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Why I've chosen a 'difficult' school

Matthew Godfrey, who is retraining as an English teacher, reports on the great class divide

 This article appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 10 June 2000

THE PAST year, during which I have trained as a secondary teacher of English, has been dazzling, not least because my 25 weeks of teaching experience have been split between two completely contrasting types of school.

The first - Hurlingham and Chelsea in south-west London, which I wrote about on this page four months ago - is a co-educational inner-city comprehensive where just 18 per cent of pupils pass five or more GCSEs at grades A to C.

The second - Trinity, in Croydon - is a prestigious independent school for boys where 100 per cent of the pupils meet the same criterion and virtually all go on to leading universities.

So, over the past year, I have taught pupils who have difficulty reading and pupils preparing for Oxbridge. I have taken mixed-ability classes requiring widely differentiated work, and classes where ability is uniformly high. I have witnessed extremes of behaviour, from pupils shouting abuse at each other in class to those who stand respectfully when a visitor enters the room.

In short, I have had to learn to adapt to a range of circumstances. At Hurlingham and Chelsea, I had to develop classroom management skills to handle the pupils' general lack of confidence, and a variety of ability and behavioural problems. At Trinity, the focus has been more academic: developing my own subject knowledge and providing sufficiently challenging lessons.

My spell at Trinity has made me raise my expectations. Of course, higher standards are only to be expected at such a privileged and selective school, but once you have witnessed one set of pupils behaving well, working diligently and producing work of high quality, it makes it harder to accept anything different elsewhere.

Had I encountered nothing but "challenging" behaviour during my induction year, my personal expectations might have been eroded. Independent schools educate seven per cent of pupils but, as we have been reading recently, account for 50 per cent of Oxbridge students. It would be foolish not to think carefully about the reasons for the sector's success.

The great advantage of my training is that I have had the opportunity to try a variety of classroom approaches. Having taught around 250 lessons during the year, I feel that I have a clearer idea of what works and what does not.

On my course - the Institute of Education's Post-Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) - no particular pedagogy has been actively promoted. Rather, the emphasis has been on selecting a strategy appropriate for the context and then evaluating its effectiveness.

I have been trained to ask myself three questions after each lesson: What did the students learn? How do I know? Was learning possible, challenging and interesting for all pupils?

Teaching practice represents around two-thirds of the time spent on the course. Performance is monitored through regular observation and feedback. In addition, several research-based projects, large amounts of reading and a lengthy course of lectures have to be completed. At times, fellow trainees have declared themselves "seriously stressed out".
Furthermore, completion of the PGCE must now be followed by a one-year probationary period before qualified teacher status (QTS) is granted. And we have to take a maths exam, too.

However, the workload is manageable. Having come from the commercial sector, I have always been sensitive to people's frequent warnings about the stress factor in teaching and have been keen to note any tips on avoiding "burn-out".

While no magic formula has emerged, I have received plenty of sound, common-sense advice. Good planning and organisation are essential; set standards for work and behaviour and stick to them; follow things up; keep an enthusiastic, polite, reasonable and calm demeanour in class; do not be over-sensitive to comments from disgruntled pupils; and maintain a life outside what can be an all-consuming occupation.

All of this advice will be on my mind as I take up my first appointment - at Hurlingham and Chelsea. A vacancy arose at the school and, having been encouraged to apply, I decided to go for it.

My descriptions of the school might lead people to think I am mad. But it is a dynamic place that is undergoing rapid improvement and growth. The job should prove an exciting start to my career, not least because of the opportunities that will arise as the school expands. It also happens to be a 20-minute bike ride from home.

I am looking forward to enjoying the trappings of a "proper" teacher: my own classroom, a status within the school, being able to build long-term relationships with pupils and, of course, a salary. The absence of these things does tend to make life as a trainee teacher a little more complicated - though from September, all PGCE students will receive a £6,000 salary.

Having procrastinated for years about becoming a teacher, I am pleased to have finally got round to doing it. As for the stress factor, I become stressed if I feel that I am doing the wrong thing. Now that I am (nearly) a teacher, I know I am doing the right thing.

Matthew Godfrey will be reporting from time to time on the development of his career.


Published in The Daily Telegraph on 10 June 2000

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