National Education Conference 2008
Six members of WSTA attended the National Education Conference 2008:
Angela Ahern (President)
Alison Baker (Vice President)
Marjory Hammond (Assistant Secretary and organising genius)
Derek McMillan (Helpline Co-ordinator and Learning Rep)
Veronica Peppiatt (National Executive member and Membership Secretary)
Malcolm Peppiatt (Classrooms for Kenya)
When they have recovered you will be seeing some reports on the conference on the blog.
The first is by Derek McMillan and covers the contribution of Professor Maurice Galton.
Have you ever felt that the introduction of PPA time has just seemed to be an opportunity for more of those “initiatives” which caused the workload crisis in the first place? “You must do this now, we've given you PPA time!”
Professor Maurice Galton's contribution to the conference was to explain his research on the effects of workforce reforms on schools. The most startling of which is that in fact teacher workload has increased rather than been reduced.
Time spent training and supporting Cover Supervisors has been one factor. While the government gets teaching on the cheap, valuable PPA time is eroded by this kind of activity.
The “Learning to Learn” and “Assessment for Learning” Framework is another. These changes require more time and different complex skills for teachers and are beyond the training of Cover Supervisors.
Teaching Assistants do a brilliant job but are often “glued” to a particular pupil and therefore cannot assist the teacher by lightening the workload.
And he quoted a statistic – concern about pupil behaviour in primary schools has increased; the number of classes being taken by Cover Supervisors or TAs in primary schools has increased. As one TA who was quitting the job put it, “The three day’s training wasn’t quite enough!”
The whole of Galton's work is summarised in the Education Review which can be obtained from the Union Learning Rep wstalearn@yahoo.co.uk for £5 plus P and P. I am aware of the irony, “I don’t have time to read about teachers’ excessive workload – too busy!”
Angela Ahern (President)
Alison Baker (Vice President)
Marjory Hammond (Assistant Secretary and organising genius)
Derek McMillan (Helpline Co-ordinator and Learning Rep)
Veronica Peppiatt (National Executive member and Membership Secretary)
Malcolm Peppiatt (Classrooms for Kenya)
When they have recovered you will be seeing some reports on the conference on the blog.
The first is by Derek McMillan and covers the contribution of Professor Maurice Galton.
Have you ever felt that the introduction of PPA time has just seemed to be an opportunity for more of those “initiatives” which caused the workload crisis in the first place? “You must do this now, we've given you PPA time!”
Professor Maurice Galton's contribution to the conference was to explain his research on the effects of workforce reforms on schools. The most startling of which is that in fact teacher workload has increased rather than been reduced.
Time spent training and supporting Cover Supervisors has been one factor. While the government gets teaching on the cheap, valuable PPA time is eroded by this kind of activity.
The “Learning to Learn” and “Assessment for Learning” Framework is another. These changes require more time and different complex skills for teachers and are beyond the training of Cover Supervisors.
Teaching Assistants do a brilliant job but are often “glued” to a particular pupil and therefore cannot assist the teacher by lightening the workload.
And he quoted a statistic – concern about pupil behaviour in primary schools has increased; the number of classes being taken by Cover Supervisors or TAs in primary schools has increased. As one TA who was quitting the job put it, “The three day’s training wasn’t quite enough!”
The whole of Galton's work is summarised in the Education Review which can be obtained from the Union Learning Rep wstalearn@yahoo.co.uk for £5 plus P and P. I am aware of the irony, “I don’t have time to read about teachers’ excessive workload – too busy!”
Labels: conferences, learning rep, NUT policy
posted by West Sussex Teachers' Association at
3:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home