I burn with ambition to see children shine like the sun

Wanting the best for pupils is not enough on its own – teachers need to know the facilities and support are available to help children realise their full potential
2nd June 2017, 12:00am
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I burn with ambition to see children shine like the sun

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/i-burn-ambition-see-children-shine-sun

My last birthday was a milestone one: the kind that makes conversations about what you want to do when you grow up about 100 per cent less likely than chats about anti-ageing creams.

I don’t think I mind getting older but I am disappointed I can no longer cite my age as a legitimate reason why I’m not yet a headteacher, prize-winning novelist or president of France.

It probably signifies a distinct lack of ambition that I still prefer to remain a budget-sapping classroom teacher rather than climb the ladder. But then again, is ambition always a good thing? It wasn’t for Julius Caesar or the Macbeths and it didn’t work out for Daedalus and Icarus. I can’t be the only teacher to lament the torrent of ill-thought-out reform that pours into schools from politicians ambitious to make their mark.

Whether your ambition is “burning” or “naked” (a term generally applied to women who aspire to the same end goal as men and don’t have the good taste to hide it), on balance, I would say it is still better to have some than none at all.

In schools, ambition takes many forms, from a Sats clean sweep to winning the primary football league. A friend once heard an Ofsted inspector ask a chair of governors what ambitions he harboured for the children of his school.

The chair - also the parish priest - told him, “I want them all to go to heaven”, which I like to think left the inspector puzzled over which box to tick.

My own ambitions for the children I teach are fairly straightforward: I want them all to achieve their full academic potential: to be happy, kind, confident and independent (in any order). And you can’t achieve the big ambitions without ticking off the smaller ones first: I also want Billy to learn his 7 times tables; Kayleigh to stop saying unkind things to Jessica and Ashton (the original fidget spinner) to last 10 minutes on a chair without standing up or turning round.

But it’s the ambitions beyond our control that still haunt us. I wanted Summer to have her own bed to sleep in and a school uniform that was clean and didn’t reek of smoke. I wanted Callum and his younger brother to go home to a parent and a hot meal, not another bag of crisps in an empty flat. I wanted Keisha to be nowhere near her drug-addicted mum until better support was in place.

Ambition alone is not enough. It needs practical back-up and support. It’s got a lot to smash through. Poverty and a turbulent home life might be no excuse for lack of academic achievement but they certainly don’t help.

If teachers are to be ambitious for children, we need people to be ambitious for us. We need to be backed by adequate funding, suitable buildings and a system as fair as possible. We need to know that the extra support our children may need will be accessible. We need to fortify our ambition so it doesn’t melt and plummet when it gets too close to the sun.


Jo Brighouse is a pseudonym for a primary teacher in the Midlands. She tweets @jo_brighouse

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