Some Teaching Notes

Since I am here to teach perhaps some notes about teaching are in order.

Private Public State

In the UK there are, as far as I know, three types of schools:  private, public and state.  The terms bring about a lot of confusion in Canada and even more confusion here in the UK.  To ameliorate this there are now two terms:  state schools are governed by the elected government and independent schools have their own board of governors.  The early schools were largely private with respect to who attended them and who governed them.  An act of legislation, the Public Schools Act, changed that and a number of prestigious schools were made public both in the sense that anybody from the public can go to the school but the school is governed by a board of directors drawn from the public.

The school I teach at is owned by one person so, in that sense is private, but any student may attend so in that sense is public.  So to avoid confusion we call it an independent school.

Contracts and Unions

In British Columbia I am a member of the teacher’s union the BCTF and they take care of contracts and processes to protect teachers.  Here I don’t have that.  Many teachers at Westbourne are members of a variety of different unions.  Some of us are not.  The owner has, with his solicitors, drafted a contract for the school.  This has caused a lot of angst within the staff.  However, it is a strong statement of the professionalism of all involved how the staff has pulled together and how the headmaster is delicately discussing the concerns expressed by staff.  

I have not joined a union but may do so.  There does not seem to be any organisation of mathematics teachers in Wales, Penarth or Cardiff.  I am on the e-mail listserve for BC mathematics teachers and make use of that for help.  I also draw heavily on the teacher from Malvern with whom I did an exchange sixteen years ago.

Curriculum

Generally, in the UK, schools teach a government prescribed curriculum up to year 11 (BC’s grade 10) where the students write a battery of examinations to receive their General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).  There are a number of boards who offer these examinations and curriculum is similar among the boards and Wales, England and Scotland each have slightly different demands.  On a global basis the International Baccalaureate (IB) is very popular and Canada is one of the leaders in this.  The IB offers a complete program: primary, intermediate and diploma.  Westbourne offers GCSE up to year 11 and IB for year 12 and 13.  Year 12 and 13 are referred to as the sixth form:  lower sixth and upper sixth.  I am still trying to sort all this out!

Students up to year 11 are mostly local but, tend to go elsewhere for the sixth form as the IB is perceived to be very difficult.   It is.  I was hired to teach sixth form mathematics.  There are only three IB schools in Wales and the only one close is the Atlantic College near Llantwit Major.  I e-mailed the school to contact the mathematics teachers there to get together but they never replied.

After Christmas I picked up a small class of year 10 students.  Our marketing department has been so successful that the year ten maths class is too big (there is a maximum size) so the teacher drew five students from the bottom of the class for me to teach.  I taught year 10 when I was on exchange sixteen years ago so I am familiar with what needs to be done.  The students are well behaved and, because there are only five, I can concentrate on working on their basic arithmetic and algebra skills.

The School Year and Day and Week

The year consists of three terms and each term is broken by a week-long half term break.  Christmas and Easter are each three weeks and summer is five and a half weeks.  The work day is from eight-thirty until five o’clock.  Students have registration for twenty minutes at the beginning of the day and at the end.  That way they are well looked after by their form tutors.  Students start at nine and end at four.  Form tutors collect homework each morning and, if homework is not done, a note goes home and the student has to stay the next day from four until five in the evening.  

Classes are an hour long.  There is a twenty minute break after period two and a full hour for lunch.

Staff Meetings

There is a staff meeting every Monday but, since I am done at 12:40 I rarely attend.  Most staff meetings have a specific topic so I attend if the topic is of pressing interest to me.  The most recent was around a standardised test that the school has adopted which generated a lively discussion amongst staff.  I think the tests are very helpful in getting to know the students’ potential.

Every morning at 8:40 there is a Headmaster’s briefing where the activities of the day and important notices are announced.  This is a time where concerns are brought up and behavioural and academic problems are quickly identified and a plan put in place to correct problems.  It is very impressive to see how effective this is.

Boarding House

The school has a boarding house not far from the school; as well, some students choose to board with local families.  Westbourne is not a boarding school but, for the sixth form, almost half the students board so I am interested in this.  

The school I exchanged with in 1996 was a boarding school and school life centred on boarding life drawing the teaching staff into lunches, dinners, special events and supervising evening study.  At Westbourne staff  have little to do with the boarding house.  At the beginning of the year the headmaster announced that the house-parents wished to have a connection with the school and invited staff to come for dinner.  Carolene and I took him up on the offer shortly before Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  The sixth formers got together and, with the houseparent’s permission, invited us to return, which we did and the house-mom, being Thai, treated us to some fantastic Thai food.