Tag: Career

Miscellaneous

The Reality of Teaching

theadventuresofcaptainhetty

Whilst I am approaching my final year of my degree, the sudden reality that all too soon I will be working in a ‘real’ job contributing to a ‘real’ career is striking me. Therefore, I organised a few days experience at a school in order to grapple with what it would mean to be teacher. I observed a variety of ages and abilities facing internal end of year exams and looking towards the next new year of school. It was a fantastic experience and gave me hope that this might be the route for me. However, it stirred something in me. Something underlying in the teaching profession that never seems to be fully acknowledged: strap your seat belts in, I feel a rant brewing…

“Don’t go into teaching for the money”. “Think of the holidays”. “It’s the only route for humanity degrees”. These are all preconceptions that have been blasted at me everytime I mention going into teaching. So when I found myself in an English staffroom listening to a lunchtime discussion on how it would take 15 years to save up for a house deposit on teachers wages, the reality of this beautiful, nurturing and under-appreciated profession hit me. ‘Skilled’ jobs are defined as paying over £30,000 per annum. The starting salary of a teacher is £23,000: which would only just cover the cost of the tuition fees and maintenance loan required for a degree over a year. Teachers (on the traditional PGCE route) spend a minimum of four years at university. And for what? An ‘unskilled’ job?

With the recent revelation that headteachers have to reduce the number of teachers in a school to breaking point in order to pay for basic equipment, such as tables and chairs, it is evident that schools are in a crisis. This comes after schools have been flogged off to businesses and other companies to become academies. Giving hope for improvement and survival of OFSTED inspections. This may seem a dramatic view; an exaggerated reality, however I, myself, saw the reality of this firsthand as a student. My secondary school was a failing institution placed in special measures for a number of years, spot inspections happening every few months. But nothing ever changed. Even with a proactive new headteacher who pushed the school to the national list of top ten most improved schools, the school remained in special measures. Only when it was converted to an academy that any real change happened. Through a series of harsh but necessary changes to secure a sustainable future for the school, it made a ‘good’ OFSTED rating.

So what does this say about the state of state schools? Is it condemned by its limited financial resources, like the NHS? Maybe. Undeniably, schools reaching out to former pupils with lists of what donations of well over £1,000 could buy for the school, such as interactive whiteboards and library computers, sounds too much like charity fundraising for crisises in other countries. But the issue is very much present in our local communities.

So where does this place teaching? From what I learnt at my invaluable few days placed in the heart of a growing academy trust that aims to expand into a cluster of local schools over the area, teaching is a necessary and potent career that will enrich your life by inspiring others. The teachers I had growing up caught my respect because of how hard they worked to make a difference to our lives. The tireless nights, the lesson plans, the unseen ‘behind-the-scenes’ work that goes into each lesson; the years of study prior to even setting foot into the classroom. It all contributes towards something significant and under-appreciated in not only pay but the overall system of things.

Perhaps it is true that teaching is more than a pay check, but why should the two be so dramatically separated? Certainly, impacting on young people’s lives in a classroom every day beats sitting at a desk in an office; so why can’t that be celebrated in the way it should be? It would change the negative perception that for humanity students particula rly, teaching is an inevitability. Something drastically needs to change for schools. As a prospective teacher facing a world where academies are breaking finanical constraints, I want to ride the wave to creating something better.

Antics

Blog: My First Day of Work Experience at Penguin

theadventuresofcaptainhetty

So, for the past two weeks I have unbelievably been working at Penguin in the Michael Joseph editorial department. I cannot believe my fortnight there is over already and I still have to pinch myself that it happened. It was such an enriching and fulfilling opportunity and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who might be considering a career in publishing. I plan to post my work experience diary on here at some point, but this is how my first day went…

I have unbelievably been working at Penguin in the Michael Joseph editorial department

6am. My phone blasted out the Today Programme and I sat bolt upright in bed. Today is the day. Feeling the twinge of butterflies in my stomach, I pulled on the clothes I laid out the night before, brushed my teeth, slapped on some make-up, and headed out the door. The journey in was remarkably smooth: Windsor and Eton Central to Slough, Slough to London Paddington, the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross: Charing Cross to 80 Strand. Well, after an excited half an hour in Victoria Embankment Gardens, having arrived far too early. As I nervously sat on a park bench watching commuters rush by, chewing on a cereal bar, reality set in. Ahead of me lay two glorious weeks of working at Penguin right in the heart of London.

An excited half and hour in Victoria Embankment Gardens, having arrived too early

At 9:40 I walked in to 80 Strand offices to the Penguin reception desk, still ten minutes early. After barely getting my name out, I was printed off a pass and joined the group of apprehensive looking people. There was an awkward silence, something I am very bad at sitting through. My heart in my mouth, I asked the girl sitting next to me whether she was here for work experience too. A conversation escalated from there, other people around us joining in. Feeling a little more confident, someone came down to collect us. It was finally happening!

We were briefed about the company, the various departments and roles we had signed up for. Then came the obligatory awkward ice breakers. From a single word, we were to come up with a short story using details about ourselves. Our group devised a story about two brothers in Australia waking to snow on Christmas day, the older one pranking the younger, but feeling bad so he gave him one of his own presents. Clearly a literary masterpiece! Soon we were dropped off at our various areas. I was shown to the editorial desks at Michael Joseph. From here, my mentor gave me a tour around the building, introduced me to a few people and then showed me my desk. Sitting down at it, my starter to-do list in hand, I had to pinch myself. I was really here, in Penguin, at a desk! My two weeks really had begun.

For the most part of the morning I was calling IT (I think they probably know me on a first name basis!). As computers seem to be my archenemy, I was a little nervous to be left alone with one. Nevertheless, I set everything up and felt of a whizz. I had a username, an email, an email signature, the printers all connected up: you name it. 

At lunch, all the first and second week work experience people met to eat together. Everyone got to share what’s going on in their various departments, their experiences. I could gather what marketing and publicity, design and editorial teams in other departments were like. Every department at Penguin very much has its own style. But even sitting having lunch with like-minded people in the same position was an opportunity in itself and a lovely part to the day. After lunch, we headed to the pulp shelf. Here, all the unneeded or unloved books are placed to pursue and take home. A definite hotspot to visit!

The pulp shelf: a definite hotspot to visit

Then my first proper job: A submission report for the manuscript sitting on my desk. All four-hundred-and-twenty-one pages of it. Honestly, I am not the fastest reader. Every night that J K Rowling dropped a Harry Potter book, my sister would stay up until the morning to read it. I, on the other hand, take days to read a book. I like to savour words, reread sentences after finishing a page, going back over sentences in the light of other ones later on. So being at a desk surrounded by busily working people, I was determined to try this speed reading lark. Between various tasks (inventory, emails, extracting information from books, and trying the top notch hot chocolate), I read the book in three working days. The next manuscript I would read took me one.

From Day One, working in an office, at Penguin, has taught me so many things. Organisational skills, time management, speed reading, encountering new software (Biblio 3): Even experiencing the London commute. Moreover, to grab opportunities that come my way no matter how nervous about them I feel. I have had an optimum insight to a career I am interested in at a leading publishing house. Two weeks go by all too quickly, but spending it at Penguin work experience has been very fulfilling and something I could not recommend enough.