Have we all be watching "ToughYoung Teachers" on BBC?

[LizzieVereker]

What did we all think? I liked the Science teacher - I felt sorry for her when Year 8 didn't enjoy her activity and she cried.

[petalpower]

When is this on? I've missed it. Is it a documentary or a drama?

[LizzieVereker]

It was on BBC3 on Thurs, and it's a fly on the wall documentary following Teach First people as they start their first jobs. It's on IPlayer, I found it v interesting as a "long in the tooth" teacher.

[petalpower]

Fab, thank you! Don't know how I missed this. A bit of a long in the tooth teacher here too (primary). I remember the fear of teaching practice though like it was yesterday!!

[BatmanLovesRobins]

I was absolutely cringing as I watched it. That English teacher! Doesn't enjoy reading, turned up late on her first day, and forgot to bring books. Dreadful.

[LizzieVereker]

I know! I did try not to be too judgy, but "write what you did in the Summer holidays" - oh my goodness! No other scaffolding/ differentiation. And said to students who probably hadn't had the opportunity to do much at all.

[RudolphLovesoftplay]

That English teacher made me rage with her comments about low ability children :(

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I've just caught up with it. The English teacher didn't look as if she'd had much support in preparing her lesson. The summer holiday task was ridiculous and her mentor should have been able to guide her to something more appropriate.

[petalpower]

It will be interesting to see how the teachers develop and move on in subsequent programmes. I've just caught up with it on iPlayer too!

[spudmasher]

It's a great charity. With good support in school, it can be a real success. The candidates are determined and able, reflective and thoughtful. With the right support, they can do really well. They find out very quickly if its not for them and are quick to move on.
I'll be really interested to see how this cohort get on- I don't think they will all last the course.

[Rooble]

I was shocked and quite outraged really. In the Sunday Times last week they said the Teach First programme is sponsored by companies such as Accenture. About 50% of trainees leave after two years, many aiming to be taken on by, eg Accenture in consultancy roles. Which means generations of children in the most challenging schools will have generations of inexperienced, under supported teachers "teaching" them, totally out of their depth... It's appalling. It's such a write-off of those children. (Non-teacher here. But having done a PGCE could not believe that those graduates were being sent alone and fairly unsupported into the classroom).

[Rooble]

You see, Spudmasher, it's great they can find out if teaching's not for them. But what about the poor sods being "taught" by them, who actually need to obtain some GCSEs? (And could do with some support in school)?

[spudmasher]

They are very closely mentored- it didn't really show that in the programme.

[Snargaluff]

I thought the science teacher was trying to be really creative, which was great. The year 8s were very hostile and I bet she finds they come round to her.
The English teacher seemed very naive- 100% pass rate! Nice aim, but clearly no knowledge of very low ability students. I guess she needs more support and that's the issue I see with Teach First.

[Rooble]

Ah. Ok. That's less bad.

[spudmasher]

I agree. Schools shouldn't take them if they don't have the capacity to give that support. That is the fault of the school.

[kilmuir]

I would not want the english teacher teaching my children, she was disorganised , unrealistic, negative opinion on lower ability pupils and did not enjoy reading!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I realise that they are closely mentored (and, indeed, have mentored some of them myself) but any mentor worth their salt would have told her that expecting them to write (unguided) about their summer holidays (which most of them probably spent just kicking around) was misguided at best.

[PintameElCielo]

I have big misgivings about Teach First to start with. (It's also a big recruiter into the Civil Service IIRC).

The science teacher will do very well I think. I also liked the RE teacher.

The English and Business teachers- not so impressed. Late and no plans?! What was she thinking?

I'm looking forward to watching next week.

[spudmasher]

Yes, it seemed no one had talked through their lessons with them!

[GW297]

Just watched on iplayer - I love all these sorts of things, thanks!

[lilyaldrin]

TF is a terrible idea and I can't see how it is supposed to "raise standards". Surely properly trained, qualified teachers and improved staff retention will raise standards, not chucking graduates in at the deep end to have a stab at teaching for a couple of years before they move on to their proper jobs?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

When it works, it's good. But too many people are still just using it as a stepping stone and have no intention of staying in teaching. I think they should have to commit to three years.

Oh, and I really, really resent the idea that TF will 'save' education by putting good graduates into tough areas. Some of us have spent our entire careers in tough areas, doing a half decent job and working hard. TF appears to deny that.

[LizzieVereker]

I agree Remus, when it's good it works, but...

I've worked with a lot of Teach First recruits, as I work in the kind of school that they're targeted at. Some have been brilliant, and stayed on in teaching, and they tend to rise into management quickly, but I wouldn't say that there is a greater proportion of TF candidates who are brilliant, compared with trainees from other routes. It's win-win for the school and the TF person; the school gets a relatively cheap, fresh, energetic teacher for at least two years, and the TF candidate gets a gold star on their CV and they do get excellent, intensive training.

However, I do think students suffer from constant staff turnover. The worst TF candidates are very naive, and incapable of relating to the types of students they are there to help, both socially and academically. I've heard them talk about students as if they were a completely different breed of human, one which needs "fixing". They treat TF as if it were some kind of extended "charity work", like a World Challenge adventure.

But, as I've said, a handful have been excellent - I'm in two minds about it.

[DalmationDots]

I've worked with TF students in my primary school and my DD is joining next year, she has wanted to go into teaching for years and having got to final year looked at the options, financially she is very tight and TF offer a good deal in terms of no training fees and a salary. DD suits the on the job style, and I can see she will be OK as she has done loads in schools, with children and is very organised and passionate. I would not be recommending her to do it if she hadn't had the experience, didn't have the passion or the necessary skills.
I hope she will be OK and able to enjoy it (remembering how horrific teacher training was at times!). DD is worried about the mixed views of TF (lots of love/hate) and really doesn't want that to impact others' judgements of her as a teacher when she starts. I do hope she gets a supportive school with staff who are open minded and don't jump to negative conclusions if they aren't TF fans. TFers are so varied, as are PGCE/other routes. Equal advantages and disadvantages off all IMO.
Some of my trainees have been fantastic, far better than ones who had done PGCEs traditionally or BEds, others struggled and it took a lot of mentoring and support. Our school put a lot into supporting them though and were successful- others don't and the outcomes are much more dependent on the TFer themselves. Yes in all honesty there are some who seem to miss the charity's point and must have just parrot learnt things for the assessment centre (which DD found very rigorous and tough so not sure how Meryl got through!).

Was pleased with the show, very realistic but a few editing things which annoyed me. And very frustrated by the lack of support Meryl was getting, yes she was a bit hopeless but there should have been much more support and someone should have checked the lesson plans.
Glad they showed Sophie (although she didn't seem to know much about teacher's dress!!) but she seemed excellent and very in control.

[DalmationDots]

I also wish they had done some sort of comparison with other routes into teaching and also more experienced teachers in the school to show the whole picture.