Tutoring help too late

Of course most schools can't afford it but it's a clever way of saying, when all the results show that the poorest pupils are failing even more, that it is the school's fault, because they didn't take up the offered funding. So school heads face an awful choice once again, go for the funding and cut regular staff to pay the 25%, or stick with what you have and get nothing more. Really is it any wonder no one wants to be a head teacher?

Yes, they do have to pay 25%.

They're being given two lump sums. One is for general Covid costs (extra cleaning, supply teachers, photocopying, etc). My understanding is this isn't based on need. It's a basic lump sum.

I think the second amount might be based on need (need to check), but schools are expected to make up the shortfall from their general budget. Schools with more needy pupils will have to dip into their Covid budget, which they're already spending on Covid!

Meanwhile, many schools are still waiting for their promised laptops.

Does anyone have more info on the school contributions? I read they have to pay 25% of the costs.
Most schools have no slack in their budgets..

Irrespective of the quality of the teaching, can they afford it?

Good question jenpax. I'll see if I can find out.

I really hope I'm wrong, but this really seems like a case of producing a big figure just so that the government can claim it's doing something and can show it's ticked the box.

The agencies who will be responsible for delivering the tutoring are apparently going to be selected in November. I have a strange feeling even now I know who they will be.

I am not clear how the children who need tutoring are to be identified? Can anyone give more details?
Through lockdown and beyond I have paid a tutor to deliver maths and English tuition to my eldest DGS( via zoom) who is now in year 6, this wasn’t because he was behind, but I knew he had the 11+ coming up (next month) and didn’t want him to fall behind. I know that some other children in his class had the same, but there are others who didn’t and whose parents struggled with home school for a variety of reasons these children would possibly benefit more from the extra tuition resource than DGS who is already being supported.

Thank you trisher. Covid 19 has given teachers a rethink about their jobs in more ways than one. It will be interesting to watch in the next year or two how the numbers stack up.

Ellianne I don't think the2020 figures will be out yet. These are 2019

Entrants, leavers and changes in working pattern
There were 43,406 FTE qualified new entrants to teaching in state-funded schools in 2019. This includes:

23,064 newly qualified teachers (53% of all entrants)
15,754 who are returning to teaching after a break (36% of all entrants)
2,611 deferred NQTs (6% of all entrants)
1,977 teachers new to the state-funded sector (5% of all entrants)
The overall entrants rate was 10%, lower than in 2018 when the rate was 10.4%.


There were 39,675 FTE qualified teachers who left teaching in state-funded schools in 2019. This includes:

33,565 qualified teachers who are out of service (84.6% of all leavers). These are teachers who are taking a break from teaching (e.g. career break, secondment) and who may come back as returners in a later year, and those leaving the profession.
5,979 in service qualified teachers who retired (15.1% of all leavers). See the Teacher retirements section below for further details.
131 qualified teachers who died whilst in service (0.3% of all leavers)
The overall leavers rate was 9.2%, lower than 2018 when the rate was 9.6%.

The number of teachers who enter and leave the profession are not the only factors in changing FTE qualified teacher numbers between years. In 2019, 3.7% of qualified teachers increased their working hours, by either moving from part time to full time working or remaining part time but increasing their weekly hours. A greater percentage decreased their working hours. In 2019, 5.4% of teachers decreased their working hours, either by moving from full to part time working or by remaining part time but decreasing their weekly hours. Such changes in working pattern produced a decrease equivalent to approximately 3,200 FTE qualified teachers between 2018 and 2019.

Out of interest, have there been far fewer be appointments for the academic year 2020-2021? Surely no teacher, with half a brain, except retirees, would have handed their notice in during the summer term. I would have clung on tooth and nail under the circumstances. Therefore might there be fewer appointments for the new candidates to chase, meaning there will be more of them available to take up the tutoring?

I was one of the people who spent three years at training college (remember those) and had probably the most thorough teacher training ever. One of the most valuable things was the times we spent in schools doing teaching practice. It was strictly supervised and you had to go the extra mile. Even so I would say that I was learning things for my entire career and I picked up ways of dealing with very difficult children from some teachers who were younger than me. I do know from doing supply work that there is a world of difference between going into a school where you have a class of nice, well cared for children who know the rules and want to learn (which most people could probably manage) and trying to teach a class of children with real problems, personal, family and educational which even some qualified teachers can't do.

I would never be so arrogant as to claim that I have ever been a "brilliant teacher".
Oh come on growstuff, the words "brilliant teacher" were taken from 24Avalon's preceding comment!

Although I'd always been in the classroom, I've mentored over 60 student teachers and newly qualified teachers, with links to 5 university education depts at different times. The expectations of 2nd career student teachers were very variable, and school sometimes came as an unpleasant shock to them. The children they were used to dealing with were their own, and usually in ones or twos, not 30s! Those who'd been in school more recently often had a better grasp of what to expect.
You learn to be a good teacher by watching, listening and asking questions of those more experienced than you, and of your pupils. Some 2nd career students find it hard to do that with colleagues half their age, but who have more experience.

Re. Private school qualifications - I've looke but can't find any evidence that a teaching qualification is required to teach in a UK private or public school, although obviously some will demand it.

I don't think you have moved the thread away NotTooOld. You've explained in detail some of the many skills needed and which a teacher needs to use instinctively many times during a lesson. Maybe some recent graduates do have the interpersonal skills, just as some people are born salespeople. However, many don't, although they can be developed with time.

The children who need to "catch up" will probably come from relatively deprived backgrounds and/or be generally slow, unmotivated learners. Making real progress with them is not something anybody can do. Subject excellence is likely to be irrelevant, but a knowledge of the many ways children learn and how to motivate them to take ownership of their learning is.

I would never be so arrogant as to claim that I have ever been a brilliant teacher, but after over 30 years, I do have a wealth of strategies for pupils who don't follow the "normal" path. Maybe there really are some superstars who can do that without any experience or training, but not many.

Chardy - is that still correct? Oh dear. Almost everyone thinks they can teach, don't they? I used to teach teachers and I do believe you can teach people to teach but the outstanding teachers are the ones who know instinctively how to put a subject across, how to make it interesting and understandable - and sometimes fun. Other skills are needed, too. The ability to recognise a student who needs reinforcement, the testing of knowledge, the checking that learning has actually taken place. And then there are the practicalities of covering a curriculum within a limited time frame and still allowing for a period of revision, producing lesson plans and teaching materials, marking work and making productive comments, following up, counselling...and let's not forget classroom management - how do you teach quadratic equations and at the same time keep the rowdies in the back row engaged? If you are teaching adults how do you stop the chatty lady from dominating the classroom? What do you do about the little girl whom you know is being bullied because her clothes are wrong?
I'd better shut up now. I hope I've made the point that teaching is a skilled job and should rightly be recognised as such. I also apologise if I've moved the thread away from where it was going.

What experience did you have working with children before you started working in a private school?
Zilch, growstuff unless you count being a nanny and raising my own children, (who were actually harder work than a whole class!)
As ģeekesse pointed out able to manage classes and handle pastoral issues, and their subject knowledge is good.

Well at least there will be an abundance of jobless graduates this year *growstuff as I assume many firms have frozen their recruitment since March.

What experience did you have working with children before you started working in a private school?

But Ellianne the people whom the government wants to recruit won't necessarily have that kind of experience. The agencies will snap any graduate up.

As a French and German teacher, the worst teachers in my experience are native speakers who haven't done British teacher training. They're sometimes employed because there's a shortage, but they often have no idea what difficulties British children have in understanding what is second nature to them.
Exactement, stimmt, growstuff.

X post geekesse

*a not *at

Your post could have been me, geekesse, so here's a brief summary.
Degree from London
Study at Sorbonne
Teaching abroad
Training officer for graduate scheme in International bank
International police department
Teaching in private school UK
Headmistress
Teaching abroad
School trips organiser
Teaching in private school UK
Private tutor
GCSE bitesize script writer

I've never held at teaching qualification in my life. I came from a family of teachers if that helped? For me, the teacher was and is the method.

geekesse

*growstuff*, you said ‘ I think that's a bit of a generalisation’.

It was meant to be so. Every teacher is an individual. But I wanted to challenge the view that you have to hold QTS to be any good at teaching.

I'm sure you're right, but QTS does provide some form of quality control and basic training. As you know, there are many routes to QTS and it would be up to the headteacher to decide whether a teacher fulfils the requirements. The issue with tutoring is that the tutor would be expected to "hit the ground running" without any of the usual quality control, training or day-to-day monitoring. Pupils deserve better than that.

BTW I'm a bit unfamiliar with the current rules, but I thought that all teachers in state schools had to achieve QTS now, even if they don't have a PGCE or BEd. They used to do a form of on-the-job training.

The so-called "academic mentors" will mainly be volunteers. I receive an email most days asking me if I want to become one. It's being sold as a form of internship. Not only are they untrained, but they'll be taking pupils out of timetabled lessons, so they fall further behind.

growstuff, you said ‘ I think that's a bit of a generalisation’.

It was meant to be so. Every teacher is an individual. But I wanted to challenge the view that you have to hold QTS to be any good at teaching.

I think that's a bit of a generalisation geekesse, although there are some elements of truth. As a French and German teacher, the worst teachers in my experience are native speakers who haven't done British teacher training. They're sometimes employed because there's a shortage, but they often have no idea what difficulties British children have in understanding what is second nature to them.

Rather than discussing teacher competence in general, the issue here is that large numbers of completely untried tutors are going to be employed by agencies. If you have any experience of agencies, you'll know that their quality control is often lacking. There will be no shortage of recruits because there are few opportunities for graduates this year. A few of them will probably be brilliant, but most of them won't be and there will be no way of knowing how good they are until they've already spent weeks wasting tutees' time.

I think the payment issue will make it out of reach for many, irrespective of quality.