why haven’t we bounced back after the pandemic? Why is attendance such an issue? Talk to schools and work a strategy. Talk to young people. Locally our NottAlone website has been a great success – this may need money but it may need creativity, coproduction and better solutions.

9 Buildings.Schools had RAAC feel it’s probably been forgotten, BSF was Gove’s first cut and stole the investment which was needed to help transform learning. So too have the regular maintenance issues of boilers, leaky roofing, better ventilation etc. This needs a simple plan but a costed one. Do simple arithmetic- there are about 21,000 schools, if the buildings last 50 years we need to rebuild ( and set aside funds) for approx. 400 per year . If they last a bit longer because they are well built then that decreases. Why can’t our children learn in reasonable or even nice buildings. Most of my time I taught with leaky ceilings, cold labs in winter, stuffy ones in summer, unfriendly places – but give me a good school in cr*p buildings any day.

10 Locally good, locally accountable and local to me

This in realty is the most simple yet the most complex. What all parents want and all teachers want and all children deserve is a good local school. Yep, just a plain simple good local school – a good curriculum, staff who know their children and can inspire them and teach them and stay the course and frankly love them. In my very personal view too much resource is centred on the MAT team, the business and the CEO and senior staff, not only too much money but too much power. ( see the amazing work of Warwick Mansell on this. Restore that power to the governors and the headteacher, support the headteacher, challenge them but work out how to do that without a super head, without X who turned around school Y. Listen to the heads who love their schools, love most of their staff and love most of their children. You  might be surprised just how many of them there are, awaiting the changes we need and already serving their local community.

The Ambition literacy campaign in Nottingham

/ Mr J Dexter / Leave a comment

This was written for the Nottingham City Council campaign and is on the NCC intranet but it might get more publicity for reading out in the open

 

We are encouraging more children to read as part of the council’s new literacy campaign ‘Ambitious for every child’. We know that an early love of books and reading can help children to be more successful in the future. In this blog, our Education Director John Dexter reflects on his early experience of books and the impact it had on his life and teaching career…

The great children’s writer Roald Dahl said of reading: “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”

When I was a child, we had very few books at home, only one or two suitable for children, so I read those several times, but my Dad took me to the library every few weeks. I loved those trips, partly being with him, which was rare, and partly as I entered a new world every week:

  • Outer space, imaginary planets, inconceivable journeys, hideouts, far off islands, distant countries, danger…
  • The world of pirates, ancient peoples, Victorians, Romans, firefighters, commanders, heroes, ghosts…
  • Safely in a war zone, a baking hot African country, the freezing ice sheets of Antarctica, the beauty of mountain landscape, the enchanting Far East, the hill stations of India, an adventure with superheroes…

Sometimes escaping, often fantastic, occasionally scary, always learning. But so grateful for the world I entered. It’s not just about learning the basics of reading to access the modern world, it is about being literate, about learning and sharing, enjoying and getting ideas, or having ideas challenged.

As a teacher, you might expect me to say all this but I was never very comfortable with English, let alone English Literature (a subject I failed aged 16). Not until I met with Mr Scholar (great name for a teacher). As I chose to study science, my school insisted we had “extra” English lessons – I almost despaired but probably not as much as Mr Scholar. So we came to an agreement, there was no syllabus, no exam so why didn’t he tell us what he loved to read: fiction, non-fiction, plays poetry… that set me on the road to enjoying reading and that helped me become literate.

When I worked in secondary schools, I am proud of the literacy challenges we put in place: every Wednesday, 25 minutes of silent reading, save those who struggled to read helped by trained sixth form literacy coaches. This routine said:

  1. reading is important enough to have on the secondary curriculum
  2. there is a need for time set aside to read seriously and
  3. promoting discussion between pupils and between staff and pupils about reading, about books, about fiction or non-fiction is healthy
  4. ambitions can be fuelled by literacy

For me that was great, I honestly believed reading was just so undervalued. I once made my Year 11 Science class read aloud for a whole hour lesson. At the end, one student said: “I can’t believe how much I have learnt Sir, it helped me make sense of many of our lessons.” This said something about me, probably, but I just hoped he would read the rest of the book.0_Hoodwinked-book-bench3

I was sooooo enthusiastic to get my own children to read. But here sits a secondary teacher with no idea how to teach reading, so it was the obvious: read to them, read with them, listen to them, tell them stories, find stories, get them to find stories… and I remembered that’s what my Dad did too; he took me to the library and he took books out as well. Adults can model the importance of reading by reading themselves, set aside time, and help choose books or give them as gifts.

I am envious of the wonderful array of books available today, and at reasonable costs, but the Dolly Parton Imagination Library sending 60 books over five years to small children offers a great opportunity to start reading, start imagining, to relax reading and even to find a better balance in life. But most of all to learn and enter the funny, exciting and wonderful world Dahl describes.

Go on, be ambitious and give it a go.

If you wish to support Councillor Mellen’s big read, please do so here.

OR BETTER Still tell us all about a book you loved as a child, or loved reading to your children or grandchildren or would give as a gift?

China > curiosity, culture and challenge

/ Mr J Dexter / 3 Comments

China – a visit thanks to Access China UK and the Nottingham Confucius Institute and Nottingham City Council

An amazing experience, which would have been incredible and fantastic but was made even moreso or as we teacher’s say “EBI” ( even better if) for the fact I went with 9 great Nottingham City colleagues and we had a wonderful Chinese guide and interpreter,  all of whom added the value to make it totally amazing.

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Feifei our interpreter at the Ningbo library

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The Ningbo 10 (ignore the man on the right he wasn’t with us!)

 

 

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You cannot go up the Pearl of Shanghai and look over the biggest City in the world (population 24 million) and not think – this is where the future of the world will be centred and so we need a plan, not a Brexit neither an educational plan but a proper plan.

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China is a long way away – 5750 miles to be precise or exactly 24 hours from me leaving a hotel in Shanghai to arriving at my front door in Nottingham. But it’s also a long distance away culturally and we so enjoyed discovering just touching upon something of its culture.

It’s a country of the highest population 1.4 billion –roughly 24 times the population of the UK and yet the 4th biggest by area which means a lot and I mean a lot of tower block apartments offices and hotels. Shanghai is the biggest City in the world. (24.2 million). We travelled to Ningbo about 4 hours away, including crossing a bridge of 16km to Ningbo, a City the size of London. It’s busy on the roads but those on cycles, motorcycles or even walking seem to just move at random and hey the cars stop and we saw no accidents. Green spaces are precious.

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Red amber green >GO GO GO

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Bicycle check, mobile check, helmet -what? Few cares in the world, hoping everyone else will stop.

We enjoyed wonderful cuisine – not like westernised Chinese food. We ate like royalty with exquisite food brought out for us, vegetable dishes, meat, noodles, all kinds of tastes, flavours and textures but not too much rice, rice comes at the end and you are not really expected to eat it. Oh and we used chopsticks all the time. Meals were very sociable, no distractions and plenty of conversations, and no rush, no TV, little wifi. That’s less cultural and more….common sense.

 

 

We were very well looked after by our guides, interpreters and hosts, who took us to the most interesting of places from tourist spots, to restaurants and of course to ensuring we travelled to time. In China one is never late. They could not have been more helpful, supportive, informative and generous, as were the hotels we stayed in and all the colleagues we met. And there was a thing – I asked one teacher what she hoped for her pupils “to give them every opportunity to learn”. QED the commonality of the vocation.

The culture is well documented but we were shown honour, respect, admiration and treated with huge kindness and generosity by our hosts. I was delighted to be part of a team that did exactly the same for one another on the trip especially when ‘stuff’ happened and they looked out to encourage, share and support even though we hardly knew each other beforehand. Representing different sectors the conversations gave us all further insight and arguably the best of CPD (one early years, two Primary heads one Primary adviser, four middle leaders from Secondary, one partnership lead and me from the LA). Such enthusiasm to ensure “this works” for our children.

 

To be a tourist and see the bund and river at Shanghai as well as to go up to the 263m Pearl of Shanghai were something but also wandering the tourist shops and trying to bargain was fun. A privilege to visit the oldest library in China (Ningbo) founded in 1561 and be welcomed as honoured guests was special. More special for us educators as we value our school library or local library and we value lifelong learning. Nevertheless our visit enabled us to consider just how ignorant we were of Chinese history and culture and the potential in the Far East.

 

What did we miss ? – very little, we had tea, it tasted different but we were ‘tasting’ China. We did not have access to facebook, twitter or google and we had withdrawal but we chatted and we asked questions and discussed education and other matters and we enjoyed the company, well until we hit wifi in a hotel then we caught up on messages via a message/chat system called wechat. We missed traffic jams, we missed litter, we did actually miss a few hours of sleep somewhere along the way. You know something else? We didn’t miss pupils, even English pupils, at that even Nottingham City pupils because we stopped at a service station in this vast country and met 10 pupils from one of our local primary schools – having an incredible time – though perhaps a little tired ( much like us) they were full of the experience.

And so to education and some things I have learned and of course I may be wrong that the whole system looks like this but here are my ponderings :

• Families really value education. Politicians value education. Children value their education. Teachers are highly respected (highest in the world according to this survey). This is a deeply cultural matter and about ethos, respect for schools, for teachers and for learning. We met teachers (sure a small sample but the message overwhelms) full of enthusiasm and diligence, we saw little disruption, and amongst pupils a willingness to work hard and and try your best. There is the extreme high pressures involved in the Gaokao exam but setting that to one side the atmosphere in schools was overwhelmingly positive

• Proper resource follows the commitment – beautiful buildings; pride in showing us round. I saw huge sportshall ( possibly 4 full size basketball courts and on the floor above about 30 ping pong tables ( I even played the Principal). Their lecture theatre seated 500. We did not hear any complaint about lack of funding – of course that may be for other reasons, However the conversations reflected on their pride in schools and I was glad to be with a group of Nottingham heads and teachers also proud of their schools. Pay not be better ( not sure really about buying power etc) but most of us would trade a bit for having a culture and pride and a community which hugely respect teachers given consideration and of course good behaviours. [Although my own view is that a vast majority of parents do respect us in the UK – just some politicians and the press don’t always and look where they sit in terms of trust and respect.]

 

Music
Art
Lecture theatre (500)
Outdoor view

• Teachers teach large groups of 40, and whilst they had nice staff areas to work in, with space to share and discuss, to plan they too felt pressures. It maybe around (only) 3 hours a day at the front but they have no technicians or TAs or other adults in classes. Oh and those evenings when pupils are back in school for several hours studying and doing homework, guess who supervises. Heads and teachers take pride in pupils and in their learning. We heard about two schools at the Bureau sharing speeches and we shared about our two, and common features – pride in the opportunities we offer, in the children’s achievements and the aims and ethos in every school and that included to help our children be global citizens. I asked how the head got his children to work hard – “I don’t have to do anything” he said. Just think what all that means for attendance, punctuality behaviour, background disruption, offering opportunities…..

 

One class 40 books
Staff working areas in the English dept

• I loved the creativity I saw, in particular pride in traditions, but also in creating new traditions. IMG_2883We saw some amazing artwork, incredible calligraphy, beautiful ceramics, others saw sport and music to an amazing standard. We met artists in residence and I was invited to play a computer at a board game, a computer that literally picked up pieces in response to my move and you guessed it – the programme and the hardware created by ….a pupil from scratch.

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a CRT – a what?

 

I also had a discussion with a Chemistry teacher – he had created something but our interpreter didn’t know the words, we had a small hand held device that translated and he said it was a ‘CRT’ and I said ‘oh a Cathode Ray Tube’ and we whooped! I mentioned Thomson, electrons, Crookes and we needed no interpreter –  science can be such a powerful language in itself but check out these facilities:

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• Willingness to stay and learn and take every opportunity including boarding, yes boarding for the weekdays because half an hour journey home was “too far”. Long days without TV, without Facebook, without mobile devices and perhaps without immediate family because, they all believe in the benefits from social activity and learning. So we saw some pupils who did more hours of homework in a two days than some of our pupils would do in school in a day. Of course there are concerns about resilience and pressure too.

• Hospitality and generosity – we took gifts with us for our school and Bureau colleagues and received many back but sometimes individual  pupils wanted to give us something they had done, some  clearly stayed up to make gifts for their visitors.

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MrMcNeill with a beautiful painting made especially for him

I was privileged to pass as one of my gifts the music of Sheku Kanneh Mason ( an ex pupil at my old school) who also kindly wrote me a personal message for the schools which I had translated – that went down really well. ( thank you Sheku). But oh, we had fun – trying out our mandarin, working out currency, bartering, wondering where we were heading when taken by taxi to a school, getting trapped in hotel door (me trying to metaphorically to “open doors”) – looking out for each other and smiling our way through.

 

 

 

• Education bureau officials welcomed our vision for future work with them, they are interested in what we are doing and especially how we measure impact. How we know our City wide plans and also our school plans are being effective, as well as our regulator (ofsted) view. They are keen to foster further links Ningbo > Nottingham and Nottingham > Ningbo. we have lots of ideas from championing exchanges and learning mandarin through to just a better basic understanding of China and our own Chinese community. To be honest they struggled to understand how our system works if it means a local area does not have any control of schools. Welcome to my world!

It is quite an amazement that across the world they are interesting in learning from us.

 

Education Burea officials listening to …me
Nottingham but Ningbo
signing MOU

 

 

IMG_3356My colleagues are now busy working out how to manage exchanges, to plan visits with children and to welcome children here to Nottingham. We are looking at how we can work together across the distances and cultures but with an internet and with colleagues here and our own traditions – Nottingham has a University campus in Ningbo which we visited and so there is much to consider and challenge and much remains to be curious about. For me I am committing to try and open more doors with friends in Ningbo – and not these doors.

Amazing farewell

/ Mr J Dexter / 3 Comments
Amazing farewell send off from Trinity 2017. I don’t normally do the ‘remember this’ stuff but this is very special to me and involved about 1000 pupils, 100 staff, 40 support staff and secretive, large scale rehearsals for about a month – I had no idea. It was simply the best and deserves the full 7 minute version- skip through if you wish, join in with a singalong too, I did.
I still really miss that job, I miss the pupils and their families and of course my amazing colleagues after 28 years at the school, their energy, their commitment, their genuine love of children and their high skill and passion for their subject and the farewell flashdance epitomises the lot.
I consider myself to be most fortunate to be working in education in a really interesting, fascinating job for Nottingham City, where I am trying to make a difference.
If today I am just nostalgic and pining a little, you’ll understand but thank you.
If you wish to read my final words to the staff reflecting on 36 years a teacher , its called Making the world (or at least your bit of it) better

 

Monday period 3 – Qualified Teachers – What exactly do we mean by qualified?

/ Mr J Dexter / 2 Comments

There has been much discussion about qualified teachers and unqualified teachers in schools. Let me start off by saying I am qualified I have a degree in chemistry from a reasonable RG University (at the start of the river Thames)  and I could probably be a Masters but I never paid my £15. I have a PGCE and I did my NPQH. So I am I qualified I think.

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So does that mean I’m a good chemist? I hope so or at least I was.

Am I a good teacher? I’d like to think so.

Am I a good  headteacher?Well that remains to be seen.

  • There is a distinction between a qualification and the practice and ongoing CPD or training so I was glad to do my PGCE before I got started as a full-time teacher. However it didn’t prepare me for every eventuality. By the time I finished my first year I knew that I could survive in a classroom, I could manage behaviour and yes I could teach pupils some things if not most, but some parts of my subject I could not teach very well. In my second year I taught some things again and inevitably they were a bit better but it was in my third year where I really thought I could do with doing my PGCE again. There were some aspects of Chemistry and some children I just couldn’t manage to teach.

graduation-caps-in-airI hadn’t taught these topics or children successfully  in the first year or the second or third time and I faced up to “I really don’t think the class are going to be able to get this topic and I don’t know what to do about it” – and there was no internet, blogs or twitter.

During my NPQH I quite enjoyed the reading and research it was good to revisit and understand some proper educational research however during the whole of my time I didn’t meet a practising secondary headteacher ( save my own) only a lot of aspiring headteachers. There were aspects of headship I was worried about such as the competency regulations or managing budgets weren’t really touched upon but more than that. I was looking for some inspiration some passionate headteacher who would tell me that the job was better than the job that I was doing, a job which I thoroughly enjoyed .image

Well we aren’t strictly qualified for many things we have to do in school:

  • I have had to do pastoral work in areas that I’m a little uncertain about and whilst quite experienced now (=old) so I have seen most things but in my early days I worried about some of the sessions I had to lead on relationships/news and sone questions were bounced away.
  • Sometimes I had to cover lessons in fact I think I probably covered every subject I’m not really qualified for every subject so some of those cover lessons were not very good. My favourite cover lesson was an English lesson, I went in and the work set was carry on reading the novel. the pupils duly took out copies oftake a copy of the Wolves of Willoughby Chase. imageI sat down to do some marking I looked up all the class was staring at me, what was the matter. One boy said we don’t really read the book on our own. My next suggestion was to read around the class. “Why don’t we start with you Robert you can start reading.” Nothing happened. “OK ” I say so I started reading a little bit of the book with a view to asking them to carry time in due course – “No! Sir, you have to do all the accents.” This polite young teacher “Oh shut up and read quietly!”
  • Sometimes I’ve taught other subjects which for me includes Biology – I have no qualification in Biology. At my school (all boys ) we didn’t do O-Level Biology! Ok so I’ve read it up but it’s just not the same, I’ve no idea how important basics are in fact unsure what basics are. I’m a little better at Physics but when we had a shortage of ICT staff and I taught that I was literally two lessons ahead of my Y8 class. I have an ability to kill interest in any other subject – compared to what I genuinely feel I can do in Chemistry. It’s now 2015 and a long long time since I did my PGCE, so I do hope and so do my pupils- that I have moved on since 1981, after all I only had chalk, blackboard, and a delightful banda machine and a few textbooks – no IWB No internet, mind no data, no microchemistry and little contact with other teachers.image 2(3)
  • Sometimes I’ve spotted a gap in my lessons of a pupil’s literacy knowledge or maths skills; maybe these are not done in the other subjects  or maybe they are done badly maybe not understood or more likely finding it difficult to apply the ideas in a different room with a different teacher. I’m not a qualified mathematician but I sure can teach the Maths my way to help my Chemists. ( Something very important in the new world where we have 20% Maths in Chemistry BOO)
  • Most of my career I’ve been a “head a sixth form” and over some 20 years and many a time I’ve said to myself I think I’ve seen every scrape a post16 person gets into, then just before I finish that sentence a situation will present itself which I’ve probably never had to cope with . No qualifications help but experience, some little wisdom and a good instinct is what we rely on.

So it is more than just qualifications, but dont get me wrong  I’m a headteacher and I want qualified people – those with a subject they love and a passion for young people.

My best teachers were my Mum and Dad they had no formal qualifications and at home we had very few books or resources, I have blogged elsewhere about going to the library weekly with my Dad. So my parents fostered curiosity, integrity, discipline, character, diligence. They set high aims and ambitions – I wish I knew how. They seemed to produce a son interested in Chemistry and Science yet they had no scientific background at all. How? Well I suspect that was about partnership my parents and their attitudes and my teachers with their “expertise”. My classes at school all had 32 boys in – the same 32 every day every year but at home it was just me and Mum and Dad and their questions and interest in me. That made them very special teachers – we can all learn from people like that.

Mr Dexter at the RSC EIC 50th. School chemistry over 50 years

Mr Dexter at the RSC EIC 50th. School chemistry over 50 years

Questions

Q1 As it is obviour we cannot be prepared for every eventuality in a school, do we rely too much on “qualifications” ?

Q2 Are qualifications overrated? The most highly qualified person might not be the best teacher, let alone be able to communicate with the pupil who finds the subject very challenging.

Q3 Design the qualifications necessary for the job? – or get proper investment in CPD?

For those in a Church school

Daniel 1:3,4: Then the king ordered his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.

Hebrews 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

Proverbs 5:13 I would not obey my teachers or turn my ear to my instructors.

 

You might like to read other posts from my timetable of teaching – each is set out from lesson in the school week, before or after school or at the weekends, appropriate to the time of day. I have also started a  class lists or “set lists” which was to answer the questions: “why be a teacher?”or “why have other responsibilities in a school?” Shortly I am starting a new area about progress from one role or experience in teaching to another with hints and tips about successfully moving on in the job and your teaching career.

Tuesday period 6 – “How was school today John?”

/ Mr J Dexter / 1 Comment

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This is my Mother who sadly passed away in March 2016 having just turned 96. I am very proud of her, and although she was a little more frail in her final days, she was as sharp and good humoured as I can ever remember. I spoke to her every day, and our conversation had a reliability about it. She always asked me ‘how was school today?” it’s a question I have heard from aged about 5 to 18, and it re emerged as I started my PGCE back in the 1980’s. It’s a genuine question about me, about the day, about the children I teach and the colleagues I work with. In some ways it epitomises my Mum and perhaps a good parent. It didn’t end there, at tea time, oh No. Any spellings or vocab was tested to destruction, my books were looked at, not checked just read with a genuine interest, delight and conversation. Of course as a very little person I was read to, and listened to with glee, with enthusiasm and with endless patience. She did of course have to tell me off occasionally but I’m sure for every harsh word were a hundred of encouragement and hope. She was the eternal optimist and there was always bags of encouragement to me and my friends: ‘never mind pick yourself up, there is always hope’ there spoke a survivor of the Coventry Blitz.

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As a young teacher I was a little scared about parents’ evenings, I had all my facts and wondered what I might be asked. I soon found and continue to find most parents want to know the same things wrapped up in many a question, it boils down to: how their child is progressing, how well they are doing ( just compared to where I think they should be) if their child is trying and what they as a parent can do to help – I need my Mum there to tell them! Over many years of such evenings and other meetings with parents I think this is what most conversations distil out at. Of course for some they really do want to know “what they can do” with something of an air of despair – perhaps about behaviour, or effort or attitude. Then there are a few who just want to have a go at the school, if not me personally but very few.image

Once I had got over my fears of meeting parents I moved into the rather arrogant place of wanting to tell some parents just what to do! I still hear some teachers say ” wait until I see the parents of ‘ ‘ and I’ll certainly let them know what their child is like and what discipline is necessary. I rarely hear this from teachers who have their own children. Once I got one of my own to bring up I understood how tricky, how tiring and yet rewarding and challenging is the whole parenting thing.
I have a little theory that many children behave better at school than they do at home and we might work on the assumption that the smaller indiscretions or bad habits in school, the more that will be on show at home. This means parents, often without the backup of a big organisation ( no tutor to refer to, no head of year, no SLT, no green referral system no access to sims) their tasks are even more difficult.

imageI am a strong believer in the vital link between pupil, parent and teacher. I am also keen on the support of the wider community, it’s one of the best bits of working in a faith school. However it just isn’t easy bringing up children, even now with my two grown up I keep thinking I’m glad not to be doing that bit again, especially in this generation ’twas ever thus’. However schools must work closely with parents, we must communicate sensibly with them. We have lots of data and lots of jargon – some of it we find confusing. Think of the word ‘target’ we might wrestle with ‘predicted’, ‘actual’, ‘FFT’ (which one again oh D) in school I do hope staff are clear but we need to keep it simple for parents. This goes against some of my other blogs where I argue a complex organisation like a school should not be summed up in a word or a number. Our reporting must be simple BUT not just data never ever just numbers – ‘oh she is secure level 3′ perish the day. I think it’s why parents get fairly incensed when they sense teachers use phrases from a bank of sentences on reports. I think they understand it must be difficult writing 30 or 60 reports etc but they really want to know we care, that we know their child and we can show that to them in an annual report and at a parents’ evening or if we bump into them

I realise there is another post here about dealing with awkward parents (awkward in being unsupportive and awkward in being helicopter parents) but I’m considering the majority, those who want to see their children do well and genuinely trust the school. They really want their child to succeed, discover their interests for themselves turn from children into young adults. They probably know there will be a few bumps in the journey, they will probably take their child’s view more often than we would like ( it’s our job to help show them there are 2 sides). It’s also worth reminding ourselves how intimidating school can be for some parents, especially if the school has had to have ‘a word’ with them about behaviour – already scared to come up to the school, they now expect an evening of ear bashing and don’t come.image

Key to me is the relationships built up with parents from the year 6 welcome evening to Year 11 or Year 13. Formal stuff like parents evenings, letters, emails, web stories, local media stories, imageand informal at the school show, or on the touch-line for sport or after the concert. In fact I think it even goes beyond Y11 (Y13) beyond that. We should ‘keep in touch’ not formally but as opportunity arises, a kind of ‘once a X school parent and pupil, always a part of the community’

imageEx pupils and parents are the future parents and grandparents, maybe the future teachers, or support staff, or governors, or political leaders. That’s why community is important, and ethos and expectations. Year 6 welcome gets easier when a majority “know” what a school stands for, and expects of their children and of them. They might want help too on bringing their children up – help with e-safety on substance abuse, on bullying etc. A headteacher visit from Brazil recently told me he had school part 1 and school part 2 where parents went to school in the evening for basic skills ; literacy, numeracy, IT etc I know we are beyond that but the school commitment to parents was a vital part of the role.

Our recent visitors from China wanted to know how we communicated our ethos into our children and I found it difficult to explain – we just do! In thinking of an answer I realised again the importance of considering the parents and carers and remembering they too have bothers, concerns and stuff happening in their lives. I’m not saying we compromise behaviour because of what happens at home but we need to consider it, support, help and educate.

Parents please engage, schools can help, pupils can grow in confidence. Last words to my Mum “How was school today John?”

I first wrote this on a Friday in February 2015 and sadly on Saturday night/Sunday morning my Mum fell in her flat and broke her hip. We spent most of the day being wonderfully looked after by the NHS – thank you Queens Medical Centre. After an ambulance ride, A and E, assessment and onto a ward, they decided to get her a new hip ASAP. So by Monday lunchtime she was with the surgeon and by the evening she had a new hip and was sitting up in bed chatting away, drinking tea and guess what? Yep she straight asked me “how was school today?” 🙂

Some questions to consider

Q1 Do young staff need specific training in speaking with parents’?

Q2 What do the most effective schools do to engage parents who are scared of school, hate school or are not so interested in their child’s education?

Q3 Do parent teachers make better teachers?

 

If you work in a church school:

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Colossians 3:20  Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Exodus 20:12  Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Proverbs 6:20 keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

 

You might like to read other posts from my timetable of teaching – each is set out from lesson in the school week, before or after school or at the weekends, appropriate to the time of day. I have also started a  class lists or “set lists” which was to answer the questions: “why be a teacher?”or “why have other responsibilities in a school?” Shortly I am starting a new area about progress from one role or experience in teaching to another with hints and tips about successfully moving on in the job and your teaching career.