Teacher says her work is intense, but so are rewards

Clare Grealy has been teaching in Bruce College Dublin since 1991. Previously she worked for nine years in Sutton Park, a secondary school in north Dublin.

She is a senior teacher in Bruce and one of the longest-serving members of staff. Having experience of both schooling systems, she says she prefers working in this sort of private education.

"There is nothing wrong with State schools, but I would personally prefer the kind of teaching I undertake here. I like dealing with exam candidates and I like the structure of the whole set-up here."

Grealy teaches Irish and has chosen to only take on fifth and sixth year students; in a conventional secondary school, she says, she would also be required to teach Junior Cert students. "I work here because I prefer working with the older students - 16, 17 and 18year-olds - they're easier to manage."

She also appreciates the flexibility that Bruce allows her. "In my particular case I decided to study law and I needed a school that would suit my hours. In a State school my hours would be spread throughout the day. Here some teachers do afternoons, others do mornings, so it balances out."

Grealy is not prepared to disclose her salary but admits that the money she earns working in Bruce is above what a State-funded secondary school would pay. "In my case it would be considerably better." She says her pay is not influenced by the exam performance of her students. She is paid well because of the length of time she has taught in the school - but she says the pay is higher in general because the teaching is more intense than it would be in a normal school.

"The type of teaching we do in the school here is very demanding because you're dealing 100 per cent with exam candidates. So every class you go into there is the onus on the teacher that you have an exam a few months down the road.

"If I walk into first year in a State school I know that one day we could play a game, if I wanted. I don't have that flexibility here because I know there's a mock or an oral around the corner or there's the Leaving Cert in June."

Grealy says she works well under this sort of pressure but she also feels that the ASTI members elsewhere have a legitimate claim. "When you compare the scale of salaries in schools like this or any other private establishment to the ASTI scale it is very much down, especially at the top end of the scale." Parents, she says, send their children to Bruce because it offers choice. "The State system has its hands tied. You may have one student who wishes to take a subject and due to the constraints of the timetable that is not a possibility, so parents opt for here." Parents also send their children to Bruce if they are not happy with the standard elsewhere, she says. "It may be that the teachers are not happy in teaching but they're holding on purely for pension rights at the end of the day."

The bottom line, she says, is results. "I think we get results here because the teachers know that if you don't perform well in the class you're not going to be kept on. You're as good as your last set of results."