Am I thinking too deeply about this, or do I have a good point?

[MaureenMLove]

I am a cover supervisor. A teacher has left and he has two classes that need covering each day. Both are English Yr8's and both are very very heavy on the SEN front, either mentally, socially or behaviour wise. They are very difficult children, but I seem to have struck up an understanding with them, so since I am in charge of organising cover each day, I have opted to cover these classes myself.

Due to circumstances beyond the schools control (i.e. end of financial year and no money!) I cannot hire a supply teacher, so I will be taking these classes up until Easter.

Anyway, I spoke to HOF yesterday and she is sending me all the cover work for the next five weeks. They were going to be reading a novel, doing a bit of creative writing off the back of it and finishing with a book review and a poster for the wall.

I have just received an e-mail from her, saying there has been a change of plan and they are now going to write their autobiographies! She even says, 'starting with what their childhood was like'

Some of these children are majorly f'ed up because of their childood. I'm not sure I want the responsibilty of the potential fall out to this! Their max TMG's for this year are mostly 3 with one or two 4's. Should I suggest this topic is not such a good idea or shut up and do as I'm told?

Yes I think you should. Apart from anything else it is rather intrusive. Would the HOF like to write her autobiography for inspection?

I mean you should suggest the topic is not a good idea, obv!

Weellllll... I guess it's not the easiest of topics for some kids, but I don't think you'll get anywhere trying to change the topic they're sposed to do. The remit is a bit too wide, I agree but there are ways round this, I think.

Given that it's a topic that many if not all kids are given at some point in their schooling, I think they should do it, but you have a chance here to do some things with the topic that doesn't necessarily mean it will be too traumatic.

I used to be hyper-sensitive about doing family trees with pupils, but I don't think there would be many if at all that wouldn't have extended family, step-parents, half-siblings, etc. so if you expect this, you can build it in to how the trees should look. IME, they like this activity.

Then you could maybe think of different approaches to autobiographical writing that doesn't necessarily delve into potentially traumatic situations: "my favourite day out or holiday" or lists of favourites things; and even "spectacular accidents" has also gone down well (falling out of trees; treading on nails, etc. )

Hmm, I think so too. For a lovely top set Yr8 group it would be great. DD is yr 8 at another school and she would write a great essay, but these kids just aren't up to it. I'm not sure the HOF even knows these students tbh. You need to treat and teach like they are Yr4 - at the very most!

One student I know, had/has a really, really bad time at home, it'll end in disaster.

There is that idea, thankyou. The only trouble is, I'm only a Cover Supervisor and it's not my job to decide an plan what we do - just deliver it.

Well done for realising this is going to be a difficult topic for them.

Would the SENCO be supportive if you talked to him/her?

Itchyscratchy has some good ideas if you can't change topic.

I have to say that I am that the school isn't hiring a supply teacher - bet they wouldn't dream of doing that to the top sets.

I can see where you are coming from and i think you are quite right to be worried.
I still remember doing this at school and my friend not wanting me to read her work as she was so upset by her childhood, but wrote it all down for the teacher because that's what she had been told to do!
I would have hoped that education would have moved on in 25 years

How about giving them a title like " The funniest thing that ever happened to me"
or "My favourite childhood memory"
or "My first day at school"
or "My best friend"
or give them a list of 3 or 4 and let them choose their own?

You are absolutely right, a top set would get another teacher quick smart.

Unfortunately, I have seen a pattern in the teachers that leave or are off sick a lot. (I take all the calls and as I said, I'm in charge of cover!) Teachers that have top sets and generally good students are only too happy to push on with a sniffle, but the others go off at the drop of a hat! I know this probably isn't the same in all schools, I would never dream of suggesting it is, I see every day how hard teaching is, but it certainly happens at my school. This may have a lot to do with why we have just come out of special measures!

I'll tell my boss on Monday what I propose, no point in asking him, he'll leave it up to me anyway!

I'd love to be able to turn the whole autobiography thing around and have plenty of ideas to do it, but it's not my job. If I start doing it now, I'll end up with this lot for ever, as cheap labour. I would do it, regardless of how much I get paid, but it's just not right.

I know these kids and they would much rather listen to a story and write about it together. They will sit quietly (sucking their thumbs, some of them) and it'll be lovely. They will learn from it, but it has to be interactively. I know we could get some great artwork and wall decoration from it.

The school is letting them down and I don't want that for them.

Maureen, why aren't you a teacher - you sound perfect for the job?

I see your point but I'd be wary of approaching it as if it seems that you know better than the HOD (not suggesting you would but she may think that!).

Instead, you could maybe take the line that, as you're not an English teacher, it would be easier for you to be able to follow shorter term, more teacher-led tasks: ie: reading a "chapter" novel; doing shorter bits of creative writing inspired by it - diary entries, rewriting the final chapter, whatever; a book review - and that you feel less confident with such a broad topic, that will be less easy for you to "chunk" into small, manageable sections for you and them.

Or you could do the autobiography stuff through texts eg: read a text extract about the first day at school, they write about their own / read a text extract about going on a journey, they write their own etc. It takes some of the focus off them then iykwim.

We do autobiography with year 7 and we do a text-based approach - for example, I might read them the bit from Cider With Rosie about his first day at school, pick out the techniques he has used to make this effective and then ask them to write about their first day at schol using their techniques. I ALWAYS give kids an out for any particular piece - so their 'first day at school' piece could be the first day at infants, juniors or secondary school. I ask them to write about a memorable event - but this can be happy or sad as they wish (it is surprising how many of them quite like to write about something sad and do so in a moving way). I get them to tell me funny anecdotes from their lives, and it really is a chance for them to write about good moments from their lives, rather than reliving traumatic events.

I have a funny bit from Bill Bryson's "Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" about him getting his first job as a paperboy that always goes down well, too. They love to listen to this read aloud. (There is a swearword in it that I have to remember to cut out though!) And I tell them stories from my childhood - they like to listen to these. I show them some photos of me as a child too!

I used that Bill Bryson bit last time I taught autobiography too! AND the "Cider With Rosie" extract! Roald Dahl's "Boy" usually features in there somewhere too, often the mouse in the sweet jar scene. If it's for older children I have an astonishingly moving piece written by a man whose baby died too - don't use it very often as it is so heavy.

I'm horrified that they won't have a teacher for half a term. Have you got another teacher lined up for after Easter? As others have said things like school trips to remember,My 1st day at high school etc might go down better than actually having to do a more personalised autobiography.

Yep, I've used 'Boy' too! Hmph, and I thought I was so clever for picking out that Bryson extract myself . I'm always aware that children may have had troubled childhoods so far so I really try and avoid anything that might stir bad stuff up for them. I do family trees sometimes but I stress that it's THEIR family tree and THEY choose who they consider 'family' - it's not a historical document, it's about who's important to them. So if they want to leave people off, or add people who might not be 'family' (like the unmarried partners of parents etc) then that is entirely up to them and I won't ask questions about it.

Thankyou ladies. I would be a teacher Tilly but if the truth be known, I haven't got a degree and I'm not sure I've got the strength and energy to be bothered with doing one and becoming a teacher, despite being at a school where I could do it! TBH, I love my job too, because I'm in charge I get to pick and choose lessons and also do the admin side of stuff, which I thrive on. I'm good at organising and I work well under pressure.

Anyway, they have got a teacher lined up for after half term, but I suspect by then, I will feel even more precious about them and nip in to support him/her!

These are great ideas and I think now, I might go with it, but tweek it here and there. I will let the HOF know I think re-writing their lives mightn't be the best idea and so we will be going slightly off track. Because these kids are so vunerable, I think they'd really warm to some insight into me and also I have a DD the same age, so we have a connection.

I might get them to make a folder of work, instead of work in an excerise book. Lots of glueing and sticking and photos. I'm begining to think this might just work!

big big sigh
This is wrong. You know me, you know where I stand on CS and qualified teachers, and this is not meant to be a TES-style rant against CS. But this is very, very wrong.

I know you do a great job. But it is just not appropriate for you to teach a class for this length of time, especially not a core subject.

These students need to have some of the most experienced staff working with them. If they are on L3 now or borderline L3/L4 there are a whole variety of reasons why they might be there. Some of them might well be capable of 'getting up to speed' this year - ie maybe 4a by the end of the year - and going into other sets next year. But a term spent 'coasting' is not going to help them.

I would be complaining to the highest level if this happened for my boys in their school, and therefore I would not feel I was acting with integrity if I agreed to undertake such work myself.

Recently I was complaining because 4 staff were doing a course for a whole half term - same day each week - and we were regularly covering one lesson every week for them. So, for example, a yr10 class was only getting their English teacher for 2/3 lessons for a whole term. I don't think that's acceptable.

How many children in the classes btw?

PS I completely agree with what you're saying about the work though. Recently someone passed me some information about a competition where children wrote poetry about bereavement, from a personal perspective if they had that experience. They were suggesting it might be good to use in cover lessons. Yes, like I want to have a class of 30 kids in emotional pieces because I've been getting them to trawl over whatever bereavement has affected them most recently! Bonkers - some people are clueless

I know there's an APP for yr7s on autobiographies. Is that why they're suggesting it?

That's exactly what they are suggesting Roisin! The e-mail said, the teacher that was taking the Yr7's, from this teacher that left, would send all her work and planning to me, for me to deliver to yr8. It gets worse. The 'teacher' is an unqualified teacher. She was one of my CS's until Christmas!

I just don't think anyone cares enough. What can I do though? At the end of the day, I can moan and whine about it, but it'll still need covering and it's my job to make sure it is. These kids are now activity asking me if I am going to be their teacher! They are such a vunerable bunch. (all 21 of them in each of the two classes I take)

Basically, as you know, we have only had CS's since I arrived in April last year. Since then, I have taken over the running of the department that I have created really. We will be a team of 10 by the end of this term. I'm interviewing this week to get us to 10. I have told the Head that our aim is to be attached to departments and assist when no cover is needed and take intervention groups when needed.

I can see that this is the way forward to get us out of the ridiculous state the school is in. It really is in a bad state. We came out of special measures in December, which is great, but tbh, from Sept to Dec, it was all hands on deck to make it happen and now we're out, no one cares again. Teachers are dropping like flies, because the behaviour is so bad and its those lessons that we have to cover. We can't get teachers to stay! They know, as well as I do, that CS's are probably parents that need a job and won't walk out as easily as a teacher can, so they use us!

Last term, we were scheduled to do over 200 covers a week, with only 6 CS's before anyone rang in sick! I complained that it was just not right and I managed to get them to let me get half a dozen long term supplies in. We still have over 50 a week though.

What a nightmare!
I can't believe they got out of special measures from some of the things you describe.

Don't your teaching union reps throw a complete wobbly at this stuff? Ours would go wild!

She's all about attendance figures and looking good Roisin. We have a staff briefing before school every Friday morning and yesterday I told my boss I was too busy to go and I wasn't interested in how many students were in last week! He was shocked, but tbh, he totally got where I was coming from!

You know, half the kids don't even arrive to school with a pen to write with! What's all that about? It is a school, with a high percentage of below average social background, but not even a pen? Why are the form tutors not dealing with this?

The students are checked at the gate for correct uniform and phone calls home if its not complete, but the form tutors are meant to check each child has a bag full of essential materials and they just don't. The begining of every single lesson is spent finding pens for students! It's bloody ridiculous! I feel like a small branch of WHSmiths!

I can't single handedly change the way it's run, I just have to put up and shut up to a certain extent. Trouble is, I actually love the work I do and if I can be intrumental in getting things right, then that's good for me and my standing in the school. I know I am valued. I have a good relationship with the Head and I believe she values my input, because things do change on my advice, but I'm only a lowly CS, with no school experience at the end of the day and it shouldn't be down to me to get it sorted.

Nope! Teaching union rep just says 'oh, OK, I'll see what I can do.'

We're in a difficult area as well, and getting kids to bring correct equipment is a nightmare. We had a focus week earlier this term with 5 mins extra each registration. Every child was logged whether they had:
a pen, a pencil, a ruler and a school bag.
There were prize draws at the end of the week for students who'd managed 100%. And mass detentions for persistent offenders.

But once the week was finished we slipped back into normal mode.

Well, I told my boss what I had in mind and he just said, 'good call, I think you're right, copy me in on anything you do!'

I was going to e-mail the Deputy Head in charge of English, but I decided it was a face to face conversation. I saw the YR8 pastorial co-ordinator first, to see if she thought I was doing the right thing too. She knows these students better than anyone. She was in support.

The Deputy was supportive too and very grateful that I'd taken the time to think about it, but at the same time, I made it clear to her that I didn't think it was right, that these students where being left with me! I told her that 2 of their core subjects now had Cover Supervisors as long term teachers. She winced!

We have agreed that since I've got a relationship with them and I have already had them today for the start of the topic, I will continue until Easter. After that, I will have a non-qualified teacher (not a lot better, but it's a start!) to support me for a few weeks to let the kids get to know her, then she will take over and I'll support her for a bit, then leave her to it!

We can't do it any quicker than that, because they are so vunerable.

So, we started the topic. We did a broad overview of what an autobiography is discussed the difference between that and a biography. Then we did a brain storm on things like, my favourite day, my worst day, my pets etc etc.

I gave them the homework set, which was to research a bit of their family tree and ask a member of their family (or carer) for a story about them, when they were little. Most took it. One lad, was quite cross about it though and refused to do it. I just said, 'ok, fine, you don't need to.' Another said, 'I don't know anyone that knew me when I was little.'

Well we've just seen a sneak preview of the staffing structure of the new academy, and our jobs aren't on it!

So are you teaching the autobiography unit to these yr8s after all? I hope it goes well.