Only 32 Troops to Teachers

[noblegiraffe]

There were 180 places in the first round of recruitment, only 41 places were taken up and only 32 teachers have emerged at the end.

www.tes.com.c.tes.ent.platform.sh/news/school-news/breaking-news/troops-teachers-scheme-misses-target

What a stupid waste of money.

Still, teacher recruitment crisis, what crisis? Eh, Nick Gibb?

[noblegiraffe]

Assassinated managed out through competency procedures is the usual way. So, bullying.

[Verbena37]

Aha right.

[noblegiraffe]

It wasn't Sandhurst, it was the general army:
"The army has been plunged into a recruitment crisis while battling government funding cuts, which could see troop numbers plunge below 82,000. Now, millions of pounds are being spent in a bid to reach out to gay communities across Britain, who may not be joining the armed forces due to fears of stigma or rejection."

www.rt.com/uk/415453-british-army-gay-recruits/

So they don't appear to have loads of spare troops lying around eager to teach maths.

[Verbena37]

noble yes, Northants.
They’ve pretty much admitted the move to two tier came at the wrong time and was rushed. November ofsted said school ‘needs improvement’....academy’s not supporting the school across all areas.

The leader of the council pushed two tier through, saying it was for the good of the kids.....load of rubbish. Nothing has improved in 2 years.

Anyway, sorry if I derailed the thread a bit by implying military officers should run MATS....I didn’t mean to steer away from the main thread.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

Maybe there should be a scheme for all the newly qualified teachers who leave teaching in the first few years to be recruited into the army.

[Verbena37]

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/08/14/army-chief-reveals-plans-entice-school-leavers-sandhurst-offering/

It was General Nanson, commandant of Sandhurst. They have got a shortfall of young people signing up.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

How do teachers in-post lose their jobs to be replaced by teachers that are younger and cheaper? Were they pushed out by threats of disciplinary action and jumped before that could officially happen? Or were they only on temporary contracts and not renewed?

[Teenmum60]

Did I imply that all teachers were only motivated by just keeping their jobs?

I stated - I could understand why teachers would not welcome external business managers looking after finances and qualifications being diluted because that creates uncertainty having seen three teacher friends all lose their jobs to NQT's and a one to a change in policy where staffing was reviewed because costs need to be cut.

Schemes don't work overnight ...they have to be seen to be working in some cases. The press and any teachers I have come into contact with certainly don't give me - Come and train to be a teacher because all I seem to hear is negativity.

[noblegiraffe]

I heard on the radio a couple of months ago some army chief saying that they were struggling to recruit and were launching a new ad campaign 'can I be gay/muslim/talk about my feelings in the army?' because their usual pool of white male school-leavers was dwindling so they were having to try to open up to a wider audience. He was saying that otherwise they wouldn't have enough people to adequately defend the country.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

So teachers are all simply motivated by trying to protect their jobs above anything else? That's their bottom line when it comes to their attitudes to new initiatives or changes to their workplace?

Is there an over-resource of staff in the armed forces? Are they making lots of them redundant because they've got way too many of them?

Anyway. It would be refreshing if a government could actually look at why staff are leaving teaching and why retaining staff long-term is becoming more difficult. Rather than these endless initiatives to try and recruit a few more teachers here and there.

[noblegiraffe]

was one-sided and did not look at how difficult it could be for Ex Miltary to find alternative careers and was actually looking to address over the resource in one public sector to under-resourced in another.

I was not happy with the scheme because it was a colossal waste of money and a complete failure. And actually if you read the thread, those things have been discussed.

[noblegiraffe]

I can understand your concern like many teachers I know of a certain grade or age who are concerned that they will be replaced by lower paid NQT's if someone looks at costs independently

Replacing experienced teachers with NQTs is exactly the sort of idiotic decision that someone with no idea about education would make, yes. But if you really want to see what can happen when someone with no clue about education is put in charge of stuff, just look at Gove.

[Teenmum60]

AssassinatedBeauty No not just finances it would appear any change that may threaten their jobs which is the same in any workplace be it the public or private sector....jobs are not for life anymore. My role in banking and financial services was outsourced 5 years ago.

No one has said that the Armed Forces should run schools likewise teachers should not run businesses when they have no knowledge of the commercial world and finance.

This thread was started because the Op was not happy with a scheme set up to train Ex Miltary as teachers, it was one-sided and did not look at how difficult it could be for Ex Miltary to find alternative careers and was actually looking to address over the resource in one public sector to under-resourced in another.

The Op on another thread is not happy with Desperate DfE tells teacher trainers to take all comers onto PGCEs, plus infinite chances to pass skills tests....

I actually think the Op contributes allot to assist parents on this forum with her knowledge of her subject.

I have several teachers who are friends and several of have been replaced over the last 3/4 years - All for younger cheaper models.

[noblegiraffe]

teachers should teach and appropriately qualified business managers should look after finances because these are businesses now.

Schools do have business managers and finance departments. What makes you think that they don't? You think the Headteacher spends their time paying invoices?

[Piggywaspushed]

Northants verbena ?!?

I work in 3 tier : 'just fine' depends on whose angle you view it from to be fair.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

Why not let the Armed Forces run all schools as military academies? Sounds like it would be a great idea for state education.

@Teenmum60 do you genuinely think that older teachers are simply being driven by a fear of being replaced by younger cheaper teachers? That's why they object to any proper independent scrutiny of finances? To protect their jobs above all else?

[Verbena37]

But a school or chain of schools are not a business. It's not about profit, it's about the lives of young people. What is the purpose of your school? Is it about results? Creating citizens? If you have a badly behaved student from a terrible background at what point would you expel them? Do you welcome students with SEN or try to shuffle them off elsewhere? Moral purpose?

Military personnel (on the whole) have more moral purpose than anyone I’ve met! Morality and what is fair is the backbone of the forces.
I get what you said about CEO/directors and school business managers though. I think the educational perspective for non ed. background leaders could be gained from say 3-6 months of intense training.

In line with what teenmum60 was saying though...In my county, the 2 tier school system was pushed through, even though the town didn’t want it and the middle school system worked fine. However, once it was pushed through by a county council director/leader person, he suddenly became one of the new directors of the MAT in charge of the now 11-18 school! Dodgy as you like and absolutely no morals!

Fast forward to now and the county has just gone bust!
Not good moral and educational decisions being made at all.

[Teenmum60]

Yes, I totally agree there is shady practice in every sector but it is so disappointing to see HTM act in the way they have....which even puts schools at risk of closure. If you read my post then you will see that I stated that teachers should teach and appropriately qualified business managers should look after finances because these are businesses now.

I can understand your concern like many teachers I know of a certain grade or age who are concerned that they will be replaced by lower paid NQT's if someone looks at costs independently so they fiercely defend any outside involvement or any dilution of their roles (by Ex Military changes to qualifications etc). This happens on a daily basis within the private sector too. I know one teacher who lost her post three times in three years because she was replaced by a younger cheaper NQT.

[noblegiraffe]

What on Earth makes you think that bringing in business leaders would lead to more ethical management of money in schools?! There’s masses of totally shady practice in the private sector!

There needs to be more transparency, more regulation of MATs and fgs a cap on CEO pay. I think the assumption was that School leaders wouldn’t act like the private sector and Lord Adonis admits that was an error.

[Teenmum60]

There is no shortage of evidence for this. Two years ago, an investigation by the Guardian found that academy chains had paid millions to private businesses run by the schools’ directors, trustees and their relatives. Examples included the Grace Academy Trust, which had paid more than £1m to or through various companies with links to Lord Edmiston, who set up the trust

[Piggywaspushed]

To be fair, though, my school does feel like a military zone today. Not sure what's eating the kids !

[Piggywaspushed]

yes, but that is down to the schools not employing proper decent business managers. Leadership of teaching is a different issue. As you say above the idea; would be a multi skilled team. Most MATs do have this. It tends to be the non academy and old fashioned (for want of a better word) primary schools that are really mismanaging budgets.But probably not their staff!

[Teenmum60]

I think with MATS you are turning a school into a business and people trained to educate is not necessarily the right people to run a business, therefore, you need a combination of both.

Unfortunately, see article below - The Headteacher Management team within some MATS have tried to take easy options AND in doing so have wasted a lot of funds and used unethical practices. So there clearly needs to be a more transparent system and perhaps bringing in a team of experienced management (that has managed a public sector budget) alongside the HT team the funds will be used more appropriately and more money can be spent on actual education rather than offering work on mates rates.

www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2017/jan/18/financial-transparency-schools-academies-uk

[noblegiraffe]

I've been thinking a bit more about this, and I think if you're going to be the Head of a school, or the CEO of a MAT, you need an educational philosophy. When I worked in the private sector, my company had a Mission, Vision and Values that was a bunch of shite everyone sniggered about because we all knew the real mission was to make as much money as possible, please the shareholders and crush our competitors.

But a school or chain of schools are not a business. It's not about profit, it's about the lives of young people. What is the purpose of your school? Is it about results? Creating citizens? If you have a badly behaved student from a terrible background at what point would you expel them? Do you welcome students with SEN or try to shuffle them off elsewhere? Moral purpose?

I don't think you can simply acquire an educational philosophy with a couple of months of training. God knows I changed my mind about a lot of stuff I pontificated about in PGCE essays once I actually hit the classroom and I still don't have a coherent answer to the above questions after over a decade of teaching.

[Piggywaspushed]

If you look at CEO/ops director/quality manager jobs etc, those recruiters aren’t asking that the person has worked for that company at base level before they’re allowed to apply

No but they usually ask for experience of the sector and business experience. MATs do have business managers : entirely different job from the CEO / principal and they don't usually have teaching experience. they don't even need to speak to the teachers.