Community Teachers

[George 1978]

Does anyone actually remember what the actual role a "community teacher" was in an Infant, Junior or Primary School? Even now, I am intrigued by the nature of the wording of the job - do they teach the whole community as well as the school which they are based at? Were they like an in-house supply teacher or just a freelance member of teaching staff at a school, with no official class of their own to teach? I am certain that most of the schools that we went to as pupils had at least one of them, and I have to admit that it does sound rather fun and positive, and enriches, community spirit, I suppose?

It made me think that just like the swimmng lessons, they were based in school just like most other staff, but they could sometimes be seen out and about with groups of pupils on projects around the local area. I have also assumed that they were similar to the role of "Senior Teacher" (I asked what that was on Facebook many years back on the page of one of my former schools, and I don't think that anyone really knew). Did they start projects like tuck shops and the like? Were they the school's NUT representive? I do know from looking at local newspaper archives that councillors wanted to axe the posts in schools back in the late 1970s, probably assuming that they were spare parts in our schools who weren't need too much. They sounded like "ambassadors" to the schools that they were based at.

I have always assumed that it is a senior rank of teaching staff who is a person who is the most senior in the school after the rank of Deputy Head, although I might be wrong with that - i.e. the third most senior member of teaching staff, with only being answerable to the Head and the Deputy Head. I have always assumed that, even when I was in the system myself. It also made me think that it was similar to the post of Education Welfare Officer where they are out in the communuty as well as being in school, although not at the same time! (I had never heard of an EWO when I was in the Infants or Juniors because my attendance was very good, apart from one or two of my "escapes" out of the front gate during my stint in the Infants).

I know that the one we had at Infant School (and indeed she atteneded the 25th aniversary reunion in 1995), had accompanied us to our swimming lessons at our local leisure centre on Thursday mornings, with our class walking along in a crocodile of "two-by-two" pairings as if we were indeed on our way to Noah's Ark. The one at our Junior School happened to be have a 20% share of being our class teacher for one year, while our official teacher had a day off on Thursdays (pity we didn't have Thursdays off as well - no offence to the man himself). I just remember him just sitting in the front, just being there in lieu of our regular teacher, and unlike most other teachers, he did have a more conservative attitude to life unlike others were (he read the Daily Telegraph rather than the Guardian that most of them read).

They didn'thave their own class, but they were just as familiar as other teaching staff - I just wondered how they officially fit into the school teaching staff. There wasn't one at my Comprehensive School, and I assume that "Senior Teacher" which was a member of teaching staff there, was more or less the same position at that school, although he retired after my first year there and I don't think that they replaced him. It is something that has made me think about for many years.

[Arran]

I vaguely remember there was a type of teacher employed by the LEA to teach kids who were at home because of long term medical reasons or suspension. The kids were still registered with the school and were set the same classwork that other kids in their year group were studying. The teachers had a formal relationship with the schools that the kids were registered with as they transported books and assignments between the schools and homes, but they didn't teach in the schools although they would discuss matters with teachers over coffee in the staff room.

I'm not sure what these teachers were called but they definitely existed in the 1990s.

[George 1978]

That sounds similar to a member of teaching staff who ran a "Special Unit" at my compreensive school - I am certain that both jobs are slightly linkied to each other.

[Arran]

There was another type of teacher (or more likely a teaching assistant) who was bilingual for children from families who didn't speak English. They would often discuss matters with parents in the foreign language that they used. The kids usually knew English (in some cases better than British kids!) but their parents (especially mothers) had limited knowledge of English.

[Moonraker]

I can recollect in 1975 going into a special single decker bus that was parked in the school. We were given extra Engkish lessons. It was for kids who had English as a second language. This term is not used any longer.
I can recall reading the Griffin Pirate books.

[George 1978]

There was another type of teacher (or more likely a teaching assistant) who was bilingual for children from families who didn't speak English. They would often discuss matters with parents in the foreign language that they used. The kids usually knew English (in some cases better than British kids!) but their parents (especially mothers) had limited knowledge of English.

At my Junior School there was a room called ESL or "English as a Second Language" which was there to support mostly Asian pupils whose first language was not English (and probably did not speak it very much at home) rather than those who were "slow learners" - it must have taken a huge effort for a youngster to adapt to the relevent language depending on whether they were at school or at home. Fatima in Series 3 Grange Hill in 1980 was an example of support at school for pupils like that back then.

There were three main members of staff involved; the main one was the school's only Asian (and non-white) teacher - I believe that he was Hindu because he took some pupils in his car to visit a local Hindu temple in order to learn about his religion. He also translated signs around the school into Urdu.

[Arran]

it must have taken a huge effort for a youngster to adapt to the relevent language depending on whether they were at school or at home.

The problem is when students speak a foreign language with people from their family but do not read or write it. This is further complicated if they do read and write it, the language uses a different alphabet from English. This is why many teachers say that bilingual in a European language is a blessing but bilingual in an Indian subcontinent language is a curse.

[George 1978]

It is probably something to do with the fact that European languages such as German are on a Latin scirpt and Indian languages such as Punjabi are obviously not.