06/06/2023
When I moved to Leeds from London I was very optimistic about the future. I was happy to move from the capital to a place that was cleaner, friendlier, and cheaper to live. All of these elements make life here much better than the noise and misery I endured living in West London.
One of the reasons I enjoy living here is the small school I go to on this day. An old Victorian-era building, faithfully serving its community for over a century. It’s a single-form entry institution with a storied past. When you walk past Hyde Park and down the red brick streets you are greeted by a building from a former age but with the sounds of youth still making it feel alive.
It is very refreshing to see a school continue its story amidst the fast changes of time. I go in and have to teach a year 5 class of an array of students whose names I struggle to say. Coming from many countries, each smiles with the recognition that today they will have a supply teacher. Some children will take more liberties with a supply, they will act out, ask to go the bathroom often, and in general become somewhat annoying but often and in this case not in a malicious way.
I am to teach art and history and I am given an overview of what needs to be done that evening. At 12:30 I take the register on the SIMS platform, trying carefully to say the children’s names and being greeted with laughter, it is a good and fun start.
12:45 We start the art, it’s about sculpture from two famous artists and what their style was. The children have covered elements of this type of art before and so can easily get to work doing the work left for them to complete. My main role is to help the EAL and children with learning needs and they are amazing and full of enthusiasm as they have never had a male teacher.
13:55 The students have completed most of the work and I have marked all of it. We move swiftly onto the History which is about the early Islamic empire and the division between Shia and Sunni which the Islamic students were very keen to inform me of. I had the students read parts of the script from the board about the Abbasid Caliphate and with time coming to a close rapidly I had to get the children prepared for home at 15:15 so with 10 minutes remaining we enjoyed a simple game of Pictionary which the girls won comfortably 3-0 using logic and timing. The game is competitive but well-received and the students are full of smiles.
15:15 The children are walked down the stairs to be received by their parents and I have enough time to pick the brains of the head of the school about the challenges they face with crippling maintenance costs and fewer students. The things she would see changed are a reflection of my own, a curriculum bereft of direction and the influence of Ofsted, an organization despised by all in the endeavor of education. Honest and frank but determined to make an impact in children’s lives, she is an excellent role model worthy of leadership.
It is then with a slight sadness that I report to you all that London is where I will go next as the opportunities are not as plentiful as I was led to believe. In reflection, I see the exploitation of the agency at work again. They care only for profit, communication is not part of their repertoire, or understanding the precarious nature they force on the kind souls who work for them. It is a lesson I will learn well and use it to my advantage. I am at fault, I cannot blame others for my own mistakes but these lessons, while difficult are molding me into a better teacher.
In the next entry, I will try to inform you about the dangers of modern education and what it means for the children of tomorrow. Until then, thanks for reading.