Who Do You Want Teaching Your Kids?

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When I first started this blog, it was primarily to be a way to record my boys early years, and whilst I figured my job would creep into it from time to time it’s starting to become a bit of a regular fixture on here. I’ve already blogged today but after seeing this advert tonight I couldn’t not respond!

I am a Maths teacher. I studied Maths at GCSE and A-level. Okay, I did an Economics degree, but within that was a high Maths content. I went on to do my secondary Maths PGCE and have been working as a qualified Maths teacher for 11 years. Looking at this ad, why exactly did I bother?

A minimum of 4 GCSE’s A*-C, including English and Maths. What a joke! I can’t speak for English, but on a Maths GCSE paper you need approx 30% to get a grade C (obviously this varies slightly from year to year). So we could be in a position where someone is teaching our students who themselves wouldn’t be able to answer 70% of a higher tier paper. This just isn’t good enough for our kids. They deserve someone who is qualified and has studied the subject they teach and can pass that enthusiasm and knowledge onto the next generation.

Please don’t think I am saying you to need to be a Maths genius to teach, I’m not. In my experience some of the best mathematicians I have known have made for terrible teachers as they couldn’t understand why kids found the subject difficult. But there has to more than a very basic knowledge of Maths to be able to pass it on.

And what about the emotional training of becoming a teacher. Teenagers are tricky customers. They have mood swings, they’re vulnerable, they think they know it all and they are not easy to handle. This is where teacher training comes in, and teachers are taught how to manage some very sensitive situations! More and more this job becomes less about children as individuals and more about bits of data on a spreadsheet, and that saddens me more than you’ll ever know.

But it seems all of the time, training and money that had been put into teachers has been a waste as Mr Gove appears to think that anyone can do it! Well, I’m sorry, but my child deserves better than a minimum of 4 GCSE’s and I hope that other parents feel the same!

8 Comments

  1. November 21, 2013 / 11:49 pm

    Is this for real?! Wow! Is it just because they are so short of maths teachers in Leeds?

    • notafrumpymum
      November 22, 2013 / 4:22 pm

      Possibly, but also because they’re cheaper! Ridiculous considering the emphasis that is being put on Maths being a core subject but is being taught by unqualified staff!

      I’m still shocked by this. It’s the minimum requirements that really gets me. Kids generally need 5 A*-C to get into college, but only 4 to teach. Madness!

  2. November 22, 2013 / 9:41 am

    Staggering. I am a governor at an academy. I just cannot imagine the thought process that led the Governing Body to thinking this was a good idea. I’d be interested to understand more!

    • notafrumpymum
      November 23, 2013 / 10:41 am

      Me too!

  3. November 22, 2013 / 7:30 pm

    How utterly depressing! I’m a teacher too and I think this devalues teachers and the profession. I did a degree, post grad studies, worked for a bit, then my PGCE. Even with all that time spent studying I found teaching a huge shock to the system. I love it but it’s relentless and during a bad term it can be physically and emotionally draining. To suggest that anyone, regardless of qualifications and experience (because that’s how this ad reads to me) can teach is such a kick in the teeth! And I certainly wouldn’t be happy with my boys being taught by this person, not when I know how hard it is to become a successful teacher

  4. notafrumpymum
    November 23, 2013 / 10:43 am

    Sadly, the teaching profession is being devalued a little more each year. You’re right teaching is relentless and training of teachers is so important! I don’t understand why anyone would think unqualified teachers are a good idea!

  5. Colette B
    November 24, 2013 / 9:15 am

    I sincerely hope they would be used to cover occasional lessons rather than full time teach whole classes?! How is this wanting the very best for our children? Every day our profession is battered & slated – told we don’t work hard enough, told we’re not good enough, that we are paid too much …. And yet its ok to get your average untrained bloke off the street to carry out our role? It beggars belief.

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