How much goodwill ?

[Ronaldo]

I am supposeing that since this is the staffroom and therefore inhabited by teachers mainly?

So, I am just wondering how much you are happy to do as extras ( unpaid and because you are nice folk) before you start saying enough is enough?

Do you draw the line at additional duties? Bus duties , coming in onm a day off ( part timers), school changing school day and requiring more hours for the same pay, school demanding easter revision classes for students on own time? Attending PM and management meetings in ones own time. How about things like trapped time? How much is reasonable - and where is unreasonable?

Also , how doyou expect to be communicated with? e mail. notes,letter, verbally? Not at all? Told or negotiated with? Do you expect a " Hi Guys" management speak tone from someone you do not know ( colleague ) or good English? Where do you draw the line on palley tone (when you are strangers in all but name) with SMT?

Thanks

Thanks arisbottle. Glad you think that. I was thinking that but the Ht told me straight it was not the case and that he was bending backwards to make sure things were working for me ( like giving me additional pay for cover to alleviate the issue of trapped time.

I guess they think I am just too old. I will put muy notice in on Monday. I am not one to stay where I am not wanted. Mind made up.

I might just ask if I can leave Easter.

I suspect the school is on its uppers and may not last more than a year anyway.

How may hours a week do your A Level students get contact time for a sibject. Do they have one teacher for the whole A level or do they do different units with different members of staff?

I think your school are outragous to charge fees for A Level classes of 22, theyw would get a much better service in the state sector.

I am not sure thay my concscience would allow me to carry on working at this school.

But if it is such a well known school, I had always imagined you in one of the top public schools , surely it is not about to close.

Mind you I have noticed a rather well known girls independent school which is always advertising for multiple members of staff and they have just had a new head, and that always makes me wonder what is going on.

I think leaving so quickly sounds quite drastic! Of course the head cannot bluntly say he is trying to force you out but I suspect his manner may give him away.

I think there is some confusion. The lessons in my school are 35 mins not hours. Therefore I teach just over 4 hours for As and same for A2.

That can work very well on a three day ( especially since its science and we have practicals). It would happily work as a 3 periods AS and 2 periods A2 and vice versa. And then 2 periods AS and 2 periods A2 on day three ( making it a lunchtime finish).

In my last school ( state) I taught 2 doubles ( i hour lessons 2 ) and they were arranged back to back. This was the pattern for all A level classes there. I was also give two " free " periods in that school to complete two full days and an 0.4 contract.

Its not hard and its not hard on the students. In fact it works very very well.

You might well be surprised Arisbottle as to what is going on behind many closed doors in well known schools.

We just dont say it. I am here saying it now of course. But I have made a point of being positive and silent about things to date ( because I know some people have been fishing for where I work).

How may hours a week do your A Level students get contact time for a sibject. Do they have one teacher for the whole A level or do they do different units with different members of staff?

In my school it is policy ( and has always been successful by tradition) to have the top most qualified master and subject specialist to teach A level. This has always been the HoD and they have always had a 40% timetable and non contact for the rest of the timetable.

The school ( now) allows 4 hours and 10 mins per AS level and same for A2. We used to get 5 hoursbut that changed a while ago. As a result of this all those teaching A levels ( all subjects) are senior teachers. All are HoDs. That means that nearly all only teach A level as their management duties are non contact time and their teaching time amounts to the same as mine in most cases. A few might teach the odd GCSE class as well.

In a few A level only subjects ( there are about three or four of us) we are specially employed to teach just A level part time. Its cost effective for the school and has allowed the school to recruit students who might have left for other schools - so bums on seats and dosh in the coffers.

Its always been that way. I was happy with it and so were the school. One specialist teacher taught A level and they werer esponsible for getting the top results - and heads on block if you dont.

Then around two years ago, the flash ' arries from state schools arrived in SMT ( some of our SMT retired , they got past retirement age!) We had a change in governing body around then and I thinktheseflash jobs came with that although I am not 100% sure. This year the governors have changedagainand the ones responsible for the recent changes have popped their cloggs off so this may not last ( as some staff tell me).

With this came a number of changes, result of or otherwise I dont know. At the same time we reduced a proportion of staff from full time to part time contracts ( instead of redundancy) I was not in this bunch. I have always been contracted so that if I have a class I have a job. No class , no job. Jence no additional PPA - it wascost effective that way. There are three of us who work that way - school led.

Many teachers were re deployed in other subjects. eg history teaching RE or geog. Biology teachers doing physics and maths - we have too many biologists and no physicists to mention. ( parents are not told this!).

Then added to the mix were those new mums. To accommodate them it seemed reasonable ( I think this was the reasoning) that they would teach A level + whatever odd clases fitted timetables. Since most were wanting 0.6 -thats A level + five lessons really across three days.

Thats when the mess in timetables started. But there is no policy in the school for having team teaching on A level. The responsibility has to lie with one teach er firmly and squarely and that teacher takes the rap if the results belly up. Results are everything in a schoollike mine. Its what ) amongst a few other things, like a liberal education and an edge in competition fortheir offspring) parents are paying mega time for.

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Gosh a 40% timetable is generous. I am not a HOD so not sure what they are on, but I do not think it is as generous as that. Our contact time is similar to yours 9 hours over a fortnight. Our staff allocation is also quite similar, so someone like me really only teaches exam classes.

I cannot think of a single A Level teacher , teaching outside of his specialism. I have taught two A Level subjects before but I have two degrees. You are lucky to be overrun with phsyicists though! Many state schools are trying to atract them.

Do your A Level students not want to see you outside of contact time. Most weeks I will have arranged something with an A Level student? So although I say our students have 9 hours contact time a fortnight for most it is about 10 in reality.

I think your school are outragous to charge fees for A Level classes of 22, theyw would get a much better service in the state sector

Well most of the comparative state provision around me has around 35 per class ( they wont run with less than 25! Something to do with viability of classes and LEA funding. ) Also, alot of the state schools have behaviour issues in their A level classes. I was shocked to hear it but it seems its commonplace now. We also have much better A level grades and send a whole tip load of pupils to Oxford , Cambridge and LSE etc every year.

So, if you can afford it you pay ( orat least until the parents getwind of what the changes arethat aregoing on now). In lwer school they already have and we have a falling roll although by retaining teachers we show asurface that says we are OK. Rember those teachers are on short time in many cases.

However, 22 is big. It should have a cut off at 16 and we always have up until now The argument went some would leave or drop out but what happened is that they didnt change out ( a couple came in).

There are three groups where this happens and all are top performers . Up take is because of the passrates and reputation of the teachers amongst the pupils.

Getting rid of me as a teacher will not help the school. I cant be replaced by one of those with light timetables as they couldnt teach my subject. neither can other staff.

The irony so far in my school has been that nearly all the teachers that have left have been ones who have been difficult to replace and who had to be replaced. It was not possible to get a member of staff to take their jobs over.

Someone put it succinctly before leaving himself. The school is trying hard to get rid of staff so it becomes more viable. Its top heavy in some subjects but unfortuately the staff who are leaving are the ones it does not need to lose

The ones we all know the school needs to let go, are not going.

Do your A Level students not want to see you outside of contact time. Most weeks I will have arranged something with an A Level student? So although I say our students have 9 hours contact time a fortnight for most it is about 10 in reality

My A level students invariably want to see me outside class time. I accommodate them in my trapped time. We=hen I didnt have trappedtime I would stay on for them. I have always put aside an hour per year group where I run a tutordrop in lesson for them. Where any issues they have can be addressed and they can bring problems.

I also get like today - a lot of students who e mail me freely during weekends and nights and holidays with questions and additional work for me to mark.

I currently have 10 e mails ( four students) with work. In addition, three others gave me pen drives on Thursday before I left. All will be marked before tonight and returned viia e mail. The kids are keen and I will do what it takes for them.

PM meetings with flash bulls hitters are not my forte.

I mark it and send it back to them within the day. Its not part of what I am paid to do. I do it for the students. They appreciate it and until the flash'arries, the school did too.

Well most of the comparative state provision around me has around 35 per class ( they wont run with less than 25! Something to do with viability of classes and LEA funding. )

Even at key stage three state classrooms do not go above 30. We have a cap of 15. We will teach with any size of class the other way, it has happened before with one or two - although that is not ideal either. We are not a particularly well funded school either because we are on paper quite a middle class type catchment.

You sound like a very good A Level teacher - mine never get their essays back the same day! You will be a loss.

Even at key stage three state classrooms do not go above 30. We have a cap of 15. We will teach with any size of class the other way, it has happened before with one or two - although that is not ideal either. We are not a particularly well funded school either because we are on paper quite a middle class type catchment

INteresting. Ours is the other way round. I think 15 is minimum to run a class. Often chools start courses in sixth form and then stopthem because of drop out No schools will run on one or two pupils. My school will.

Similarly with sixth form sizes. Most sixth forms have to be 200 pupils and over to be viable. SDome schools have had to close sixth forms and amalgamate because they didnt have enough students entering sixth form.

My school will run on quite small numbers in sixth formoverall. Weusually have around 100 but have dropped to as few as 30 in one year. The school is a relatively small one. Sells itself on that too.

Blimey again. I am Head of Science, and I teach 39 hours out of 50 a fortnight. Actually, now I teach 42, because we are short staffed, but I am expected to teach 39. We don't employ people who are not qualified to teach A level (and completely competent to do so), and currently most of us do (but then we are badly understaffed at the moment!).

40% timetable. How marvellous

Normal classes in my school ( KS 3 as you call it - we still call it third year) will be around 9 or 10.

I didnt say that any of our teachers were not qwualifed or poor teachers or not qualified to teach A level . All of them can but it is always the senior master ( HoD_ who takes that responsibility.

Well it is an independent school Madonna. Thats one of the perks or was - for how long now?

Why?

I think it's pretty important for the HoD to teach other groups too, and if I taught all the A level in my subjects, well - I'd have more than a 40% timetable just for that!

That is so much, TFM!

Our standard allocation is 32/50. A HOD would be 28 or 30 depending on the size of dept.

I am on 25/50.

Tell me about it.

I am actually struggling quite a bit at the moment. Not least because I have to set and mark work for all those missing staff as well as my own classes, in my princely 8 frees a fortnight!!

Like Ronaldo, I am considering my position...

To dispel a mythdespite my being rather negative right now. I have heardmany times that suppodely independent school teachersare not qualified or not good teachers or some equal foolishnes.

In fact in my experience, all my colleagues in an independent school have been of the utmost professional standing and top drawer academically.
They have all been qualified teachers. Most have been experienced too. They could all teach. You cant get by in an independent school without being able to teach.

Never ,until recently have I begun to meet the type ofteacher who is characterising our SMT now. All theseteachers are ex state school - and frankly they might be better off back there.

Independent schools like mine are ( or have been ) classy, not brassy. The ethjos has been one of Brooklands or Devon School or even Mallory Towers rather than Bash Streetor Grange Hill. Its probably that which parents pay for , although most would be quiet about saying it.

You will notice I declined to put my own DS in my own school - now you know why.

I think there is a balance to be had, most of our A Level classes are shared bewteen two teachers which means the A level teaching gets shared amongst the department. However that does not mean that everyone amongst the department teaches A Level and it would be quite unusual that the HOD does not. I teach very ittle key stage three, there was a year when I only taught key stage four and five. I am not a HOD but a senior member of staff , I think it is important that teachers are spread across the year groups.

And our standard allocation is 45/50. 10% PPA.

I hope your colleagues all pull together with dept admin, and not leave it all up to you!

In my last school ( state) the manners and generalprofessionalattitude of the SMT and a large number of the staff too sometimes was disrespectful and often plain ignorant. I think target clture and management speak are symptomatic of this kind of very bad manners.

No one on this thread has said that independent school teachers are not qualified or not very good teachers.

I suspect that you would call me brassy but I am very highly qualified and certainly can teach - despite being in the state sector.

Like I said, most of them are doing 45/50 themselves, plus all the extra directed time that has been thrust upon us. I can't fault my colleagues. But I don't currently have enough of them!

Ronaldo - steady on with the state school stuff. Not sure we want the management bollocks either...