#JustLetMeTeach – When Did You Last Feel Excited About Education?

To support our new #JustLetMeTeach campaign, we have free primary and secondary teacher packs to download with practical advice to help you reduce your workload, refresh your teaching, and reignite a love of learning for you and your students.

Nearly 90% of teachers say they are teaching lessons with little or no educational value in order to give students a better chance of passing national tests. This is the headline figure from our survey published today, which took on board the opinions of 436 teachers about high-stakes testing, and their level of professional autonomy.

The overall picture is clear. Time is short and the pressure of exams can at times downgrade the quality of education being delivered, sapping teachers’ enthusiasm for the job.

The purpose of the survey, however, is two-fold. First, we want to help pin down how, in the view of teachers, high-stakes testing might be affecting the quality of children’s education by squeezing out the opportunity to explore more enriching avenues of learning.

But second, and more importantly, we want to use this as a platform from which to celebrate the times when the pressure of exams does not distort excellent education, passionately delivered.

In short, we want to share the moments when teachers are able to pass on what excites them about their subject, and what they think will excite their pupils too – whether or not it will help children pass a test.

We’re running this under the banner of #JustLetMeTeach, and are inviting all teachers to tweet or blog about the lessons, conversations or moments in the day when exercising their professional freedom has reignited their love of learning.

Our coverage begins tomorrow with a blog post from ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton on why we need to take the grind out of teaching. More posts will follow, and we’ll be running campaign specials in Teach Primary, Teach Secondary and Primary School Management magazines this April.

In the meantime, if you have anything you’d like to share on the subject, please Tweet using the hashtag #JustLetMeTeach or email Joe Carter joe.carter@theteachco.com.

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