Hands Off Our Schools – For around 30 years I was a full-time teacher and a part-time photographer, then spent a few years as a photographer and writer and part-time teacher before giving up the teaching completely. Most of the time I liked teaching – and even went on doing some after they stopped paying me – but at times it was extremely taxing.
All of my teaching, apart from a few photography workshops, was within our public education system, beginning in one of the largest comprehensive schools in the country, then moving on to a sixth form and community college where I taught students from 16 to 90 years old.
Over the thirty-odd years I taught a wide range of subjects and levels, though my main interest was in photography, and our A-Level results – thanks to some great colleagues – were probably the best in the country. Starting with science and chemistry I soon branched out into photography and later into various computer-related courses, including setting up a Cisco Network Academy as well as several administrative roles. O Levels, A Levels, AS Levels, CSE, City and Guilds, RSA, CEE, BTEC and probably a few more I’ve forgotten, as well as non-exam course including the dreaded PSE which had me teaching about sex, drugs and more, though not rock’n’roll.
Schools and teaching changed dramatically over the years of my career. When I began teaching was a profession, but by the time I left we were largely just cogs in the machine administered by punitive inspections and governed from the Ministry of Education. In my early career I worked long hours during term-time, preparing lessons and marking work as well as the actual class contact time but all of it – often more than 60 hours a week – was directed at the students I was teaching. By the time I left most teachers were slaving long hours to meet the dictates of Ofsted and the National Curriculum as well as teaching students.
Of course we had inspection in the old day, but it was conducted with a very different intention and by Her Majesty’s Inspectors who all knew the education system and were colleagues whose role was largely to make helpful suggestions for improvement. Ofsted brought in inspectors with tick boxes and often no knowledge of education other than as students in earlier life whose job was to catch teachers out, often for trivial things. Rather than to help and improve, their role was to penalise.
I had also been the NUT Rep where I worked for many years and am still a Retired Member of the union (now the NEU) so I had a particular interest in a protest by the NUT and ATL on Wednesday 23rd March when they met in the yard in front of Westminster Cathedral to march past the Education Ministry and make their views clear to Education Minister Nicky Morgan.
The teachers were marching against government plans to convert all schools to academies. There is no evidence that academies improve the educational results of children and the plans remove all democratic controls from education as well as side-lining parents.
Many of the protesters stopped outside the Department for Education to shout and to call for Nicky Morgan to resign before marching off for a rally in the nearby Emmanuel Hall on Marsham St. I didn’t join them there as I had other things to do that day.
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