Deputy principal observing class

2xj3hplqgsbkym

My voluntary secondary school is a droichead school, so NQTs observe teachers and are observed twice by a member of the droichead team.
Yesterday, all the NQTs were told that the DP will be observing one of their classes over the next couple of days. The NQT can choose the class. It is ‘just to see how they are getting on’.
Is this the norm in other schools? The NQTs feel like they have done something wrong and that students will be whispering that they are in trouble when DP is watching their class.
I feel it is overkill and undermines the droichead system.

Teacher0101

Course it's overkill, but sure to have to justify you paying out to do a 2 year masters. Plus, it gives the VP a break.

evolving_doors

Christopher Alive Slacker wrote: »

My voluntary secondary school is a droichead school, so NQTs observe teachers and are observed twice by a member of the droichead team.
Yesterday, all the NQTs were told that the DP will be observing one of their classes over the next couple of days. The NQT can choose the class. It is ‘just to see how they are getting on’.
Is this the norm in other schools? The NQTs feel like they have done something wrong and that students will be whispering that they are in trouble when DP is watching their class.
I feel it is overkill and undermines the droichead system.

on the contrary, you'll probably see a push for all teachers observing each other in the future. If the DP has time to be observing your classes you must have a very quiet school :pac:
Although, it might be a ploy to fend of parents concerns. Sometimes students can pick up on little things and pass it back to the parents to look for an excuse for their 'not so great' gades. e.g.

• "The PME teacher is wayyyy behind the other class teacher"
• "Our regular teacher said she was annoyed that she had to have a PMe take her classes".
• "The PME teacher hasn't a clue what he's doing". etc.
  
  So it might be good for the DP to come in and observe then report back to parents that they themselves have actually observed the classes and thought it was a great lesson ... and your son is just a lazy ***** looking for excuses.
  
  So just embrace it and plan, keep the students busy, question them, find out what they've learned throughout the lesson rather than accepting that they've absorbed everything you said (Teachers on here love post-its )

Inspector Coptoor

The DP could be the link person as part of the Droichewd programmer and may have to observe NQTs in that particular role.

It’s not overkill

2xj3hplqgsbkym

evolving_doors wrote: »

on the contrary, you'll probably see a push for all teachers observing each other in the future. If the DP has time to be observing your classes you must have a very quiet school :pac:
Although, it might be a ploy to fend of parents concerns. Sometimes students can pick up on little things and pass it back to the parents to look for an excuse for their 'not so great' gades. e.g.

• "The PME teacher is wayyyy behind the other class teacher"
• "Our regular teacher said she was annoyed that she had to have a PMe take her classes".
• "The PME teacher hasn't a clue what he's doing". etc.
  
  So it might be good for the DP to come in and observe then report back to parents that they themselves have actually observed the classes and thought it was a great lesson ... and your son is just a lazy ***** looking for excuses.
  
  So just embrace it and plan, keep the students busy, question them, find out what they've learned throughout the lesson rather than accepting that they've absorbed everything you said (Teachers on here love post-its )

Thanks but I think you misread. It’s not a PME it is an NQT, and it’s not me.

Studentblogger

I can't understand why senior management don't observe NQT's. They're hiring these people and possibly giving them long-term jobs. It's within their interest to observe teachers and try get a sense of what they are like in the classroom.

2xj3hplqgsbkym

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

The DP could be the link person as part of the Droichewd programmer and may have to observe NQTs in that particular role.

It’s not overkill

No, I am her support teacher on the Droichead team, another Member of Droichead team will visit her after me.
This is separate to that.

RealJohn

Studentblogger wrote: »

I can't understand why senior management don't observe NQT's. They're hiring these people and possibly giving them long-term jobs. It's within their interest to observe teachers and try get a sense of what they are like in the classroom.

The only thing about this is that unless they’re the managerial equivalent of ‘incidental inspections’, there’s probably little to learn from this. The kids will behave if the principal or dp is in the room (and probably if any teacher who isn’t usually there is in the room) so all they'd get from that is whether the teacher has actually prepared a proper class or not, something that NQTs typically try to do, at least. Sure, they could give tips and the like but they probably wouldn’t learn a lot from observation that would indicate whether a teacher is actually someone you want to hire or not.

That’s one of the issues I have with people getting CIDs after two years - that isn’t necessarily enough time to properly evaluate a teacher but then, at the end of the two years, a school could wind up stuck with a teacher who might not be suitable in the long term.

Anyway, I’m in my fourteenth year teaching and personally, I’d welcome anyone who wanted to pop in an observe my classes, as long as they can give me useful feedback.