To think entry requirements to be a teacher should be higher

[totteringlump]

AIBU to think too many teachers (obviously not all) don’t have particularly good qualifications themselves and so struggle to teach the syllabus to the class? People are able to pass but not excel and these teachers often struggle to advise students about gaining entry to Oxbridge and other places plus about high paid careers.

If students don’t have this advice at home they cannot know.

Were

Really?!

I haven't RTFT because I just don't have the time, but I have to agree with the OP.

When I did my Primary Ed degree, followed by a PGCE, I was shocked by the appalling standards of basic grammar, spelling and mathematical skills of some of the other trainees. The literacy and numeracy tests are incredibly easy to pass (as they are set at a Year 6 level) and my 9 year old was able to score higher on the practice tests than some of the trainees I did my qualification with.

There was also a real lack of how to actually be around children. Doesn't make sense. Some of the trainees just had absolutely no idea and after just a couple of teaching practices, were able to become fully qualified. You missed a comma at the beginning of your parenthesis, rendering the second comma useless.

I'm a primary school teacher. I scored top results at GCSE and at degree level, though I only did averagely in my A-levels due to home/personal issues during that time. Nothing below a C though, even then.
I became a teacher because I love children and learning. I'm leaving this year, partly because I'd rather do a higher status/ higher pay role. I've always noticed that people assume I'm stupid when I tell them my job. Your children pick up on how much (or how little) respect you have for their teachers. Next time your child's teacher tells you that little Gracie-Rose isn't achieving her full potential, remember that you taught her that it's ok to ignore and belittle the people trying to help her to learn.

Of course it makes sense. Some of them didn't know how to be around children. What's so difficult to understand about that?

It's not a parenthesis. My comma was used as a soft pause for effect.

HTH.

Oh ffs, just read some more of this thread and it's all twats sniping at one another's grammar. Who bothers to type things out correctly on Mumsnet? I thought we all communicated via biscuit emojis on here? Do the grammar Nazis on here genuinely communicate in the exact same way on social media and forums as they would in the workplace?

Yup, I've already said that up thread, Walk. Unfortunately, this is Mumsnet and when people can't make a valid argument to support their opinion, they end up attempting to pull apart peoples grammar.

I tend to call them "miserable pissweasels"

Personally I think entrance requirements to be a parent should be higher, OP. But you do you.

Absolutely they should! And some universities need to up their game in monitoring them aswell.

Oh ffs, lighten up, Lisa(s) - I've said repeatedly why I commented on one specific post; it was ironic in that context!

Your comma is still incorrect though.

Unfortunately, this is Mumsnet and when people can't make a valid argument to support their opinion, they end up attempting to pull apart peoples grammar.

I haven't posted an opinion!

Well, that went well. Was that the plan, OP?

YADNBU

At uni a housemate of mine was training to be a physics teacher because they got a bursary. He himself achieved a grade D in the subject.

I know a couple of excellent teachers and I know some who are so incompetent, can't spell, seem very small-minded and genuinely idiotic that I wouldn't want them in any way influencing my children.

The problem is the low pay and high workload doesn't attract intelligent people who can earn much more elsewhere.

Wtf paxillin

I know of teachers with 1st and Masters who have riots in their classroom. Too academic for lots of comprehensive kids!

I have a first and a masters. Just because you’re academic doesn’t mean you can’t relate to kids in a tough comp. I went to one.

I did my four year B.Ed course in the 1990s (I was 41) and was shocked that many of the 18 yo had scraped through maths and English GCSEs with C grades and many had just two A-levels in non-academic subjects. I hope this has changed.

I hate the idea that you can be too academic to be a teacher except to a rarefied elite. Insulting from several perspectives.

Those insinuating that intelligent/qualified people are so socially inept and terrible at managing children are in the most basic and incongruous way trying to justify unqualified teachers. There isn't an inverted scale between intelligence and teaching ability, it is actually better to have an intelligent and qualified person who also knows how to teach!

I don't have enough experience yet of secondary but the general standard of education of the staff at my sons' primary is appalling and I've spent the last 9 years wondering where the fuck the school finds these teachers. Can't spell some quite basic words. Poor grammar. gives me the rage.

It's true about a serious difficulty to recruit physics teachers in particular. But in my experience there are a lot of out of work mfl teachers

A retired headmistress friend made us all laugh when she was slightly sloshed at Christmas. "Oh anyone with a fucking pulse can stand in front of kids now and claim to be a teacher," she said. She'd lost count of the number of messes she'd had to get poorly qualified/ill-suited rookies out of apparently. She said supply teachers don't even need a decent grasp of English as long as they have the stamina to face unruly classes day after day.
Must admit the advertisement telling people they'll get £26000 just to train does sound a bit desperate. My brother still teaches and hates it. (Not the kids, the profession, the workload and the hoop jumping. He's a deputy head in a comprehensive and is planning to get out asap, when family circumstances allow.)

Unfortunately due to stressful working conditions often with 30 badly behaved children in each class there is a shortage of teachers at secondary age. They lower the intake grades almost every year to try to attract more teachers. I am a teacher and I got high A level grades but I was amazed many on my PGSE had got into low ranking universities with D's and E's A levels, and come out with very low 2:2 or even pass degree, yet were offered places on PGCE courses because people with higher qualifications did not apply. It would be nice if all teachers had minimum of 2:1 degree but if that were the case there would not be many teachers to go around.

I’m a teacher and I actually agree with you. I think the academic standards could be higher.

TheFallenMadonna I got my BA at 24; I did my PGCE at 35, and had 10 years in local government finance and had a child in the interval between the two qualifications. My degree is Theology and Philosophy. For A level I had to teach a module on Philosophy of Science which was not covered in my degree. I have a Chemistry CSE, and gave up Physics at 13 as a bad job in 1979. Do explain just how I was supposed to teach at A level something about which I had no understanding? A levels are too important to be messed with. Teachers were not imo given sufficient training to teach A level, hence my comment about specialist A level teachers. I benefited greatly from going to a dedicated sixth form college, where the teachers were A level specialists, and so did ds.

FYI; it took three hours of prep for me to teach each A level lesson. GCSE was much easier to teach and the marking criteria were well laid out. Everyone has their niche...GCSE was mine.

It's not that a top quality academic background is too academic to be a great teacher, it's that the pool of people in that position, with the desire to teach and with the other vital skills and experiences necessary, makes for a very small pool of people compared to the number of teaching positions required. The skills/ subject knowledge required to enable students to reach top grades does allow for greater diversity than restricting to 1sts or 2:1s from the highest rated universities.

I have As and A*s at GCSE, straight As at A level, a 2.1, a masters and a PGCE (all from top universities). I'm qualified and a damn good teacher of physics. I'm also currently looking at getting out of teaching, because there are other options which would be better respected and better paid.

If you want the "best" graduates (and I agree that teaching should be a competitive career path rather than a fall back option) then you have to make the job attractive. Currently it's a bit shit.