This Sunday has been a difficult day for the Teale household, although, glancing at today’s headlines, possibly not as difficult as Gordon Brown’s.
My husband has spent the day writing his CV in preparation for reapplying for his job. The school of which he is headmaster is being amalgamated with another due to falling school roles. Worryingly, all the recent local amalgamations have appointed external head teachers, making the sitting tenants redundant, so it’s a nail-biting time for us.
My husband tells me, bitterly, that doctors don’t know they’re born, which makes for lively dinner-time conversation - but in some ways I have to admit he may have a point.
Despite the attractive holidays, being a teacher is not the sinecure it’s widely thought to be. As a school governor, I recently sat on an appointments panel for a newly-qualified teacher. We had 138 applicants for the job, and short-listed 11, all of whom had fantastic CV’s with only marginally fewer ‘A stars’ than those I used to see during my college tutor days. Of the eight we interviewed, all were articulate, bright and appealing young people. This for a starting salary of £25,000.
Once fortunate enough to be appointed, teachers have to undergo regular scrutiny by their senior management team, and then, during thee-yearly OFSTED visits, by the dreaded inspectors, who make personal criticisms of their teaching and grade them from inadequate to outstanding.
For a lesson to be graded good or outstanding, the teacher will need to have prepared the lesson in detail, with clear lesson targets, and also be able to demonstrate whether those targets were met. They must have a clear idea of, and plan for, the progress of every child in their class. The head teacher is personally judged by OFSTED, and has his or her name plastered all over the local papers should the school get a bad report, which, unlike the case of MPs, generally results in a resignation.
Doctors have so far been largely spared this sort of direct and public scrutiny, other than by the imperfect appraisal system, and, for surgeons, having their mortality rates published on systems such as Dr Foster. Nobody’s standing in the corner watching us give an anaesthetic or take out someone’s lumbar disc, or run a chronic renal failure clinic. This may be the future, though.
To keep the peace I’ve conceded that teachers have a tough time - however, one thing we both agree on is that both schools and the NHS are unfairly criticised for things beyond our control. The NHS is castigated for not producing the longest life expectancy and the highest cancer survival rates, but it can no more cure all the obesity, alcoholism and depression which are the by-products of the society we live in, than schools can prevent delinquency, teenage pregnancy and poor parenting.
If we seriously tried to prevent these problems happening in the first place, we probably wouldn’t need to be looking at front-line service cuts at all. Let’s hope the next government tackles this end of the equation, although I don’t hold out much hope. It’s just much easier to blame the teachers and doctors for not being able to sort out the mess.
Two weeks until interview day. By the time you read my next blog, I might be the family’s sole breadwinner, so wish us luck…
Tags: Inspection
I’d take a bit more scrutiny for 8 weeks holiday in the summer…
Please god, don’t let him start moaning about how they do actually have to work long hours too, what with marking sats every night… I can’t stand teachers. Sorry Katherine
I am a geriatrician who looks after patients whose average age is 84 years. We are so successful in our management of patients [best medium sized hospital in the country] that the average age of patients going into the rehab ward with a potential for improvement and getting back on their feet is 84 years!. The average life expectancy of a British female and especially a male is well below this. I agree that most of the time it is a lovely job.
Yet there are times when an 89 year old dies we have to go to courts to explain the cause of death and the management by us and others [many of whom are not answerable to us] in front of the coroner, the family, solcitors representing the families and the man from the media. We too see our names in the local newspapers - even though we have not been responsible for the death and have done everythng in our capacity with the resources availabe to do the best we can. From the day we are summoned to courts we spent agonising nights staring at the ceiling as to what the outcome of the court case would be [anything from a pleasant and genuine thank you from the family to a manslaughter charge], having worked far longer hours than anyone else. This has become a common occurence since the havoc created by Dr Shipman. It looks as if the day you qualify as a doctor you are regarded as a potential murderer.
Every profession has its ups and downs. Let us not judge other professions but respect them. - Angelan