Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The issue is everyone is grumbling about it, but don't dare to speak or act on it. My department colleagues are scared that their own performance grades will be threatened.

You may wish to have a conversation with your RO, SSD or your SLs. Sometimes a rotation of RO can be good. Changing a school may not be all bad too. It may be difficult to compare to GEO 5 officers who have no desire to climb as they can be happy where they are. People always say they have no choice, but the fact is always that we have choices. It depends on what actions you want to take to change the status quo. I had a terrible RO once, I had to pull all stops to leave her sphere of influence. Never looked back ever since and I am happier where I am.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How did you fail? What was the assessment criteria like.

Now it's supply more than demand.

It's highly competitive these days. New teachers have very good credentials these days.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How did you fail? What was the assessment criteria like.

You need to clear the interview first, followed by a contract teaching (6 months or 1 year depending on when you get in) before they deem you suitable to enter the teacher training course (called PGDE).

I didn't clear the interview stage. And yes supply is more than demand these days, especially with the low birth rates and school mergers. Hence to even clear the first stage you need to be the best of the best, as the vacancies available is very little compared to last time.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you don’t dare to speak up for yourself, then I guess you have chosen to live with the situation. There’s no point complaining if you don’t take any action.

Already done that, thanks for your "help".

Any other useful advice?

Current teacher looking to leave here. For every 10 teachers who leave. 7 of them are good teachers. Some leave because of the crazy workload, some leave because the P is lousy (met a perv P and Oscar award winner P) and some simply lost the passion because of a combi of reasons. I am going to leave because of the lies they fed me. Sometimes I wonder if the SLs should get a work attachment in the private sector.. they seem like oblivious to what is happening on the ground. They claim they know but make crazy assertions based on some crazy tale by a KP. Don't get me wrong, there are kind and wonderful KPs but they are far and few. SLs on the other hand, i don't have much good things to say about them. if u meet a genuine one, u r lucky. Actually I thought I met one genuine one before but she turned out to be horrible person behind the scenes.

Advice: The starting pay is good but that is where it ends. The politics will suck your passion dry very quickly. The ranking system may see your friends become enemies. some will not hesitate to sabo u. SLs and some KPs (because they are pressured by the Ps) will lie to make to stay. Sometimes i wonder what kind of a person you need to be in order to be a SL. The young will be taxed and they will claim that they want to stretch you when in the end, makes no diff because favouritism is highly practiced in some schools. The P is like some god in the school, surrounded by a bunch of wayangs. So if you are wayang, you will survive well in most schools unless your P is an enlightened one.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Already done that, thanks for your "help".

Any other useful advice?

Request a change of RO or school? Spoken to your SLs?

Looking to transfer to teach PE in primary school.

Can I ask if PE teachers in Primary school are usually single subject specialist or are PE teachers in primary school usually required to teach addition subject/subjects?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Request a change of RO or school? Spoken to your SLs?

Some SLs dun take this very lightly. they may proceed to blacken your record. Sometimes feel like a prisoner to them. they can get away with all these.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, need some advice about dealing with direct ROs.

My RO is quite an old, blur and forgetful HOD. Not that I have anything against his age, but he loves to dump a lot of workload on the new or younger officers (newly transferred in or within 5 years of service).

Not that people are unwilling to do the extra (or even sudden) work, but it's very unfair when we are not being recognised for completing these extra workload while he takes credit. In the meantime, the older and experienced teachers usually don't get any new extra workload.

Because of his failing memory sometimes, certain duties are also not rotated. Even after telling and requesting a change, he refuses to budge despite the fact that certain roles have a heavier workload.

After speaking to other KPs from my own school and even from other schools, most responses are just about sucking it up.

I love my school culture and colleagues. But it seems like having a good boss also matters a lot. Any advice?

I was told to suck it up too despite making me do so much extra. the thing about schools is that meritocracy in terms of leadership track is skewed. In the end, they decided to appt the one as HOD when that person did not even contribute much in terms of the dept-wise. If the SLs like you, you can do almost anything and get away with it but if you are in the doghouse, they will milk u dry and scold for stupid things that u will not even scold your own child for. And when u question their decision, they give lame reasons like - oh u r very young and your runway is long. so I guess at the end of the day age does play a role unless u are a scholar who is not condemned.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Request a change of RO or school? Spoken to your SLs?

My take - depends on the situation. if your RO is in favour with the SLs, dun do it. just change school. becos if you do it, the SLs may just kill u once and for all.