Prescriptive Schemes of Work

[BareBum]

What are people’s opinions of these? I have to work from pre-planned (by hod) lessons, which have every minute accounted for and we are not allowed to deviate from these or choose our own HW to set. I hate teaching to someone else’s style and not being allowed to use my own ideas. I don’t think the pupils get the best of me - you can’t go off on tangents etc.

Has anyone ever rebelled and successfully persuaded their HOD to go back to a traditional SoW with topics to be covered, assessment points and suggestions for resources?

This is Drive be me crackers.

Class racing round the room at 10.10? Wtf?! I'm an MFL teacher and I would be out if that school like a bloody shot. What utter twatbaggery.

And yy to this: Teachers have to be able to teach in a way that suits their personality.

That is what being a teacher is all about. You cannot take personality and personal teaching style out of the equation and expect teachers or pupils to be enthused by lessons.

It's a mixture of the academy wanting teachers that are bots not people, who will do as they are told, along with the lovely fact that they can tell a TA to teach it. We no longer get cover, any level TA just delivers the script. My replacement is unqualified.

They're also using it to weed out the staff who "don't fit our approach". Which would be why they can't fill any posts and the Scitt student cries a lot.

I'm primary by the way. I did used to teach out of my specialist subject when I was at secondary, but only ks3. I taught out of my spe dualism at a level, but only after preparing with the leaving teacher for 6 months, and even then it was an interest of mine and academic study at degree level.

I'm holding my last hopes at my new school. I did ask very clearly about their style at interview. I'm counting the days. A whole day of I say / you say scripted even down to when to pick up dienes is killing me.

You are a professional, so should be able to deliver lessons that meet the lesson objectives.

You need to push back and take not HOD prima Donna nonsense.

We had these and I rebelled . It was limiting and boring. I did my own thing but I think management were a bit used to me being non compliant

Textbooks have been thrown away and we returned from the Easter break this year to find the entire filing cabinet of worksheets for GCSE chemistry and been emptied. Likewise, the 'old' network drives had been deleted.

This is the most outrageous thing I've read in a while! I mean, just

Is this the future? Lessons written by HoDs, delivered by TAs. The savings would be HUGE. It must never be allowed to happen!!

When I was a PGCE student I basically scripted my lessons. It was bloody awful when a kid asked something off-script, or if I'd come to the end of my scripted examples and the kids still didn't get it.

Our local secondary school is like Michaela school and boasts there's no homework marking for teachers.... but it does appear incredibly structured.

I fear my children's school are. They're a local MAT so they want all year 4 kids across the 2 schools having identical experiences....

All year 1 staff left.

Wow. I teach English and find it virtually impossible to teach other people’s lessons as a one off, let alone every period. I keep buying TES resources then realising I edit them so much there was no point! There’s a school near me that insists everyone follows the same lesson and I have it on my ‘No’ list for potential job moves.

If it is a HOD issue rather than an SLT idea, I think you’re in a strong position. The MN favourites could be very useful.

HOD: why didn’t you teach xyz?
You: that doesn’t work for me
HOD: but you have to
You: No

Where do they go from there? Nowhere. It’s not a school initiative so there’s no higher they can progress it.

Is there a possibility that Academies are scripting lessons in order to counteract any criticism of the employment of non-qualified/non-specialist teachers?
I think that's true of large chains with schools who struggle to recruit.

Any sensible person would know prescriptuve teaching is at odds with what good teaching is and flies in the face of inclusion and what Ofsted want (which in this situation is reasonable).

I teach 3 classes in one year group this year. While I am teaching them all the same skills/ content it is rarely in exactly the same way.

Class 1 are bottom stream with a lot of SENs and a few behavioural issues.
Class 2 are big (33) and barely fit in my classroom with 2 sitting at my desk. That reduces any active learning or group work possibilities
Class 3 are like Dead Poet’s Society- bliss.

If I taught all 3 classes the same way I would be failing 2 of them and that’s same teacher/ school/ subject and year.

The idea of scripted lessons is just ludicrous

Exactly kitty

I like having decent, detailed and fully resourced schemes of work. It makes planning easier so I just adapt it as I go rather than reinvent the wheel.

I also like having total freedom but have worked in departments where giving total freedom means some kids get a bad deal because they get stuck with a weaker or lazy member of the team.

What I hate is when the scheme of learbing is a pile of shite but then you're expected to follow it.

I can give you even more outrageous, noble. HOD was scared of practical work and did all her teaching via role play and models. She introduced prescriptive schemes of work from her old school. During the Christmas holidays, she got rid of 90% of the chemicals because they were "dangerous". She never consulted the Chemistry specialists but managed to convince the head and bursar. WTAF.

On the plus side though, having set lessons means you're not spending hours and hours creating your own planning & resources. I used to be in a primary school that insisted on bespoke stuff for every single lesson. It's perfect for the pupils but breaks teachers

Fffion I think we should introduce your HOD to my HOD. I am sure they would get on famously (and congratulate each other on how wonderful they are at their jobs).

I agree bring.

There's a happy medium.

I love great schemes of work that I can just adapt to suit. It's so much better for workload. Equally, my school gives us some flexibility within reason (e.gm everyone does the same book and key assessments but everything else is uo to you. You can follow the scheme rigidly or looselu or add your own bits).

In my experience the 'better' schools tend to be the ones that aren't heavily prescriptive.

That HOD was insecure and a bully. And history.

Ugh maisy I hate the everyone does the same book thing and everyone does the same assessments at the same time. To me that Is quite far along the prescriptive paradigm! But it seems to be way everywhere now! It is certainly what the more established teachers at my school baulk at and is usually feebly supported by arguments about children needing to move sets (they rarely do/ don't set do rigidly/ badly then) or everyone needing the same data ( don't collect it so ridiculously often ; educational research does not support you / don't put data collection before good teaching! or 'teachers might leave (umm... every English teacher should eb able to etach a range of texts!) . I honestly think there has been such a deskilling in teaching since a) the obsession with data and b) the new spec. But, hey ho, you sound content enough and it seems as if you feel you have at least some flexibility whereas OP's situation sounds ridiculous

It seems like an ideology thing too. I hadn't realised how coming this "setting quizzes as homework." So self quizzing constantly.

My children will be coming up to secondary and I want them to go to normal schools where teachers can teach. But it seems there's a tide of drilling to the test/target driven education. A direct consequence of the meddling in education. If you value memorization of facts over subject skills you'll end up with facts factories:(

I almost worry if I send them to a "normal school they'll be left behind than a school that drills to the system.

I'm looking at returning to teaching and I just don't recognise it.

Hmmm... we'll have to agree to disagree ...

cappuccino I agree wit your outpourings! And proclamations by the government that we 'need more mathematicians' isn't really about the love of complex mathematics but about filling a certain kind of workforce so fits this agenda.

Sigh.

That said my DS's Spanish teacher is woeful and I guess what she could do with is support. I think she has been given a prescriptive SOW (form French). What she actually needs is proper , kind support with discipline and some bloody training!!

Your model sounds very much like what we do at my place maisy - a little freeer. And lost of us are blooming miserable.

Even no exam years have become pretty rigid and constantly (it feels) assessed. Poor kids.

I’ve decided to rebel and have the argument i need to.
How do trainee teachers learn to teach if they do their placements somewhere with prescriptive SoW? Has anyone suffered this?
I’m horrified by lots of your stories, especially the binning of good resources. That’s outrageous.

They don't!

One argument I heard was that marking and feedback was so important (thanks EEF!) and that teachers moan about the associated workload, that the obvious answer was to reduce planning need and time by creating (or worse buying in) uniform programmes of study.

Lots more time to triple mark and find oneself in the seven circles of Hell feedback loop.