#uk teaching

With PGCE being the qualification (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) and QTS being the license (Qualified Teacher Status), it doesn't matter which route you take within the UK, as the QTS is a direct recognition of the work you've done. The use of the PGCE is viewed more so for if you work overseas, as the QTS is done within a British setting, the PGCE helps in showing your greater understanding of education on a general level, as to apply it to different contexts. A PGCE comes with more studying within a University environment. You will learn about your subject in a more in-depth approach, as well as education and topics surrounding it. 

A QTS route offers more practical time within the school setting and offers you a more hands-on approach to learning about how to be a teacher. 

Last week, we had one confirmed case of Covid in a student, and 2 in staff.

A group of kids were asked to self isolate, although no staff were.

Over the weekend, another member of staff tested positive, as did several more students. Tracing student close contacts means over 100 students have now been sent home to isolate.

No staff have been sent home to isolate, and our head has made it very clear that he does not want any staff isolating. We are expected to never be in close contact with a student (IDK how e.g. first aid is meant to work then) and to not be within 2m of a student for more than 15 minutes. If you could see inside our classrooms, you would see this is impossible without the teacher teaching from the corridor or something equally bizarre.

Despite the fact that the coronavirus situation in one year group has escalated sharply, we are not allowed to send all of that year group home. At the moment, there are no cases in other “bubbles”, but I don’t see how that can last.

Only now are we allowed to reinstitute mask wearing in school, and as one of my Y10s said today “Bit late now, isn’t it?”

Sports day will still go ahead next week, despite it involving sports such and netball, football and touch rugby which require close proximity. Yes, some of these will be outdoors, but it still seems like a bad idea.

Staff are still expected to attend in person meetings and CPD, where, in some cases, social distancing was not possible.

According to my head, PHE consider our current situation “not a big deal” as this was the situation in schools up country for much of the autumn term. But cases in the local area continue to rise, and we know the virus spreading in school is a real problem.

All the staff members who’ve tested positive so far have had one vaccination only.

PHE are obviously desperate to keep schools open, and that means keeping teachers in school- both times schools have closed, it has really been down to a lack of teachers, in 2020 due to isolation, and in January due to proposed industrial action.

But keeping teachers in school, even with lateral flow tests available, clearly doesn’t help the situation. Lateral flow tests aren’t perfect, and miss cases, especially in the early stages when people can be asymptomatic and contagious.

Only sending kids home who sit within a carefully measured 2m of the ill student clearly doesn’t work. Honestly, the week before last, we had no cases, and now we’re here. This just feels so dangerous, and PHE/the DfE/schools themselves are playing fast and loose with everyone’s safety.

Schools are not safe, they never were, and things are more dangerous than ever now.

-How in so many professions in the UK, it’s seen as normal for the first few years to be the hardest, to have a high drop out rate of people who “can’t hack it” and then it gets easier.

The expectation of teachers to provide cover when they are off ill. I know a lot of teachers who say they don't take sick days because sometimes setting cover feels more difficult than going in and dragging themselves through the day.

-I know I am letting your kid down. Believe me, it is not on purpose.

-I know I should have printed the resources for them, but the internet was down last night, and I was dealing with an urgent safeguarding problem this morning, and all my PPA this week has been taken for cover.

-In every single class I teach, there is more than one child with diagnosed SEN. Sometimes, they have needs which are directly conflicting. I try my very best to support everyone, but it’s not perfect.

-No, there isn’t a TA, even when half the class is on the SEN register, unless there is a child with an ECHP (and sometimes their TA won’t turn up, due to staff shortages- we never get cover in for TAs).

-Small teaching groups are a thing of the past. 10 years ago, bottom sets often had <10 kids in them. These days it’s closer to 20. A lot of my teaching groups this year have 33/34 kids. I don’t even have enough seats for them all.

-I know your child is being let down by the school, but I am reluctant to discuss it with you, because if I admit to you that the school is failing, it will cause me professional difficulties, and I need to pay my rent.

-Sometimes, I just forget the thing I am supposed to do, because there is a limit to what I can remember, and yes, that is crap of me, but I am exhausted and incredibly stressed out. I am a crap teacher right now.

-I know the SENCO has promised you something. She hasn’t told me what. She doesn’t have time to answer my emails, and I don’t have time to go and see her in person.

-I know I’ve let your child down. There are days when I feel like I have let down every single child I teach.