Standing in the shadow of OFSTED

I AM A QUALIFIED teacher working in England, just back after "holidays" at home in Ireland. My holidays consisted of correcting 18 sets of tests and writing up four sets of ROAs (records of achievement), where each student receives a half page outline on how he or she has done in a particular subject.

I also headed back to England earlier than usual to get my 200 or so student drop files up to date; to write up my assessment marks, homework record book, lesson plans, schemes of work; and to update my display boards.

Life as an English based teacher is very similar to a juggling act. Every five weeks, we set and correct half term tests. Every term there are ROAs to be written up - and how could I forget the 21 sets of books to be marked weekly? Likewise, a record of all the grades must be transferred into a mark book on a regular basis.

I teach 23 hourly periods per week, with two free periods. My two precious "frees" are generally taken up with taking some other teacher's lessons because he or she has bitten the dust for a day or so.

Have I mentioned my actual teaching lessons yet? Well, they consist of writing out detailed lesson plans which adhere to the already detailed schemes of work set each term. I won't bother boring you with the details of chasing up tape recorders, video machines etc, etc. All in all, 885 students pass through my hands every week.

I begin work at 8 a.m., marking books, and my school day begins at 8.40 a.m. with registration. Twice a week we have assembly. Basically, what I have to do is register my tutor group, check uniforms, collect sick notes, send my group (of 33) to the assembly and play the school hymn to 400 students from two year groups - and all before 9 a.m.

My school day includes five hourly lessons, teaching music, English and drama, and we officially finish at 3.45 p.m. However, with detentions, meetings, extracurricular work etc, very few teachers leave school before 5 or 5.30 p.m. Once home, the hard slog of correcting and recording begins.

As as soon as I returned from my Irish holiday, I had to meet a group of students and take them on a mountain climbing expedition for a weekend - and all before I began work officially on April 17th.

Since then, I have been living with the cloud of OFSTED (the Office for Standards in Education) hanging over my head. Yesterday, 13 able bodied inspectors arrived at the school and methodically turned out my files and records. They were assessing my lessons and lesson plans, to make sure they are consistent with the syllabus sent out by the national curriculum. Students have been questioned to see if they understand the aims and objectives of my lessons and their books have been checked.

The build up to OFSTED has meant that most of my spare time has been made up (staving off potential nervous breakdowns) by attending departmental meetings three times' a week. These meetings take over an hour and a half to complete and are spent justifying our belief that we do indeed teach to a reasonable standard. The level of stress caused in the run up to the visit rose above the Richter scale, creating a very strained environment in our school.

Our students, who are normally quite well behaved, pretty much worked out who exactly was being inspected and reacted badly to the number of stressed out teachers they met in the last few weeks. To give an example, the fire alarm erupted on two separate occasions in the last week of term for no apparent reason.

For the benefit of OFSTED, each teacher had to work out exactly what extracurricular work they do in school. Two of my lunch periods per week are spent on extracurricular activities - and in the coming term this will increase due to a school production. All of these activities are voluntary but inherent in your job description, an interesting scenario.

In terms of the notion of "promotion on merit", I was very relieved to see ASTI's stance in that regard. The tier system, in my experience, breeds mistrust and favouritism. While it may be seen as an instrument in promoting ambitious and progressive teachers, its drawbacks are a top heavy system where support and policies become confused and deflected.

Each teacher is a professional, but the difficulty inherent in a tier system is that a lot of time is spent justifying and affirming your ability to heads of departments, heads of faculty, heads of year, vice principals and ultimately, the principal.

Don't get me wrong, I love teaching.