This document provides a translation of correspondence received from an Individual

TRR 03

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Cyflwynwyd yr ymateb hwn i'r Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg ar gyfer yr ymchwiliad i recriwtio a chadw athrawon

This response was submitted to the Children, Young People and Education Committee on the Inquiry into Teacher recruitment and retention

Ymateb gan: Unigolyn
Response from: Individual

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I saw the call for evidence and thought it might be of interest for me to share my experience.

After completing a degree and a range of postgraduate degrees I decided to become a teacher and pursue a teacher training course in 2013-14. I probably would've done it regardless – a lot of my family are teachers, including my mum, and I felt passionate about how important teaching was as a way of contributing to society – but there was also a £10k grant available for the specific subject I was studying (Welsh), which meant that taking the course would basically cost me no money as the grant would be enough to sustain me during that year (also giving me the opportunity to complete my PHD), and then leave me with nothing to lose if I decided not to keep going.

I had a mixed experience during the teacher training. I saw many teachers working hard under difficult circumstances to inspire and to perform miracles with some children. I also saw a lot of cynicism from teachers who had had enough and had no confidence in the system.

I then got a permanent job at a secondary school in xxxx xxxx Wales. However in about six weeks, I had resigned. The reasons at the time were

- I felt that I was only teaching children to pass exams. My subject was Welsh and the school in question was one that had good results (2nd language). However, the children in the year 11 class - who had therefore been studying Welsh for at least 5 years - were unable to respond in Welsh to simple oral questions (what is your name etc) or deal with any type of text that was not fully scripted. The school didn't teach them to speak Welsh and this didn't fit at all with the way I had been trained to teach or the reason I wanted to be a teacher.

- I raised this with the head of department but her response was "just teach them to pass the test, if they want to speak Welsh they can study it in college".

- In the lesson observations great emphasis was placed on things that were not in themselves important. e.g. I was criticised because some pupils had not written "classwork" in their books, and for silently taking the register myself (by looking at who was present in class) instead of wasting time calling names.

- In terms of the area of learning I was given a powerpoint outlining different things that children were expected to learn over the course of a year, with an average of about 3-5 slides per lesson. It wasn't at all clear what the purpose of some slides was and I was basically expected to plan each lesson for each class entirely from scratch. I heard from others who did their teacher training at the same time that their schools gave them an entire year of full lesson plans.

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This combination of an unreasonable workload (much of it completely unnecessary) and a lack of respect and trust was more than I wanted to have to deal with, so I decided I'd had enough, and left.

I've had a range of public sector jobs during the decade since. Compared to where I would have been if I had stayed as a teacher, it's hard to see any way that my career isn't much better now. I work a lot less hard, earn a lot more money, have the flexibility to work part-time and pursue my interests outside of work – everything is much better.

Of course some of the problems are probably related to the particular school I worked at, but some things seem fairly common to me:

If teacher recruitment and retention are to be improved, the job must be made more attractive compared to the alternative options that are now available to people. Pay is part of that but only part of it – I didn't get the impression that teachers wanted more money, and indeed it took a number of years before I was able to get to the same salary again as I was receiving as a teacher. Teachers' pay already compares favourably with many alternative options. As far as I'm concerned, grants to get people to pursue teacher training courses attract ineligible applicants and make it easier for people to leave (as was the case with me) without solving any of the things that cause people to leave the profession – it’s like pumping harder when there's a hole in the tyre.

However, here are some ideas:

- We could lower the expectations in terms of lesson planning (not to mention nonsense like book tidiness) and base assessments on the lessons themselves and on outcomes.

- Centralize the curriculum and planning – if we want to say that there are some things that need to be taught then say what they are, don't expect the teachers to decide.

- The evidence for the effectiveness of homework is mixed at best. What it mainly does is create marking work for teachers. We can reduce these expectations as well.

- It is silly to expect schools to be responsible for every aspect of education; is a formal qualification the best way to teach everything?

- Teachers should not be expected to do things like "being on lunch/bus duty" or other things beyond the core of their role as educators. Teachers are not childcare providers.

- Pay more money to classroom assistants. They are such a help to teachers.

- "Main streaming" - if you want to improve skills in X, then giving X lessons is the way to do this, not expecting e.g. maths teachers to convince children of the importance of eating healthily while expecting PE teachers to ask children to do sums.

- Cut back on the compulsory elements of the curriculum eg the Welsh baccalaureate. There may be some benefit to be shown in each subject but with limited time and attention, what are our priorities? In a similar vein the question must be asked whether the Welsh language as a compulsory subject for all children in English-medium schools is, in fact, helping the language? There is little evidence that it creates confident speakers and can undermine Welsh education. Resources could be focused on those who really want to learn the language.

Obviously I have not been involved in education for quite some time now so there may be more recent evidence of further use, but if my vague impressions are of any use, then that must be worth something.