teaching

MOT – Motivate Our Teachers…or Mad Old Tristram?

theprimaryhead6 Comments
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Image from @MartinShovel

It’s a bloody outrage, how dare he? I’m not a car! I don’t need more hoops to jump through. Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever. As with any idea that could affect how the cogs of education turn, @TristramHuntMP’s suggestion that teachers should have a licence to teach was devoured on twitter and the blogosphere quicker than a teacher’s packed lunch on the first day back after the holidays. It wasn’t helped that his proposal had been abbreviated into an over simplistic idea that provided an easy target for pretty much anyone with access to the internet and at least one opposable thumb.

Let’s get the basics out of the way: There will always be those who feel hard done by and who live their lives eternally bothered by the fact that their job warrants scrutiny by people other than themselves. Those people should largely be ignored. Criticise by finding faults/flaws and suggesting better alternatives not by screaming ‘It’s not fair.’ So if you have read what Hunt has suggested and object in principle to the profession seeking out robust quality assurance and methods of self-improvement then maybe it’s time you just went away.

Now let’s focus on the idea – there are some good thoughts hidden in what Hunt said but in my humble opinion they are either not good enough or facsimiles of what already happens in schools up and down the country.

He talked about teachers being ‘motivated’ and ‘passionate’ as if these were equal to competency in the classroom. It was as if the media-savvy side of his brain was thinking ‘They’re not going to like this so if I just go on for ages about how teachers are important and passionate – and I mean really go on about it – I might be able to slip the idea in and they won’t mind.’ Don’t insult us: yes passion is a great motivator but we all know that sometimes it can count for bugger all. As the saying goes: just because a cat has kittens in the oven, that don’t make them biscuits.

What I’m sure he meant to say is: ‘If you’re not a motivated teacher – passionate about the profession and determined to reflect and develop your skills in order to become a highly effective practitioner so all children achieve when they are in your lesson – then you shouldn’t really be in this profession.’

In fact he sort of did say this too but annoyingly I think the weakest part of Hunt’s statement was introducing this ‘licence’ as the way of guaranteeing teachers engage with professional development: ‘If you’re not willing to re-engage in re-licencing to update your skills then you really shouldn’t be in the classroom.’ This does make it sound like it is the process of the re-licence that will keep teachers qualified which I believe is wrong at worst or a distortion of school’s robust appraisal processes at best.

We already have performance management and now a teacher’s appraisal is linked to their pay. If this is done well the Head will ensure that this establishes a culture where teachers proactively engage with their own development in a way that not only meets the needs of the school at that time but also improves their personal approach to teaching. So…do we need a licence to prove it?

Ah yes, but what about those schools where performance management is just a tick boxing exercise and the teachers don’t respect the views and judgements for the senior leadership team? Well, I hate to break it to you but a licence ain’t going to change either of those problems. The biggest problem there is the leadership: it is your job leaders to create that positive culture where reflections are not attacks and improvements are individualised rather than regurgitating the latest initiative of the week. Putting in an extra layer of accreditation through a teaching licence seems to me to be either fixing a problem that isn’t there or an inadequate way to patch up failing schools.

The most noble part of Hunt’s statement was the notion that teachers should be valued as a profession to the same degree as Doctors and Lawyers. I and I’m sure everyone in education would agree that we should be as valued because we ARE professionals. But surely the point here is the perception of our professionalism rather than the nature of it? If (and I know it’s a big ‘if’) but IF schools are led effectively everyone in that organisation can hold their heads up high. If Hunt has an issue with unqualified teachers working in schools, well, address that issue on its own and leave the rest of us out of it.

So I thank you Mr Hunt for your efforts and you at least gave me something to write about this Sunday.  If you are desperate to develop this idea you can count on me to engage with it positively. But you haven’t got long, the election’s coming soon and I’ve got my car booked in for its MOT next month and that hunk of junk has got less chance of passing than Gove being asked to appear in the new series of Blackadder.

I, teacher

theprimaryhead11 Comments
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Whatever doesn’t get you sacked…only makes you stronger.

There may be some (many) NQTs out there who found the Autumn terms tough. Even the most naturally gifted teacher or bright-eyed bushy-tailed young Buck can find the reality of being an actual full time teacher really hard. That’s partly because it is. Teaching is an incredibly hard job and it’s only in your first proper term that you realise how sheltered you were from the day-in day-out pressures of the job whilst you were training. But it’s also because you haven’t been doing it for that long. So before you spend the final night of your holidays not sleeping as you worry about whether you will be able to jump back onto the merry-go-round or worry that you are just not cut out for this profession read this. Here I dig deep into my memory archives and share with you some of the most incompetent parts of my NQT year. Why? Because I guarantee you have not done anything this bad and it turned out alright for me so you will be fine.

When I graduated and became a teacher they had literally just introduced those English, Maths and ICT tests you had to do in order to get your qualified teaching status. Now as I am not a great auditory learner I didn’t quite get the full message during the lecture where they explained it. All I came away from it thinking was: ‘I’ve got three years to do them’.

So I happily applied for a job, got the interview and got the job. I taught happily for about two months before the Head called me into her office where the Chair of Governors was also waiting. She had received a call from the council saying that there was an unqualified teacher employed as a qualified teacher working in the school. Now, it was a small school so she only had four people to really choose from: the deputy, the SENCO, the Early Years leader and the NQT (I’m pretty sure I was the only one she bothered bringing into her office). What she now had to do was to decide whether I was committing fraud on purpose or just an idiot. Thankfully it didn’t take me too long to convince them of the latter but it was a rather intense meeting where I was facing the very real possibility of losing my job. I apologised, had my pay docked until I had paid back the difference to the local authority and promptly took the tests (and passed). I carried on teaching there for four years.

After I was a proper qualified teacher (by then I even had the certificate to prove it) I settled into the rhythms of teaching. One morning I woke up and I looked up at my skylight and thought: ’Gosh, it’s incredibly light out there.’ At that exact moment I heard the flat buzzer go off – who on earth could that be so early? I stumbled out of bed to answer the buzzer and as I opened my bedroom door I saw that my flatmate had beaten me to it. The voice at the other end was asking if I was in, my flatmate replied that of course I wasn’t in because I was at work….no I wasn’t the voice replied. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 9:50am. By this point I was beginning to work out why it was so light in my bedroom and the voice was explaining to my house mate that she was the Deputy Head, I wasn’t in work so if I was in fact here I should put some trousers on and meet her downstairs quickly.

Again I had to explain to my Head that I was simply an idiot who had slept through his alarm. I practically had to give a blood test and urine test to prove to everyone else that I wasn’t hung-over. They amusingly presented me with an alarm clock the next day and I had to bribe my class with watching a video on Friday afternoon if they vowed not to tell their parents. I carried on teaching there for four years.

I took my class to a local bookshop (for some reason? I actually can’t remember-perhaps an author was there). I had asked one of the parents to come with us and it was she who informed me on the way back that some of the children had taken some gift cards from the store. I asked them to empty their pockets and after I had counted them all up I told the children that collectively they had stolen £450 from the store. I hadn’t done a proper telling off before so I went to town on them. There were tears, I may have mentioned criminal records and I got the parents in and demanded that the children write apology letters to the manager. Afterwards, I inspected the gift cards and saw that they weren’t actually vouchers but promo cards – never mind I thought trying to sound convincing, in principle they stole and I was right to tell them off. I rang the store manager who didn’t seem to mind saying that they get taken all the time and are worthless and there was no need for me to return them. Finally my Head called me in as the parent volunteer had spoken to her and raised the point that I hadn’t sent out any letters about the trip and therefore hadn’t got any parent’s permission. ‘I know it’s a local visit,’ she said, ‘But you still have to tell the parents you’re taking their child on a bloody trip!’ I carried on teaching there for four years.

So there are just three appalling examples of my ineptness during my first year of teaching – I haven’t even mentioned my teaching which when I look back now was pretty appalling. I spent my first year as a teacher caught between feeling elated that I was doing this job followed by daily waves of panic, thinking I was out of my depth. Why have I written this?  Because if there are any new or newish teachers out there who are feeling out of their depth or worried that they have made mistakes that will haunt them forever; you can now relax because you’re not THIS much of an idiot. So get a good night’s sleep and take on Term 3 with confidence and gusto; just for goodness sake…set you alarm.

Nurture 13/14

theprimaryhead8 Comments

I just read a tweet wondering about the educational validity of the #nurture1314 blog project. There is a chance that they read like those Christmas cards you get from family friends who feel the need to update on their brood’s achievements over the year: Tom has just achieved grade 1 on the violin, Emily has won a scholarship to Oxford and Tony’s divorce has just come through…that sort of thing. Now I can’t promise that mine will be any more enlightening or interesting but it gives me something to do while Downton is on.

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  1. Ofsted: we got well and truly done. Not done over but it was tough. Having been in the job for 20 weeks in a school where I was the fourth head teacher in five years and where this previous instability had caused massive stagnation (not making excuses Inspector Ma’am) I knew it was never going to be easy. By the end of my first week I knew that the school’s previous judgement of ‘good’ was just not representative of the state of the school so had prepared the school for an ‘RI’ judgement whilst doing everything possible to improve things properly (for good not for show). In my naivety I thought Ofsted would be supportive of this and whereas I didn’t expect anything other than RI I wasn’t expecting to fight for it. Spending Day one being told that the school was inadequate and that I had my head in the clouds wasn’t exactly fun (or helpful) but we managed to convince them that RI would do and I promised to make it good by next time.
  2. HMI: This was more like it. Eight weeks on and I got a visit more akin to what I wanted in the first place. Very helpful, very supportive, very challenging: but respectful which quite frankly was a surprise compared to the section 5. Being told that I was on the right track was a huge confidence boost and helped me and the school push on with our incredible pace of change.
  3. Staff: I feel blessed with the staff at my school and nothing proved that more than ofsted and HMI. They were supportive of me and the changes I was planning beforehand but nothing prepared them (or me) for the pace with which we started changing things. At times it felt like we would go off the rails but we all managed to keep our heads and now things feel more settled. What I am most pleased about is their understanding of the job I have to do and the shared vigour with which we are all applying the rigour. School is an exciting place to be.
  4. New Appointments: Nothing tests you more (that’s a lie-wait for number 5) than bringing new staff in. It’s the first chance you have to show people the sort of people you think are good teachers/middle leaders. Get this wrong and your credibility can take a serious knock. Luckily we made some brilliant appointments last year – a few successful internal candidates and a few outsiders. All have had significant impact in classrooms and across the school and have been welcomed by all. Best of all everyone knows where I stand: No misplaced loyalties or easy choices, only the best for the pupils.
  5. Escaping children: You can read my candid blog post about this little adventure here. All I will say is it was truly terrifying and happily the child is fine and enjoying school. Irritatingly, a staffing issue will continue long into 2014 – HR is a wonderful thing.
  6. Governors: I have a funny relationship with governors; as in I normally leave meetings laughing hysterically and thinking what a funny thing governance is – it’s like fox hunting, the queen’s speech and fish knives: accepted traditions but serve no real purpose and are surplus to society’s requirements. I mean if we were starting over we probably wouldn’t bother making any of them part of our lives (in case my Chair is reading this: remember this is the 2013 section). Do they really help me run the school? Not really: all I know is that they make me work more (not harder or better: just more).
  7. Children: I normally call them pupils but thinking about them now my main memories are of children – happy children. As a Head I mainly see children in my office (to show me work and get praised) in assembly or around corridors. I am highly annoying to teachers because I miss having my own class so I compensate by going into classrooms whenever I get the chance to chat/make laugh/possibly annoy as many children as I can. I have probably disrupted more lessons than I care to think of but in my own selfish way I think it’s worth it. I want the children of my school to know that I’m interested in them and their work and smile when they see their Head – most of the time they do…unless they’re being naughty and remember kids, I always know when there is naughtiness going on in my school: so watch it.
  8. SATS: Sorry but if you remember my point 1 when the ofsted inspector said I had my head in the clouds she was mainly referring to my predicted expected outcomes for Year 6 that year. I’m happy to report that we actually exceeded those targets (and without cheating or denying the children a rounded education!) Sadly I’ve lost her email as I really wanted to send her a picture of me holding up my Raise online peppered with green while simultaneously giving her the finger.
  9. Technology: I love technology and coming to a school where they had a knackered old ICT suite and the only bank of laptops got stolen was rather depressing. So we’ve managed to spend a lot of money on lots of laptops and trollies and all children get to use them every day. We are also turning our now defunct ICT suite into a media suite. I proudly named each laptop trolley after past and present secretaries of state for education. It does take a bit of explaining to visitors as to why you’re wheeling a trolley with ‘BALLS’ written on it in massive letters but then you’ve always got the gag that the ‘GOVE’ trolley is the one with the slowest machines that is in most urgent need of replacing.
  10. Blogging: I started my blog almost a year ago and have thoroughly enjoyed updating it throughout 2013. You can find it at (well you’re here now so what’s the point). I try to blog once a week about something pertinent to my experience as a new Head. Often I’ll end up blogging about something else instead as a reaction to something in the news or on Twitter or someone else’s blog. I’m proud to be a primary blogger. I firmly believe that I contribute nothing to the cause of primary education across the UK but it keeps me out of trouble. One day I hope to write a post that receives more hits than my True Ofsted Conversation post but I doubt it: that’s the one post that keeps on giving.
  11. Celebrity: For about four days I felt like I was at the epicentre of the media world. I was invited to be part of a panel on the guardian online, that discussion then got turned into an article and I was at the top (the TOP!) of the piece which in turn led to Newsround ringing me up to ask me about it. In amongst that I was invited to a round table discussion with Tristram Hunt MP. I was bloody going places and it felt good. Then the phone stopped ringing, my job wouldn’t do itself and I sunk back into the dull and dismal world of leading a primary school.
  12. Friends: I’m very pleased that there a small group of primary heads who have started meeting up relatively regularly throughout 2013 for booze. This has been enormous fun: there’s normally one of us going through a crisis that the others can support (laugh at) them through. I’m sure it is very important to have a strong network of likeminded professionals to support each other but it’s even more important to have some good chums who can enjoy a cocktail and a burger.
  13. Mrs Primaryhead: I am very lucky to have someone who understands how much I love work and for that I am always truly grateful.

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I’ll try to keep this brief for anyone still reading.

  1. The School: We’re going from strength to strength and I expect it to continue. There are some hard times ahead (for the school, for the city, for the country) but I’m determined to make the school a huge success in spite of all of these.
  2. Governors: We have a new chair of governors who is whipping governance into shape a treat. They are starting to become useful and although I am still at times frustrated, I am on the path to enlightenment!
  3. HMI: Bring it on…next time you really will say that we don’t need you.
  4. Behaviour: It’s pretty good at my school but there is still something blocking it becoming even better – something around collective responsibility and sharing a pride in the school that goes beyond individual wants and demands. I’m not sure yet how we’re going to beat it but I’m sure we will.
  5. Teaching: It’s massively improved since January 2013 and I know that through our system of performance management / lesson observations / data / teaching and learning support we will make it even better.
  6. Twitter Opinions: And on that note I’m determined to get some  twitter teachers who hate all of point 5 to see that it can help and support (no matter how good you are/how crap you think SLT are)
  7. National Curriculum: Just putting this out there: I’m very happy to be a consultant for the next one if you folks in Whitehall are running short on ideas people.
  8. Ofsted: Just putting this out there: I’m very happy to be a consultant for the next framework or help deliver training to any inspector who has received feedback that they are truly horrible people when inspecting schools.
  9. Appointments: The school is really settled in terms of staffing with everyone knowing how we work. That doesn’t mean I can relax however! There’s always a possibility that things will change and it’s just trying to keep that in the back of my mind and make sure that any staff changes (if they happen) are managed effectively.
  10. Professional Development: Whether it is through my own leadership coach or by going to the PHAB conference or whatever the national college conference will be this year: I look forward to them all.
  11. Get the band back together: We talked about it last year but his year we should make it happen. A few head teachers, a guitar, bass and tambourine: what could possibly go wrong?
  12. Job Swap: My brother is a house master of a private school: I would love to do a week’s job swap. I think it would be fascinating for both of us: channel 4 if you’re reading, this could be next year’s ‘Educating Yorkshire’, channel 5, this could be next year’s ‘The biggest pair of tits in the world’.
  13. Family Time: I should spend more time visiting my family. I see my brother and sister and their family about once a year: terrible. So please, no good box sets or books or dramas at work please.
  14. True Identity: Maybe 2014 will see theprimaryhead finally come out. Don’t be silly…anonymity to the end!