36 years in teaching

This post has been brewing for almost a week now. We broke up Friday afternoon, travelled home to Eastbourne and the comforts of a Travel Lodge family room that evening. We attended my sisters wedding, delivered presents, visited friends and returned home exhausted on Sunday evening, complete with two young children completely wacked out of any resemblance of routine, one with a chest infection the other with the winter snuffles. Christmas seem to be sprung upon us, even though it has been the 25th December for as long as I can remember, and was both wonderful and miserable in equal measure. Over-joyed children and a wife vigilantly taking on a throat infection (complete with vomiting episode) single handily until yesterday, when she collected her ladened prescription. The delay in posting these words therefore, should in now way, lessen their impact.

They are the words and reflections of a Alan Woodhouse who retired this year. I too was leaving that afternoon and took the opportunity to scan the room, chasing faces and matching memories and it was a very warming activity. You see, Alan is an eloquent and accomplished orator and as I surveyed the room I witnessed experienced colleagues smiling, possible reminiscing with his chronological narrative of education change. Then there were the decennaries, pondering and considering his commentary. Marrying their own career starting point upon his education timeline. And finally, is enjoyed watching two relatively new to the profession colleagues debating the credibility of his markers. From his speech it would appear that alot has changed in

36 years… 74 days, 20, 35, 45 (we were over-running at this point) and (pause and look at watch) 10 seconds.

Just to reassure you, I courteously asked Alan if I could share his leaving speech. He promised he would let me have a copy and true to his word, later that afternoon I was handed his bullet pointed notes. You will have to add a good dose of integrity, humility and humour to the text but I think you will get the gist.

How do you sum up 36+ years? You can’t, so here are a few edited highlights under four headings; Changes, headteachers, what do I think I have learnt, people I have worked with. (I will only cover the first three and the final section was pretty much Alan’s own style and impersonation. Conveying a German accent would just not do it justice. Alan’s speech started with changes.

Changes. Chalk and blackboard with one writing face. Roller boards with several faces that became shiny and you had to paint. White roller boards with felt tip pens. Interactive boards.

Banda machines, shiny paper on which you wrote, no mistakes allowed, and the sheet beneath produced a wax impression. The sheet was then placed into a slit on a drum. Spirit was poured into the pad and a handle turned the drum. If the pad was not fully moist, some of the images were missed, too soaked in spirit, and it would splodge. Turning the handle too fast scrunched the original… Thank heavens for the photocopier, where most of us now get our fix for the day. From paper mark books and registers, to spreadsheets and electronic ones. No national curriculum or prescription to OFSTED – enough said. Pupils have become students. Headmasters and headmistress’s have become headteachers. And Heads of Department have become Curriculum Leaders, Managers of Teams, Subject Leaders and Directors of Learning.

Lessons were thirty-five minutes long and the school day began at 8:45 and finished at 3:45, with a proper lunch hour. Trips used to un on commonsense and professionalism – nowadays risk assessment have to be completed in triplet and then signed in blood. Pupils, parents and staff used to give up their time to paint the classrooms and there were pupil, parents and staff sport contests… before Health and Safety restrictions. There were regular staff team building activities outside of the schools, cricket, mixed tennis, quiz and skittles teams. Instead we have necklaces with our names on learning objectives.

It may read a little targeted, rather it was delivered with light-hearted reminiscence and soft provocation. Certainly the implied message was not all change has been for the better though most has. An insight to how high the bar has been raised? Next – headteachers and an insight to how leadership is received.

It has been my good fortune to work with five Headteachers. What where their chief characteristics?

One was an autocrat, it was their school, they did lunch duty every day and they ruled with a rod of iron and staff were expected to do was they were told and not to challenge anything.

One was a bureaucrat, good with paper, hopeless with people. “Discipline is the teachers took in the classroom, not mine. If you don’t like you leave.” So I did.

One was a systems person and did everything by the book. There is a system, so it must be working.

One was definitely king pin in their school but had the good sense to surround themselves with people with different skill sets.

One said “The inmates ain’t going to run this asylum.” Another gave the inmates free range.

One flew in the face of policy and had a winning smile, but you would not want to buy a second hand car from them.

The one thing they all had in common however, was the good of the pupils education was at the heart of their thinking and they all tried to achieve this in their own way.

Of course these loose descriptions left us all thinking, wondering, which description best suited our incumbent Principal, including probably, the incumbent Principal. For me it demonstrated that there is no “one way” to lead a school, utilise your strengths and address your weaknesses, or at least fill the void with more skilled colleagues and that a system must be driven.

Finally, Alans condensed lessons learnt.

So, what do I think I learnt over the years? What nuggets are in the Gospel according to Woody?

It does not work, teaching discreet subjects in a cross curricular manner. Students do not get the best deal for being taught by nonspecialist teachers. If you want to improve teaching and learning, firstly improve disciplined, the bedrock on which all learning is built. Despite what OFSTED say, you cannot cater for each students’ individual needs when out of class twenty-four, sixteen are on the SEN register and there is no learning support to help. Certain behaviours, especially refusal, need an immediacy of action. Not having and INSET on the first day of the academic year is a false economy as you can spend the first half term catching up on all the statistical data driven admin tasks that would have allowed you to start the year in organised and professional manner. That’s my soapbox moment over.

It’s completely up to you to decide what you agree and disagree with, I do not agree with everything Alan shared however I learnt a great deal from Alan’s speech.

I learnt that 36 years experience can not be fairly summarised, condensed into a twenty minute speech. I gained a broader appreciation of the viewpoint of colleagues with more experience than myself. Considering Alan’s crafted reflections would you add any further comment?

Thank you Alan for letting me share these thoughts with a wider audience. On Arriving at Hamble Community Sports College, I worked with you as a non-specialist ICT teacher, specialising in the occasional nudge or re-direction. I also learnt that the fine details most definitely count. Thank you Alan.

Now,

Alan could have been many things but he gave them all up… All because he wanted to be a French teacher.

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