The #VitruvianTeaching Launch Party

I am delighted to announce the publication of my new book; Te@cher Toolkit: Helping you survive your first five years in teaching.

Commission:

This speech is the direct script from Ty Goddard.

This book is part of a growing movement of British teachers; it comes from the movement and is part of the movement. It about how you survive in teaching; top tips; practical; really honest, frank and passionate. We have to sort out this recruitment and retention challenge … We are here at Bloomsbury Education, a fantastic place to be to launch the Te@cher Toolkit book. I think we need a royal commission to look into the status of the profession; we need to look at recruitment challenges; we need to look at attrition. Ross talks about attrition in this book, about the loss of teachers in the first five years; it’s currently 40-50%. That’s shocking! It’s a massive investment and we’re losing too many people. Why? We need to ask ourselves those hard questions. I think Nicky Morgan looking at workload, and Sir Michael Wilshaw saying it is the biggest challenge; this book has got some of the answers.

Ty Goddard is the Co-founder of The Education Foundation. He was previously an advisor to the Department for Children, Schools and Families on Extended Schools.

In 2012 and 2013, he was voted Evening Standard’s 1000 most influential people in London list and is also a Tech London Advocate.

 

Speech:

“Firstly, thank you to all of you for coming this evening. It is wonderful to see so many faces; colleagues and friends. May I remind you, that it is a ‘weeknight’, so go easy on the red wine! I won’t be long, but I just have to thank a few people and express why I have written this book.

Writing a book is hard, but teaching is even harder; trying to do both is virtually impossible! So, if you’re asking how on earth did I do it? Well, for the past 18 months, whilst some of you may have been sunning yourselves on a distant sand beach, during every school holiday, I’ve been in front of a computer, or with my head into lots and lots of books to put down my thoughts into 200 hundred pages; how I think you can survive beyond your first 5 formative years in teaching.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Teaching is one of the best jobs in the world, and I’m proud to say that I am a teacher and that it’s the only the one I’ve ever done!

There are key people that I need to say thank you to tonight. Firstly, to my wife and to my son, who have kept me grounded and made school holidays lots of fun. Thank you. Secondly, to Polly Norton who has stepped out of her comfort zone and has translated very typical teaching anecdotes, into some very creative drawings. Please check out this up-and-coming artist on Twitter (@PollyNor), her Twitter timeline will certainly raise a few eyebrows!

Thirdly, thank you to Emily Wilson for her cool, calm and patient editing skills, and also to Holly Gardner for her persuasive bullying techniques that helped me write this book and stop it from going into a third year! Just to let you know, that she is leaving Bloomsbury tomorrow to head to Spain for new adventures – thank you Holly – it’s been a great three years, good luck!

I just like to end with a key message about who is this book for?

We live in a time, where teachers are bashed about from political whim, ideology, fad and Ofsted gimmick … but slowly the emphasis is changing from ivory towers to bloggers and tweeters. And this is why I am passionate about blogging and social media.

We can control our own destiny. If we can organise ourselves, we can shape national policy. I am evidence of this. As a result of blogging and tweeting, I am seeing my literacy demons as a child vanish through the power of writing and reflecting my own ideas. To see these validated by 1000s of colleagues all over the UK and overseas is phenomenal. And I will say this again, if I can do it, then so can you.

My time in teaching has not always been rosy, and I simply hope that this book is an expression of my experience and collection of strategies that I KNOW work in the classroom. On a personal level, I hope that this book contributes to the debate on education, as well as encourage many teachers to stay stuck in the profession and enjoy teaching.

This book is for every teacher who has been bullied; those forced to take redundancy and for the thousands of teachers who leave the profession within the first 5 years. Hopefully, it will entice teachers who have left the classroom, back into the profession, and to encourage others who have just started out, so stay in the classroom. It truly is, the best job in the world.

As Action Jackson says, “real heroes don’t wear capes, they teach!” and as I always say, if I can write a book, tweet and blog, then so can you. So, what are you waiting for, let’s take hold of the profession and take control of our own destiny.

Thank you.”

Launch Party Photos:

Order the Book?

If you fancy buying a copy, you can pre-order in two key places:

1. Bloomsbury if you want a copy directly from the publishers – and be one of the first!
2. or Amazon if you would like to keep purchases easy, but rely on a 3rd party for delivery. They essentially purchase books from the publisher.

Thanks for reading this and if you do purchase the book, I hope it a) inspires you to become/remain a teacher and b) write your own book. If you’re interested in how I set about writing this, you can read my full journey here.