The School Curriculum Ten Years Hence - UCET: Universities ...

going to be necessary. We have to believe that our young people
can do better if we are to avoid for some of them a downward spiral
that leads to despondency and low morale and results in a high cost
to society both in economic and social terms.
In Wales, all our maintained schools are comprehensive in their
intake. We could think, therefore, that those who go on to further
and higher education and become teachers will have learnt
alongside pupils across the ability range and with varying levels of
commitment and will feel better able to cater for them when they
come to teach. Even though all pupils in an area will all have gone
to the same school, I suspect that many of our younger newly
qualified or prospective teachers will have little real understanding
of what it is like to find limited success or alienation within the
environment of a school - the very place that they, in choosing
teaching as a career, have clearly found comfortable and rewarding.
Indeed, the only contact that some of our aspiring teachers will
have had with those who were disengaged may have been quite
hostile and even frightening. It takes maturity and bravery to have
empathy with those of whom we are afraid.
Newly qualified teachers will come into contact with young people
who have lost interest in school and present behaviour that present
a challenge to even the most experienced teacher.
This is therefore a considerable challenge for teacher educators and
for teachers in training. Do we create sufficient opportunity for
trainees to meet and talk to young people who are, for whatever
reason, disengaged? Or do our trainee teachers leave unprepared
and hoping to apply to teach somewhere where they will not
encounter such alien beings!
Where colleges are doing well in preparing trainees for
comprehensive schooling, they build on the experience of trainees
corning through access courses and less conventional routes than
school sixth form to college and back to school. Other useful ploys
involve analysing some of the negative experiences the trainees had
at school to encourage reflection on different approaches to
learning. Trainees can only learn to develop different approaches
really well where they have the opportunity to try them out with
young people with good support from their trainers and more
experienced teachers.
Estyn’s work has identified the need for training for adults working
with disaffected young people. In Wales, emphasis is being placed
on improving in-service training including professional development
for heads. It is essential that this training tackles issues to do with
social inclusion.