How much freedom do you get with what you teach?

[allmannerofthingshallbewell]

I'm wondering about primary school teachers in particular. I've always wanted to be a primary teacher but I went into a career I hate, and am now going to give it a try (I know I may hate it, but it's one of those what-ifs that's always niggling me).

I've just been wondering how much freedom you get with what you teach?

Totally depends on the school.

I'm in Reception and luckily we're given a lot of freedom to follow our children's interests in terms of topics, continuous provision etc. Phonics is very prescriptive though, as is our hand writing scheme Kinetic Letters. We loosely follow White Rose or maths but our school are happy for us to dip in and out for maths and use lots of Numberblocks etc too.

We are part of an academy chain though and I wouldn't want to teach any other year group here as it is incredibly prescriptive. Maths scheme has to be followed to the letter, all foundation subjects are mapped out by curriculum leaders within the academy chain, so all the schools in the trust deliver exactly the same topics (just tweaked slightly by each individual school to best suit the needs of our pupils). It seems so dry. I would hate being told exactly which topics to teach in each subject every year with no input whatsoever. There's a scheme for everything these days:- Charanga for music, Jigsaw for PSHE etc and don't even get me started on Real PE, which personally I think is awful and so complicated to follow.

I believe even the books to cover each term in literary are picked by the trust for Years 1-6 (Reception can choose our own), but at least each individual school plans the actual work themselves for English. There are so many amazing texts out there. I understand the need for long term maps to ensure the same books aren't covered multiple times across different year groups but if teachers know of the perfect book to cover the objectives they're focusing on I do believe they should have the flexibility to go with it as surely we're all at our best when teaching books we're passionate about and feel we have ownership over in terms of the planning? I understand schools with 2 or more classes in each year group need to ensure the content is the same for both classes, but that's up to the team to discuss and plan together. Why do all the schools in the same trust need to be studying the same books? The needs of different cohorts in different areas can be so different.

As I said, it really depends on the school but sadly these days it does seem like there's much less freedom for teachers in choosing what to teach and deciding how to deliver it.

That is disappointing Boleyn, I suspected that might be the case.

Much more freedom in Wales than England

Very little freedom in my experience. Have you done any work experience in school?

I have calor, quite a long time ago, but it was a private school. However it was one that was rated requires improvement by OFSTED and was a shambles.

I'm finding increasing pressure for age-relared expectations-like work in books (almost as if variation can be eliminated) despite a minority of chn not being able to keep pace/develop their skills if we are this stringent.Is anyone else finding similar? I find this lack of flexibility for given chn, when required, very hard.

I would 100% do some work experience in school before committing to a career change - or even work as TA for a year if you can. This will clearly show you whether you really want to teach or not.

Used to be able to teach any texts / art etc as long as the national curriculum objectives were covered. Not any more. Everything is mapped out in the name of progression and consistency.

zilch
have to follow the path and keep up with sister schools ie - cant redo a lesson if the kids havent grasped the learning properly

Depends on the school.

I've worked at an extremely prescriptive school before with lesson plans having to span 2 A4 sides. Unsustainable - I left after a term.

One school I worked at literally didn't take any notice apart from having to follow a maths scheme. This was also no good as it made most of the teachers at my school (including myself) very lazy and there was no continuity between key stages.