A free school in Oldham is being set up; the intention is to staff it with ex-armed forces personnel. I am not against members of the armed forces working in school. This has been proven to work; look at Skill Force. However, Skill Force works within a school setting and follows the policies of the school it works in. Nor am I against a school being set up and run by ex-armed forces that are trained and qualified teachers. I am sure that their previous experience would enrich their careers as teachers; as is the case with many who enter the profession from a non-teaching background. My issue is whether this free school will be staffed by people qualified to teach in schools. This legislation yet again shows how we, as teachers, have lost control of our professional identity. Should we not expect our children to be taught by people that are qualified to do just that; teach? Why do we think that the skills that make people successful in one sphere of employment; in this case the armed forces, will make them qualified to be successful in another. As a qualified teacher am I then up to conducting a wee bit of brain surgery? Possibly not. I am sure there are some ex-soldiers who have what it takes to make excellent teachers without formal training, but are we happy to leave it to chance? I'm quite physically fit; but I'm sure the army don't want me messing up thier finely tuned strategy by turning up on the front line.
As a society we have lost sight of the fact that teaching is an extremely difficult job that takes lots of training and experience to do well.
Read the article from the BBC here and watch here.
This is one reason why I am baffled by the idea of free schools. Everyone has an opinion about schools and how they can be improved, but just because you have been taught at a school does not mean you are qualified to teach in that, or any other school.
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