Memorandum submitted by Terry Creissen,
Principal, Colne Community School
One of the reasons we have financial problems
in schools is the teacher shortage of the past five years. Last
year was particularly bad as demand outstripped supply. Consequently,
good teachers were able to command a higher salary and Heads were
willing to pay additional management points to ensure that their
schools were fully staffed.
The impact on retention resulted in many Heads
offering financial incentives for staff to stay in post. Thus,
teachers who were relatively inexperienced were offered management
points or recruitment and retention points to remain and not be
lured to a neighbouring school.
Whilst salary is a factor in determining retention
(and recruitment), it only has a short-term gain. Longer-term
retention strategies must look beyond the simple financial rewards.
This focuses on the work-life balance (workload), the quality
of the school (in terms of standards of discipline and pupil attainment),
as well as the quality of the working environment (time and space
to plan, prepare and assess learning as well as support from senior
staff and colleagues). Retaining good quality staff requires a
balance of sufficient challenge to keep the job interesting with
sufficient support to demonstrate that staff are valued in their
interactions with youngsters.
Interestingly, the biggest factors seem to focus
on pupil behaviour and workload. Both of these are in the hands
of teachers themselves. If, instead of moaning about lower standards,
teaching staff collectively worked to improve standards, their
job satisfaction, work-life balance and level of senior staff
support would improve dramatically. Those who simply blame senior
staff for failing to sort out poor pupil behaviour should think
before condemnation. The teacher who is without sin should be
encouraged to throw the first stone. In this job, all of us have
walked past a child who is not in correct uniform, has said a
swear word, has dropped litter or other worse examples of poor
behaviour. We have not always stopped to deal with the issue because
we are in too much of a rush or too exhausted to challenge another
student at the end of the school day. All of us have delivered
a mediocre or even a poor lesson at some point because we didn't
give enough thought to our planning and failed to meet the specific
learning needs of a group of children in that class. Consequently,
achievement in that lesson was non-existent and behaviour issues
arose because the children were not given the right opportunities
to develop their learning. To blame this on senior staff, LEAs,
Ofsted and the Government is simply passing the buck. As professionals
we need to make sure we work in collaboration with colleagues
for the benefit of our learners. We may not always get it right
and when we do not we ought to be professional enough to reflect
on why that was the case and take action to avoid the problem
in the future. When we do get it right, we should be suitably
praised for achieving success in the complex job of educating
young minds.
The Government and senior school leaders can
improve retention in the profession by applauding our successes
and providing sufficient space to allow professional time to reflect
on problems. Teachers can improve their own lot by expending energy
on reflection and resolution to problems with colleagues rather
than trying to blame others for the situations that the teachers
themselves have more power to avoid than anyone else. There are,
of course, instances when retaining the services of some teachers
is not desirable.
Central to all of this is the quality of leadership
in our schools. This is proven to be good overall but where it
is weak, teachers are not encouraged to take proper control of
their own responsibilities and a consistent approach to planning,
teaching and pupil discipline is not maintained.
June 2003
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