M.A.T

JOHN (28) is a newly qualified IT teacher. After a hard year in gaining his PGCE, he had hoped to spend a relaxing summer with his family. No such luck. ...

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MAD ABOUT TEACHING
by Teachers & For Teachers

THE government deserves congratulations for the fact that recruitment to teacher training courses is at its highest level for seven years. There is no doubt that its introduction of a £6,000 training salary for students on a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education course and a £4,000 top-up for trainee teachers in shortage subjects has a lot to do with the upward trend shown in the recruitment figures.
Even these promising figures fail to meet the Government's own targets for recruitment to secondary schools, however, while independent research commissioned by the National Union of Teachers shows that as many as four out of every 10 teachers who sign on for a training course do not end up in the classroom. That research also shows the ticking time-bomb of an ageing teaching profession, because 59 per cent of teachers are over 40 and therefore likely to retire in the next decade.
With trainees spending more college time in teaching practice rather than behind a desk, it can be deduced that a key reason for large numbers deciding to opt out could be the conditions they see in the classroom. This new research, therefore, adds urgency to the negotiations between ministers and the teachers' unions over workload and the prospect of a new contract for the profession. Again, the Government is moving in the right direction with the employment of more classroom assistants to give teachers more time to devote to teaching. But a piecemeal approach does not match up to the scale of the problem.
One radical step would be to beef up the scheme for performance-related pay. At present, good teachers qualify for a £2,000 rise once they reach the top of their pay spine, but this takes several years to achieve – years during which many able teachers decide to seek a job elsewhere. A bigger incentive for good classroom teachers earlier on in their career is needed. Headteachers should be given more freedom t pay the teachers that they want the salaries they need to get them and keep them.
Other reasons for leaving cited by former teachers, such as unruly pupils, are more difficult to solve and involve broader issues of social responsibility. But a lot can be achieved without looking over the school wall, and, for once, resources are not a problem.■

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‘Money can’t buy you happiness, but neither does goodwill pay the bills at Tesco’s’
Rachel Moore, NQT

Teachers don’t see this very often

MAD ABOUT TEACHING
by Teachers & For Teachers

COMPUTER use in schools rises. Practically all schools have some form of internet Connection Teachers are taking on board the information technology challenge, with the number of computers in state schools increasing by 24% over the past year, research suggests.
Education suppliers said there was an average of 34 computers in each primary, secondary and special needs school in 2001 - up from 27 in 2000.
The growth is expected to continue well into 2002, with 70% of the 2,000 schools surveyed across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland planning to buy more computers - 280,000 in total.
The study also discovered a dramatic rise in the number of laptops in schools - the number owning at least one laptop rose from 62% in 2000 to 87%. in 2001.

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CLASSMATE WEBSITE ANGERS TEACHERS

FriendsReunited encourages people to register their names and previous schools so they can find out what their old school and college friends are doing now.
Each school has a notice board where memories from school or about teachers can be recorded.
It is here that the union claims defamatory remarks are being made about its members.
The website makes it clear that abusive, libellous or hurtful comments can be any action unless we felt it was unavoidable."
FriendsReunited boasts a database of 40,000 UK secondary and primary schools, colleges and universities.
It says that more than 2.5 million people have registered so far and this figure is growing by more than 20,000 registrations a day.

A School in London

M.A.T
12 Grove Lane
London
SW7

M.A.T

Catholic children have walked to Holy Cross primary school in north Belfast amid the biggest security operation mounted since the crisis began.
Around 400 riot police were drafted in to keep loyalist residents off the road so parents and pupils could use the disputed route.
With tensions running high in the city after a 16-year-old Protestant was killed by a blast bomb he was about to throw during sectarian rioting, the new security tactics swung into action at a cost of £100,000.

400 riot police protect school run

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November 12th 2001

M.A.T. SPORT

School Run
Riot
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SCHOOL
RUN
RIOT