‘Help me out, someone’

Don't confine teachers to the classroom, says Matthew Godfrey – it's good for the pupils to see them involved in extra-curricular activities

This article appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 16 September 2004

One day this summer, while rock-climbing in Snowdonia with a group of pupils from my school, I became very jittery when I reached the top of a crag. I needed to lean back from the rock face and start "walking" down it, but, try as I might, I could not bring myself to release my grip and lean back.

The 14-year-old boy who had the job of releasing slack rope to me soon spotted I was nervous. He called up from below: "Don't worry, sir, you're fine. Simply let go, lean back and walk down slowly - I'll feed you the rope."

His reassuring tones did the job: before I knew it, I was safely down. I launched into a rush of thanks for the way he had guided me with such calm confidence. He shrugged off the praise and laughed about how odd it had been to boss the teacher around for once.

This incident reminded me that pupils benefit from witnessing their teachers' fallibilities from time to time. On this occasion, my vertigo enabled the boy to show his leadership skills; similarly, in the classroom, pupils like to help out if I forget something.

For example, as an English teacher, I occasionally find myself saying, "Somebody remind me, how does this quote end?" or, "Help me out, someone - which character was it who said that?"

Pupils enjoy these moments because they see that I am human and they get to feel useful and involved. Furthermore, if pupils know that I will acknowledge and praise them when they help out in class, they are more likely to respect my advice and criticism when I give it to them.

My trip to Snowdonia also demonstrated how useful it is for pupils to see their teachers as active members of the school community, not just as specialists in their subject areas.

Of course, it is important for my pupils to know that I am first and foremost an English teacher; but it helps, too, if they can see that I have other interests, and also that I have some awareness of theirs. This contributes to mutual respect and, more important, it helps to show that school is not just about passing exams: it is about gaining a wide-ranging, well-balanced education.

One of the reasons I have been much happier as a teacher over the past year is that I have been working at a school that tries hard to maintain this kind of broad ethos. I have found it motivating and liberating to know that my time and influence during each day are not confined to the classroom.

The school invests regularly in music, art, drama and sports facilities but combines this with the expectation that teachers will get involved in areas that interest them. Often, teachers volunteer to do this out of normal school hours, although the timetable is designed to allow activities to happen during break times and as part of a teacher's daily schedule. I take games sessions two afternoons each week.

The school – Latymer Upper in west London – is independent and so is better placed than most state schools to spend money and organise itself in the way it chooses.

It is also able to select well-motivated pupils who want to get involved in the extra-curricular activities that the school provides. But elsewhere in the teaching profession, there are signs that the role of teachers is becoming narrower and that the notion of an "all-round" education is being eroded.

Some schools now rely on out-of-school facilities and staff to provide extra-curricular opportunities to their pupils. The local education authority of my previous school built a multi-million pound information technology centre, to be used by state schools in the area.

The idea was that teachers could contact the centre, book a room, and then take pupils there for a special training session. Not only was this impractical – the centre was a 30-minute walk from the school – but it also sent a message to the pupils that the facilities and staff at their own school were inadequate.

In addition, some headteachers are now unwilling to place extra-curricular demands on teachers because they feel they are already overburdened by the curriculum.

Some schools, on the advice of one of the teachers' unions, are even paying specialist coaches and leisure centres to organise more sport in school time instead of getting teachers involved. Such moves disengage teachers from an essential and motivating aspect of school life and diminish the community spirit.

I have noticed, too, that advertisements for teaching vacancies now often read like jobs in corporate middle management. Bland phrases such as "excellent organisational and interpersonal skills required" and "good opportunities for professional development" are frequently used.

They leave me cold, and I wish that bolder phrases such as "distinctive ethos" and "enviable reputation for encouraging extra-curricular activities" were used more often.

My week in Snowdonia was part of our school's "activities week" in the summer term, when every single pupil at the school stops his or her academic work and gets involved in some kind of extra- curricular activity with a group of others and at least one teacher.

I know that some other schools – both state and independent – have similar mind-broadening and educationally sound schemes, and I hope that more and more schools decide to follow their lead.

Published in The Daily Telegraph on 16 September 2004