“Why new teachers should not have to plan lessons. They should just get on with the teaching” Naveen Rizvi

 

When this maths teacher started at Michaela Community School she couldn't believe she was discouraged from planning her lessons. But she's learnt to embrace the idea

When I came to Michaela Community School, in Wembley, north-west London, I was looking to develop subject knowledge and it was one of the reasons I had originally applied to join as a maths teacher.
What I didn’t expect when I joined was that I would have to undertake a huge change in mindset – because in my first term I did not plan any lessons. I did not plan the homework or classroom resources that tested the pupils’ knowledge. I just taught.
You may be thinking, "How?"
The answer lies in the fact that at Michaela, the heads of department are seen as curriculum designers. [Head of maths] Bodil Isaksen wrote and planned the textbook for each topic I taught. Her priority was for me to have strong subject knowledge in the subject I was teaching.After a term, I was amazed by how much maths knowledge the kids had retained. It, of course, came down to how hard the kids have worked, but it also came down to consistently good teaching. Yet this was only possible because I had not planned anything. My focus has been on developing my subject knowledge and teaching the kids, not writing three-page lesson plans, or making resources that would have been of sub-standard quality anyway because I do not have the expert knowledge of my HoD.
At Michaela, developing our subject knowledge is our HoD’s number one priority for the teachers they manage. By reducing to a minimum the planning requirements, inexeperienced teachers are given the freedom to focus on this.
Some teachers may feel that they do not have any autonomy if they cannot plan the lessons that they then go on to teach. I felt this way initially but, after my first term, I realised that to ensure that kids were getting consistently good lessons, I couldn’t be planning as well as teaching. The knowledge and the manner in which lessons are delivered has to be standardised. It has to be organised and structured in a way to ensure children develop a clear and accurate understanding of what is being taught.