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| Finances push grades off school
curriculum |
Journalist Wendy Wallace gives an invaluable
account of the challenges facing an inner city primary school, writes
Dan Carrier
Oranges and Lemons by Wendy Wallace
Routledge, £12.99
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Non-identical twins Joan Williamson and Jean Sussex at Edith
Neville with head Seán O’Regan Aliesha Pedro
(middle), 9, of Crowndale Road, Samira Said, 9, of Lithos
Road.
The sisters attended the school in the 1950s, their parents
went there in the 1920s and so did their children in the
1970s. Joan, senior administration officer, is 20 minutes
older than Jean, the senior meals supervisor and teaching
assistant. They have worked at the school for 20 years.
Wendy Wallace
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ORANGES and Lemons charts a year in the life of Somers Town’s
Edith Neville Primary School.
Wendy Wallace, a freelance writer for the Times Education Supplement,
spent one day a week there for a school year – and the product
is this moving account of the highs and lows of life in a Camden
classroom.
For Edith Neville read A.N. Other School: her brief, although focussing
on specific problems Edith Neville staff and pupils face, reads
as a wider debate of the state of the British education system.
“I always have had a real interest in social issues in schools
and how they are met,” she says.
Mrs Wallace discovered Edith Neville when she at a teaching awards
ceremony and she heard the head Seán O’Regan making
a speech. She was impressed.
“He spoke with such enthusiasm, I thought he must be doing
something right. I wondered what his school was like, and I had
an urge to write something more in depth.”
She approached him and he agreed to allow her to come into classrooms.
Mrs Wallace has two children, aged 16 and 18, who were educated
in Hackney and Haringey.
She knows the problems they face, and she also is aware of how teachers
perform each day.
And although she praises teachers for their dedication, she is not
afraid to highlight the daily problems she saw them encounter.
A lot of it has to do with money. The government spends £4,500
on each of the 250 children at Edith Neville each year. This includes
staff salaries, resources such as pens and paper and hidden costs
like keeping the building heated.
And according to Mrs Wallace, cash is the number one problem.
She writes: “When Helen (the deputy headteacher) brings the
school improvement plan to a governing body meeting, of the scores
of items for action the ones on which there has been no progress
are without exception the ones that cost money – improving
drinking water provision, finishing off the fence around the school
and creating an adequate library.”
And Mrs Wallace charts how hard decisions have to be made. With
Edith Neville in one of the country’s poorest areas –
she notes how many of the children live in extremely cramped conditions,
and some only have ‘white plastic garden furniture’ –
there is a temptation to spend more money on making the school a
welcoming place.
But most of the money goes on salaries.
Mrs Wallace records chair of governors John Twigg: “The success
of the school depends on the quality of the staff and the level
of support we can offer. But our ability to deliver it is slowly
but surely being eroded.”
Mrs Wallace acknowledges the Labour government has increased spending
on education, but so far most of it has gone to secondary schools.
There is not a secondary school in Camden that has not had major
capital works done to it since Labour was elected, but schools like
Edith Neville are also desperate for investment.
Mrs Wallace adds: “Erratic and shrinking budgets make it difficult
to plan ahead.”
There are also issues with staff turnover – hence the need
to make sure teachers are properly paid and supported.
Mrs Wallace explains: “With a teacher shortage crisis of recent
years, the government gave certain incentives to boost the numbers
being trained.”
Her book discovers that although this has had some positive results,
people quickly realise that teaching is not a nine-to-five job –
it’s a vocation that needs dedication.
And that means there has been a high proportion of trainees dropping
out after a brief spell in the job.
“During a period of intense teacher shortages, schools were
kept running by temporary teachers,” writes Mrs Wallace.
Many are from Australia, South Africa and Canada – and according
to the book, all are ‘astonished’ by the degree of central
control over teachers’ time.
“Wherever in the world they come from, overseas-trained teachers
tend to be astonished by the difficult behaviour in English schools,”
she writes. “A school is, in effect, its teachers.”
For Lala Thorpe, a 35-year-old newly qualified graduate teacher,
her first year in a school is a hard experience.
“Despite support from the head, Lala is finding her teaching
baptism both unnerving and exhausting,” writers Mrs Wallace.
“Teaching is about getting your lines right and being the actor.
I get stage fright, even though I might have spent the night before
planning meticulously. Children pick up on your anxieties so you
feel incredibly vulnerable, once you understand you can be mocked
and humiliated.”
Lala ends up having to reduce her hours to four days a week –
she has two children of her own and she feels she isn’t giving
them enough of her time.
This is the typical experience of teachers. Mrs Wallace says: “Lala
left her career in arts administration because she wanted to do
something more creative. She has already decided she doesn’t
want to remain a class teacher for very long.”
With many of Edith Neville’s pupils speaking English as a second
language at home, there are certain communication problems that
arise. This does not only mean ensuring parents feel they can approach
the school and understand what their children are learning, but
making sure differences in language are celebrated as well as countered.
The school’s remit is to teach children English without it
being to the detriment of their mother tongue.
“An extended vocabulary is a treasure Edith Neville children
mainly do not have on arrival at school,” she writes.
One of the triumphs of Edith Neville, according to Mrs Wallace,
is the school’s inclusivity. Parents feel comfortable coming
in to discuss their problems and get involved with the school. Parents
become teaching assistants. Of course, there are tensions: a day
trip to the seaside goes badly wrong when two parents have a punch
up.
The fabric of the school is shoddy. One of the problems the caretaker
faces is vandalism.
The book reveals how windows are frequently broken by stones thrown
from the street. The school has been burgled frequently and two
former pupils are suspected. Buckets catch drips and there is not
a proper dining hall.
What comes out of the book is akin to a classroom based version
of George Orwell’s Road To Wigan Pier: while that woke up the
chattering classes to the poverty of northern England, Oranges and
Lemons should shock in the same way. |
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