Howdy, Tappers!
The summer term is well underway, and from the socials we can see there is already a lot of chat about three hot topics of this term: KS2 tests and GCSE cramming; lots of ‘new job’ announcement;, and sorting out timetables for next year.
If you can believe it, April is nearly over and we’re nearing the end of our new prize draw. We’ve been handing out tickets every time you hit a three day run – and that means you’ve still got up to the 30th of April to bag yourself more tickets.
Want to know how many tickets you have already? Just check your app – and be sure to look out for our announcement for the winning ticket code. The winner will be the proud owner of a £500 restaurant voucher so you can take your teacher BFFs out for a delicious meal.
What do you love more: teaching OR teaching your subject?
This week we asked secondary teachers if they would consider leaving teaching if they no longer could teach the subject they specialise in. For primary teachers, this may seem an alien idea. But for secondary their specialism is an important relationship.
That said, only 32% said either ‘probably yes’ or ‘definitely yes’ vs 68% saying either ‘probably no’ or ‘definitely no’ – which suggests more flexibility than people might expect!
But did the subject specialism make a difference? Are there some subjects whose teachers feel more attachment than others?
The biggest lovers of their subject appears to be…maths! 🧮 43% of maths teachers would definitely consider leaving if they had to swap their calculators for art brushes or the works of Shakespeare.
On the other hand, only 27% of humanities teachers would consider leaving if they had to teach another subject. Maybe the fact so many humanities teachers already teacher multiple subjects means their less wedded to their own anyway?
What do you love more – your subject, or teaching generally? Let us know on socials or through the app 📩.
A licence to write
The pen licence can be a highly coveted achievement for primary school pupils.
For any secondary teachers who have not come across it – a pen licence is awarded once a pupil achieves a level of writing proficiency, meaning they can ditch their pencils for a nice ink-flowing pen.
Once upon a time, these licences were everywhere – so what is their popularity like today?
Compared to when we first asked, twice as many of you don’t use pen licences as your pupils all switch to pen at the same time (15%, vs 7% in 2019).
There has also been a huge jump up in schools dropping the ‘whole school approach and allowing teachers to decide themselves – now 17% vs 11% in 2019.
Overall the most popular answer is still ‘Yes – most awarded in Year 4’. Though in 2019 that was matched by people awarding in Year 3 which has now fallen back to 14% (vs 23% in 2019).
Should parents be able to home school?
In last week‘s blog we revealed that 28% of schools have one or more pupils on a flexi timetable, up from 17% in 2019.
This week – we asked you if you believe parents should be allowed to home school their children.
When we first asked this question in 2018 there had been NO pandemic lock down learning and NO experience of teaching pupils remotely.
It’s therefore interesting that now, fewer primary school teachers believe parents should be allowed to home school, whereas the opposite happened in secondary, with fewer secondary school teachers saying parents should be stopped from home schooling.
Overall the results are pretty divided however!
What do you think is behind this divergence in opinion? Let us know your thoughts – as a teacher, would you ever (have you ever?) home school your own children? 🤔
Top events
This week’s top event is…
Gov Net and their SEND conference on May 1! 🤩
This is an in-person event – and there are a more face to face AND virtual AND on demand events all for you to peruse on the events tab in the app – check it out!
Ups and Downs
On the rise 📈
Primary school teachers without autonomy over HOW they teach: 1 in 5 primary school teachers said they must use specific structures for lessons – almost double the proportion in 2018.
Heading down 📉
Teachers who NEVR overlook behaviour issues: 7% of you said you NEVER overlook behaviour issues – but that’s down 5 percentage points from 2018 when the figure was 12%.
Daily Reads
Our most read daily read this week was the blog: Teacher Tapp on the ECF
If you would like to read the rest you can find them here 👇
