It was Thursday morning and I felt sick. Exam results are stressful for teachers too. I remember when I was a pupil teachers saying things like 'I'm not bothered what you get, I've got my GCSEs' or 'I get paid whatever results you get so it doesn't effect me'. This is a big fat lie, I care about my pupils results to the extent that I lose sleep over it.
Yes my performance management target was based on the number of Cs the group achieved, but I also knew that some pupils required a grade C in maths to get on to their college course.
As I got out of my car a pupil I'd taught in year ten shouted to me 'Sir! I got an A in maths!' This is of course fantastic. I'd given that group up at the end of year ten because my relationship with them was based on mutual loathing. The girl in question was actually one of about three I could actually stand in the group so I was pleased my teaching hadn't ruined her chances to do well.
And I was delighted with my class's results. I'd been set a target of eight grade Cs, in total we got twelve. More importantly I was able to punch the air when I read them for some of the pupils. Some of them had worked really hard and deserved their success.
In the cases where pupils hadn't gotten a C I had good excuses too: 'she's never here', 'he's bone-idle', 'he's a twat' etc...
Basically I was very pleased.
2008-08-23 @ 10:48