This week SecEd has published its annual autumn NQT special edition, which once again is proudly supported by our friends at NASUWT. It contains eight pages of articles offering advice, guidance and support to NQTs everywhere (you can download your free PDF of all eight pages at http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/supplements/).
NQTs everywhere are fast-approaching the end of their first term at the chalkface and this eight-page special edition is intended to offer support, empathy, guidance and advice after what will probably turn out to have been one of the toughest terms of your career.
We have a range of articles from experienced education professionals offering crucial advice to help you reflect on your first term in teaching and to hit the ground running in January – having taken a well-deserved Christmas break in-between of course!
The value of the young and passionate teachers who enter our profession every year cannot be understated and it is vital that we support and nurture the teaching talent of the future.
This is more crucial today than ever. Early last year, Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw called it a “national scandal” that two-fifths of NQTs were quitting within five years. Early this year, another analysis of government figures estimated that 40 per cent of teachers are quitting within a year of qualifying.
It is clear to me that the unreasonably heavy workloads and poor work/life balance faced by many teachers is one of the issues that lies at the heart of this problem.
We know this to be true not least because of the government’s own – much heralded – Workload Challenge earlier this year.
Around 44,000 teachers responded, setting out the clear reasons why workload has been spiralling out of control – identifying the issues that are causing them to burn out.
- Recording, inputting, monitoring and analysing data: cited by 56 per cent.
- Excessive/depth of marking, including the detail and frequency required: 53 per cent.
- Lesson/weekly planning, including the detail and frequency required: 38 per cent.
- Basic administrative and support tasks: 37 per cent.
- Staff meetings: 26 per cent.
- Reporting on pupil progress: 24 per cent.
- Pupil targets – setting/continual review: 21 per cent.
- Implementing new initiatives/curriculum and qualification change: 20 per cent.
It is clear that workload is out of control. The current recruitment crisis in teaching will only serve to worsen this situation. Of course, we all have a role to play to support our NQTs (and all our teachers for that matter). We all have a role to play in tackling workload and creating the conditions in schools for teachers to teach to the best of their ability.
SecEd, I hope, is playing its part and once again articles in this special edition focus on workload and wellbeing – offering what I know can often be crucial advice for young teachers.
One of the key messages, repeated more than once in the following pages, is having the courage to “say no”. NQTs are usually young and keen, putting in long hours, working weekends and accepting all challenges that come their way. Having heard so many stories of teacher burn-out I urge caution. Find your work/life balance and protect it. Be enthusiastic, but set your limits and say no when appropriate. This year you must find ways of working that will allow you to flourish throughout your career – rather than burning out after five years.
But more than this, NQTs need the support of schools and politicians. Joining a union is also vital.
It has to be said that the vast majority of schools support and nurture their young staff brilliantly. However, the way that a minority continue to treat their NQTs is disturbing – denying them statutory entitlements to crucial support, as Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, explains below.
The message also needs to come from the top – from our politicians. The government’s response to the Workload Challenge has been, in a word, pathetic. We need our ministers to take a lead on battling workload. They know now what the problems are – 44,000 teachers have told them – and the time has come to act decisively to protect our teaching workforce.
Finally, I want to state the obvious and say that life as an NQT is tough. NQTs must be wary – it can be incredibly easy to focus only on the negatives, the inevitable crises you have faced or the odd disastrous lesson or incident.
Remember this – things will have gone wrong this term, but things will have gone right as well and you will have achieved an incredible amount, even if you do not see it. It can be so easy to focus on the negative. Don’t. As long as you are learning from any mistakes then you are doing everything you should be.
This is the toughest term within what will probably be one of the toughest years of your career, so as you celebrate with friends or family this Christmas, hold on to what you have achieved and feel proud. You are a member of that most noble of professions – you are a teacher and you can hold your head high.
- Pete Henshaw is the editor of SecEd and has been writing about education for more than 10 years. Email editor@sec-ed.co.uk and follow @pwhenshaw
NQT Special Edition - November 2015
This article waspublished in November 2015 as part of SecEd's bi-annual NQT SpecialEdition, supported by the NASUWT. You can download a free PDF of all eight pages via our Supplements page: http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/supplements/