Teaching Systems in the UK

TEACHING SYSTEMS IN THE UK – The good the Bad and the Ugly

So I have been teaching in the UK for a bit more than a month now – given I am teaching at one school – but I can share some of my experience with regards to the system and give a few comparisons to teaching in South Africa.

1.   The school set up

Learners attend school in years, not grades. So instead of Grade 1, 2, 3… they are in year 1, 2, 3…

High School is made up of Years 7-11. (In South African terms, grade 6-10). Then they write a final examination called the GCSE at the end of year 11 which is similar to the matric final in South Africa.

After that, they can continue school for two years (year 12 and 13), before going to University. This final school stage is not compulsory and is called Sixth Form.

The learners are then divided into sets in every year group according to their grades. Set 1 is the smart kids, set 2 is the average learners and set 3 is the lower level kids. They can be in set 1 for PE and set 3 for Mathematics.

This is a very bad idea. The top set students refuse to do basic work, because it is too easy for them – never mind the necessity of some basic knowledge. The bottom sets have long ago given up on even trying to accomplish anything since they have been told by the school system from a young age they are incompetent. In my view, Mathematical skills are more learned and motivated than actually something you are just naturally good at, but I am fighting a lifelong system single handed here.

You actually also teach different material to the different sets in each year group. Good luck planning lessons!

2.   The Curriculum

Something that I actually find quite surprising and unpleasant, to be exact, is this. As far as I can tell there is no specific outlined curriculum for each year group. There are topics with Learning Outcomes set out on the website of the governing body of my school that I use as a guideline, but I am still a bit confused and unable to lay my hands on a document similar to the NCS or CAPS documents from South Africa. For that part, shockingly enough, it seems to me that the department of education from South Africa did a job well done to get a curriculum and policy statement in print. Even if it changes every few years.

3.   Use of Media and Resources in the classroom

I suppose the availability of resources in the classroom depends on the school budget, but here are some fun stuff I play around with in my classroom. Some of this is really not that expensive and might make your lessons a little bit of fun.

·       Data projector and laptop. There are various uses for this in the classroom. I use this mostly for PowerPoint with keywords and pre-planned examples. There are also quite a few interesting Mathematics Games websites that I use as a time filler or starter.

Starters

Math Puzzles

Times Tables

Math Games

Tables

Mathswatch this site is an excellent resource with video explanations on various topics of Mathematics, but you must register.

MyMaths is also a great site that you can set homework tasks on and children log in at home to do the homework. Also needs to be registered for this.

·       Small white boards. This is useful for testing what kids know on a topic before you start or to see what they know after doing a topic. Test by asking them some basic questions and they have to write their answers down and hold it up. You get a good idea of what they know.

·       Big dice for small group work with statistics. Again each group can have a small white board to show certain probabilities.

·       Number cards for use in assembling answers to questions in teams.

·       A small white board on the wall to write “Status Updates” – I use this to motivate learners. Inspirational quotes on Mathematics, learning, teaching, anything – I change the update at least weekly.

·       Set a place on a notice board for Homework and Assignments. Place the homework tasks in pocket files if it is a sheet of paper – simple, yet effective

·       Set a place for Achievements – after every test I put up the names of students who achieved a certain realistic minimum. I used 60% in South Africa. Here the grading system works a bit different, but you can make it work. This motivates them to get their names on the board.

·       Have a place on the White or Blackboard where you display lesson outcomes and keywords for every lesson. This does take up some time and planning, but really focuses the lesson in a very sufficient way. If you encounter things during the lesson that students did not know, add them to the list of keywords.

·       Some extra printed and copied work sheets on basic math skills or the current topic is always lying around to entertain the smarter children if they get noisy.

·       Extra textbooks for students who needs extra practise after you worked through most of the material you have. I usually give them a book and page number, tell them to work through the exercise on separate paper with their name on. They hand it in and I mark it for them with feedback and give it back the next day.

·       Stickers. I know. For High School learners this might seem like a childish idea, but I use yellow stickers to mark books. My signature, the date and a comment goes on the yellow sticker. This makes it clear where I have marked books and students are expected to always ‘reply’ on a yellow sticker. So either I give them a more challenging problem to do if they did everything well or I tell them to finish the task set on a specific date or explain what they think a certain Mathematical term means… As long as feedback actually means something.

I also occasionally use a ‘Good work’ or ‘Great improvement’ motivational sticker. My school supplies these, so why not?

·       Stamps with my signature and the date also proved to be quite effective in quickly checking books as students mark homework from the board or do a starter.

4.   The lesson starter

This is a great tool I learned about here in the UK.  This is a five minute task or problem set up on the board or screen as the students enter the class. They sit down and immediately work on the starter as you set up the lesson or take the register. This task can be relevant to the work they did in their previous lesson or just random problems with multiplication and division and fractions. I prefer to use this to go through some basics on a regular basis. I use this website Transum - Starter of the Day 

5.   The plenary

The plenary is like the starter, but at the end of the lesson. A quick test to see if we have learned all we need to know for today. So you can ask the students questions with hand-up responses or mini whiteboard responses. Another great idea is to let them write down explanations of the keywords for the day in their own words. I prefer to use a past exam question. This gives them an idea of what it will actually look like in the exam and trains them on answering exam questions on a daily basis.

6.   Dealing with SEN and GAT children in the classroom

SEN children is students with Special Educational Needs. This includes things like ADHD, reading disabilities, hard of hearing students, all sorts of fun challenges in your day to day teaching experience. Here in the UK there is a team of specialists who identify these children, support them with intervention and there are tutors assigned to go to classes with these students and help them in the classroom. Good idea, but I think they might be over diagnosing and actually pamper these students into such a state of no-can-do that some of the students end up struggling more.

In the classroom you have to provide keywords on paper for students who struggle to read from the board, you are expected to make sure they copy their homework correctly and understands every task set out to them. Again, this seems like a good idea, but it is sometimes a bit unpractical to check on 8 students in a class of 30 the whole time.

Now, GAT students are Gifted and Talented Learners. For these students you are supposed to provide extra material, constant challenges and constantly keep the pressure up for them to improve and perform. This is also a great idea to identify and work with. A problem with this in the classroom in the UK is that these students know who they are. They constantly interrupt me to tell me that work is too easy for them. I strongly belief that the difference between a 70% and a 90% is solid knowledge of basics, but these students are quite focused on being busy with difficult work, regardless if they can do the basics perfect or not. This creates big gaps in their knowledge and in my opinion strains them from ever becoming great.

7.   Provision Maps

Now provision maps are excellent tools for planning lessons with SEN and GAT students. A provisional map goes in your file with your learning plan and has space for differentiation of learners in the classroom. Even with not being too positive about the whole SEN and GAT situation it is useful to keep track of specific things to keep in mind with every class you teach.

Here is an example of a Provision Map. Need I say, need to be kept confidential! This one is not real. It is a made up example for you guysJ

8.   Seating plans

A seating plan tells students where to sit in your class. You can use the seating plan to keep your SEN students close to the isles – if you walk through the class you can easily check on them. I also use seating plans for discipline, separating noisy friends and sitting smart kids next to the SEN children for extra support from friends.

Necessary to keep in mind some children work good together, so get to know the kids before doing a seating plan.

This is also in my teacher folder.

9.   Discipline

This depends in my opinion a great deal on the school management and disciplinary system.

At the current school I am working, we have an R-system that works as follows: Students gets 3 R’s, R1, R2 and R3. They work like strikes. So a student that oversteps a line, gets a R1. If he oversteps another line, R2. Last line he oversteps R3 and is removed from the classroom. There are disciplinary officers on duty which comes to the class and collects the student to the on-call room (detention room). They sit there for the rest of the lesson and gets an hour detention after school.

This is a great system as you can remove disruptive students from your classroom. It does take up some of your time though, as you have to enter these R’s on the computer system with a reason from a drop down menu. The on-call room gets a notification if you give a student an R3 and comes to collect them. So you have to constantly enter the R’s as you go along.

Three disciplinary things I used quite regularly in South Africa that I can’t use here:

·       Letting students who come late and misbehave sit on the floor – they have too much rights here.

·       Spraying them with water. That silenced them quickly, as they don’t like it. Again too much rights here on behalf of the learners.

·       Refuse to teach them. In South Africa, if a class is completely unruly, I just stood still calmly watching them. If that did not work. I wrote the work on the board and considered the lesson done. Very soon, they realize they want me to teach them and they were quite silent while entering my class. Here, I am not allowed to stop trying no matter how unruly the class is – and they know it is my responsibility! If I do stand still watching them, they completely ignore me and continue. These kids are not as needy of the teacher’s approval as the ones in South Africa.

The English educational system definitely has pro's and con's just like the South African system. There are a lot of things in the Education system in South Africa that worries and frustrates me. There are also a lot of things in the UK that frustrates me. I am however a teacher and passionate about Mathematics. That is what is most important to me and will always be the reason for me to keep on fighting every small battle towards motivating my learners to achieve in the subject.