Learning is delightful and delicious …

In yet another effort to improve the educational standards achieved by children in this country, the govenment is now poised to introduce the MTL, or Masters in Teaching and Learning. It’s not going to be compulsory (well, not initially), but let’s face it, given the scarcity of teaching jobs in some areas and some subjects, applicants with the MTL are almost certainly going to be given priority at initial application stage, meaning that those without are going to feel pressured into getting one.

Mike Baker at the BBC says everything much more eloquently than I can, but to sum up the concerns are -

• Increasing the workload of already overworked teachers, especially those new to the profession and/or those working in particularly challenging schools.
• Importing an idea from another country (in this case, Finland) which has a completely different curriculum and educational system; what works there may not work here
• Teachers feeling pressured to gain an MTL in order to secure a position / promotion etc.

And here’s the biggie. Pedagogy changes all the time.

Fashions in teaching methods come and go. Not all are successful.

Usually, though, the damage is limited because not everyone teaches in the same way at the same time, as each generation has been trained in different methods.

There is a risk that certain teaching methodologies will become the pattern for all MTL students.

If all new teachers are being taught the same government-endorsed teaching method, this could become the new orthodoxy, just like the numeracy and literacy hours.

If it works, fine. But if it does not, it could be disastrous, as everyone will be doing the wrong thing.

Personally, I can’t see how this can do anything to raise the status of the profession. From comments on blogs and things I see posted by non-teachers, teachers are, by many, regarded as lucky bastards who get too much holiday, who only do a half-day’s work, earn a lot (thanks to those bloody stupid ads by the TDA claiming we earn £34K) and who still turn out kids who can’t read, write or add up properly. We’re often perceived as people who have no idea what the “real world” is like, and adding yet another academic qualification will, to my mind, only serve to increase that. (Although I will state here, that that final point isn’t completely untrue in my experience – speaking as someone who worked in the private sector before becoming a teacher, I can confidently state that I’ve seen behaviour and attitudes that would have got colleagues the sack had they worked for a private company, but that’s a different story).

And one final thing. Why is it always assumed that whatever is wrong with the system, it must be the TEACHERS’ fault? Why does nobody ever mention or question the quality of the raw material we’re given to work with? I’m not trying to shift the… I hesitate to use the word “blame”… to pupils, but when I have a class of 13 year-olds, some of whom have no idea how to behave, some of whom can barely manage to write a coherent sentence or manage to speak to each other using words of more than one syllable that aren’t swear words … how can that be my fault? How is my having an MTL going to change any of that?

And of course, you know what? In a few years when we’ve all got them, spent so much time studying for them that we’re knackered and burned out and haven’t had time to write decent lessons, the government will decide that clearly having a Masters’ isn’t enough, and we really should all have PhDs.

Apparently, the government is considering banning teachers from being members of the BNP.

Now, I hate the BNP and what it stands for, but I don’t think that telling members of society that they can’t belong to it because they happen to do a certain job is the way to go either.

Who would be next? Nurses? Firemen? And if teachers can’t belong to a far right organisation, then they shouldn’t be allowed to belong to a far left organisation either.

It can’t be about disagreeing with one particular set of extremist views – if it happens, it has to be about disagreeing with extremist views period, not just the ones the people in power happen to dislike the most.

So the Conservatives want to scrap SATS tests at the end of Primary School.

Hurrah!

But instead, they want them to happen during year 7.

Boo!

These days, I’m not especially enamoured of any political party, so I’m not going to get on a soap-box and rant about how Labour/the Tories have really screwed up our education system. But this is as half-baked idea as any I’ve heard.

I totally agree that having the SATS at the end of year 6 means, in many schools, that pupils are put in a hothouse for the year and that their studies are narrowed to whatever will help them to pass tests and get the best results. I do, however, think it’s a good idea to have some sort of testing at the end of Primary school. The point though, surely is WHAT AND WHO ARE THE TESTS FOR? Getting ready for work this morning, I was yelling at the Today programme’s report about the subject. I had to leave part way through it, but I remember hearing something along the lines of “if there are no tests at the end of year 6, how will parents know which schools to send their children to?”

Er – what? Finally, the truth – the tests aren’t for the benefit of the pupils and not for the benefit of any school they may go to in the future – no, we’re putting an intense amount of pressure on eleven-year-old CHILDREN (and incidentally my eldest daughter will only be ten when/if she takes them next year) just so some people can fight, cheat and/or buy their way into the “best” schools.

As a parent, of course I want the best for my kids. But that isn’t what the SATS tests should be used for, is it? I certainly think that pupils should be tested at the end of primary school. It can provide useful data for their intended secondary school, and will give children themselves an idea of how they’re doing. But using the data to compile league tables isn’t – to my mind – how things should be done. Ofsted is there to inspect schools and tell them what they’re good at and bad at – and that information is freely available.

We don’t need to be putting pupils and teachers under this sort of pressure just so the 4×4 brigade from Chelsea know where they’ve got to buy a house so that little Ibsen can get into a good school.

Scrap the NATIONAL tests at 11. Let schools do their own tests in order to check pupils’ progress and supply relevant information to secondary schools, but leave it there.

Wow – it’s over a month since I’ve posted anything here.

It’s not because there’s nothing going on, or I haven’t got anything to say – there’s quite a bit going on, but a lot of it is specifically related to my job and the school I work in, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to post about that on a public blog. Rest assured, I’ll never be one of those teachers who’s had up for posting about their pupils on Facebook!

Talking about jobs though, I am about to apply for a new one – and once again my head is reeling with the sort of information teachers are asked to supply on a mere application! I can honestly say that in any of the other jobs I’ve had, I’ve never been asked to supply such detail; although I’d always worked in the private sector until I became a teacher, and perhaps other public sector jobs are similar. I’ve filled in the usual application form, but now I have to write the dreaded personal statement and accompanying letter. I’ve been asked to write about my philosophy on education (well, everyone should have one!) and my views on the role of Subject Leaders (the job is a Subject Leader – if I answered that honestly, I’d be saying that it’s just a cheaper way of saying a Head of Department!) – the person spec is in seven sections, the first of which covers one side of closely typed A4. Is it me, or is it actually getting harder to apply for teaching jobs? Honestly, faced with this, I’m surprised anybody actually bothers to change jobs.

I’ve also been landed in the s**t by a colleague; before half-term we discussed what schemes of work to follow with each year group and she suggested one that I’ve not taught before, but said that she had plenty of resources. I didn’t see any reason why not to go along with the suggestion; I’ve been going it alone since September so letting someone else provide resources meant a bit less work for me. Thing is? She’s been off sick since Tuesday and will be off for at least another two weeks, so having started the topic (because I didn’t find out she was sick until Tuesday morning and didn’t have time to prepare anything else) I’ve now got to prepare everything myself. Okay, so that’s what I’ve been doing up until now anyway, but I’d have had at least two weeks’ worth of stuff ready before half-term. Now, it’s going to be a frantic rush tomorrow morning to get stuff into the repro office in time to get it back for lessons tomorrow.

Anyway – I just wanted to let anyone who reads this know I’m not dead – just tired and busy and buried under a bigger pile of crap than usual.