#ThankATeacher
Today is May 20th – the national ‘Thank a Teacher Day’. Now I am a 24 hour news addict and have already listened to and part watched 3 hours of the BBC 24 hour news, but I haven’t heard anyone thank a teacher for anything.
I try not to get involved in political issues on Twitter, a social media I love and engage with almost every day. The truth is I am a swing voter – I go for the person rather than the party – and that has led to me getting my fingers burnt quite a number of times. I never voted for Margaret Thatcher, I felt she was arrogant and self-serving, and I voted for Blair twice – the first time I was delighted with his leadership and the second I was devastated – but now I am behind Boris in principle, purely because he makes me laugh and he is so positive.
My point is that no politicians and parties seem to really value our profession and want to thank the hard working and dedicated people working within it.
When all is well in the world, teachers rarely get a mention in politics. When there is a crisis, such as a rise in disease, in poor behaviour, in unwanted pregnancies, in knife crime or similar – it is ‘Why don’t the teachers sort it out?’ Not the parents… not the politicians… In most countries in Europe social education is not the responsibility of the teacher, they teach the curriculum and little else. I am not saying we shouldn’t teach social behaviour, I am saying we get no thanks when we do it and we get the blame when we don’t.
One headline this morning referred to teachers ‘going back to work’. News Flash! They never stopped working! Most schools are still open with teachers in classrooms alternate weeks and preparing home learning resources and lessons in between.
At this moment, there are countless zoom meetings and leadership team planning sessions for a possible re-opening from June 1st, with much measuring of classrooms and tables, route planning and re-timetabling to allow staggered breaks and outside play. And a huge amount of stress!
No-one consulted the teachers and now there is a hotbed of objection and a political tug-of-war with the BMA, the teaching unions and Michael Gove (who doesn’t improve in the eyes of the profession) all throwing their two-penn’orth in. Will it happen? I doubt it. Who can justify the bizarre suggestion that you can teach a 4 year old to read by sitting 7 feet away from them with a book in front of them? If anyone should be back in school it should be Key Stages 2, 3 and 4. The 4 and 5 year olds need contact, are tactile and need rich stimulation and play – social distancing is just what they DON’T need and will not be able to respect.
The political battles wage on around us, the blame game continues and those who know nothing put down those who know so much and know what won’t work, isn’t safe or isn’t right. And no-body seems to have remembered to just stand up and THANK our wonderful, selfless and dedicated teachers.
Regardless of politics, teachers love their job, the privilege of working with their pupils and their schools and communities. They only want what’s best for the children they teach and the community they serve. They have worked and continue to work all hours despite the view that schools are closed. They want to be back at school more than anything, but only when it is safe for everyone.
So I say a huge thank you to all the teachers, teaching assistants, leaders, headteachers, cleaners, cooks, and support staff in our schools across the four countries of the United Kingdom. The government should rise and salute you!
Reflections
Welcome to my website. Whether you are wanting to read a blog, get some ideas for resources, book an input for a conference or other professional development, catch up on my books or just see what I am up to – this is the place to be: my very first personal website after 55 years in education.
Not many people are lucky enough to be active in education for as long as I have, and I am eternally grateful for the series of un-planned events that have enabled this good fortune.
- I didn’t plan to develop Big Writing: I discovered the missing links through thorough assessment of thousands of pieces of writing.
- I didn’t plan to spend 17 years of my life around the Bahamas and the Caribbean: I went for ‘fun’ for 3 years!
- I didn’t plan to start up a whole new career path when I returned to England: I was just looking for a teaching job to support my two children.
- I didn’t plan to be an LA Advisor in 1992, I was invited to apply when it was recognised that – due to the influence of a significant Caymanian advisor who had vast knowledge and understanding of assessment from working in the USA – my knowledge and understanding of assessment was beyond most at the time.
- I didn’t plan to go back overseas, having been abroad for seventeen years previously: I was asked by a dear professional friend to help him do a ‘start-up’ of a brand new school and it sounded too good an experience to miss (not to mention fun).
- I didn’t plan to work as an independent consultant in education: I was just afraid that no-one would employ me when I returned to the UK aged fifty-six, so decided to give it a go.
- I didn’t plan to work as Primary Strategy Manager: I was approached by a former colleague and loved every moment of building a strong and talented strategy team.
- I didn’t plan to write my professional life as a book: I was told repeatedly by colleagues all over the world that I should put some of my funny – and true stories – into print.
- I didn’t plan to seek out new and highly valued professional friends: I was invited to speak at the first ‘Beyond Levels conferences in 2015 and met so many wonderful people there and through the many following events - and through Twitter.
All I ever wanted to do was to help children to succeed and build their futures – and in doing so I inadvertently built my own – unplanned! But I always wanted to be a WRITER and an ACTRESS! I had more half-finished books stuffed in a case under my bed than I have had homes (and the latter is over 30!). Hopefully, I am now achieving the dream.
My advice would always be – give it a go! Don’t be afraid to seize exciting opportunities that come your way. Life is a journey and the decisions you take shape the directions you travel.
Welcome to my website and welcome to my world!
It's Just a Journey
Concord, Massachusetts, U.S. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. (Wikipedia)
Emerson is accredited with being the first to say:
“Life is a journey, not a destination.”
My life has been one heck of a journey, taking me halfway round the world and back and punctuated by many funny, scary and traumatic experiences on the way. My talks have long reflected this and now – to my pride – my new book, ‘It’s Just a Journey with Ros’ tells the tale.
I started writing ‘Journeys’ virtually, through my talks at conferences and events. I will never forget the first time I told the story of ‘Bernard’ – Head of Maths in the first school I taught in. Having been invited to speak at the first ever ‘Beyond Levels’ conference organised by Dame Alison Peacock (Chair of the Chartered College for teachers) and former Head teacher, Julie Lilly, I continued to speak at subsequent events. After one well known speaker had the audience laughing at his tales, Dame Alison challenged me publicly to:
“Follow that, Ros!”
So I did; and those of you who have heard the stories from my early days as a teacher will know why, on his very first public ‘outing’, Bernard brought the house down! He has been with me ever since on my journeys around the country, as has Stan, Mrs. Sparrowhawk and Michael’s gift.
You will be fascinated by tales of my very first flight, the American Missile Base and living through one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the Caribbean.
We lay, mainly silent, cuddling a child apiece, and listening wide eyed as the horrific noise outside grew to a thunderous roar. The hours passed — midnight and beyond, and the building rocked and shook, the roof creaked and groaned, lifting and sinking continuously, and many a time we feared the whole thing was going to fly off, or the walls would come down, but it withstood the fearsome storm.
The winds screamed on, and the rain was a dense, horizontal curtain of white — driving parallel to the ground, as impenetrable to see through as the thickest fog. Suddenly, at about four in the morning, silence fell. No wind or rain could be heard… only a deep, wet darkness could be discerned through the doors.
“T’is de eye…” muttered the Braccers in hushed, but knowing tones, and we all sat silently and waited for the predicted, resumed onslaught from the opposite direction…
We sat and gaped at the terrain before us, acres of huge boulders, many as large as a car, were piled between six and ten feet deep from the gently lapping water’s edge up to where the road must have been and on across the land and round the houses to the foot of the bluff. Sticking out from between the rocks, there were palm trees and whole sea grapes uprooted and protruding at crazy angles, punctuated by telegraph poles snapped like twigs, planks and iron bars (presumably from smaller constructions in yards), thousands of huge, full grown sponges ripped from the seabed, and heart-breaking masses of dead fish of all sizes.
(It’s Just a Journey with Ros: May 2020)
You will be amazed by my adventures on the ocean, on the roads and in travels overseas.
But most of all, I hope you will agree that – at the end of the day – life is just a series of journeys; physical journeys, emotional journeys, professional journeys and learning journeys.
You will laugh, you may cry, but please enjoy it.
It's Just a Journey with Ros
Apollo moonshots could be seen taking off from Florida when Ros Wilson’s career took off in the Bahamas. A child of the forties, she trained as a teacher in the sixties and has also taught in the Cayman Islands, the Middle East and even the UK. Having been hit by Hurricane Alan, honked out by a dead cat dragged in for the nature table and having helped haul sheep out of a crisis at Christmas, she found she’d salted enough wealth away in the bank of experience to take on consultancy work, too.
She now writes authoritatively on educational practice and policy.
Of popular and professional interest, her story can now be read for fun, hilarity or interest by all. No parent ill-informed about the professional background of school teachers, nor would-be schoolteachers ill-informed about what they could be in for, will regret relaxing and enjoying the fun and laughter of It’s Just a Journey with Ros by Ros Wilson.
