Are you revved up or clapped out?

8th March 2002, 12:00am

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Are you revved up or clapped out?

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/are-you-revved-or-clapped-out
Your career might be in need of a service or maybe it has reached reached the end of the road? Jill Parkin’s questionnaire helps you find out.

1. The head says there’s money in the kitty for professional development, supply cover no problem. Do you?I A Suggest a whole staff in-service day with guest speaker and workshops on gender differences in childhood learning B Consider that part-time master’s course you’ve long wanted to do C Find out about study breaks at the local university so you can research field projects for your class D Ask your head for some advice about what might be available and see if there’s anything you fancy.

2. Parents’ evening is the usual chaos with not a sign of the ones you’d really like to see. Do you?I A Send individual letters home inviting them to fix another appointment, with flexible timing B Take it philosophically. After all, you can’t make them come C Catch them in the playground, the supermarket, down the pub or wherever you spot them and ask for a word D Feel rather depressed that parents’ evenings are so ineffective.

3. Your subject is being downgraded after a curriculum review. Do you?I A Study the review and draw up a strong case against it to present to the head B Wait and see. Well, a contract is a contract C Start looking for another school where your teaching will be valued D Treat it as an opportunity to re-invent yourself in a vogue subject or pastoral role.

4. Ofsted identifies serious weaknesses. Your attitude isI A “The school should go for any funding there is: specialist, community, beacon. It’s a great challenge.”

B “Bloody Ofsted! Other professionals don’t have to put up with this sort of nonsense.”

C Worry terribly about what the inspectors said and adjust your practice accordingly D Think they may have a point and become a vigorous member of the strategy committee.

5. Building funds are released for immediate use. You think the money should be spent onI A Refurbishing the reception area, interview room and sick bay.

B Anything the children can’t mess up. A new staffroom?

C Teaching resources and a new boiler.

D A studio theatre would be exciting.

6. A really unstable child arrives at school in need of a great deal of support. Do youI A Suggest asking for funding for a one-to-one learning support assistant until he settles down B Cross your fingers you don’t have to teach him C Talk to your class about him and arrange friendship groups D Suggest finding out from the authority’s educational psychologist whether music, drama or art might help him.

7. What would your 21-year-old self think of you?I A Heshe’d say “So far, so good.”

B Don’t think heshe’d recognise me.

C Heshe’d say: “We did it!”

D Heshe’d say: “Let’s have a think about this.”

8. Your head is thinking about replacingA-levels with the International Baccalaureate. Do youI A Offer to write a report on the staffing implications B Assume someone will let you know what you should be doing eventually C Look at what it means for your subject and see how teachable it seems D Read the whole thing from cover to cover and find it exciting.

9. Two senior members of staff leave and your head needs to re-assign some non-teaching responsibilities. Do youI A Offer to take on the timetable planning. Just up your street B Make no offer at all C Say you’ll be subject co-ordinator D Take on an after-school club or two.

10. A teaching exchange - “a term in your German twin town” - comes up. Do you?I A Go in the hope of studying leadership and teamwork in the German context B Have no intention of going, because better the devil you know C Say you have a full term planned here but you’d like to set up pupil email links with the German school to help with future projects D Go because it sounds interesting and you never know what might come out of it.

11. When you have anxiety dreams, are you?I A Late for an appointment because you have to tidy up big piles of paper first B In an interview for a teaching job C Trying to read an Oftsed report which seems to be written in Sanskrit D Paralysed and not sure which way to go.

12. When you get home, do you?I A Complain to your partner about how ramshackle the government’s approach to teacher shortages is B Spend the evening on that postgraduate degree work C Finish your marking and talk over a pupil problem before curling up with a book or in front of the telly D Wonder whether you should be changing something or other before staring into space and playing music.

How did you rate?

Mainly As You’re an asset to the school, but probably not to the classroom. Your interest is in making schools work rather than in teaching. You could be management material, so go to the Web to investigate the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers. If that doesn’t fit your bill, consider an adviser’s post.

Mainly Bs You’re in the wrong job and you’re doing no one any favours by staying in it. The best you can hope is that your profound apathy will disappear once you find the right job. If not, heaven help your new colleagues Mainly Cs You’re the real thing, right enough. A classroom teacher and happy with it. Make sure you stay abreast of changes and all the politicking you hate. Don’t let your more ambitious colleagues dump all the unpopular duties on you. And don’t stagnate. Better to move around than be pushed around.

Mainly Ds Something isn’t right, but because it isn’t glaringly wrong it’s hard to say exactly what you should be doing. See your head, consider the options. You may want to shift subjects, teach a different age range, specialise in some other way. Get it right and your job satisfaction will soar.

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