Shorter licence idea worries teachers’ union
Monday 14th March 2011, 2:29PM GMT.
THE number of teachers willing to move to Guernsey could drop if the length of housing licences or permits decrease, according to a teachers’ union.
Dr Mary Bousted (pictured), the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, and its senior vice-president, Alice Robinson, were in the island to catch up with local members.
The pair raised concerns about the new population policy, which could see professionals from the UK living on four-year permits as opposed to the five-year licence that can currently be issued.
They spoke to director of education Derek Neale about the proposals and said they were strongly supporting his drive to get seven-year permits for non-local teachers.
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It’s absolutely ridiculous having such short term licences for teachers-what about continuity for students?
I think teachers need longer licences,not shorter.Teachers are going to think twice about teaching here especially if they have families themselves.Moving is a big upheaval with a family, and shorter licences will be a major consideration when deciding to teach in Guernsey.
Students need continuity,not a procession of teachers who have to leave due to restrictions.
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Maybe there are plans to help bring up to speed local Teachers to thereby reduce the reliance for license holders.
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From the presentation about population given the other day, it would appear that 7 year housing permits may be given to some teachers who only get a 5 year licence now. Let’s hope so.
I’m a ‘local’ teacher and each July we wave good-bye to plenty of first-rate, high calibre teachers who make a real difference to Guernsey students. Whilst I would not want all teaching posts to have a permanent 7 year permit, offering a 4 year permit with the opportunity of a 7 year permit if your Headteacher wanted to keep you, would be a welcome idea and would ensure that Guernsey’s children keep their good teachers.
We must remember that ‘our’ Guernsey isn’t the idyll we all assume it to be for everyone; holding onto those who want to stay permanently and who offer a great service to our island, should be a high priority.
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The problem with a short license is that you never feel settled, so even though your license is for 5 years, after a few years you are thinking of the future and looking for career prospects elsewhere.
This certainly disrupts the continuity of your children’s education, and will affect them more than you think.
As for bringing up to speed local teachers? There are serious lack of them… and even if there were, what would you prefer? Filling positions with locals just to keep them employed? Or giving your children the best education you can from a teacher no matter where they are from, local or not.
Guernsey has to decide their goal is here… Education? Or Employment.
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“This certainly disrupts the continuity of your children’s education, and will affect them more than you think”.
Doesn’t appear to. Every year Guernsey secondary schools do extremely well in their exam results.
So the current system must be working.
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@Neil
I’d love to see what you are comparing your “extremely well” to, to be able to come up with such a comment.
It’s sad that you think the person above was purely referring to exam results.
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Non-local Teacher
I support the idea of encouraging top calibre individuals to remain on the island however with all due respect I disagree with your first paragraph.
All short term licence teachers knew the conditions when they applied for the job. If they don’t perform their job well because they’re “unsettled” about having to leave then I’m afraid that is unacceptable. It’s no different to working fixed term contracts in any other sphere of work. You know when you start that you are there for a limited time.
Everyone who enters the island on a short term licence should know it is exactly that – a short term licence. Sadly, I think what happens is many people come here on short term contracts, then bury their head in the sand with the misguided view that once they get their foot in the door they’ll be able to stay. Sorry but it doesn’t work like that.
Of course some are able to stay – and that’s generally good for all concerned as we hope to get the best for the job. The fact remains though that if everyone who came here on a short term licence accepted that at face value, I can’t help but think it would improve things.
PS The only mitigation I can think of is that I’ve heard rumours that incoming staff are told that getting an extension is “a mere formality” – although I’ve not seen any evidence that really happens so it may well be just gossip and hearsay.
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@Neil – I agree. I cannot believe our children are so fragile they cannot handle a change in teaching staff.
Besides, changing teachers is part and parcel of normal school life. At primary school we changed teachers every year as we moved through the school – I believe that remains the case now.
When I was at secondary school I had loads of different teachers for the same subject – a different one each year if I recall. The only exception was during my two GCSE years when we had the same teacher. Even during that time though, although I accept having the same teacher helped (as long as they were good, of course!) to a degree, surely the continuity of education is maintained more by (a) the curriculum and (b) the calibre of teacher – even if they are different.
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Paul Le Page – excellent post @ 10.51
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I have to say, each person who is given a 5 year licence knows the terms of that licence and therefore can choose not to come to Guernsey.
What’s wrong with us training local students to become teachers? Surely that is the way to go.
Also, I don’t think that the Population Policy Group have said that 5 year licences will become 7 year permits, that is definitely not the read across that we were given.
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@Tim
You don’t think that 98% A to Cs is any indication that Education is working in Guernsey.
And from the Education website:
“The Bailiwick has much to be proud of with an Education Service that consistently out performs those of similar jurisdictions in terms of exam results, favourable pupil teacher ratios, smaller class sizes, higher participation rates Post 16, excellent standards of teaching and learning and high quality staff.”
Sorry if the facts don’t fit the union line; but our system seems to work very well judging by the ultimate benchmark.
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Neil & Paul Le Page have beaten me to it.
The facts I am afraid don’t fit the rhetoric, we have had the Five Year licence term for well over 40 years and the standard of our children’s education has not suffered adversely as a result of the Housing control policy. The rest, I believe has already been said.
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Deputy Jones
In addition to the above, would you agree with my view that given the current situation in the UK with all the cuts going on, it is quite possible we will actually see an increased interest in local teaching jobs, not a decrease as suggested by the ATL?
I can’t help but think this story is nothing more than scaremongering with little basis in fact.
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I would have thought that teacher continuity was only important for the duration of a GCSE or A level course, i.e. two years.
Four year licences should therefore be quite long enough, and schools just need to make sure through good management that the switch in teachers doesn’t take place mid course for a particular year group.
Those parents who worry that good teachers won’t come to the island on four year licences can always school their children off island where they will get a superior education anyway.
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Dave Jones and Others:
Since this article seems to be about the affect of a proposed drop to a 4 year permit, would it be more useful to comment on that rather than simply responding to the comments some posters have made about the state of the education system as it exists now? What is happening now is irrelevant in the context of this thread as far as I can see.
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I agree Guernsey Girl.
The teachers moan they only have a five year licence but we assume that they were told at interview. They made the choice to come so they shouldn’t moan about it when they have to go.
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Surely the optimum solution is to make it easier for longer-term licences to be issued to those teachers who we actually want to keep. Not every teacher who comes here on an initial 4-year contract will be an exceptional one that we would like to retain, so a system which ensures that we are not obliged to renew the licences of those, but which gives us more scope for then granting a longer-term licence to those who we are very keen to keep, would seem very logical and feasible.
As I understand it, 15-year licences for teachers are only now issued to heads, deputy heads and heads of department. That’s arguably a little too limiting because at the 4-year expiry stage a teacher might be lined up to become a head of department in say 2 or 3 years time when a retirement is due.
Treat the 4-year licence as a probationary period, and at the end of say 3 years the decision should be announced as to whether Education wishes to extend that teacher’s licence by issuing a longer-term one. It quite probably means that the teacher who is advised of a non-extension will immediately start applying for jobs elsewhere, but that seems to be the case now anyway.
The biggest advantage of such a system is that those who have been identified for a long-term career within Guernsey, having proved themselves, will be far more likely to stay. A win-win situation all round, without us being landed long-term with imported teachers who are not considered outstanding, and who would otherwise be blocking jobs for locally-qualified teachers.
The licence system is surely meant to be about only issuing licences to fill positions which cannot be filled by locals. Outstanding locally-qualified teachers will always be looked after in my suggestion because we can always control the total number of licence extensions, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the locally-qualified teacher being initially assessed against the calibre of imported teachers on 4-year licences.
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Ref David,s letter. I could not agree more, with everything you have said.Sounds common sense to me.
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Perhaps Mr Jones, or whoever may have access to the facts, could enlighten us as to the annual costs of recruitment paid by the Education Dept
to replace the teachers who leave; I’m sure the exam results and statistics show clear evidence of a good education system but in the broader picture where every States Department is looking to save money, surely there is an argument for retaining staff for longer in order to reduce the costs of recruitment, those half page ads in the GEP cost a fortune..The money saved could then be put back into the schools system to make them even better than they are deemed to be.
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@ P Le P
I don’t believe I suggested that being “unsettled” means you don’t do a good job buddy – merely that the majority of the time you won’t have your teachers for the five year period anyway!
“The problem with a short license is that you never feel settled, so even though your license is for 5 years, after a few years you are thinking of the future and looking for career prospects elsewhere.”
Which is exactly what I said really…
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@Guernsey Girl
Teaching is a qualified profession. After going to university to study an undergraduate degree you then have to do a PGCE with a qualified university or do a GTP (employment based training) that is linked to a university and education authority. Guernsey doesn’t have the postgraduate education authority needed to qualify teachers locally. It does, however, have the ability to see Newly Qualified Teachers through their training year. Guernsey needs to work on encouraging young locals back after qualifying in the UK. Considering local jobs pay higher than inner-city jobs in England it’s obvious that this is the aim of the Education Dept.
I don’t like seeing colleagues leave at the end of each term. Most are very fond of the students and the students don’t like saying goodbye to those they have forged a very good working relationship with. Perhaps some sort of review basis is needed for those who want to stay. It would mean more paperwork for the Education Dept but looking at each case on an individual basis really would ensure that Guernsey’s teaching standards really are, and continue to be, top notch.
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Non-local teacher – fair enough I misunderstood you.
Still I’m happy with the system the way it is – it’s served us well for the last umpteen years and, given the current situation in the UK, I can’t see the supply of willing teachers drying up any time soon.
I would add that I do agree with others here that provision should be made to extend the contract for short-term teachers that excel during their contract here. This shouldn’t be the norm, but there seems little point investing time and money recruiting when there’s a perfectly good incumbent.
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