To already be fed up with teachers/eduaction workers posting about their long holiday!

[Freshlysqueezed]

Facebook is swarming with people saying how much they deserve it and other people patting them on the back. It seems like the world and his wife are in education or SAHM's with 6 glorious weeks ahead of them. Apart from a one week holiday I have a juggling timetable of various childcare arrangements to run to and fro from.

That article in interesting, particularly he criticism that fast-track schemes (such as Teach First) lead to the attitude that teaching is something to do for a bit and then move on from. It's no coincidence that the most successful departments in my school are the ones where at least half the staff have been teaching for at least 7-8 years.

I read the other day that 400 teachers joined Teach First this year, and 600 Teach First teachers left.

Dabbling in teaching, however enthusiastic you might be isn't good enough. I was mentoring a PGCE student this year and for each topic she was teaching I could tell her what the kids would trip up on, what they would find hard, how long it would take to teach. After ten years I just know this stuff, because I've taught it so many times before. The first time you teach a topic is never the best.

400 teachers joined, and 600 left? Not physically possible.

Well, it is if they joined in previous years.

Of course it's possible! Teach First has been running for years, so I'm guessing the pp meant that only 400 new ones joined this year and 600 existing Teach First teachers left the profession.

Teach First only require you to sign up for 2 years, the training year and the additional year before entering industry. There was a big rush on TF 2 years ago, it has since dwindled so I can well believe the numbers above.

Think about it, it's possible.
It's a two year programme, and then if they stay on, they become 'ambassadors'

Perfectly possibe for 400 to begin the course this year, and for 600 people to have either choosen not to complete the course, or to quit teaching after the two years training, or a year or so later.
Not the same 400. TF cannon fodder who joined up a year or two earlier.
That's what we mean when we discuss the drop-out rate.

A gazillion cross-posts from younger, faster typists!

I don't dispute the fact that teachers work hard and deserve time off.

What really gets me is how vocal they are about how bloody wonderful they all are - saving the world, teachers are great, such a hard job etc.

Give me a break.

Then you need to explain that. It is usual to say how many overall joined, and then the drop out rate from the overall number. Otherwise what was said was meaningless.

Toffee, where have you heard or seen all the annoying teachers bashing on about how wonderful they are? Have their been lots of threads on here started by teachers to say that?

Eh? A good teacher never shouts about how good they are, they are too busy updating their knowledge/getting to grips with new IT/trying to get a grip on the next brainwave from the govt etc etc. there's no one in this game who knows it all, as the goal posts keep shifting!

Here's how it was put in the House of Commons debate:

Louise Haigh
Labour, Sheffield, Heeley
It is interesting to hear the Minister refute those assertions, given that his own written answer confirmed that 400 Teach First graduates started teaching maths and science in the last school year, but nearly 600 left the profession. Does he agree that the Government’s administration of the Teach First programme is failing on recruitment and retention?

No, not on here, Culture. Used to work in a private school and got heartily sick of all the flower throwing on Facebook.

Yes, being a teacher is a great profession - but let's face it, in a nice, orderly private school where the kids are well-behaved and from good families, how challenging can it be? Likewise I have friend who teaches in an inner city school, drugs, knives etc a daily problem but no sign of any flowers.

Teach 'first' has never been about retention though has it? The clue was always there in the name...

I know 1 excellent teach first teacher (who is still teaching, and is now a HoD).

Considering how many there are, and how many I have met. 1 is not a high number really.

I think that what's been described in here is entirely about state schools and the state system. Private schools are a totally different thing, which can't be compared to state education at all.

I have genuinely never heard or read a teacher saying how wonderful they are!

I mentioned the Teach First figures in response to Eviltwins comment about how the teaching is seen as something to dabble in, but experience is definitely required in schools.

Teach First is a big government project, but it just underlines how little they value experience if they are actively promoting a scheme whereby you are expected to quit after a couple of years. Why not put far more focus on retention?

It pisses me off that they say 'we have given heads the freedom to award good teachers with big pay rises' when they've cut school budgets. Freedom, yes; money, no.

I work in an independent school now. -Have worked in state too-

I don't know any teachers who think they are 'wonderful' although a few who are arrogant enough to 'joke' that they are.

Most teachers are imho largely insecure try-hards!

'the teaching is seen as something to dabble in, but experience is definitely required in schools.'

It may be required, but it isn't valued in most establishments.
Teaching will become either a part-time job or a short-term one, and the turnover wil continue to be relatively fast.
Give it another 5 years, and a teacher who has been FT in the classroom for a decade will be a rarity. We'll have to wait and see if that's a positive or a negative.

My school doesn't break up until Friday.

I love the fact that ellie isn't sacrificing her children on the ALTER of the state system.
Sorry, sure the thread has moved on massively but it made me giggle.

She was the one that asserted that educational standards are falling btw. I'm on page ten and as yet she hasn't provided evidence.

Stealthpolarbear But does one rather bizarre poster's opinion ALTER anything? ;)

Whew, I've finally caught up