Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

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rockfreak
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Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by rockfreak »

To all teachers, past, present and just setting out, and particularly those tackling the chalk face (or the whiteboard these days) in the state sector.

I cannot recommend the above book highly enough. In her fifties Kellaway left a successful career in journalism on the FT (writing, often satirically, about economics and business) and decided to retrain as a teacher, along with launching a project to attract like-minded professionals to do the same thing. She beached up initially at a once failing comp in Hackney which has been turned into a successful grammar-style, sponsored academy. The induction session on her first day gives some idea of how things are in today's education climate:

Before lunch we file into a classroom and are given a quiz about the school. Why did the school's founder decide to name the school after himself? I put up my hand. "Ego?" The teacher leading the session looks embarrassed. "Interesting" she says. "I hadn't thought of that!" A more experienced teacher volunteers the correct answer: "Strong family values". I resolve to abandon all cynicism which has served me so well in my career so far.

On the dot of 8.15am the next morning nearly 200 11-year-olds in oversized grey and red blazers are shown how to line up with perfect military precision. The entire teaching staff prowl up and down reprimanding children whose ties are not tied tightly enough or whose backpacks are not neatly placed on the ground by their right heel. One boy is so scared he leaves the line to throw up by the basketball hoops. The teachers assure me that this happens every year and don't seem too troubled by it. I'm feeling a bit like throwing up myself. I also feel torn. The school is built on the broken windows theory of policing - pupils who get yelled at for putting their hands in their pockets are less likely to throw desks or stab each other. I get that and I strongly approve. They are likely to do homework, get decent results and have a better start in life. But then I look at the vomiting child: is this the best way to deal with children who are nervous about their first day at school? The throwing-up child is later revealed to be autistic.

Kellaway, herself a nervous ingenue on induction day, admits that many of her preconceptions about educations have gone for a burton.
loringa
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by loringa »

rockfreak wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 9:28 pm To all teachers, past, present and just setting out, and particularly those tackling the chalk face (or the whiteboard these days) in the state sector.

I cannot recommend the above book highly enough. In her fifties Kellaway left a successful career in journalism on the FT (writing, often satirically, about economics and business) and decided to retrain as a teacher, along with launching a project to attract like-minded professionals to do the same thing. She beached up initially at a once failing comp in Hackney which has been turned into a successful grammar-style, sponsored academy. The induction session on her first day gives some idea of how things are in today's education climate:
I went straight off an bought this book as I really want to see how it panned out for her (well, I sort of know courtesy of Wikipedia but I want to know the detail). I too retrained as a mathematics teacher in my fifties, working full time and studying in the evenings and using my leave for teaching practice). I had every intention of pursuing a second career in education until I was made an offer I couldn't refuse, sold my soul to Mammon and went off to work overseas. In the six months between period completing my PGCE and departing for the Middle East, however, I worked as a Supply Teacher in and around Bristol in including some of the more challenging schools, many of which seem to draw from a very similar demographic as Ms Kellaway's.

Until I embarked on teacher training I had visited a Comprehensive School on precisely two occasions in my life and I really had no idea what to expect. The good was probably better than I had anticipated and the bad undoubtedly worse; I didn't know the Police really patrolled the corridors in British schools! Most of the teachers were reasonably competent and mostly willing; they were never the problem. The behaviour of some of the pupils on the other hand was 'challenging' to say the least. The problem, of course, was rarely the children themselves but the parenting (for so many different reasons). As an aside, my favourite posting was actually in an exclusion unit for one of the local academy groups.

We have a new and, on his past record, highly capable Secretary of State for Education; my concern, however, is that unless you have actually taught or studied at a failing school in a challenging area one can never know what it is really like to confront the problems with education. This applies to parents, politicians and pundits as much as anyone else. I understand that Lucy Kellaway has given up teaching mathematics (don't blame her) but has made a real success of her second career. I look forward to reading the book; perhaps something on which Mr Redshaw and I will agree.
sejintenej
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by sejintenej »

loringa wrote: Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:08 am The behaviour of some of the pupils on the other hand was 'challenging' to say the least. The problem, of course, was rarely the children themselves but the parenting (for so many different reasons). As an aside, my favourite posting was actually in an exclusion unit for one of the local academy groups.

We have a new and, on his past record, highly capable Secretary of State for Education; my concern, however, is that unless you have actually taught or studied at a failing school in a challenging area one can never know what it is really like to confront the problems with education. This applies to parents, politicians and pundits as much as anyone else. I understand that Lucy Kellaway has given up teaching mathematics (don't blame her) but has made a real success of her second career. I look forward to reading the book; perhaps something on which Mr Redshaw and I will agree.
Andrew; I really believe and have been saying for years that it is the parents, not usually the kids. I would go further and say that modern living is also at fault; going back to where I was brought up everyone in the rundown back street knew every kid and would give any kid a walloping if they deserved it and the parents would even say thank you, Kids learned from birth what was acceptable behaviour. (I went back to that street two years ago and apart from the tarmac on top of the cobbles and the loss of Lagan stench it is unchanged.
From that I was lucky to go to a place where the best of the best etiquette was the norm so having learned to not offend I learned to behave properly. From there I went to CH where manners went out of the window.

I have taught boys of 11 to 16 but not in a school environment; I turned it around to "this is how you avoid getting injured and how you help others" Success? well five of them received Chief Constable's Letters of Commendation for life saving. At least CCF training had a reward. I had one boy with a bad reputation when he came to me; by giving him serious responsibilities he was turned around and even now, 30 years later, he is still clean.

Compared to that it looks to me that teachers are not allowed to be constructive, to invent new ways of getting a message across. Looking back it was the freedom to try to invent different ideas in the physics lab, to actually use weird chemicals in the lab which taught me; by contrast lectures in the French classroom were a 1000% waste of time (leaving aside that the teacher was later declared incompetent as well). There was absolutely no suggestion as to why we learned Latin (the idea still horrifies me and didn't help me to speak three Romance languages) or any other lesson - Art being beyond the pale - just look at the origin of that word!!!!!)
To go back to that comparison, I am minded of an inspectors report. A teacher with four pupils failed to read the roll!. He was halfway through a four lesson working of some situation and didn't explain what he was going to do in that lesson and more equally complaints whilst totally ignorant of the circumstances. Seems the inspectors are in themselves a problem. I have already mentioned my neighbour who move from the exhausting buzz of the City to the laidback stituation in a school.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
rockfreak
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by rockfreak »

In reply to Loringa's post, I was hoping for a few more posts from Old Blues who have taught in the state sector. Do all other OBs go on to teach in the private sector where perhaps they feel they will get an easier passage? How sad, and not a very good reflection on our old school which prides itself on its special ethos.
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by Ajarn Philip »

rockfreak wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 7:29 pm In reply to Loringa's post, I was hoping for a few more posts from Old Blues who have taught in the state sector. Do all other OBs go on to teach in the private sector where perhaps they feel they will get an easier passage? How sad, and not a very good reflection on our old school which prides itself on its special ethos.
Some of your posts are amusing, one or two of them have been stimulating, but this one is completely absurd.

1. How many regular posters do you think have read your post in the few days since you posted it? 5? 8? ...10? Frankly, ten is pushing it.
2. How many of those do you think have taught in any sector?

Not satisfied with one response from an OB who has taught in the state sector, you conclude there must be dozens of others who are not responding because they teach/taught in the private sector.

Pull yourself together.
rockfreak
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by rockfreak »

I might well be jumping to mischievous conclusions because I know from studying much of the research literature that is out there about the private school sector, particularly the boarding schools, that some teachers spend their whole careers teaching in the private sector. Why is this? Perhaps because the state schools might be too much of a challenge for them or, in some cases, because of a voyeuristic (or even physical) interest in schoolchildren. The recent IICSA findings about abuse in residential schools are damning in finding that sex abuse happens massively disproportionately in residential schools considering their relatively small number. A notable refugee to the state sector was the late OB Michael Marland who made a name for himself many decades ago regarding pastoral care in the state sector.
loringa
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by loringa »

rockfreak wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:58 pm I might well be jumping to mischievous conclusions ...
Yup - I think you are. Almost every teacher I know in the independent sector has moved into it from the maintained sector. They often move back into it too, especially on promotion. I have come across a small number of teachers in state schools who won't, for whatever reason, teach in independent schools (they can be quite vociferous about this so I tended to sit quietly and avoid confrontation). On the other hand, I have met very few in the independent sector who feel the same way about state schools. For a start, almost every teacher starts their teaching career in the maintained sector. The challenges of the two sectors are not necessarily the same. Behaviour is often (but not always) better in independents it is true but the one thing I really noticed is that in some independent schools there is a professional rivalry between some teachers that I've not seen elsewhere. For example, one mathematics department in one excellent independent was hugely competitive in the staff room. It was not just about teaching but about the teachers' skills as a mathematician. I couldn't compete; I'm an engineer by training with enough maths to teach a good GCSE but these teachers were mathematicians through and through, as well as teachers. I've not seen this in state schools (but then I have never worked in a grammar school so it may well be the same there).

I do hope some real teachers will comment; I'd like to see if my very limited impressions match up with there much more extensive experience.
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by seajayuu »

I moved into teaching when I was 40. I then taught in inner city comprehensives until I retired. I saw more quality teaching than I ever experienced at CH. The best teachers were leagues ahead of the worst teachers at CH. The pastoral care system was well developed and well intentioned - in stark contrast to the benign neglect I experienced at CH (was it even benign neglect, maybe just neglect). The overwhelming fault in the schools where I taught was the sheer scale of the organisation (up to 2000 students). Class sizes were routinely 30-32 (except in practical subjects). Pastoral groupings were a comparable size. It was very easy to either hide, or get lost, in the crowd.
The culture of the street was never far away. Feuds from outside school were regularly played out in corridors and playgrounds.
Just one question - do schools reflect a culture or do they shape a culture? However you answer that question, should that be the case? At CH we were all given a fresh start, the opportunity to take on a different way of living and operating, become a different person - if we wished. A lot of pupils in state secondary schools wpould give their eye teeth for that opportunity.
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by Katharine »

Most of my teaching was overseas. When we had a London posting in the 80s I wanted to teach in the State sector, but my CV didn’t fit, they couldn’t place me, couldn’t work out where I fitted. This meant I ended up teaching in an independent school, later when we retired and came here permanently I couldn’t get a teaching job as I didn’t have sufficient Welsh. I knew it would take me far too long to learn to explain the Maths the second time let alone the third or fourth time!
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
rockfreak
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by rockfreak »

seajayuu wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:29 am I moved into teaching when I was 40. I then taught in inner city comprehensives until I retired. I saw more quality teaching than I ever experienced at CH. The best teachers were leagues ahead of the worst teachers at CH. The pastoral care system was well developed and well intentioned - in stark contrast to the benign neglect I experienced at CH (was it even benign neglect, maybe just neglect). The overwhelming fault in the schools where I taught was the sheer scale of the organisation (up to 2000 students). Class sizes were routinely 30-32 (except in practical subjects). Pastoral groupings were a comparable size. It was very easy to either hide, or get lost, in the crowd.
The culture of the street was never far away. Feuds from outside school were regularly played out in corridors and playgrounds.
Just one question - do schools reflect a culture or do they shape a culture? However you answer that question, should that be the case? At CH we were all given a fresh start, the opportunity to take on a different way of living and operating, become a different person - if we wished. A lot of pupils in state secondary schools wpould give their eye teeth for that opportunity.
Thanks Chrissie. You've pretty much encapsulated my experiences about being taught at CH (although in the 1950s).
loringa
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by loringa »

rockfreak wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 7:57 pm
seajayuu wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:29 am ... At CH we were all given a fresh start, the opportunity to take on a different way of living and operating, become a different person - if we wished. A lot of pupils in state secondary schools would give their eye teeth for that opportunity.
Thanks Chrissie. You've pretty much encapsulated my experiences about being taught at CH (although in the 1950s).
Is Mr Redshaw saying something nice about CH?
rockfreak
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by rockfreak »

Actually no. I didn't put myself very well. I was agreeing with Chrissie about much of the teaching at CH being overrated. The state schooling system always seems condemned to be underfunded and has to deal with taking in children from difficult backgrounds while the government underfunds it. In other words it's always trying to fight with one hand tied behind its back.
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by sejintenej »

rockfreak wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 7:14 pm Actually no. I didn't put myself very well. I was agreeing with Chrissie about much of the teaching at CH being overrated. The state schooling system always seems condemned to be underfunded and has to deal with taking in children from difficult backgrounds while the government underfunds it. In other words it's always trying to fight with one hand tied behind its back.
Your son is not going to do anything so I am not going to waste resources on him. (Primary School headmaster)
Secondary school ; sent to help children with learning difficulties and denied normal education **

Same school. Headmaster when informed that pupils are playing chicken as they leave the school at the school gate crossing a busy road "I refuse to warn (them). It has nothing to do with the school." A pupil died.

That is what the state does to dyslexics. And that is the county education department which refuses to employ certain adults on the grounds that they have been adopted and therefore do not have BIRTH certificates. These are the people you champion so think again.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
rockfreak
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by rockfreak »

One of the things that surprised me about Lucy Kellaway's schools was the attempts to teach economics to 14 and 15-year-olds in what appear to have been challenging classes. And not just very broad, simplified principles at that. GDP, the Demand Curve, Exchange rates and whether the founder of Bet 365, Denise Coates, was justified in giving herself an eye-watering rise one year.
The children's response to these subjects is mixed but she seems to have engendered lively discussions as a result. I was impressed. At CH in the 1950s I don't remember economics being mentioned. It's possible that Adam Smith might have been mentioned among a clutch of Enlightenment philosophers but I don't remember it, nor Marx. And since the ideas of JM Keynes were only just putting down roots in the post war period I suppose that they would have been filed under current affairs rather than history. I left at the end of the Fifth Form so perhaps I missed something, but I really do not remember anything, although we'd got up to the Irish War of Independence in political history. I wonder what CH does now regarding economics.
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Re: Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway

Post by sejintenej »

rockfreak wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:56 pm At CH in the 1950s I don't remember economics being mentioned. It's possible that Adam Smith might have been mentioned among a clutch of Enlightenment philosophers but I don't remember it, nor Marx. And since the ideas of JM Keynes were only just putting down roots in the post war period I suppose that they would have been filed under current affairs rather than history. I left at the end of the Fifth Form so perhaps I missed something, but I really do not remember anything, although we'd got up to the Irish War of Independence in political history. I wonder what CH does now regarding economics.
David. You must remember that that was the 1950s when we were looking towards a new world war started by Moscow dropping hydrogen bombs everywhere. I agree, no economics, no international affairs (remember the UK ruled the world except for those rebels across the Atlantic) no history that I can recall, geography only a glance and unusable knowledge about the South Downs, economics - not a peep, money (source, supply, use, bargaining etc ) wotz that? how the UK is organised - nowt.

Most importantly (for them) we did learn how to shoot WW1 rifles***- and some learned how to search bombed buildings, deliver babies (I was one of those denied the knowledge of how they were formed!) deal with fractures and radiation poisoning ......... as I have written before, we were trained as fodder for the new Somme.

The HM (or so the decision was attributed to) actually refused permission to accept outside invitations where we would mix with outsiders (one from the Duke of Edinburgh for two pupils and another from a navy). We were assuredly not trained for life outside the fence; I was orphaned whilst at CH and the couple who accepted guardianship actually sent me on course about how to live in outside society.

As for leaving at the end of the 5th form (were we in it together?), no, you wouldn't have learned much useful in the Deps and Grecians (to which I escaped) except how to roll up your coat before getting on a cycle (but of course bicycles were banned to you!)

*** just remembered - they messed up our service records by making us use .22 rifles which were not sighted properly and for which adjustment was prohibited; I got the lowest possible score but then, outside, won trophies for consistent quality .22 shooting even when I was in a club with an Olympic finalist.. One has to wonder about Mr Page!
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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