By: Blonde One
Well ok, maybe not a Blonde hunt but an English teacher hunt. There are plenty of fabulous English teachers around but the particular sort that I’ve been looking for is an expedition leader too. I was under the impression that they were a rare breed. However, I do know that I know plenty of science and geography teachers that run expeditions and particularly overseas expeditions. At a recent meeting with some very lovely leaders (L and K) the gauntlet was thrown down and I challenged them to find an English teacher who is also an overseas expedition leader. The prize was to be a box of biscuits. They were confident that they would find one and I was confident that I would keep the biscuits! I forgot for a brief moment how efficient and organised these people are!
Not only did they hunt through their various records and get onto social media, but they also went to the trouble of launching a very official survey amongst all of their overseas outdoor leaders to establish their ‘day jobs’.
Here’s what they found:
- Science 15.8%
- Not a subject teacher 13.6%
- Geography 11.1%
- PE 10.3%
- English/Drama 7.3%
- Maths 6.8%
- Design Technology/Food Technology 5.9%
- Languages 5.1%
- History/Politics 4.6%
- Music 3.3%
- ICT 2.9%
- Art 2.9%
- Business Studies 2.9%
- RE/Philosophy 2.5%
- Performing Arts 1.4%
- Psychology/Sociology 1.4%
- Office staff 0.8%
- Beauty Therapy 0.5%
- Media Studies 0.2%
I was not at all surprised by the first and third but the second came as a bit of a surprise. As for the percentage of English teachers; I was totally shocked. So here I am tucking into my humble pie admitting that I was wrong! Thank goodness I didn’t promise to eat my hat, although it does get doffed at the super-efficient Mrs D, Ms D and Ms S. You win Ladies, well done!
that is an interesting table – not for its actual numbers, but for the fact that your super-efficient ladies know at least 1000 overseas outdoor leaders: so how many are there in England – one reads of how difficult it is to get teachers to run such trips these days , so this seems to gainsay that ‘trope’
It is good that there are so many of us out there, isn’t it? I do believe that numbers are dwindling, especially in ordinary secondary schools. Perhaps if the table left out grammar and private schools it would look different, I’m not sure.