Carolyn O’Grady hears how a painful mistake taught three teachers to assess what they really wanted in a job. At college we were told to grab the first job we were offered. I did, but I knew it wasn’t really my cup of tea.” It’s a familiar cri de coeur in a time of job scarcity. But is it an attitude that a college ought to be encouraging? In Susan Jones’s case, the beggars-can’t-be-choosers line prevented her from the kind of soul-searching and research by which she might have understood better her own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher.
It also inhibited her from asking the kind of questions which might have given her a better understanding of the ethos of the school and avoided a painful mistake. Schools vary a great deal and teachers may find that their situation and their personality equips them better for some than for others.
On the day of her interview Susan was shown round the building. “I only saw the externals. The school building was amazing. It was incredibly well resourced.” What she hadn’t noticed was that the school had many children with extremely difficult behaviour.
Some teachers would find this a challenge to which they would respond with delight, as they might to the open plan design and the team teaching. But Susan didn’t. Too late she realised that she could work much better in a more traditional primary school, with individual classrooms. After a painful year, she is now looking for another job.
Visit the school when the pupils are there and try to get an insight into the school’s ethos, is Susan’s advice to teachers seeking their first job. And don’t be afraid to ask questions whenever the opportunity presents itself. “Ask about policies: are there maths and reading and discipline policies and what are they?” A school usually builds up a reputation in an area and the best way to assess this is to talk to other teachers or to parents who live in the locality.
Susan also recommends that would-be staff take a look in on the staff room in a break time to try and assess the atmosphere.
Teaching can be a time consuming and stressful and it is very important that staff can let off steam, have a laugh and give each other support.
Bob Maynard’s experience was at the other end of the spectrum. For some years he has been working in a small independent boys secondary school, but now he is beginning to dislike the narrowly academic approach. “Most teachers would love to teach a class of receptive pupils who do their homework and get wonderful results,” he says. “But now I think I would prefer a school which gave a broader education. At this school, to get into the orchestra you have to have reached a certain grade. At the local comprehensive the important thing is to take part - it doesn’t matter what your standard is to start with.
“It’s the same with theatre. We do Shakespeare, nothing wrong with that, but they also do big, fun musicals. Only the standard, mainstream sports are played here. And the school is too fussy about things which are not important, such as uniform.”
“I feel they don’t encourage individuality,” is how he sums it up. It is a lesson in how new teachers should work out their view of education and think before they leap. But it is not always just the temperament of the teacher which should influence the type of school they go too. Their larger situation is also important.
Anne James did a PGCE in her forties when her two children were both at school. “Having had children is an extremely valuable experience for a teacher,” she says. “But it can be difficult knowing a lot about life and yet being very low down the career ladder. You need to feel you are somewhere where that experience is valued.” She now feels that if a school does not acknowledge the value of the experience mature teachers with families bring to the job it is also unlikely to acknowledge the obligations they have to that family.
“It’s difficult to leave school to pick up your children if everyone is staying for meetings,” she says. “And there is nothing worse than being in a job where you feel constantly guilt ridden because of factors you have no control over.”
Gauge the demands on teachers, she advises. Find out what are the directed hours? What time do people generally leave? Are there early morning meetings? Long hours, she points out, do not necessarily correlate with efficiency. “I know one school where the head has a child and is out of the door at 4. 30pm every night - it’s a well run school.” But some schools, possibly because staff don’t mind, do expect them to spend long hours on the premises.
In future she will find out the ages of the staff and ask whether they have children, not only because then the school is more likely to be geared towards their needs, but also because she would understandably like to have colleagues who were more her own age.
The names in this article have been changed.
