I read this morning that a Tory MP has tried to get included in the manifesto that teachers should sit exams alongside their students. (Daily Mail link). I rather suspect that he assumes that teachers will fail. An exercise in humiliation displaying a lack of trust in teachers.
But I have read the same thing from someone who I respect infinitely more, Tom Bennett of the TES (TES link). He frames it in a more supportive way, an opportunity for CPD.
In the Daily Mail comments, a teacher writes that they sit the exam every year (not alongside the kids) and his boss marks it, and that this is a useful exercise.
As a maths teacher, I always do A-level papers that I set the students before I mark them, so that I understand what the questions are asking and have worked solutions. I've got a good idea of what I would get in the real thing. But it suddenly occurred to me that other subject teachers wouldn't write an essay before marking essays, and so aren't constantly doing past papers. Do humanities teachers ever write essays? Do you ever do the papers?
I don't expect anyone to actually post that they would get anything other than top marks, because admitting a weakness as a teacher is like sticking a bleeding limb into a shark cage. But that's a real problem. If subject knowledge is an issue (and with constantly changing specifications this is going to come up), then what do you do? Would you say to your HOD 'actually, I know nothing about X, can we have some CPD on this?' Or would you scrabble around at home trying to find a few hours to read the textbook? I've always taken the textbook route.