When I thought about what being a teacher would be like, I imagined the lesson planning, I imagined the parents\u2019 evenings, and I imagined these fascinating engaging lessons where children love to learn. I basically imagined utopia. I wasn\u2019t prepared for just how much I\u2019d fall in love with it \u2013 and for none of those reasons. At least not primarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been lucky enough to be on a placement in a school that completely matches my ethos and values. It\u2019s not hearts and flowers, its real and raw. Every day I see the real value that great teachers have on young people\u2019s lives. I see the impact that a difficult home life can have on the children when they come into school. These teachers are special. They\u2019re a safe place. Often the only safe place that child has. What I\u2019ve found, is a school that truly puts the needs of EVERY child first. Not for OFSTED, nor for exam results or league tables. For those children. The children that come in with no breakfast, the children who have anxiety, the children who have complex SEND needs, the children who struggle to write their name. All of them. It\u2019s all built on the relationships the teachers have formed with them. Real relationships where both parties truly care for one another. Genuine affection for the children in their care. And as a parent, that\u2019s all we want for our babies \u2013 that the people who care for them REALLY care for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are children, even now, who have been moved from school to school, often citing behavioural issues. But what happens when they reach the end of the road? When no other schools will take them? Should we really live in a society where a child is condemned with no hope for education? Surely that\u2019s not the answer. Surely, as a society in one of the richest nations in the world, there\u2019s an answer that doesn\u2019t involve educational exclusion and isolation? I recently read some research by Education Publishing Worldwide that suggested that SEND diagnosis was, in itself, a postcode lottery, meaning that in some places, the likelihood of a SEND diagnosis was considerably smaller purely as a result of location. It was found that SEND diagnoses were disproportionately smaller in more affluent areas. Which got me thinking, as a parent, the quality of teaching my child gets may completely depend on what postcode the school is in. Ultimately all behaviour is, is a reaction. I\u2019ve lost count of the number of times as a parent I\u2019ve been told that toddlers hitting, biting, shouting, crying etc is a normal stage of development and is purely a reaction as that is their only way of communicating. Yet, as a society, we expect that every child, as soon as they hit the compulsory schooling age are perfectly compliant with the emotional intelligence of an adult. Which is a complete contradiction of the other thing that\u2019s drilled into you as a parent \u2013 that every child is different, and every child develops at a different rate. Don\u2019t worry if your 2 year old isn\u2019t talking yet, don\u2019t worry if your 3 year old is still wearing nappies, they\u2019ll do it in their own time. Until they\u2019re 5. Then they\u2019ll do it when we want them to and not a moment later! Some of these children have such complex needs, that they might not be far off a typical 2 year old developmentally, yet we seem to demonise them. What does that do for the child that is constantly told that they\u2019re naughty? What does it do for the child who gets no support? Nothing changes, because why would it? How could it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019ve seen, is a school that nurtures the children others have deemed a lost cause. Teachers that make a real difference to people\u2019s lives that goes way beyond a curriculum. That\u2019s why I went into teaching. Not for the parents\u2019 evenings, or lesson planning, but to make a difference. To inspire children and believe in them in case no one else will. I may be in the infancy of my teaching career, but I know that I have met people who inspire me to be the best teacher I can be. I don\u2019t profess to be an expert in anything I\u2019ve talked about, far from it. What I do know, is that that expertise is my responsibility to gain, throughout my teaching career. My learning will never end. The day it does, is the day I stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lisa is a first year BA (Hons) Primary Education student at the University of Sunderland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I thought about what being a teacher would be like, I imagined the lesson planning, I imagined the parents\u2019 evenings, and I imagined these fascinating engaging lessons where children love to learn. I basically imagined utopia. I wasn\u2019t prepared for just how much I\u2019d fall in love with it \u2013 and for none of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":39,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/childhoodcommunity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}