Page 24 - link magazine

Dealing with the teacher shortage positively

It is now being widely recog- being trained `on the job' in
nised and reported - by the press, schools. We expect that very soon,
parents, schools, national and lo- our trainees will be ready to take
cal government alike - that there over a whole class themselves.
is a serious problem finding suffi- Secondly, we have invested
cient staff for schools around the heavily in the new `Future School'
country. It is not confined to regu- scheme. This independent learn-
lar, full time teachers, but also to ing computer programme, origi-
supply staff, who cover for illness nally developed for distance learn-
and teacher-training. ing in Australia, is proving a pow-
Fortunately, at Greendown, we erful tool to aid individual stu-
are fully staffed in every subject dents. Each child follows a pro-
except Mathematics. While the gramme which fits their needs
situation may be eased this term and they are moved on automati-
with a further appointment, we cally through the work by a 'vir-
have had to find an immediate, tual teacher' on screen. The com-
effective solution. So we've de- puter marks work, diagnoses One teacher, many different levels. Students working with Future
School. Unseen is the real class teacher, ready to give personal assistance
vised two main strategies. strengths and weaknesses, alerts
First, we are creating a small the student to errors and indicates
number of larger classes, taught work to aid progression to further
by a specialist teacher, together mathematical ideas and concepts. High speed onto the Internet
with a trainee teacher. These train- Because we also provide a real
ees, with mathematics degrees, teacher in the classroom we are Students can already access pro- as add to the website themselves.
are teachers in the making . As finding students of all abilities are tected parts of the Internet as part Clearly this will help Greendown
part of the government's new making significant and rapid of their regular studies in Business students prepare for careers like
and Humanities, but ambitious Alan Parry's !
scheme for graduates, they are progress.
plans are afoot to increase both Much faster connection speeds
the range and frequency of use of and access to the World Wide
More space in response to popularity this learning tool of the third mil- Web will also benefit the school.
lennium. Such is the importance of the
As Greendown's numbers continue to increase - we are still West Greendown is one of the first project, that our official launch of
Swindon's most popular secondary school - to stabilise at some 1,300
schools in the South West to join the project on the 10th November
students, we have created another classroom and more social space
in and benefit from a new will be by Swindon North MP
for breaks and lunchtime by building two mezzanine floors in the Broadband project which will give Michael Wills, the minister with
atria. the school its own website from responsibilites for the develop-
One houses the Future School computers and the other is a new which students and our parents ment of Information Technologyin
dining area where students may sit quietly and enjoy their food.
can access work and data as well education.
Costing some £,55,000, the school paid for these improvements to the
facilities from its own funds and from new government grants. This
innovation has generated interest from other schools around the Open evenings a hit amongst parents
country which need more space at modest cost.
and year 6 pupils
Each year, Greendown offers West Swindon parents opportunities
to visit and find out about our approaches to learning and teaching.
In October, with four evening and morning open sessions, we played
host to our largest number of visitors ever. Some 670 people
discovered in 'active' sessions, how our students learn every subject.
A session run by senior staff on how we help children make the most
of what the school has to offer was packed each night.
For all those children who choose Greendown, visits to meet and get to
know them will be made by senior staff next Spring. They will then take part
in a three day induction into the school in July 2001.
Luke Cejer and his mum Bev (second from right) conduct a science
experiment with help from science teacher Rachael Howarth and year
8 student Kylie Taylor

Greendown brought to Secretary of State's attention
Secretary of State for Education David Blunkett must be getting used
to Greendown being mentioned in his presence. Social Science
students on a visit to the Houses of Parliament in the Spring were lucky
to meet him in the central lobby and he stopped to talk to them.
Then assistant headteacher Tim Noble met Mr Blunkett at a
reception for teachers in Buckingham Palace in July (sec Shakespeare
story overleaf).
During the August summer holidays, student Rosa Hirsch-Holland
was blunt with Blunkett when she took up the opportunity to call him
on a radio 'phone-in. She gave her forthright views on the burden of
GCSE course work that students now face.