Primary and secondary schools do Pride very differently so we have separated the findings into two sections in this weeks blog!
1. Pride in Primary 🏳️🌈
Since 2019 we’ve been asking about Pride activities in school during June.
How confident are you in supporting your students with LGBT+ matters? Just 66% of primary teachers said that they feel confident in this area, which leaves 1 in 3 who don’t feel so confident.
In part we had teachers on social media note that they simply don’t have any children in their classes who they believe to be LGBT+ , though of course pupils may have parents and carers who are.
But what about peer relationships?
28% of you told us that you’d heard pupils make a derogatory comment about another students’ sexuality or gender-identification, with a further 8% having heard about such an incident via a colleague.
On a happier note, this year, we wanted to know if you’d heard students also offering their support or kind words to their LGBTQ+ friends
30% of you said ‘yes’ in addition to 6% saying that you’ve heard this has happened from a colleague. 😊 Which overall gives primary kids a nudge in favour of kindness over meanness – a good thing, we say.
More Pride events
In terms of Pride events, we’ve seen the highest number taking place since we first asked in 2018 – though it’s still low at primary schools.
This year, 15% of primary teachers reported doing at least something in school. In 2018 and 2019, this finding was at 3% and in 2021 it was 12%.
Whilst this shows that slightly more primary schools are supporting Pride, the findings suggest that there may be more work to be done.
2. Pride in Secondary 🏳️🌈
The Pride picture is looking more colourful in secondary schools 🥳
Not only are 80% of staff confident in supporting students with LGBT+ issues (higher than primary), but…
In terms of events, only 44% of secondary teachers said their school ISN’T doing anything specific to support Pride in school. This is a big change compared to 2018 (82%) and 2019 (76%). We’re even 6 percentage points better off than 2021 (50%).
These findings suggest that supporting Pride is higher on the agenda of secondary schools compared to previous years.
But does this mean student attitudes have changed 🤔
Sadly, 53% of secondary teachers said they had heard a pupil called derogatory names related to their gender identification or sexuality, and a further 12% had heard about it happening from a colleague. Not a great start.
However…
We also asked if you’ve heard students offering their support/kind words to their LGBTQ+ friends.
Happily, 70% of secondary teachers said YES. And further 5% said that they’d not heard it personally but had heard it from a colleague.
When we compare the two findings: kindness wins ❤️
3. Funding 💷
Money is big news in a week when inflation is set to hit 11% and the government is under the cosh for new pay deals.
BUT, let’s imagine: if you could direct £1 billion spending to only one thing in education, which of the following would you choose?
Response options included: tutoring, mental health, curriculum development, increasing the length of day by half an hour, a pay rise for teachers (~£50 per teacher per week) or none of these.
Why these answers? The question was originally created in 2021 as several were on the table as government options. How have your views changed since then?
Well, fewer of you would now direct the money to mental health which was top last year (39% in 2021, 32% now). Instead, given the inflation changes, more of you opted for a teacher pay rise: 43% this year compared to 36% in 2021.
In terms of budgets more broadly, we re-asked a question from 2018 and, unfortunately, the picture remains pretty bleak 😔 Things were already reducing in 2018 and they seem to be continuing.
More of you have seen your salary fall and more of you are missing out on teaching assistants.
Primary schools are facing even more constraints: with 58% of primary teachers now saying they have a TA in fewer classes and have lower budgets for resources.
It’s noticeable that primary teachers also haven’t had as much of a shift in their contract hours – probably because most primary teachers already have fairly full timetables!
4. Days in Lieu!
With residentials happening again across the country, a Tappster contacted us to ask whether or not teachers are given a day off in lieu to recover from going on a residential.
The anticipation of answering this question gathered quite a response on Twitter…
And then… 87% of you said NO!! 😱
BUT is a lieu day more likely to be granted in primary or secondary?
Yes! 22% of primary Tappers have been given a lieu day compared to only 3% of secondary Tappers! This is one of those times when the primary teachers get their own back for all the free INSET lunches in secondary schools. 😂
5. Left and Right 👈👉
If you were wondering why we asked about left and right, here was the original inspiration tweet…
Similar to Ben’s poll, 36% of teachers said they struggle to quickly identify left from right.
If over a third of teachers find it challenging, we wonder how many students find it challenging and what implications this might have on them completing certain tasks? 🤔
Food for thought there 🍔
6. An Experiment!
Yesterday (20th June) in response to media discussions about potential strike action over teacher pay we decided to run… a little experiment.
We wanted to ask ‘what pay rise would YOU give to teachers this year?’ BUT we were aware that the context of the question can really change things.
‘Anchoring’ is a psychological technique in which you can change people’s perceptions by offering ‘contextual’ information. For example, over the past 24 hours, Conservative politicians have repeatedly mentioned the average train driver salary (£44k) when talking about pay for rail staff.
Does people’s perception of teacher pay change if you change the context?
HENCE, yesterday around half of you were given some context to the pay rise and around half of you were given the same question without context. The results won’t be complete until after 3.30pm today so we can’t report the findings until next week’s blog but keep an eye out on social media for the fact there are TWO different results!
7. Get the App
If you’re already on Teacher Tapp that’s great 🥳 If you feel comfortable spreading the word then please share this link with your colleagues, friends and family who are teachers https://onelink.to/teachertapp.
If you’re not already on Teacher Tapp, we’d love for you to join our community 😊
Finally… we know you love the daily read, so here are the ones from last week
The most read tip from the past week was: The power of a double page spread
And here are the rest for your reference:
- Nothing new, just review
- Does taking A-Level maths improve your grades in physics and computer science?
- Mistakes I made when implementing a new strategy in the classroom
- How do parts fit into the whole? A strategy to check for understanding
- STEM activities – Engineering ideas for every primary class
- Why I don’t use PowerPoint (any more)
