Have you heard the one about the paper shop? It blew away.
Have you heard the one about the paper school? It's no joke.
The education system is awash with pieces of paper. We are drowning in it. On a daily basis, teachers and other staff are being forced to fill in a seemingly endless number of forms. Permission slips, late cards, homework diaries, appointments, agendas, meeting minutes, letters home, lesson plans, test papers, formative comments. The list goes on and on. The most prominent of them all is the non-stop focus on data analysis. Which students are on which grades? Why? Why not? There is a systemic obsession with targets, grades, assessments, progress, percentages, etc, all of which need to be written down. It stems from fear, blame, incompetence, bad judgement, bad management and lack of trust. It is supposed to fuel improved attainment but, in my experience, it does the opposite. Constant paperwork such as this eats at the clock, using up time that teachers do not have. I am not saying that these things are unimportant but they are not the most important.
Filling in forms, staring at numbers and analysing graphs will not improve student attainment. It will not improve teaching standards. Giving staff more time to prepare decent lessons should be the priority. This would lead to better teaching, better learning and better grades. If kids are to fulfil their potential, then their teachers need to be left alone to teach. This seems obvious but, unfortunately, does not reflect the current reality of what is happening in too many schools up and down the country. The focus needs to shift away from paperwork and towards quality lesson content and delivery. A wind of change is urgently needed before things blow beyond reach and out of control.
23 comments:
It's common sense. Sadly in short supply at management level.
Sometimes I have something akin to an out of body experience, where I'm on the outside looking in at us all pointlessly beavering away at the wrong end of the process; and I want to say 'Hang on... stop everybody. Think about what we're doing. It's quite obviously stupid. Why don't we spend some time putting the horse before the cart?'
Absolutely spot on. The thing that makes me feel most useless as a teacher is when I know I haven't had time to prepare great lessons and therefore the kids lose out. Agree, agree, agree with everything you say.
I sometimes think that there is an evil elf somewhere, whose sole purpose is to generate masses of forms that nobody will ever read once they have been filled in.
I live in Italy, they have many such elves.
"The focus needs to shift away from paperwork and towards quality lesson constant and delivery"
The worst pieces of paperwork out of all them are the lesson plans and schemes of work that are meant to do exactly that.
Dack- That is absolutely right, you have summed it up much better than I ever could. I wonder how many of us are having those same thoughts but do not dare to say anything? The whole process is, quite obviously, stupid.
Fran- Like you, my lessons suffer because I have not had the time to prepare them as I would like to because of paperwork, deadlines, etc. It is very frustrating.
Sarah- The problem is that these elves seem to have taken control of the whole process.
OldAndrew- My apologies, that should have read "lesson content and delivery"
"The worst pieces of paperwork out of all them are the lesson plans and schemes of work that are meant to do exactly that"
By quality content, I do not necessarily mean that lessons need to be written on a piece of paper. I agree that lesson plans and schemes of work are massive parts of the overall problem. They add very little real value, if any, to teaching and learning.
As an outsider with no experience in UK classrooms, I have been following the saga of British education with Mr teacher and Mr Chalk. The tales of Ofsted tyrants and never-ending paperwork make me wonder why you all stick in there! Do you have no means of putting pressure on the system? And who is responsible for all this pointless manic activity? I find it particularly amazing in a country known for its allergy to bureaucracy!
Hey, "Teacher"....
... the plural of:"Agenda" is agendae.
It is "..poor management.." and not "bad management"
One should not place a comma after the word: "but" as it is a conjunctive.
So, which particular brand of graduate failure are you?
I imagine that you entered into the job because you failed to secure employment anywhere else?
Oy! I remember a time when teaching was a vocation and staffed by professionals.
Pete- Are you always so rude? Did your parents fail to teach you proper manners? I remember a time when people were nicer to strangers. It is very kind of you to point out some small "mistakes" in what I have written. No comments on the issue? Did you understand it?
Some thoughts for your tiny little mind: "I imagine" shouldn't be followed by a ? because it is not a correct question. "Oy" isn't a word.
For the sake of completion: I am not a graduate failure. I achieved a respectable Honours degree. I went into teaching because I made a decision before I finished my studies that I wanted to teach. Although my qualifications could have helped me to do another, better paid and perhaps more respected job, I did not try to "secure employment" elsewhere. I am a professional.
I agree with everything you've said here, Mr Teacher. It is nothing short of deception - trying to prove we are doing things that we have no time to do, because we are too busy writing down what we are supposed to be doing - if that makes sense!
Shouldn't you be using quotation marks rather than speech marks Pete?
I've nothing to add really other than to say that I'm sitting here nodding at every sentence.
My school has 50 minute lessons, and I can't remember the last time I used a single lesson PPA to do any actual planning, preparation or assessment. That time is usually spent doing paperwork, issuing detentions, answering emails about pupil progress etc. I find PPA time in school is practically useless for that purpose, so of course, I end up doing most of that side of my job at home.
Paper, more paper, People do not trust RAM,Hard Drives, CPU's and chips. The myth of paperless society that was 'spouted' for having the means of computing is forever with the powers to be.
Once said, all voids will be filled and filed.
Oh! how we love to hide behind a word that has no connection with reality.
We will use up all the resources of the world.
Caz- That is exactly right. You have described my situation and no doubt the situation of many other teachers. Maybe we are colleagues?!
Dear Mr Teacher
Nothing wrong with your punctuation actually. Your commas after 'but' and 'in my experience' are performing a bracketing function and are quite in order.
What is important in writing is using the right style/formality/genre for the purpose and audience.
wot r u up to l8r? shall we meet 'n compare fullstops? :-)
This is now a national disease across all sectors. I've taught and consulted on management for more than 20 years, practising before that. It has nothing to do with what is supposed to be done.
What we need is a severe shortage of the form to requisition all other forms! We are now teaching the lying through our actions.
The answers are complex and they involve extirpating bureaucracy, reforming collegiality and some kind of sensible, non-paper independent evaluation through new technology in real time.
We have become an abusing society through bureaucracy.
Sir,
I am a teacher in Massachusetts, USA and could not agree with you more. It seems that many of my days are spent more with wood pulp than students. Thank you for your insight.
So, what was your (2:2) dgeree, "Teacher"?
Answer.... if you dare?
Amen to that! I'm just ploughing through PLPs for 39 children - 7 sheets of paper each. It was a gorgeous weekend - I could have gone out - I could even have prepared some lessons for this week - but instead, I spent the weekend filling in bits of paper that the children and parents probably won't even look at for more than 5 second. What a monumental waste of time!
I agree. In a recent ofsted inspection i received very good ratings, much better than i' been doing all year. Why? Because I had the extra time to plan lessons. i wasn't being bombarded by constant requests for evidence/filling in data/analysing data/levels etc... just needed to teach. It would be lovely to be freed up to just teach more often. (Not just because ofsted are in!)
Dear Brother from another mother,
A quick look at your blog, and I can see we live in the same world, just an ocean apart.
Thrilled to have found someone who is speaking my language- are there more of us out here?
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