Part way through writing this week's chapter of our anthology on teacher stress, I came across a post on the Derby University blog that expressed all I had in mind - except with more insight and erudition than I can quite manage. So with their permission, we have a guest post from Dr Sarah Charles and [...]
Pre-pandemic, every time stress in teaching came up in the press, the same claims about causes were fired off: Workload – rigorous marking policies, the relentless need to document all decisions, differentiating for all learners in planning as well as endless data entry Correspondingly long working hours, much of which is unpaid Greatly increased top-down [...]
As the festive season ebbs into distant memory, accompanied by all of its good cheer, people are once more ready to feel bad about things. Cue a slew of articles last week once more highlighting the stress epidemic gripping the profession. What’s new here? Not much, except that stress is spreading. Metastatic, its migrated to [...]
There’s a familiar battery of daft arguments that plague debates about teacher stress. It seems absurd to give them any airtime, but having just surveyed the comments sections of recent articles on the stress epidemic I can see that they’re still in wide circulation. And, of course, even some prominent public figures still openly extoll [...]
With both pupil numbers and demand for teachers set to rise in the near future, it will become increasingly important for school leaders not just to recruit, but to retain good staff. New models for better retention are required. The number of teachers joining the profession has roughly counterbalanced the number leaving it in recent [...]
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably sick to death of people outside the profession telling teachers how to teach. If everyone’s an expert, then the craft is debased into non-existence. That’s why it's always exciting when someone who know education from the top and bottom offers their guidance. Teacher Booker were honoured to be [...]
Teachers always know when its close to Christmas. Even if they’ve somehow managed to avoid being carpet-bombed with seasonal adverts, they can sense the change in air pressure around school. The machine is slowly grinding to a halt, ready to power down for the holidays. In such a climate of school plays, Christmas jumper [...]
Over the weekend I was delighted to spy this brave blog post on Teacher Toolkit, the UK’s most followed education blog. Titled ‘Why Supply Agencies are the new ‘Del Boys’’, it is as forthright as it is faithful to the facts in summarising the current state of play in how agencies and schools interact. Numerous issues in this dynamic [...]
A great spectre haunts teaching - the spectre of challenging behaviour. It's a terribly powerful force, leaving many terrified of their own classrooms and spooking many out of the profession entirely. Yet many insist the problem is trivial and that proper lesson planning and arbitrary CPD can ward against it. Some disagree and believe [...]
Teacher Booker were pleased to attend the recent 2017 MATs Summit, and delighted at the overwhelmingly positive response to our vision and approach to changing the landscape of educational recruitment. Marooned by a placid lake in the Cotswolds, the 200 strong delegation featured MAT CEOs, business managers and head teachers alongside industry experts from [...]
