Articles on Teaching in the UK
REFLECTIONS ON TEACHNG IN LONDON, ENGLAND
By Angela R. West - USA
Living in London, England had always been a dream. Growing up on the British comedies and particularly taking a fancy to Doctor Who, I felt that I was destined to one day ride a double-decker bus and eat pork pies until I was blue in the face. Of course living abroad is in some degree every post college bohemian dream. How to make that dream a reality was quite another task all together. Having graduated with a Master’s in Education and having taught for three years, I was happy to learn that since there was a teacher shortage in the UK (as in the USA) that a teaching job was a possibility.
My first source of information was the good old Internet. Typing in the key words TEACH ENGLISH AND ENGLAND, I was inundated with worthless information of people trying to sell me something that might or might not help me in my ex-patriot pursuits. One company, however, Southern Alps Recruitment placed teachers in schools directly and offered a guarantee payment scheme. Out of curiosity I e-mailed the representative Oli Hille and a string of e-mails began to follow. Once I was in London, a representative of Southern Alps, not only got me interviews, but was also very helpful in finding the type of job I wanted in the area I wanted.
Eventually I landed in Streatham (south London) with a ninety-day contract teaching drama. The first day in the classroom was a challenge as the students were shocked that their former teacher had taken off to travel the Outback for a year. I had to think quick and work quick in order to win the kids over to my side and convince them that a new way of doing things was going to be a good thing. They were pretty enthralled too I think, although some of them wouldn’t admit it, that I was American and I lived in New York City. With questions like, "Do you know Puff Daddy?", "Have you seen Jennifer Lopez?", "Which do you think is better - east coast or west coast rap?". I tried to impress them as much as possible and told them I went to school with Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett (which was the truth). Soon it started getting around the school and I was suddenly that cool American teacher.
At Bishop Thomas Grant, I was given all the responsibilities of a full faculty staff. This included, but was not limited to, a full teaching schedule, faculty meetings, parent teacher conferences, break duty and extra-curricular activity participation. I was teaching a different class of students every day. Three days a week I had up to five classes a day. One day of the week I had three classes and on Wednesday I only had two classes. With Wednesday afternoons completely free, I was able to meet weekly with the Drama Head of Department and plan curriculum.
The fact that I had a different class everyday, every period was somewhat difficult as with over 250 student contacts it was hard to get to know each student, even memorizing their names took some time. In addition, I had four different grade levels (year 7, 8, 9 and 10). I therefore had to construct four different lesson plans. It was a tremendous amount of work and it did pose some real issues such as classroom management because it was hard to get to know the students with only seeing them once a week. I would suggest if you are interviewing for a job, ask how many classes a week you will be teaching and also how many preps you will be expected to perform (the number of different grade levels you will be teaching).
There were advantages to this set-up as well. First, the advantage was that all students in the school had an opportunity to take drama. As a teacher passionate about my subject area, I was glad that every student had at least some exposure to acting. In addition, it allowed me to get to know a large portion of the students at the school. It also challenged me as a teacher because I had to invent new curriculum depending on the age of the students and this definitely made me use my imagination and expand my repertoire of acting activities. There were also different ability levels for each class as they were broken up into X band (the "supposedly" more able students) and Y band (the less able). This forced me to adjust my curriculum based on ability and learning styles in order to reach all students. And finally, don’t tell anyone I said this, but if you had a class with a lot of bad seeds, you only had to see them once a week! Which believe me helps with stress management.
I did find the students for the most part very courteous in the school I was teaching. They would open doors for you, greet you in the mornings, say please and thank you, as well as respond to acting activities for the most part positively. It was a Catholic School. The government in the UK supports religious schools so there is little difference between a public and private school (other than the uniforms and daily mass) like there is in the USA. A majority of the students were from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Some of them spoke English fluently, but about ¼ of them did not. Every school I interviewed at was very multi-cultural which can be both positive and challenging for a teacher. Understanding and appreciating cultural differences will get you a long way in the classroom. I would suggest as much curriculum as possible that allows these students to express their culture and feel proud of it as it builds their self-confidence. I was always allowing students to do skits in Spanish in drama class and they were really wonderful.
There were exceptions, however, and some were both academically and in terms of behavior (which often goes hand in hand) challenging. Whatever the behavior problem was, however, the faculty was extraordinarily supportive. I have never had as much support in an American school. Not only did the faculty greet you each morning and ask you how your day went at the end, but they were also around at lunch and break times in case you needed to speak about a particular student and get some support. The older teachers really took the younger teachers under their wings.
I can also say that the administration was supportive as well and very organized. Every morning we had a briefing in which the head of the school would fill the faculty in on what was happening with the school, the goals the school was trying to achieve in academics and behavior, and how we could all best support those goals. In addition, every time I did have a problem with a student, the administration backed me up without question and I feel would have easily gone to bat on my side if there was a conflict with the parent. You simply don’t, from my experiences, get that in an American school. Sometimes you feel so isolated in what you are trying to do that the administration just becomes this other entity that’s around to make the school run on a paper work level. That wasn’t the case at Bishop Thomas Grant. The Head of Year, as well as the assistants, were daily involved with the students’ lives and performance at the school, as well as with the teachers in the classroom.
In addition to the duties of teaching, the school did require that a certain amount of paper work be completed. I was perhaps lucky in that since I was on a contract position I wasn’t as involved as some of the permanent teachers. But even having said this, there were at least four or five forms that came through my mail box a week. Most of these forms had to deal with the progress of special needs children.
The classes in England from what I gather are inclusive which means special needs children are not taken out of the regular classroom. They are given an aid that is with them all day and helps them with their problem whether it is behavior or low academic performance. I must confess that although in theory it is a great idea, it was not so great in the classroom. Not being trained as a special education teacher, it was extraordinarily difficult to know how to handle these children. There were those that had problems only with their academics and that did not pose so much of a problem, but there were also those that were prone to violence and I did have several incidents with students fighting in the classroom. I suggest you get the names of the students and learn their backgrounds and how to best work with these students from day one. Go into the file cabinets if they’ll let you and look at the files, also solicit the support of the aid, making sure you know what sets these students off and how to avoid doing that. The more educated you are in this area the better. I can also only offer the advice to a new teacher that you have to be tough, but you also have to be compassionate as well. There is a balance to achieve in the classroom that may perhaps only come with years of experience. Sometimes words go in one ear and out the other, but experience seems to rest on the brain like a heavy weight on paper.
It was rather frustrating at times as well because the entire nomenclature of the system is different. Meaning there are different acronyms for classification of non-native English speakers or special needs students. In addition, the schools are structured differently with a headmaster and heads of year. It was all very confusing for someone who had studied and taught in the USA. I would suggest you contact a university teaching program in the UK to inquire if they have any information regarding the education system and how it is set-up. You could probably do some reading on the subject before you leave home as well. I am saying this with hindsight as I think it would have made my job much easier if I had taken the time to read up on the school systems there before I began teaching.
Finally, my teaching assignment involved being involved with extra-curricular activities, although this wasn’t necessarily a "requirement" but more something I decided to do for the enrichment of the students. I took some of them to see a production of Doctor Faustus starring Jude Law at the New Vic Theater in London. I also sponsored an after-school drama program where I would meet with students and help them work on their scenes for an upcoming school production.
I really believe it’s unfortunate the UK school system does not in general provide an abundance of extra-curricular activities for the students. There were no proms, no big football matches, no cheerleading teams and no school dances. This could have been in part because of funding, but I don’t think it was the sole reason. If you do decide to teach in the UK, I would encourage anyone if you have the time to volunteer and sponsor a club or organization as it makes a tremendous difference in these kids’ lives. Otherwise at the end of the school day, many of these kids have nowhere to go except to hang out with their peers which doesn’t always result in positive activities.
Beyond the teaching, living in London was fun. The English, contrary to what some may say, are extremely warm and sincere people. All you have to do is go to a pub, grab a couple of pints and you are almost guaranteed an interesting conversation with a host of eccentric characters. The museums are perhaps the best in the world – the National Art Gallery, the Tate, the Victoria and Albert. And they are all free! In addition, theater and the arts are very alive and well in London. The West End is simply crawling with audiences both young and old.
Perhaps the best for me, however, was the accessibility of London to other places. I went to France while I was living and teaching there as well as Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland. There are very cheap bus rides that can take you all over the UK and the flights from London to other parts of Europe are very, very cheap. Not to mention the fact that London is a very multi-cultural place in and of itself with people from all over the world.
Of course no place is a bed of roses and London certainly has its thorns. The pollution for one was atrocious. WARNING – If you have bad hay fever think twice as you will suffer tremendously. Also if you detest the pub scene in general think twice as that’s the biggest social scene in London and the rest of the UK as well. If you want wine and cheese go to France! This ain’t Prague – meaning 50 p a pint is unheard of. Things are tres, tres expensive in London. And the food, excluding my beloved crumpet, is well, for the most part, dare I say it…. gross?
But even if you are sneezing as we speak, get hives when I mention draft beers, don’t have ten dollars in your wallet, love eating good food more than you love life, I still say…. GO! Pardon the cliché but it will be a lifetime experience for you and give you the chance to really make a significant difference in some children’s lives. Best of luck in your endeavor! Cheers mate!
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