We’ve opened our Saudi Arabia Talent Pool, and this week we’ve put together a special feature on working in the country. “In some years we have one or two days when it may rain, but this is not certain,” explains Bruce Gamwell, Director of the British International School of Jeddah. Read on to learn more about the school from Bruce and other teachers, and find out about current Saudi vacancies.

“Make of it what you can and Jeddah will return your efforts and not disappoint you.

The sun always smiles in Jeddah.”                              

“Make sure you have plenty of fancy dress costumes!”

“You never have to iron again!”                     

“Make sure you are good at journey directions especially if your partner is not, alternatively buy a GPS on arrival!”

“Visiting old Jeddah is magical and an experience you should not miss and try to repeat.

Read more…

Attendance certificates often penalise children who have absolutely no control over whether they can attain the required standard, and perpetuate a gung-ho culture, argues Annette Jenkins.

I asked my daughter’s friend when she came round for tea what she’d done at school that day. The almost inevitable “Nothing much” was the reply!

With a little coaxing, however, she revealed that attendance certificates had been given out, but reported that she hadn’t received one.

What had prevented her attending, I asked. It seems her family had taken some extra holiday, so of course her attendance record had not been up to par.

Unnecessarily penalising children

Now most of the school children I know have little or no say about when their parents or carers choose to book their holidays, and many families need to take some of their holidays outside of usual school vacation periods to be able to afford one at all.

Likewise, children don’t have much input over when they fall ill, and have to remain at home or even in hospital, and therefore have no opportunity to win the dangled carrot. To lump a child who breaks a limb – or indeed has had to take time out for any other illness – with the kids who skive, is unnecessarily penalising them.

But the premise of attendance certificates, which is presumably that the more children go to school the more they will ‘achieve’, is questionable. (Others would go further, and suggest that the ‘reward culture’ of certificates, stickers and charts, and even positive reinforcement, is generally detrimental to development.)

Gung-ho attitude

Attendance certificate culture also perpetuates the gung-ho attitude that people should struggle in to school or work, no matter how terrible they’re feeling, dosed up to the eyeballs on Lemsip or other drugs and ready to knock out their peers by spreading their lurgy to all and sundry; how that might affect overall attendance isn’t widely mentioned.

One website reported that when a school sent a child home for looking ill, it then said she’d missed a day and couldn’t have her certificate! There are other extreme reports of children prevented from attending an awards disco with their peers because they’d had time off – because a parent had died.

The small proportion of people that this system is presumably designed to motivate – the malingerers, no-shows, runaways, shirkers, skivers and their families – probably couldn’t give a fig about Gold, Silver or even Bronze attendance certificates. 

It’s true that in life not everyone can win every prize, but to create a system of prizes that many children have no hope of winning through no fault of their own seems particularly pernicious.

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” – Ursula K. LeGuin

Eteach were lucky to attend and sponsor the Trevithick Learning Academy’s fantastic event: Southwest Storytelling, with Pie Corbett. The day was a real success, with lots of participation from delegates and a great atmosphere. Storytelling and the talk for writing approach are proven to raise standards in writing. They provide children with the necessary vocabulary, understanding of language patterns and plot structure in order that they become effective writers. Pie Corbett, the creator of this approach, explained the theory behind this method of teaching and discussed effective classroom techniques;

The hosts of the event, Trevithick Learning Academy, provided examples of its effectiveness with live performances from their pupils. Nationally recognized for their storytelling approach, their methods provide the opportunity for children to engage with the story and learn language patterns which in turn further writing skills. Kaye Haywood, Vice Principal of the Academy described to us the importance of Storytelling at the School:

“Story writing is magical and helps us to bring our world and ourselves alive.  The majority of children who attend our school do not come from language rich backgrounds.  We all know the best writers are always children who read eagerly, consequently our children were not good writers and our results for writing were very poor.

Children who are read to and read themselves internalise narrative patterns and story language, then recycle them into their own writing.  The idea of building a storehouse of stories inside children’s minds lies at the heart of ‘storytelling’.  Using the storytelling approach to teach language means our children now internalise different story types, sentence construction and vocabulary, as well as characters, settings and events.   Our approach releases creativity, builds our children’s confidence, has improved our standards dramatically, but most importantly our children now see themselves as writers.”

From Aesop’s Fables to the Canterbury Tales, storytelling is something that everyone can relate to:

Do you remember the first story you were told?
How important is storytelling in your classroom?

What are the hot topics in the world of education at the moment? Here we take our regular flick through the papers, to see what’s got people talking. From one school where dancing is seen as the best start to the day, to teachers in trouble over the use of music videos and controversial calls for climate change to be taken out of the curriculum – join us and have your say.

Climate change off the curriculum

A top government adviser, charged with an overhaul of the school syllabus in England, has said climate change should not be included in the national curriculum.

In an interview with The Guardian, Tim Oates said there is a need to get back to teaching the ‘science in science’, and that it should be up to schools to decide how they engage pupils on issues of climate change – and whether to do so at all.

Climate change has featured in the national curriculum since 1995. Those opposing to its removal from the classroom have warned it may make science less interesting for pupils and allow sceptical teachers to abandon teaching the subject altogether.

Oates is also calling for algebra to be taught from a younger age. His full review of the curriculum for five- to 16-year-olds will be published later this year.

Best way to start the day…get dancing!

For one infant school in Hampshire, dancing is the only way to start the day, reports the BBC. Pupils at Liss Infant School are treated to a short song and dance session each morning, before they start their first lesson – and it’s working wonders for their learning, according to teachers.

Around 180 five to seven-year-olds brave all weathers to take part in the motivational dance routine, performed each morning in the school playground.

US teacher in trouble over playlist

Meanwhile across the pond, a teacher from the Amercian state of Massachusetts has landed in hot water after showing pupils risqué music videos, as part of a lesson on media analysis. Parents reacted strongly to Eminems’s ‘Superman’, and Jessy J’s ‘Do it like a dude’ videos being played to pupils.

One enraged parent went straight to the police, who confirmed the versions used were edited and not ‘obscene’. Yet many parents remain unhappy and an investigation is underway, reports the Metro West Daily News. 

Failing schools to become academies

Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced that hundreds of failing primary schools could be removed from local authority control and converted into academies under new government plans, reports the Daily Telegraph.

While addressing head teachers in Birmingham, Mr Gove warned that Britain risks falling behind developing economies unless the pace of improvement in the education system is accelerated.

Plans to ‘clamp down’ on the worst performing schools in the country could see hundreds become academies and placed under the control of a third party sponsor, who will have more powers over management, including admissions and pay.

Secondary schools will also be ordered to ensure that at least half of pupils leave with five good GCSEs, including English and maths, by 2015.

From Radio 2 to the classroom

Radio 2 breakfast show host, Chris Evans, is waving goodbye to his long-time sidekick Jonny Saunders, as he quits the popular show to become a teacher.

Sports reporter Jonny, 36, has completed an Open University teaching degree and now plans to give lessons in English and games at a secondary school.

Speaking about his decision, Jonny explained that teaching is something he has always been passionate about. The married dad-of-two told the Daily Mirror that working on the radio show had been ‘an absolute joy… but there’s only so long one can cope with the 3.50am alarm calls.’

Seeing double at one school

A primary school in Stockport is facing an unusual challenge, as it welcomes a multitude of twins into its classrooms.

St John’s Primary in Heaton Mersey now has six sets of twins – three of which are identical, and all aged between four and 10, reports the BBC (link launches video and report).

And finally….

New comedy ‘doesn’t send good message about teachers’

Finding that Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake have joined the teaching staff at your school must be a dream for many pupils – and teaching staff alike! Sadly, it’s only a reality in the latest Hollywood film to delve into the teaching profession, ‘Bad Teacher’.

The film comedy centres on a teacher with her sights set on bagging a rich man. It sees some major misbehaving in the classroom and ‘doesn’t exactly send out a good message about teachers,’ concludes a review by Ok! Magazine.

Tweet

Following on from our recent blog about whether teachers are given  enough support against violent pupils, a survey by the NAHT school leaders’ union has suggested that as many as one in 10 head teachers have been physically assaulted by a pupil’s parent or carer.

The 1,000 head teachers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland who were surveyed said that they have been punched, spat on, kicked, head butted, bitten or sexually assaulted by angry parents.

Russell Hobby, General Secretary at NAHT, has said that it is likely that this behavior stems from the fact that school leaders often have to make difficult decisions about discipline, exclusions, holidays and the distribution of limited budgets. Unsurprisingly, this puts them in the firing line and they become prime targets when a student’s legal guardian disagrees with a decision that has been made.

The survey also revealed that almost 75% of respondents have suffered verbal abuse  or threats from parents in the past five years and 86% think that parents’ behavior towards teachers has worsened.

Although these figures are worryingly high, Mr Hobby has said that the vast majority of families are a pleasure to work for, most people are aware that physical assault against a teacher is a criminal offence and action is taken when needed.

As a teacher, have you ever had to deal with an angry parent or carer? How did you deal with the situation and how does your school take action if needed?

Tweet