Lack of agreement may hit teacher recruitment

A TEACHER workload agreement could make life in the classroom better for staff and pupils. It was introduced in the UK last year and Pat Lerew, president of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, who is currently in the island for the Guernsey branch AGM, said that they were discussing how to introduce the agreement over here.

'It takes away from teachers jobs which do not require qualified staff to do them, such as bulk photocopying and putting up displays, and frees up teachers to concentrate on the job of teaching, thereby raising standards,' said Mrs Lerew.

As Guernsey looked to mirror the UK best practice, failing to bring in a similar condition locally could cause problems, she said.

'In two to three years' time, teachers coming here will be out of the habit of doing these things and it would have a marked effect on recruitment, on bringing in the best teachers or people perhaps would not stay as they have better conditions of service in the UK.'

Mrs Lerew, who used to represent the island on the national executive and visited many times before she became president at Easter, said that the agreement would lead to having more adults in the classroom, which would help to reverse the widespread decline in pupils' behaviour.

This was a problem seen not just nationally, but across Europe and in the community outside school.

Guernsey has slightly better teacher: pupil ratios than the UK and Mrs Lerew said that extra teachers significantly improved behaviour very quickly. Classroom support staff helped, too.

'Most primary schools in England are aiming to have one classroom assistant per class, which has to be of help. We are also up against pupil allegations against staff and if there is more than one adult it is more difficult to make allegations and easier to disprove them.'

But one difficulty of implementing the agreement locally could be the staffing limit, which would have to be worked around.

Mrs Lerew has taught at Amery Hill School, a secondary comprehensive in Alton, Hampshire, since 1976 but has a year out of school during her presidency.

Her two daughters are both teachers - the eldest at Amery where her two children also attend.

Mrs Lerew has seen many changes during her career, including the increase of low-level disruption by pupils in classes, such as arguing with teachers.

'It takes a lot of time out of the lessons,' she said.

At a recent NASUWT conference, she attributed some problems faced by teachers to Thatcherism.

'Teachers were considered a fairly low form of life in the 80s. I think young people were influenced by Thatcher's doctrines and now they are the parents, their lack of respect has rubbed off on the children.'

This evening, she heads to Herm with 90 island teachers for the local association's AGM and dinner, to meet members and award certificates and badges to long-term union members.

Local secretary Caroline Bowker said that it was a chance for them to give something back to the membership and for teachers from different schools to get together.