Teachers the main ingredients of a good school
WITH much debate about how many island secondary schools, of what size and where to put them, there seems to be small mention of the fundamentals which bear upon those important considerations.
A successful school is one which produces successful pupils. But what are the criteria of that success? Surely it is our hope that our children will grow to become confident, considerate, law-abiding citizens enabled to use their skills for the benefit of the community, their family and themselves.
How do we set about bringing out the best of their abilities?
I have long been of the opinion that one could run a good school in a tent, if absolutely necessary, provided that one could recruit and retain the best teachers to help.
The most important purpose of a head teacher is to select and appoint able teachers.
The maintained sector should authorise their head teachers to be responsible for this so that they may gather around them the best possible team to meet their students’ needs.
For those students who have an appetite and a potential for academic learning, it is necessary to attract teachers with degree-standard qualifications. While they for their part will be looking for the opportunity to teach up to university scholarship level, they will also benefit the students preparing for GCSE.
It is therefore essential that secondary schools retain those students with such aspirations on the same campus up to the age of 18-19. The retention of the more-senior students on the campus brings with it a great benefit for both them and the school by enabling those students to be responsible for organising (under a teacher’s supervision) extramural clubs and societies as well as assisting in the day-to-day running of the school.
Other students whose academic abilities may not be so high flown need teachers who can share an enthusiasm for their subject which finds and nourishes a resonance for that subject in their students. This requires of the teacher empathy, understanding, patience and respect for all whom they teach.
Teachers with these skills and timeless dedication are hard to come by but essential.
We know that some pupils find in their school the rock and certainty so much lacking in the rest of their lives. The school’s purpose here is to increase their sense of self-worth.
Pastoral care is a central concern requiring administrative mechanisms for its provision.
Extramural activities have great importance in the building of pupil confidence. A good school seeks to provide success in something (anything legal, that is) for every pupil in that school. While games and PE are needful for physical fitness, not everyone likes games or contact sports. Music and music making provide a powerful alternative, so also drama and the graphic arts.
Service organisations, Scouts, Guides, Red Cross, St John Ambulance training… all these can find a place in the curriculum of a good school.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme is a great vehicle for encouraging involvement and participation which some students have not even dreamed about.
The larger the school, the wider is the spread of opportunities for pupils’ development.
I have presented the case for large 11-18 secondary schools, for the need for the maintained sector to trust their head teachers to hire and fire (the latter with in-built protective procedures) their teaching staff so as to build a cohesive team of their making.
I have also indicated some of the high qualities and qualifications required of the teaching staff. Good teachers in some academic subjects are hard to find, traditionally maths, modern languages, economics and today, science, especially physics. The good teachers required to help and encourage students with social and learning problems are also scarce, but essential. It is too much to expect that our small island population can find all these.
The five-year housing licence is a menace to the growth and training up of future heads of department. More-experienced teachers are discouraged from uprooting their families to come to Guernsey by the high cost of housing and the cost of getting here and returning to family in UK when necessary. The States must be alert to these problems and devise ways of overcoming them if our schools and their pupils are to flourish.
It is my hope that these observations, some of them sheer common sense, may engage the imagination and enthusiasm of those who bear the awesome responsibility for meeting the educational needs of our children here for years to come.
RICHARD WHEADON,
L’Enclos Gallienne,
Rue du Court Laurent,
Torteval,
GY8 0LH.