Eish! London 29 - 30 April

Wednesday, 29 April

My first day working in an Academy (an ex-failing school, as decided by Ofsted – the standards authority for British education), the agency who had my CRB application did not tell me that a person had been killed outside this school; that would have at least given me an idea of what to expect. All they told me was that it was a “difficult and challenging school”. They even phoned me at the end of the day to make sure I was alright! That hardly ever happens.

From what I have learnt since I was at the school, it seems Academies are schools that were failing schools with rather large problems. Due to their status they have been revamped in a semi-private capacity to improve the school and learning environment. Thus they are fancy, office styled buildings with some very tough kids inside. This particular building was quite something; it had a great canteen, a fancy business reception area, a high tech computer section. It was built in a circular fashion with 4 floors of open plan classrooms and toilets at the head and feet of the circles, and a stairwell in the middle of the circles that connected each floor. The tarmac ‘playing’ ground was outside the back exit doors and the industrial road was outside the front doors. The set up was very corporate and had typed quotes from inspirational people painted on the walls. By the end of the day I was embarrassed that the words of such awesome people were being disrespected and reduced in significance daily by the young passersby. The fact that Nelson Mandela’s words were there too was especially disheartening for me.

I was there to cover drama for the day and then physics in the last lesson. In the first lesson I realised that telling a boy double my size that head phones and music were not allowed was not a smart thing to do. I realised upon being blatantly ignored by half the learners that if they were sitting quietly, I would be happy. I ended up on the floor (there were no desks; apparently in London desks are not required for drama, even though there is a significant amount of theoretical work involved in the subject), with a Year 11 girl teaching her how to write an essay. Her work was the level of a 14 year old, not a GCSE student; upon reading her work with her I started chatting to her about how I understood what she had written, and that turned into a constructive discussion and a greatly improved essay. While she was writing I was ‘requesting’ an end to this argument or that punching session. The rest of the drama sessions involved creating story boards (more writing without desks) and rehearsing for their renditions of the musical Sweeney Todd. Seeing as it’s a musical about cannibalism, I left the Year 7s and 8s to it, offering a word of performance advice where I could, as learners preferred to be rehearsing instead of drawing and writing. I had to keep myself in check though, because it was important for me to remember that they knew better than I, beacuse I am but a qualified drama teacher, what could I possibly know?

The last lesson was a disaster. There was no work left out, so the poor T.A. was left floundering to find the work and books the teacher had referred to in some note or other. The learners were locking each other out of the classroom. They were coming and going for some meetings that were apparently happening in that lesson. They were not interested in completing the work set by the teacher and they were so phenomenally rude to the stressed out T.A. that I wanted to hit them. I went around with a piece of paper getting them to fill in the register and I absently picked up a pen to use that was sitting on the desk. The 15 year old nearest the pen indignantly looked at me: “You can’t just take my pen without asking. That’s rude!”

I looked at her, should I fight this or go with her point? I gave up:

“I apologise. You are right that was rude of me. Would you mind if I borrowed your pen?”

She looked at me, unsure of what to say, “No Miss, you can borrow it.”

“Thank-you.” I said, tired of being around the type of young people who expect me to be respectful to them without their being respectful to me, the effort was too much. I ticked what I had to and put the pen back where I found it, as she now ignored me because she was back gossiping with her friend (as she had been before I picked up the pen) over her blank piece of paper that had no pen marks on it at all.

Naturally they left the room in a mess at the end of the day and we had to clean up after them; but I think that’s par for the supply teaching course. Not a great end to the day; but I can now say I survived a day at an Academy!

When I arrived back atPreston RoadI was phenomenally grateful to Jane, who dropped off her personal laptop to help me sort out the payroll company story. I went straight online, to check what responses I had to my pay pleas the day before:

From: Em, at the first agency to give me work
Subject: RE: Setting up an account urgently
Date: Wednesday, 29 April, 2009, 19:50

Hey Shannan,

I would love to say yes to paying you, but there’s nothing I can do

We can’t access your payroll account without the key code that they provide I’m afraid.

Sorry Shannan. Hope it works out soon!

Em

From: Angela
Subject: Setting up an account urgently

Dear Shannan,

I have no record of you on our system as yet but what should happen is that your agency will advise us the week after you start working for them so we put your details on the system ready for your first pay.

If you worked for them last week and they received your timesheet on time then in theory they should be sending us your details and money this week for processing.

I shall keep an eye on the schedule coming in this week and confirm whether you are on it and what your Ref number is.

I assume that is the ‘access code’ you are requesting. Please let me know if you need anything else and I will confirm everything when I have more information for you.

Best wishes

Angela

From: Shannan
Sent: 29 April 2009 17:37
Subject: Setting up an account urgently

Hi Angela

Thank-you for your time chatting to me yesterday.

The one company who should have registered me says they haven’t received timesheets for me.

The other agency says they have timesheets for me, but can’t do anything without a code from yourselves.

Is it possible for me to set up the account myself?

Please advise as I need to get paid in order to cover rent etc…

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Shannan

I couldn’t understand it. I filled in the forms, I sent the time sheets, I did everything I was asked to and now no-one ccould help me. Tomorrow the last of my coins go to pay the rent and I have no idea where that will leave me. Keeping the faith!

Thursday, 30 April

The disorganised agency called yesterday to send me to a school down the road from my place inPreston Road, they told me it was a Jewish School and I needed to wear a skirt. I was simply thrilled that I could walk there and wouldn’t need to use any public transport.

Next to the other schools I had been to this school wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately I was there because the GCSE learners were doing their practical Art exam in the arts rooms, so I had to take learners all around the school looking for empty classrooms that weren’t double booked, while their art teachers were invigilating. The learners all settled down eventually and got on with their work. There were some great artists in some of those classes, one of whom did a portrait of me; she was fascinated by my small nose; which was bizarre because it took me a long time to accept my little nose when I was growing up. Once again I was reminded of how many people don’t like what they have and prefer what others have, when actually we are all wonderfully and perfectly incomparable at the end of the day.

An interesting difference between the Jewish children and the general public school children; was that the standard of self-discipline and level of interest in who I was and where I was from was much higher amongst the Jewish learners. The general public school learners genuinely couldn’t care less about the foreign supply teacher in their classroom.

After chaos of finding rooms and creating art lessons I came home to this email from the financial arm of the disorganised agency:

From: Wayne
Subject: Payroll details
To: Shannan
Date: Thursday, 30 April, 2009, 2:00 PM

Hello Shannan

You are due to be payrolled with our next payroll run but according to our records we do not have any method of making payment to you – you can choose from the following options how you would like to be paid…

The email then goes on to give me various options on how to receive my pay, one of which is advocating a different payroll company to the one I’ve been phoning! All I can think is: What idiots! Surely this information should have been given to me in my interview? Surely the agent I’ve been emailing and dealing with should have told the financial division about what was going on? Surely someone passed on my new banking details to the financial division? Isn’t that the logical division to send bank details to? Like the ridiculous travel incident on the 28th April, I’m blown away at their disorganisation and incompetence once again! Hopefully I can get off their books soon. I reply to this chap telling him not to pay me, telling him that I’m trying to sort out the details, and I will let him know on Friday what the situation is. What are the chances he will get it right? We’ll have to see.

Fortunately the day ended with a text from a teaching colleague in South Africa, my dear friend Dawn:

“Hi! Just to let you know our exciting news, Brett and I are expecting our first child! Saw the heartbeat today, all well! Baby due in November. We are thilled!”

It’s always wonderful to be included, and share in someone’s happiness, it helps me to see the rosier side of life and move on from the negativity. Lord please let me be paid soon. Please.