Culture shock

Wondering what to expect? Then you might find an article from the ‘Journal of In-Service Education’ worth reading. It records the views of 49 NQTs after their first term of teaching. It begins: ‘It has been recognised that the transition from student to NQT can be difficult. It has been called a dramatic and traumatic change and even a culture or reality shock”. The article is reproduced at www.triangle.co.ukbji24-03sc.pdf

More behaviour problems

NQTs in primary schools could find themselves dealing with a wider range of special needs than their predecessors. The National Foundation for Educational Research has found that up to 40 per cent of heads believe the number of children with special educational needs has risen over the past year. This includes an increase in pupils with behavioural problems. Of the 320 headteachers surveyed, 58 per cent said the range of special needs had widened.

Watch out for superhelpers

The job spec is about to change. How do you fancy shedding the photocopying and never ever having to venture into the dark realms of the stationery cupboard for, er... stocktaking? The Government may at last put its fine words about teaching assistants into practice with a new brand of “superhelpers”. As many as 50,000 trained assistants could be on their way into classrooms as part of a plan to “modernise the teaching profession”. With a carrot that big, what’s the betting that a pretty big stick is also in the offing?

Dope in his pencil

A Year 6 pupil in leafy Somerset has been caught with cannabis in his pencil case. The 10-year-old, from Elmhurst junior school in Street, has been punished for “showing off” and is now, the school says, “working with the deputy head” to understand the serious nature of drug abuse. If this represents youthful cool in the shires, you should be vigilant for a rash of Liquorice Allsorts done up in Clingfilm in your playground.

Next PM is a Gooner

Fresh-faced schools minister David Miliband is being touted as the next Prime Minister by Guardian Unlimited. But the website also unmasks him as an Arsenal fan and a “left-wing intellectual” nicknamed ‘Brains’. That should confound his politics, never mind frustrating his knavish tricks.

Bin there, done that

Teaching is sexy again. ‘The Observer’ reports that hordes of wealthy but unfulfilled professionals in their mid-thirties are walking away from their lucrative careers in the media, investment banking, law and fashion to try their hand with a stick of chalk.

Do you count?

A union is predicting problems for schools as teachers starting this term must pass a numeracy test before induction. The National Association of Head Teachers states that any newcomers who have not passed the test before starting their first job cannot be employed and will not be eligible to be paid as qualified teachers. The Association says it regrets “that some potentially good teachers will be lost to the profession through these arrangements” and has been lobbying the DfES.

Satisfied customers

The results of the 2002 NQT training survey carried out by the Teacher Training Agency found that 81 per cent of NQTs rated the overall quality of their training as good or very good, compared with 82 per cent last year. Two per cent rated it poor, the same as last year. The survey is worth seeing if you were one of the 33 per cent who bothered to reply. Check it out on www.canteach.gov.uk

Armchair protest

And you thought you had it bad. When you were offered a place on your teacher training course, did your acceptance note contain a threatening letter warning you to buy a TV licence or risk fines of up to a grand? - on top of tuition fees of up to pound;11,000 a year? Spare a thought, if not some change, for this year’s intake.

Silent protest

Do you recognise this pupil? He or she rates “protection from crime, access to a health service and being treated equally as the rights they would least like to lose”. The pupil also said “obeying the law, helping others and working hard” were important. The model youngster was unveiled in a poll by the DfES, designed to explore youngsters’ attitudes to politics. But before you rush to get the genetic code, be aware also that “only 27 per cent of young people would be upset if the right to vote was taken away from them”. Now that’s truly frightening.

Silent protest

The students are revolting at Imperial College, London, where plans to increase tuition fees could see them each paying up to pound;10,500 a year.The college, whose departments include a centre for educational development, is expecting the Government to remove the annual pound;1,100 cap on tuition fees and finding ways to profit in future. Students have denounced the plan as “provocative” and have held a silent protest at a meeting of the college council. When people in their early days of teaching want concessions on the debts they ran up as students, deregulation of fees could open the floodgates of discontent for the next generation.