Let's Talk About...Why I Chose to Train in Secondary

Let's Talk About...Why I Chose to Train in Secondary.

Written by - Beci @missway_inbristol

I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m a small female teacher or something else but when I tell people I’m a teacher they automatically think I’m a Primary School teacher. Then they’re even more shocked when I say I teach Computer Science, because I’m not your stereotypical computer scientist. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher and I was pretty confident that secondary was the route for me, I’d based this decision on a number of attributes.

I had taught dance since the age of 13, obviously teaching the baby groups first and then older as I got older and went up the grades myself, I also taught dance for a local Boys and Girls club, again most of the children being primary pupils, when deciding on my PGCE course I knew that I needed a new challenge and that I didn’t want to be spending all day and night with primary school pupils.

Secondly and the most important factor for me was that I wanted to teach something I’m passionate about, I thoroughly enjoyed my ICT lessons in school and excelled in the subject hence choosing to study it further at university. I wanted to use my subject specialism and inspire pupils to opt for a career in ICT just as I did. I also didn’t want to teach subjects that I don’t enjoy, I’m sorry but I just do not want to teach Science or Geography for example. Even in my own subject specialism there are topics I have to teach that I’m not as confident in or have had to teach myself before I teach the pupils, but to do that for lots of subjects would definitely affect the way I teach. I know I deliver much better lessons when I’m confident in what I’m teaching and I feel that wouldn’t be the case if I taught primary.

People often say “you must be so brave to teach secondary”, I think we all think back to how school was like when we were there, but I honestly think standards have massively improved since then. Yes ok, I’ve had some awful days where pupils have shouted abuse at me, or I’ve had to break up a fight between year 11 boys much taller than me, but those days are rare. We have a great behaviour policy in my school called “Ready to Learn”, I know more and more schools are implementing it, but it cuts out all the aggravation. It has really clear simple rules that pupils must abide to both in and outside the classroom, they fail to follow those rules they get a warning (in lesson), they break the rules again they go to isolation, if the rules are broken outside lesson time they’re issued a detention – no arguments, you refuse to go to isolation you get excluded and then when you come back to school still have to do your isolation time. Sounds brutal but it works. Most of the time pupils completely understand the rules they have broken and our school behaviour has massively improved since I joined 4 years ago.

I also do not want to deal with the gross things I’ve seen you primary teachers post about, pupils having accidents, picking their nose, sneezing all over you….EW!! Not for me, lol! My room might smell a bit after a lesson with year 9 but I always have an air freshener to hand. On the whole I get to influence my pupils in different ways, I get to have an almost adult conversation with them, I play pranks on them (once I’ve built a good relationship with them), they know the boundaries, they come to me with all sorts of problems, family related, friends related, boyfriend related. I strive to be the approachable teacher and I’ve helped a few pupils through some tough times.

After doing half-term provision with a mixture of primary and secondary I know I made the right choice, even though I’m great with younger children. I’m always making friends with 5-year-olds on holiday lol, my 3-year-old next door neighbour always likes to talk to me, remembers my name but not my boyfriend’s. I even did playscheme in the summer of my PGCE, its ok for short periods of time but it’s not for me. To be that cheery and enthusiastic all day would drain me haha, not that I’m miserable to my kids but they do have a better understanding of when teachers are tired or knowing where the line is to stop being silly. I know that most primary school teachers would say I’m not sure how you do it, but I think the same about you guys so, well done you!