New beginnings

It will be 44 years since I took up my first appointment as an assistant English Teacher at a North Oxfordshire, 11 -16, mixed comprehensive school.

I had been through a very gruelling interview and selection process; I remember writing 20 letters of application and I mean writing with matching Basildon Bond writing paper and envelopes and a proper Parker fountain pen! No cut and paste in those days. The teaching profession was oversubscribed back in the day…especially in the Arts subjects.

I was so excited to have my first teaching job close to my newfound love; my new flat in Oxford; my new car bought for me by my mum and dad: a white Triumph Herald.

In August, I remember driving into Ipswich to the book shop to buy my copies of the texts I would be teaching my new classes that September. My favourite was ‘The Ghost of Thomas Kempe’ by Penelope Lively. I was going to be teaching this to the year 7 classes I had. It was especially chosen because it was set in Oxfordshire and is a brilliant ghost story bound to catch their imaginations. We based the entire half a term’s curriculum around the novel in years 7 ,8 and 9. The ‘O’ level and CSE texts began in years 10 and 11.

Everything we did: vocabulary; sentence structure; spellings and creative writing was all created by us and shared by the English staff. We read the texts in class and enjoyed each other’s company. I used to structure it like a play reading so I would read the connecting text and different volunteers would read the speeches in character…this really helped with the understanding of speech punctuation! It also meant the reading went with a swing and nobody was forced to read aloud and nobody got to hog the limelight either.

I still live locally and not a year goes by without me bumping into a former student….they are usually grandparents now. They all say how much they enjoyed their English Lessons (ask how many do now?) One lady in particular brought up ‘The Ghost of Thomas Kempe’ and said she has read it to all her grandchildren because she had enjoyed it so much in her lessons.

So for those of you about to start out on the great adventure, never doubt the influence you will have. Don’t take yourselves too seriously and don’t forget to have fun together and enjoy the company of your students and your colleagues.