Teach Now: do you think it can succeed?

[OCSockOrphanage]

Lucy Kellaway, currently an associate editor and top columnist at the Financial Times, is at 57 preparing to retrain as a maths teacher in an inner city school. She has set up Teach Now (modelled on Teach First) to attract people into teaching after successful corporate careers. She argues that she and they can afford to take the risk financially, many have good degrees in STEM subjects, and they have a lot to offer.

Having trodden a similar path and been rebuffed by every school I applied to I ask you whether school leadership teams will buy into this idea? After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Carol, nearly 1 in 10 teachers quit last year, total.

A quarter of teachers only last 3 years, however, crucially this is out of teachers who actually start their NQT year. If it was out of people who started teacher training, the loss would be much higher.

schoolsweek.co.uk/highest-teacher-leaving-rate-in-a-decade-and-6-other-things-we-learned-about-the-school-workforce/

I think teaching in a school with poor management support in the face of constant governmental meddling and undermining of teacher's worth plus the sneaky way the government seems to have got round the unions with an added helping of uninvolved or/and heavily involved but unsupportive (to the school) parents sounds like the worse job in the world. However, I am currently considering retraining and not totally put off yet (naive) so I'd appreciate clarification over a couple of points.

I was reading the comments section of LK article but I didn't understand the comments about how poorly paid the profession is in general. My DH earns a little more than the wage of an experienced teacher (one with no additional responsibilities) here in Scotland but his pension is shit which would probably balance that out. He usually works at least 65 hours a week, sometimes more. He has a STEM PhD (from the MN favourite, a RG university), a MSc he later acquired through distance learning (also RG) and 16 years of experience in a professional job. His wage is less than someone working in finance but more than most other professional positions I have seen advertised. He has to travel and stay overnight in Travelodges beside ring roads. His management structure seems a mess and this IME is fairly typical of more most jobs. Who is the wage of a teacher being compared to when it is deemed poorly paid because outside finance/IT it seems at least as well paid as most graduate jobs?

I also don't understand the comments about the annual wage of a teacher and how it is structured. There are always comments about teachers not being paid for holidays - does that mean the salaries I see quoted are prorated I.e. If it is advertised as £30k, does that mean a teacher is only being paid (say) 40/52th of that sum (so around £23k)? I'm never clear because it does seem like a £30k (say) teaching job does pay £30k so what difference does the "not being paid for the holidays" part make? Am I missing something?

OCS those GPs working 0.8 time will often be doing other stuff with the remaining 0.2 - it may be teaching post grad students, CCG work, sexual health clinics etc

I don't think it's particularly helpful to pit one job against another and this is something I've seen teachers do a lot. GPS are very stressed, working 11 hours plus a day often without lunch (despite what the daily mail says) and a wrong decision could be life changing or even life threatening to a patient. The workload is relentless.

Ps I am not denying that teaching is exceptionally hard work and underpaid ...

peponi

Like many threads on this, the other job comparison is generally not brought up by the teachers.

GPs where brought by the OP but from what she has written I don't think that she is a teacher.

It is likely that school teachers will follow the FE lecture training model. Apply for job, teach four days a week and PGCE one day a week. You get a reduced wage until qualifications are completed, usually two years. It is a cheap and simple model. Most participants are mature.

I think teaching is pretty well paid to be honest.

It's not a city banking salary but then it's not a city banking role.

As always there are a cluster of people who don't want anything different from the status quo to work and feel anyone without a burning desire to do anything but teach are inherently showing a lack of commitment to the job but the pgce is hardly some sort of automatic passport into preparation for teaching and given you now have to pay for it, I understand the hesitation about it.

I never complain about my salary. I realise it is well paid. Our annual salary doesn't include pay over the holidays-so our salary is what we get paid for 36 weeks work, but it is spread out over twelve months. If we were paid for the holidays as well my salary would be about 25% higher!

As always there are a cluster of people who don't want anything different from the status quo to work
Indeed.
I think an influx of people who are not prepared to put up with the status quo ( which teachers on here are always moaning about) can only be a good thing.
I retrained a few years ago after a career in another profession, but decide to do supply to get an inside track on schools rather than rush blindly into an NQT role. The whole recruitment process is outdated - people all having to turn up on one day, be eliminated part way through and then have to accept or decline the offer that day. No other recruitment process works that way.
Worked in many different schools as a supply teacher, covering many subject and saw numerous staff rooms. Like other older people with children of my come into teaching, I had no problem with behaviour, even on supply - an advantage these teachnow people will have.
One of the schools I regularly worked in offered me a permanent teaching role, with normal TPS, sickleave etc and I negotiated my own terms and conditions, so I prep, teach, mark and assess my own classes, but do not do 'duties' , clubs, tutor group etc - something the teachnow people are also likely to be able to negotiate as they are not hide-bound by kow-towing to the status quo.
I get to participate as much or as little as I wish to with extra-curricular, so for example have opted to assist on ski trip, but because I chose to - no compulsion. Being older is an asset, not a liability, and I have plenty of time and energy for a life outside school. No inclination to 'retire'. looking forward to seeing more older people in schools with experience in other fields which will massively enrich the culture and be better for the kids and likely to engender more respect from them and their parents.

EddieStobbart - what teachers mean when they this is that they are paid IN the holidays but not paid FOR the holidays. In other words their salary is calculated on the basis of the working hours they do in school over the year, then split into 12 monthly payments. Some people assume that just because teachers are paid every month, that means they are actually being paid to do all their marking and planning sit on their arses in the holidays.

I've seen plenty of older people come into teaching, MrsGuy. I mentored a few. I have certainly not noticed them getting any more respect than other teachers. Many of them find it very very hard, perhaps partly because they are so out of touch with what schools are actually like these days.

As for dealing with behaviour etc, I've been a teacher for 20 years and have switched to supply teaching for the past couple of years. I find it far easier to deal with behaviour as a supply teacher because I'm have no ongoing responsibility for the misbehaving child or their progress.

It must be very helpful not to have to be a tutor, do clubs etc. Who would be doing all those things for the kids if everyone took your route though? Presumably you don't thing we should just get rid of the whole pastoral system and ban all extra-curricular activities?

On BoneyBack's question about addressing why so many young teachers either never begin teaching or leave so soon as the more urgent issue...

I don't have any answers for this, but I do feel (as a parent) that education would be better if more teachers had done something outside of a classroom before they embarked on a teaching career. Teach Now will be valuable IF it brings people who know what commercial/professional success looks like and can communicate what is involved in achieving it for students, and teachers who think work is restricted by options their own careers advisers told them about. As a parent, I was horrified that a teacher could suggest a bright child would do the IT GCSE (the old one, not computer science) as a route to an IT job. The point being, many teachers' horizons are limited by what they see around them in their small home towns; too often, there's no awareness of a wider stage.

It will be a good thing if we manage to persuade high flyers to venture into classrooms to share what they know of the world and give them a platform to open eyes and minds. Let's encourage them to park their Aston Martins in the staff car park, where everyone can see the conspicuous success.

When I changed career and did my PGCE (six years ago, but I never used it) I loved bits of the teaching, especially planning lessons and finding great resources and once I got control of my classes' behaviour (apart from one lot of yr8s) there was progress and engagement by most students, most of the time. Yet the HoD for my placement made it clear she felt threatened by my presence but was nice as pie with my 20s colleague (whose subject knowledge was threadbare and class control non-existent).

The poster who suggested a twin track profession might be on to a good idea; short service v career options, with flexibility to transfer between the two, but how to structure it? I dunno, miss!

OP

I can't disagree with you on a basic level. It would be ideal.

However, on the point of teachers' views/ experiences being limited... that's true for us ALL.

A dr knows only the dr's world and their views are blinkered by this
A plumber knows only the plumbers world and their views are blinkered by this
A businessman knows only the businessman's world and their views are blinkered by this

In an ideal world, teachers would be made from all of the professions listed above and more, but until the teaching job improves, it's unlikely.

Fix the teaching profession (by listening to teachers) and people from all walks of life would be interested in joining.

Words fail me. You cast aspersions on career teachers, yet did a PGCE and never made it to actual teaching (in spite of being so much better than the silly other young trainee). And ypu think that kids should be encouraged to judge success in life by having an Aston Martin parked in the car park. Jesus Christ.

Eolian, I do not mean to insult career teachers. I did a PGCE and have never taught because (a) my subject has been removed from the curriculum and was always a minority subject, often taught in parallel with RE or history, and (b) family life in present location restricts the number of schools where I could realistically work, none of them struggling in recruitment terms for any subjects except STEM. I am not going to uproot my family or leave them. Some of my co-trainees were brilliant, just not that one!

And like it or not, most students are impressed by financial success! The Aston would be the subject of great admiration and earn its owner massive kudos.

Well of course they do. But then loads of students' ambitions are based on the lives of pointless, rich celebrities with expensive cars and lifestyles. I just don't think that's something we should be encouraging. How about aiming for worthwhile rather than minted?

For a plumber or a doctor it doesn't matter if they have only experienced that role - they are not acting as role model for children or encouraging their aspirations. teachers do, so more diversity can only be good.
An acquaintance emailed me today - she has registered interest on the Kellaway scheme. She has a first in physics from Oxbridge and many years experience in business and government as well as grown up children and would be a fantastic role model for girls particularly - far more so than a 22 year old biology graduate unwillingly timetabled for physics.

And teachers who scorn 'minted' are pretty small-minded

Thanks Eolian, so the wages quoted are those received? It really doesn't seem like a bad wage then even if there were only 5 weeks of holiday (which it sounds there is in practice).

Surely it would be more realistic for students to aspire to acquiring the trappings of the mega rich via a career that at least gives them a sporting chance. If the only definition of success young people have comes from Hello or Match of the Day, that tells them you have to be a beauty, a celebrity or a sports hero. Where are they to learn about the lawyer that negotiates their contracts and TV deals, who would be a more dependable and realistic role model, or to realise the rewards can be rather good, or that it's more glamorous than the local solicitor who does conveyancing, small crime and divorces... but the training starts from the same point.

OCSockOrphanage

And like it or not, most students are impressed by financial success!

SO we should base our judgement on success around money, cars and how big their house is?

Crikey, some people seem to think that teaching experience counts for nothing and all that is needed to be successful is a fancy car and a previous career.

No, but that's how most people choose to spend money if/when they acquire it, and once we have satisfied our own needs, we think about others. Isn't that what Lucy Kellaway is challenging bankers, lawyers and corporate types to do with Teach Now?

As we grow in experience, we (hopefully) develop additional yardsticks for success. Intellect, kindness, morality and philanthropy spring to mind, but you will think of others too. Teachers tend to be quite idealistic IME which can make them come across as dismissive of anything less high-minded.

Teaching experience is clearly above price. Surely that goes without saying, but attracting diverse experiences into the profession as well as retaining it is a valid goal, or am I missing something?