Rewards - something for nothing?

This news story was floating about on social media today, a story about a middle school that held a "mufti day" only for those who had reached their accelerated reading targets. Click here to see the full story from the Telegraph.

This got me thinking about the expectations of students about to sit their GCSEs and A Levels. The Easter holidays have just begun but many secondary teachers will spend some time in school delivering revision sessions, or in the case of many of their charges, "desperation" classes for those who didn't listen in class first/second/third time around and can't be bothered or don't have the discipline to revise independently.

I had a conversation with a colleague the other day who described this telephone conversation with a parent about their underachieving child in an option subject (names have obviously been changed):
Teacher: I was just ringing to say that Alice is currently on about a C grade but is very capable of getting an A grade if she puts in a bit of effort and knuckles down for the remaining 5 weeks or so at school.
Ms Smith: "Knuckling down" isn't really Alice's I'm afraidt.
Teacher: It really wouldn't be that arduous, in fact I can tell her specifically what she needs to improve upon.
Ms Smith: I really can't see her doing it, but it's great that she's capable of getting the A grade. Is there any way she could get the A grade without putting in the work?
Teacher: Not really I'm afraid, but I was thinking that if you had a quick word that might give her some encouragement.
Ms Smith: It won't work so I probably won't, but I look forward to her A grade in August.
Teacher: *Sigh*

I'm not embellishing this conversation; it actually happened. It's not untypical in the school I work in either. Something for nothing is almost expected. The entire culture of holiday and after-school revision sessions is a toxic one that encourages this "something for nothing" attitude; one no longer has to bother to listen in lessons as you will get numerous other opportunities to be taught what you've missed. After all, teachers have to do all they can to get their classes through 4 levels of progress or whatever ministers and their quangos decide is acceptable nowadays. Ofsted's and the DfE's obsession with data/exam results is the root cause.

And who can blame the students exclusively? At home students receive rewards for nothing. An obvious example immediately springs to mind: a student who has had to leave one school due to his behaviour and is lucky to still be at his current one received but a brand new vehicle for his birthday, despite being woefully below target in every subject on his timetable. So what chance have we, as a school, got? None is the short answer.

Deadlines are not deadlines and students know that if they wait long enough a teacher will essentially be forced to write coursework for them, having been pressurised by a nervous SLT who fear a visitation if the following summer's results are below par. No wonder employers think that schools don't produce young people ready for the workplace (as this story from January 2014 highlights). I'd have to agree that they don't, but aren't allowed to, despite what ministers say.

So when a headteacher tries to highlight the fact that if you work hard you get rewarded, like the workplace, loads of people moan and pick out that those who miss out, for whatever reason, have their self-esteem damaged. You can't win.

How will those children, future members of the workforce no less, how will their self-esteem be when they can't get a job that feeds their excessive lifestyle that they see in the media because they didn't work hard? Where do you draw the line? They have to learn the lesson at some point.

Coping With School

There's been a bit in the press recently about young people coping with life after school - click here.

I have said for a long time now that schools in England, at least the ones I've had experience in, do not prepare young people for the big, wide world. I'm sure that there are some that do, in fact the school I went to had a pretty good go, but the majority fall way short of the mark. It's not their fault I hasten to add, it's the system that's at fault.

In a sense you can't blame children, parents or staff either, but politicians must take the blame for the current situation. Schools in England have become exam factories, with every judgement based on results. This sounds fair enough you'd think, but a school's, and therefore its staff's existence is purely dependent upon the results they churn out over the academic year. So can you blame staff for literally spoon-feeding its charges? This is the reason young people struggle with the outside world, because as older generations will tell you, you get out what you put in, unless you are in education. Employers are constantly moaning that many young people they employ almost literally know nothing of use, and they mistrust exam results as a consequence. Gove's policy of changing the GCSE to the EBacc will not address this in any way, shape or form as schools and their staff will still be based upon their results.

There will be no discernible change until young people in schools and colleges are "allowed" to get what they deserve. The problem is that in order to "allow" young people to get what they deserve, all schools will have to buy into the idea and not spoon-feed their cohort, which will never happen unfortunately because anyone in education will tell you that as soon as you stop spoon-feeding, results will take a hit for a year or two until the young people, and just as importantly, their parents learn that they have to make an effort.

I have a couple of Year 11 classes who have exams in January and I've been telling them to do some past papers that we've put on our website and bring them to me when they get stuck. How many have actually done this out of around 40 students? None. And my classes are not unusual as out of around 150 students who are taking exams in a couple of weeks, the total number seeking the help offered is under 10. We still get students asking what they should do to revise despite letters being sent home as well as texts and emails. And many of the parents are just as bad if I'm honest as they flatly ignore the messages sent home.

The trouble is that our students all know that they will get to college with whatever results they end up with, because "bums on seats" is the key phrase - their funding from government relies on numbers, so again you can't really blame them, The young people therefore find it almost impossible to fail, which is why when they start work and get both barrels from their employer for not doing their job, they crumble because it's probably the first time it's ever happened.

Due to the pressure on results, staff in schools also struggle to cope with the pressures placed upon them, especially when you consider that they are essentially having to do the work they are setting as well as teaching it. As the years have gone by my term time sleep patterns have changed hugely. I now get around 4 hours sleep per night during term as my brain races over how to deliver certain topics to certain classes/students in order to encourage them to think for themselves. This is now creeping into my holidays, which frankly can't be healthy for anyone, me, my family, the students I teach or my colleagues.

Not that any of this seems to bother Michael Gove or his old mucker Sir Michael Wilshaw. Their rhetoric seems to be "put up, shut up or we'll get rid of you". Now that's fair enough but replace me with someone as good or better. Good luck with that...

Teachers and Students: Inversely Proportional

Teachers, teaching and perhaps more specifically, Michael Gove, have been in the news a lot in recent months and years. It is now the summer holidays (hooray!), although few teachers can afford to go away due to the considerate travel companies increasing prices dramatically during this period (boo!). But this is also the lead up to the publication of exam results and therefore those all important league table positions for each educational establishment.

The pressure on schools, and therefore teachers to get results has become enormous, with pay linked to performance through the UPS (Upper Pay Spine) scheme in schools, where if the head's particularly under the pump regarding the finances, all they have to do is set targets too high and then refuse to allow pay progression for staff based upon failure to reach targets. It happens people, and is doing so more and more in the current economic climate. Some teachers have given up even applying for progression (it doesn't happen automatically, you have to ask nicely) because they know that it will be turned down on results/financial grounds.

The result of increased pressure to get results from their classes has meant that most teaching staff have upped their game considerably in the last 20 years or so through better planning and more hours being put in to aid and individualise the learning of every pupil in their class. Websites such as the TES (www.tes.co.uk) exist where people share resources that worked for them, meaning that teachers have a wealth of information out there and most use it to the best of their ability in a desperate bid to squeeze the best results out of their charges.

The only problem with this, and don't get me wrong, the upping of teaching standards is a great thing, is that students have now realised that they don't have to make much effort at all to get a "pass" or C grade in whatever subject they are doing because the teacher will put the effort in for them. It's sometimes known as "spoon-feeding" and is the main reason why the business sector are moaning constantly about the quality of student being passed through the education system.

Now I'm not saying that we should return to the days of teachers arriving in class, handing out the text books and writing a page number on the board, but there almost needs to be an element of this to force the young people in schools to become more independent. The problem is that in order for independence to be instilled in pupils, the every school will be forced to take a hit on their results for a year. In order to keep the playing field level, every school and every teacher will have to embrace this new policy (and all teachers should welcome it with open arms!), but this will never happen. The thing is that when given some independence the students will generally try to learn. I know of a teacher who so hacked off will a particularly lazy and chatty class just upped sticks and went to the staffroom to make themselves a cup of tea. Upon their return one of the kids who's actually been listening was at the board explaining to those who hadn't in absolute silence. It's sad that a teacher has to resort to that before the students can be bothered to put in some effort at times.

Due to government meddling therefore, the school system is partly redundant because the children haven't been allowed to fend for themselves, meaning that exams have to be dumbed down in order for the students to be able to have a go at them and government targets on the number of people gaining "quality" qualifications can be met to be shouted about during the next election campaign. Due to the exam system not really testing the children, they are not prepared for the outside world or the workplace and employers moan about teachers not preparing students for the workplace.

No-one can win here purely because of interferring politicians and their made up targets, which is why I would encourage people to avoid the teaching profession unless you are into S&M, for teachers are the current whipping boys/girls for MPs. Where's Guy Fawkes when you need him?

Teachers' Standards

Usually I get nervous when I receive an email from the head, but this one appeared to be pretty safe as it contained an attachment of the latest document published by the Department of Education entitled "Teachers' Standards".

What an interesting read it is too, albeit most of it fairly obvious and what you'd expect to be honest. It has probably taken a huge amount of time and money to produce when there was a similar thing around before called the Core Standards.

There are a couple of interesting bullet points mind, and I shall review them below.

The very first bullet point says the teacher should "establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils, rooted in mutual respect". The first bit is fine, if a little rose-tinted as not everything on the curriculum (a curriculum that the government wrote, or their minnions did at least), The final bit does make me laugh a little. I presume that the children will all be informed of this mutual respect thing. Respect is a two-way thing after all.

It reminds me of a time when I taught one of a set of triplets who liked to disrupt every lesson he was in and that meant me (as well as his other teachers) constantly trying to chivvy him along, asking him not to disturb the rest of the class and inform him that he lacked respect for his classmates who were trying to learn and was therefore quite selfish. It resulted in him standing up in the middle of the class and shouting "I hate you", to which I replied "I reckon I'll sleep tonight". At that point everyone (bar me, I hasten to add) laughed at him and he ran out, never to be seen again. It meant everyone else having a chance of actually passing. There's no way that you can convince me that he would ever show respect to anyone, let alone any of his teachers, to whom he clearly felt some sort of pre-conceived revulsion, for no apparent reason.

That point could be interesting to enforce.

The other part of the Teachers' Standards document that made be laugh/despair was the bullet point that says teachers should "be accountable for pupils' attainment, progress and outcomes". I've always struggled with this accountability thing that politicians go on about. The one major issue I have with it is that the outcome isn't entirely down to the teacher; the children have quite a lot to do with their final results through paying attention, making an effort, revising, and many other things that would contribute to their eventual success. Strangely enough the pupils' role in this isn't mentioned. This appears to be a fairly common theme in the public sector at the moment.

The rest of the document is the usual standard, wishy-washy tripe so often spewed from Whitehall, of the "act decisively when necessary" ilk. The document itself is yet another stick to clobber a teacher with when they have fallen out of management's favour and once again fails to give youngsters any responsibility for actions, choosing to blame teachers for things out of their control.

I eagerly await the publication of the "Parents and Childrens' Standards" document. It should be an entertaining read.

Teaching Methods Don't Ever Change Apparently

There was an interesting letter to Chris Woodhead, former Chief Inspector of Schools in The Sunday Times this week. It was about non-teachers and those who have little recent experience of classroom practise. It basically said that those with little recent experience have no place telling teachers how to do their job. These include Carol Vorderman (the current mathematics in education czar for the government), some Ofsted inspectors and Woodhead himself.

Woodhead agreed that Vorderman's job was a farce and that those who inspect should have relevent experience, but it was his final point that made me laugh out loud. He said that despite not having taught in a classroom since 1974, good teaching methods never change. Why did it make me laugh so much? I would love to see him teach my bottom set year 10 with his 1974 routines. It would be a (hilarious) disaster.

Why do I not think that it would work? Even though he has a point that good teaching methods don't change (and it's the point he'd justify his statement with), the attitude of children has changed enormously. Even in my 10 plus years of teaching I have noticed a sea change in children's attitudes, and perhaps more importantly, the attitudes of parents.

In my second year of teaching I taught an unpleasant child called Peter. He decided that he would draw on my desks one lesson, so I set him a detention after school, giving the (arguably ridiculous, as few secondary school children head straight home) 24 hours notice required by law. Peter decided that he wouldn't do the detention, so after he'd gone home I phoned his parents and they brought him back to school, sitting there as he cleaned all my desks, rubber gloves and all. There are two points I'd like to make about this:

1. Nowadays, very few parents would actually bring their children back to school. In fact, many would argue that Peter didn't actually draw on my tables because he'd told them he hadn't (despite my witnessing the act). The detention would be made out to be harsh and unfair, and Peter wouldn't be doing it.
2. I wouldn't be allowed to make Peter clean the tables - health and safety/human rights - you name it, they'd hide behind it. The parents would probably resort to saying that it was demeaning, and I would get in trouble.

I say this with a recent incident at my current school fresh in mind. The first involved a well-known trouble-maker shouting "f***ing c***" at me across the road, unprovoked. The school were very supportive and immediately phoned the child's house to explain that he was to be excluded for 5 days. The mother, despite having not been there, denied that he'd ever done it, claiming that it was completely out of character and that he never swears at home. The 5 day exclusion stood fortunately, otherwise I would have been livid, but it was the attitude of the parent who essentially accused the school and me of lying. This is the same parent who claims that her child struggles to make friends - he appears to have plenty of friends as he hands cigarettes out in the playground.

In Woodhead's day he even had the cane to hide behind in a discipline sense, let alone the ability to detain wrong-doers at will. Now he would have to give 24 hours notice of a reasonable detention, which the child would probably fail to attend.

That leads me onto another case at our school, of an awkward child, who's parents are equally awkward. The child, who's decent at sports, is allowed to play for school teams, but can't do detentions after school. Why is this? The parent has to collect various children from different schools and detentions don't fit in with that timetable, but sporting fixtures do. Calling their bluff we offered to make detentions (of which many are pending) the same length as sporting fixtures, but still permission wasn't forthcoming. I have to say that at that point I asked myself why this child and their awkward parent weren't asked to find a school that would accept their attitude/pick-up timetable. The child is still in my class.

So good luck Chris, and your 1970s classroom ideals.

Dear Parents, Your Child May Lie To You

When I first started teaching all those moons ago, most parents were pretty supportive. I remember one particularly challenging child refusing to stay for a detention so I rung home. His parents (you wouldn't want them on your Trivial Pursuit team, I hasten to add) brought him back and sat there whilst he washed the tables that he'd spent an hour defacing. I couldn't ask for any more, and after that had few problem with that child - a punishment that worked!

Nowadays however, it's a little different. Approximately the same amount of children misbehave (I personally think that it's more, but I'm probably kidding myself) but parents actually believe the yarns spun by their offspring.

What parents have to bear in mind is the following:

• Teachers don't really want to set detentions as they are essentially detaining themselves. Ok, that teacher may be hanging around for that time,  but you get far less done when you have a detainee darkening your classroom.
• Children, in fact most people, will tell a lie to get out of a tricky situation. It's a survival mechanism, so parents shouldn't be surprised that it happens.
• When you enrol your child in the school the teachers become "in loco parentis", meaning that essentially the teachers can do what they like to punish a child who has done wrong - within reason obviously.
• A teacher has absolutely nothing to gain by making up stories about a child. I repeatedly get children in my tutor group telling that such-and-such a teacher hates them. Believe me, teachers have far better things to do with their time than make a child's life difficult. It's far too much time and effort.

As I've said in a previous post, I've had to endure a torrent of abuse down the phone from a child I was only keeping in for 15 minutes for not doing her detention, but have also received a letter from a "well-to-do" parent saying, and I quote, "I'm sure you would put a child in detention for not understanding the work". Now let me put this into context:

• The child had a week to complete the homework.
• This meant that they'd seen me 3 or 4 times that week.
• I had actually done about a quarter of the homework (workings and all) to help out those who didn't "get" it. This child failed to take down the answers.
• This child is in my tutor group, so had actually seen me on 5 extra occasions when they could have asked for help.

Basically the child couldn't be bothered - CBA in text speak (they can't even formulate proper sentences now).

Since children don't get punished as their parents won't allow it, misbehavior cannot be dealt with and the classroom becomes anarchic.

It really is a sorry state of affairs, education in England at the moment. And it's only going to get worse as those who hated school in the first place breed (it's their meal ticket after all) and poison their offspring (the politest word I could find) against school too.

What a terrific career choice one has made.