h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Got made redundant from my F.E. lectureship in September, primarily due to:

*College abandoning (temporarily, it turned out) the Foundaion Degree course I was teaching on.
* Only one student signing up to do the 'Chemistry' component of Access to H.E. and so the College deciding not to run the course for one person.

College therefore offered me a re-negotiated contract of 0.4f.t.e. which I could n't afford, as the round trip is 100 miles, and so I was renting a flat in the area

I was fortnunate enough to get a 5 month maternity cover contract at one of the top schools in the country w.r.t. League Tables. However,m while was there (January-May) the 5th Form and 6th Form were doing practically nothing but practice past papers. This isn't teaching! When I tried to organise a practical session for the 6th Form I was asked whether 'This is necessary to pass the exam? If not, perhaps we could just do the theory'.

Since then I've been doing Supply Teaching through various agencies. This is a bit thin (very thin!) on the ground due to GCSE and GCE students being on study leave or in exams, and therefore schools being able to re-deploy their existing staff. For example, last week I only had 3 days of 'supply' and this week, 1.5.

Hence I've been filling in the gaps with Private Hire driving. The advantage of this is that, if a Supply Agency haven't 'phoned me by 0830, I can ring the Privte Hire co. and ask if there's a car available for me to drive. One als9 meets some very interesting people.

Yesterday I conveyed a woman who turned out to be a Consultant Architect, currently contracted to design new schools. One new school she's designing, the H/Science says he doesn't want a chemistry lab as the pupils don't do experiments. He just wants to be able tio do short, quick demonstrations .... and I naively thought that chemistry is quintessentially a PRACTICAL science .

'Ours is not to reason why....' I understand how frustrated you must be as I often have ideas that are what the majority haven't thought about.

Ah yes, teach your students to pass the exam. It's the only thing that matters.

...

TRiG.

I cant remeber right now who said it but I remeber my Chemistry teacher quoteing "Tell me, I will forget. Show me, I will remember. Let me do, I will understand." which I think is totally true.

Pluss you get to make things go bang!

Yes, exactly!

Also, we now have the Labour Party's idea that all teachers should pass a 5 year MoT to demonstrate their fitness to continue teaching

...and I was under the naive impression that there's a shortage of teachers

Also, what is the Gereal Teaching Council for, then . (The only thing thgey do for me is send me an unwanted magazine containing pseudo intellectual drivel, once a quarter.

Frustrating though it may be Big Al, I do hope you don't give up. Good teachers are hard to find, and I do so agree with a previous post about telling, seeing and doing. It is the only thing that works for me, and many others I think.

People with practical skills are treated like rubbish now and I don't think people realise how lost we would be without them. By the time it dawns on the powers that be, it will be too late!

It stems from a Government 'of all the talents' who have no talents for anything except deception and misappropriation.

We need you and your like.

Websailor

Well, the supply teaching market has all but dried up. This seems to be because of schools saving money by employing 'Cover Supervisors' who are not qualified teachers. They just babysit the classes and move from one class to another within the school, depending on which teacher is absent.

This week I've been offered NO SUPPLY on either Monday or Tuesday.

Last month, I was sent to a school 25 miles away for half a day - AS A COVER SUPERVISOR!.

In retrospect, I should've refused the assignment as it sends a message to schools that supply teachers are willing to be paid as Cover Supervisors.

That's bad Al. Paying for baby sitters is disgraceful. No wonder students aren't learning!

in finding something which suits your many talents.



Websailor

... also, be sceptical when you see schools who proudly state, 'We don't use Supply Teachers'... because they're probably using Cover Supervisors!