lie detectorr.e. Teacher Recruitment.

Dear Nicky Morgan,

Following this week’s budget and your subsequent Education White Paper both you and Nick Gibb are obviously in demand. To be honest I’m not sure who got the sh1tty end of the stick when choosing between BBC Question time or Newsnight on the other side – that must have been an interesting conversation between you both to make the decision … I do wonder if you flipped a coin.

Let me start by saying that I never usually watch these programmes but the hullaballoo about what you’re proposing and the temptation to hear it from the horse’s mouth was just too much to resist. I know you’re busy so I’ll get straight to the point. I am not political – no I’m not – I use my vote of course but I’m of the thinking that my politics are “mine” and are quite a personal thing. I’m a bit weird like that.

Anyway … at about 48 minutes into the programme the question about teacher recruitment was asked and you started by saying:

“we have a challenge in teacher recruitment particularly because there are certain subjects (maths and physics was mentioned by one of the other panellists)… fewer young people studied them to A level and beyond under the last Labour government that has led to issues with teacher recruitment. We are putting that right”

First things first – get your facts right and stop telling porkies. The below graph shows the trend for people taking Mathematics and Further Maths at A level. Contrary to what you stated the numbers show that “A level Maths and Further Maths” were at the highest level in nearly 20 years when the coalition government took over and has continued to grow. It is now also the most popular subject at A level.

history pic

(2) Prior to 2003 JCQ did not report A level and Further Mathematics separately.

I hate stats as they are so open to interpretation and I could suggest that the decline started under the Tory government and for most of New Labour’s time they increased in general, HOWEVER, there will be other reasons behind all the declines and increases and this is a tough one to pin down … dare I suggest that there is more likely to be a correlation between the economy and jobs market than with the government of the day. I’m sure someone more educated could come along and tie in the dips and rises in the graphs with edu-events or curriculum overhauls such as “Curriculum 2000” which could be argued was driven by QCA as a response to the decline and no particular political party in reality. At this point I’m going to go out on a limb and say: teacher recruitment and retention has feck all to do with how many students take A level maths, under Labour or otherwise. My GCSE students would tell you that there is no correlation!

If you genuinely believe that the issue of teacher recruitment is because less people are studying Maths at A level and beyond (apart from being just WRONG) it also raises a number of issues for me – you really can’t be that distanced from a teachers “lot” – Nope … it’s just impossible for you to believe.

Note when I continue below that I also happen to LOVE MY JOB I put it down to my “Blogging Tourettes”

I wonder if you are “that” short-sighted – surely you can’t believe what you said. No. You just can’t. I get that we need people to study maths at A level and beyond (it’s a pre-requisite of teaching the subject, or at least “it was” but we’ll be letting anyone teach it if you guys have your way with your proposals!). You must remember much of the drive for increasing participation at A level was driven by commerce/business saying they required these skills which doesn’t leave much left over for teaching does it and I can’t see any sign of the 1000’s of extra teachers Mr Cameron promised! Personally I love the idea of studying Maths after GCSE because it’s fun, infuriating, creative, challenging, thought provoking and so on, and so on .. What worries me is that other people will have heard what you said and assumed you are right … I try to be factual. OK so sometimes I’m also sarcastic (I’d say funny!) and confrontational (I’d say challenging!) but I at least try to stay on the right side of the “Liar, liar .. your bum’s on fire” line.

Anyway back to the point. In short (I mean it this time!) the following are just my thoughts (for what they’re worth) on some of he issues in maths recruitment and retention:

  • Maths grads (and even maths related subjects) can demand more money in the “real world” (I know this for a fact – I’m a career changer and took a considerable pay cut to become a teacher and had to pay for the privilege of getting my teaching qualification!!) The scholarships are fab but lots of these students on this route into teaching maths will now drop to M1 or possibly M2 or 3 on the pay scale and be looking at a significant pay drop and again will have paid for their quals. The difference between points on the pay scale are cumulative over a longer period of time – for example it’s not just the, for example £1500 in year 1 but because it’s becoming tough to “jump points” on the scale it could be £1500 every year
  • The hours involved to do your job to the best of your ability are not sustainable – Maths teachers are pulled in all directions, whether it’s providing work for non-subject specialists to putting in extra hours for intervention and revision. It just can’t continue. (I dread to think what we’ll have to do to deliver on your “resit” promise! Another crap idea by the way … Primary schools couldn’t get the kids to “expected progress” in 7 years so how are we going to do it in just 3 months!!)
  • The changes you are making to the curriculum and assessment are all very rushed given the debacle of the accreditation process at GCSE last year (we didn’t get specimens until the last day of May!) Whenever there is a change we need notice and LOTS OF IT! For example we are still waiting to hear whether there will be a legacy resit for our current year 11’s … stop announcing stuff and then not delivering the details. It just stinks of you lot in power thinking up ideas and then announcing them as “plans” with a view to seeing what the public reaction is before you really think it through. All this does to the profession is cause a shedload of panic. For flips sake think through the repercussions and slow down. If you need another example … look at the A level Maths accreditation process. That’s an absolute mess too. There isn’t enough time for people to digest the changes whilst also doing their day job.
  • Accountability on middle leaders and teachers in core subjects is MAHOOSIVE!! Ask any maths teacher what it is like on results day when a school hasn’t hit its 5 A* to C target because of “those 3 students” in their subject. Accountability is killing the profession. (Note 1)
  • The focus of teaching has moved from passing on a legacy to one of managing poor behaviour and crowd control – when did it move from being the students’/parents’ responsibility for achieving their results to that of the teaching profession AND we have to do it whilst the kid dicks around every lesson getting away with doing the minimum amount of work.
  • Teacher bashing. I’d like to say it was just down to the media but it is you guys too – we keep hearing in soundbites and speeches how sh1t we are and how you’re going to change it. This has to stop.

Following the budget my husband and I were discussing a current affairs podcast that he listens to and the hosts have a theory that it isn’t the “big announcements that are contentious” from governments that we need to worry about it is usually “something else” that they will “slide through” whilst we’re getting all outraged at the original “thing”. Whenever the host’s suspect that this is what someone is doing they have a shout-out that they use, they mimic that thing kid’s do of pointing and shouting something random as a diversion tactic. So I wonder what it is that you are trying to distract us away from?

My final thought …. **points and shouts*** : “SQUIRREL!”squirrel

I’m now on holiday this week … not that there will be much time off. I have lots of stuff to do and try to get ahead of the game when we go back after Easter – I’m also in on Weds for a revision class. Fun!!

Mel

NOTES & SOURCES

(1) TBH I’ve never experienced this having worked in schools that have gone onto achieve amazing results but I can only imagine what it is like – this in itself brings its own issues.

(2) If anyone could point me in the direction of figures for A level entries for the period 1961-1988 I’d be most grateful – email me: mel@justmaths.co.uk

Data sourced from MEI – Pre-Uni Maths Guide and Stubbs