Dear Lucy Powell, I’m a newly qualified teacher who’d like time to teach

Dear Lucy Powell,

You’ve just started your role in education. Me too – I qualified in June, and just started my first post as a primary school teacher in inner London. We’ve ended up in the same boat, and it’s up to Labour to help sail that boat through some seriously choppy waters.

I’m a shiny and new teacher (and cheap at the price) but we’re becoming a rarer sight. More people are leaving the profession than joining it, and for us new recruits, the promise from day one is that if you want to be a great teacher, then you’re going to have to work all hours and give all you can give – and then some. Kiss goodbye to your weeknights, and most of your weekends. Make sure you have patient partners, who are a dab hand with a laminator. Above all, any grandiose ideas you have about what education could or should be, keep them for your union meetings and get down to plugging your assessments into Target Tracker.

In my first week, my school was required to lay on a week of assessments (read: very dry and tricky tests) for my class of 7 year-olds. These 7 year-olds, whose core interests lie in playdough, Horrid Henry and acquiring ‘mad skills’ in football/dance/music, are too young to have already been subject to four separate government tests. Some of them even had to re-sit their phonics test, which takes it to five; a test where they are required to read made up words (steck, quemp, terg) to prove that they have a good foundation of understanding in a language that is so laden with exceptions to the rule that the test can even work against confident readers. I teach three children who failed this the second time around – but wait. The Department of Education is piloting a third re-sit of this test in Year 3, as if this will teach these children to read.

Not satisfied with this regime, under current proposals in 2016 4 year-olds will be subject to a baseline assessment. This flies in the face of a huge body of research that says that Early Years teachers shouldn’t be preparing children for a test, but instead allowing them to learn through stories, interaction and play. Enough with trying to shove more assessments into the curriculum, all in the name of ‘measuring progress.’ The thing that never goes spare in schools is time. Trust teacher’s judgements, and allow them to use this time to create inspiring and creative learning experiences for the children in their care.

Lucy – could you give me some time? Time to spend learning, training, developing my skills as a teacher. Time to allow the children I teach to investigate the things that really interest them – knowing that it is these skills that will allow them to flourish in a world where the job they will end up doing probably doesn’t exist yet. Time to spend teaching my children how to play. Time to really enjoy it, because it really is the best job in the world.

Every hour a teacher wastes on tests, data entry and paperwork is a disservice to the children we teach. An education system that trusts highly qualified professionals to deliver a top class education that allows children to develop through play, the exploration of their own interests and creative teaching isn’t a daydream, with the right investment.

When Labour is at its best (and most electable), it’s talking about the day to day. Standing up for education – for pupils, teachers and the wonderful support staff that are the cogs that keep it all together. It’s not radical to invest in excellent public services – it’s key to a country’s success.

Yours,

Caroline Hill is a newly qualified teacher (and sometimes, a Young Labour national committee trade union rep)