Teach Primary Issue 19.5

Q A & 1 What is your idea of perfect happiness in your job? As cheesy as it sounds, I’m happiest when I feel like I’m being of service. For me, the whole point of working in education is to open doors and model how we want children to behave when they are adults, so I like being positive, motivated and useful – hopefully they’ll follow suit!. 2 What is your greatest fear at work? Year 9 on a Thursday! Ok, my serious answer is forgetting something really important. I am responsible for the exams in my school, and the legal requirements, protocol and high-stakes nature of that part of my job have given me plenty of sleepless nights. I’m sure anyone dealing with SATs can relate! 3 What is your current state of mind? I’m currently on maternity leave and have found being away from school really strange. I’m loving my time at home with our children, though, and I’m using the year to work on a doctorate in education, which I’m studying for part time. My friends laugh at me for being such a nerd, but it helps me feel like I’m still Claire, as well as Mum. 4 What do you consider the most overrated teacher virtue? Whilst I think that having a neat, tidy, welcoming classroom is important, I just can’t bring myself to be the kind of say I overuse it, but I’ve not gotten to the end of a lesson and had a blank book or messy work since I started doing it two years ago, so it’s definitely not going anywhere! 7 What do you consider your greatest teaching achievement? My first year as head of department, I had a bit of a mountain to climb in terms of rewriting the curriculum and setting high expectations. This didn’t exactly make me popular with my classes. However, at the end of the year, one of my classes voted me teacher they’d miss the most. I wasn’t expecting it, and it meant the world to me. I realised they saw what the history team were trying to do for them, and appreciated it. 8 Most treasured teaching possession Oh, it has to be my positive teacher planner. It’s pretty, it keeps me organised, and if I’ve had a pants day I can colour code it or write a to-do list to make myself feel like I’m being productive (even if I’m not). Whether you’re in secondary, primary, or EYFS, a solid planner is a must. teacher that makes loads of exuberant displays. Yes, they look great, but they must have taken so much time and money – teachers already have so much to do. It’s really not for me, but each to their own. 5 On what occasion do you lie to your class? I constantly lie about having tattoos. Whenever a pupil spots the small tattoo on my ankle and tries to distract me from the lesson by asking about it, I always lie and say I don’t have any tattoos. If they keep going, I will pretend it’s a bit of muck and act like I’m rubbing it off while getting us swiftly back to the lesson. 6 Which words or phrases do you most overuse with your class? I like to make sure pupils are with me each step of the way, so in the classroom I will ask them to do something like write the date or turn to a page in their books, and then say “3, 2, 1… show me”. I use it all the time and I’m sure they’d We take the famous Proust questionnaire and pose eight of its questions to a fellow educator. Take a peek into the deepest depths of a teacher’s soul... 82 | www.teachwire.net F EATURE S BACK PAGE NAME: Claire Harley JOB ROLE: Assistant principal EXTRA INFO: Claire blogs on all things education at researchtoclassroom.com “I’m responsible for exams, and the high-stakes nature of that has given me plenty of sleepless nights”