What is Parenting Worth?

At a recent Q&A event, I shared the aims of The MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher Project with two separate audiences, and on both occasions was challenged by mothers who wanted to see society placing more value on the importance of parenting.  They seemed frustrated by the idea that doing more than parenting on maternity or paternity leave was necessary to prove to employers and colleagues that a candidate was more than just a parent because - and I wholeheartedly agree with them - parenting is the most important role in our society.

Now this is a tricky thing to criticise because a very simple version of what I'm about to say is that as a country, we don't do parenting very well.  This is, of course, not true - there are millions of caring, loving, nurturing parents up and down the country doing a fantastic job at raising their children.  When we begin to compare the system that surrounds this parenting with systems like those in Scandinavia, for example, though, it is easy to see that parenting well in the UK is an uphill battle: child development experts say that children need love and attention from their caregivers, and there is increasing research into the positive impact of 'stay-at-home' dads, yet my own (fairly generous) maternity package has me cringing at the end of three months, and if my husband was a British citizen and wanted to take his share of parental leave, he'd be bringing in a whopping £137.50 a week - a budget that, in London, would leave us homeless.

Now I want to go back to work, and am sufficiently in love with my career to do so, regardless of the financial cost, but the fact is that if both my husband and I want to have careers, we have little choice but to put our son into childcare, even though the many, many pieces of research that I have read, tell us that this is possibly not the best thing for him due, in part, to the lack of flexible working hours and creative thinking around making work work for parents.

Not only is it logistically difficult to parent well in the UK, there is a dominant culture that sees maternity leave or paternity leave as time 'off'.  In the same breath, I have heard school leaders shudder at their own memories of sleep regression before envying parents their time to 'relax' away from the classroom, which seems to be a confused response, but one that seems to be broadcast by society.  No matter how difficult or easy you find parenting a small baby, it is telling that society considers parental leave as a bit of a holiday - time to do all those things you can't do whilst you're at 'work'... but... surely the definition of 'work' is that which contributes to and supports and economy and a society, and what 'work' is there that does this more than parenting?  As a parent, therefore, shouldn't I be perceived as working hard to improve our society by raising a kind, thoughtful, generous, polite, proactive, educated child?

So are we all just taking a bit of a laissez-faire attitude to parenting, because society is telling us that we are on holiday, rather than reminding us that we have just been promoted to one of the most important jobs in the country, or are we working are socks off to be great parents, and then humbly playing down our achievements because nobody has given us a certificate, and the world of work doesn't see the worth of what seem like highly valued and transferable skills like communication, empathy, multi-tasking, prioritising, educating...?

We've once again come around to the question of revolution vs. evolution: should we lobby for a social revolution that values parents more highly, or should we push upwards by providing society with a clear model of how things might be done better, and by quietly proving our worth by getting on with things now?

If you've read any of my other posts, you'll know that I'm all about doing and doing now, so how about this for solutions-focused thinking: as a parent who gets paid for being a teacher, you are automatically a MaternityTeacher or a PaternityTeacher because from the minute you take an interest in the development of your child or bump, you are learning new things.  Unlike a lawyer or an accountant or an engineer, this is learning that directly translates to the classroom, because your clientele are children, and understanding a newborn baby gives you phenomenal insight into the behaviours and needs of an older child or teenager.  In fact, as a parent, you are simply an 'unqualified' EYFS teacher - a paid, respected career.

So if 'all' you want to do on parental leave is be an amazing parent, and are frustrated that this won't be valued when you return to school, then why not make society's indicators of value work for you: namely, get a certificate and intellectualise your role as a parent.

Now, this might sound like energy that you would rather be spending on your child, but the beautiful thing is that it is energy that you are spending on your child, you are just being smart about it.  The construction of my son's play arch is a perfect example of this, but allow me to give you another example: nursery.  Every parent knows the long and slightly anxious process of finding the right nursery.  Initially, for us, our main priority was cost and bilingualism, but I noticed that there appeared to be different 'types' of nursery, and one that seemed popular was the Montessori approach.  I'd heard of Montessori but I didn't know much about it, so I ordered a book.  Already, I'm doing CPD.

Once I'd read the book, I realised that Montessori wasn't just about Early Years - there are many things that can be taken into the secondary classroom:

• Child-centred environments - creating classrooms that students can access; that are beautiful and appeal to all of the senses; that encourage independent learning, curiosity and confidence; label resources in a uniform and clear manner to support independence in all learners, including those with SEND.
• Competence and responsibility - creating responsible young people by assigning roles that help the lesson to function - handing out books, recording house points, rubbing the board, handing out glue sticks and work sheets, opening blinds, updating displays - roles that are both empowering for the student, and which also make life easier for you as a teacher!
• Observation - watch the students first and understand what it is that provokes certain types of behaviour before trying to jump in to fix things: a perfect approach to peer and mentor observations.

As a mother, reading this book at five weeks was CPD: it revolutionised my parenting in a way that none of the baby books had.  I stopped forcing my solutions on my son, observed his behaviour for a few days and understood his cries, his needs and his patterns far better, which allowed me to work with him, rather than despairing at this unreasonable, incomprehensible little being.  

As a teacher, reading this book was... CPD! and I did the same thing with Rug Rhymes and early reading; concerts and art galleries and sensory understanding; Oprah and early language acquisition; the OPOL approach, EAL students and inclusion.  Essentially, intellectualising 'good' parenting so that those who are ignorant of how important parenting is, are more impressed by what I am doing.

Learning more about child development can be hugely satisfying as a parent.  My teacher brain is constantly fascinated by the new things that my son learns, the way he interacts with his environment, how quickly he changes and makes progress - how his brain grows and learns!  And you know what, the more I see him learning, the more I want to learn about how he is learning and how I can help him to learn more, and this is nothing more than pedagogy - teaching!

If this is something that gets you really excited too, then stop defending your decision to 'just' parent, and embrace the fact that parenting is CPD, and get a certificate that you can wave in your Principal's face by completing one of these courses:

• FutureLearn: Babies in Mind
• FutureLearn: Exploring Pay
• FutureLearn: English in Early Childhood
• FutureLearn: Preventing Childhood Obesity
• FutureLearn: What is Character?
• Coursera: Child Nutrition and Cooking
• Coursera: Childbirth: A Global Perspective
• EdX: Positive Behaviour Support for Young Children

The Wider Impact of The MTPT Project

Recently, I have been challenged to make the connection between the benefits of The MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher Project to an individual teacher, and the way in which the project - if it became a movement for social change around the 'issue' of parental leave and the education sector workforce - could make a wider impact.  What follows is a short essay, collating some of the relevant research I've been able to complete:

Research from the National College for School Leadership demonstrates that ‘School leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning’, and the Sutton Trust report on teacher impact shows that ‘The effects of high-quality teaching are especially significant for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.’

The UK is currently experiencing a teacher retention crisis, meaning that students across the country, including those in challenging contexts, are not receiving sustained quality teaching from a stable and secure workforce.

Research completed by the Policy Exchange and the IFS suggests that maternity leave is one contributor to this crisis, and statistics from the Future Leaders Trust regarding the disproportional number of female school leaders, and the low numbers of female senior leaders who are also mothers, indicates the long term consequences of women of childbearing age either leaving teaching, reducing their working hours after the career break represented by maternity leave, or lacking the capacity to apply for or sustain leadership positions either because of, or whilst supporting, young families.  Figure A appears to be the norm for a significant number of female teachers deciding to start families, using a typical Teach First participant/ ambassador to highlight the link between The MTPT Project and educational disadvantage.Complete the TF LDP and experience rapid career progression over 2-5 years in 

Figure A: a typical cycle for a female teacher in a 'challenging' school.

70% of Teach First’s 2016 cohort are women, a trend that perpetuates through the ambassador community with more than 5,000 female participants and ambassadors in total.   40% of Teach First’s current head teachers, and 62% of the attendees at a recent Senior Leaders retreat were women, all of whom will potentially be detrimentally affected by the career break and ensuing consequences of maternity leave.

In short, maternity leave is potentially removing a significant proportion of high quality teachers, current and potential leaders from schools that need them the most, having a negative impact on the outcomes for disadvantaged students.  For many female teachers working in schools that serve low income communities (i.e. a typical Teach First participant or ambassador) Figure A represents their contribution to the teacher retention crisis.

The MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher Project aims to tackle this retention crisis by acting upon the Policy Exchange’s suggestions that the teaching profession embraces ‘more flexible ways of working not just within individual jobs, but across a longer time period’ by offering ‘subject knowledge enhancement’, ‘the chance to keep abreast with development’ and ‘specific short course to bring [teachers] up to speed’, in short, relevant CPD opportunities that will enable teachers returning from parental leave to continue to offer high quality teaching and leadership and to be valued by schools for doing so.

Figure B shows the ideal 'success story' of The MTPT Project:

Figure B: an MTPT Project success story.

In the long term, The MTPT Project could also reduce the number of teachers leaving the profession permanently by offering an alternative solution to teachers wishing to start a family: rather than suffer the stress and disillusionment that is often the cause of poor teacher retention, shared parental leave could be maximised to provide an opportunity for teachers of both genders to step out of the classroom whilst continuing to develop skills and knowledge that will contribute positively to the teaching and learning, and leadership within ‘challenging’ schools where teacher burnout rate is high.

Comprehensive Teacher, Grammar Mother

Over the last couple of years, I have noticed an increasing number of friends and acquaintances insisting until they are blue in the face that as a teacher, I must be interested in politics and I must have an opinion on things.  Until quite recently, I have been quite happy to reply that no, in fact, as a teacher I must be interested in Shakespeare and I must have time for planning and marking, and after that I must have time for a rest and a sleep and a cup of tea, and in between all of that very concrete stuff, I don't have time for any more abstract musts.

Brexit, however, changed quite a lot of that.  The result of the referendum came on the morning I went into labour and my little French-British son was born into a country that seemed to be pretty unwelcoming to half of his identity.  Suddenly this very abstract concept of politics was very personal to me, and the same thing seems to be happening with this whole grammar school debate.

Let me outline my position to you in brief: I am a Teach First ambassador and, unsurprisingly, therefore a big socialist.  I adamantly believe that a free education can be an excellent education because I had one.  As a trainee teacher in a 'challenging' comprehensive school surrounded by grammars, I also experienced first hand the damaging nature of selective schooling on both children as people and children as data sets.  My teacher head therefore knows that the UK would be a much better place for our children if there were no private schools and no grammar schools.

As a mother, however, my thoughts are completely different.  I don't like to think of myself as a hypocrite, but given the options in my area of private, grammar or struggling comprehensive, I'm going to pick what is best for my bilingual, literate, gentle baby.  Grammar, it is; hypocrite I am, and shamefacedly I contribute to what my politically informed friends are calling 'The Tragedy of the Commons'.  Oh dear.  My problem is that I want an enriched, French horn-playing, sailing club, Latin-lesson education for my son, but my local comprehensive can't offer this.  The tragedy is, that as long as parents like me who want this kind of education for their child are sending their babies to grammars and private schools, my local comprehensive will never be able to offer this.  By choosing what is best for my child, therefore, I am perpetuating a culture that I despise.

This MaternityTeacher is not about sitting around feeling ashamed about her own hypocrisy, however.  This MaternityTeacher is about grassroots action and bottom-up change-making, so I have thought of the most genius solution that would mobilise and empower not just the MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher community, but parents on leave all over the country: as a parent, if your local comprehensive school doesn't offer the type of things you'd like your child to experience in 11 years time, then why not use your skills to do something about it and build the educational culture that you want for your child?

For example, I am a classically trained musician and I want to send my son to a school with an orchestra and a choir.  The music department of my local comprehensive school, however, has only been operating for six weeks, and does not have the capacity for extra-curricular clubs at present.  Why don't I, therefore, volunteer once a week to run the choir?  Whilst I'm at it, why don't I see if the school will let me take my son with me for this hour so that he absorbs all this music making from his bouncer?

If other parents on leave in my area did the same thing, then our local comprehensive could look exactly as we want it to for our children: rugby club on a Wednesday, string group on a Thursday, book club on a Monday, sailing club on a Friday, DofE trek at the weekend.  It might be eleven years until our own children would benefit from this, but if, when we go back to work, another parent takes on the project that we have started, then the cultures that we want will be well-established and we will have a school that not only rivals the local grammar and private options, but a school that has made a sustainable and positive impact on our community.

There's no denying that any school-based volunteer work is great CPD, so is this kooky commune thinking, or is this actually a really good MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher opportunity?

MTPT Events

The MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher Project really has gained momentum in these last few weeks, and with momentum comes events. I've tweeted about all of these, but wouldn't it be useful to have all the information about upcoming events all in one place? Well, your wish, MTPT community, is my command...

The WomenEd Unconference: 'Making the Most of Maternity Leave'

Please note: this is a ticketed event and is now sold out. However, if you have a ticket and are attending, here are all the details. If you don't have a ticket, please see below for ways to access the event remotely, or for other very similar forums, including other WomenEd events. 

Date: 8th October

Time: 10:30-11:15am

Location: Microsoft UK Headquarters, Reading

Blurb: this workshop will tell the story of The MTPT Project and outline its intentions. We'd really like to hear feedback from all interested parties - parent-teachers, SLT, CPD providers, future parent-teachers, whoever! - to support the development of the project.

Remote access: a very thoughtful man named Leon Cych has written an entire blog post dedicated to teaching me how to Live Stream. I'm on the hunt for equipment and will tweet the link if I get it up and running. If you haven't got tickets, please do still contribute to the discussion with the hashtag #MTPTproject and #WomenEd. The official MTPT Twitter handle is @maternityCPD. 

If I can't upskill in time, I will video the event and upload it somewhere convenient. 

Childcare: WomenEd are happy to provide childcare but have apparently not had any requests for it so you'll have to get in touch with them if you'd like some last-minute arrangements. They are very welcoming of families so don't hesitate at all about getting in touch. My 3 month old will be in a sling or a bouncer for the whole session so if you'd like to bring your children and any of their infrastructure, please do so. I am very excited at the prospect of a very loud and dribble-filled event!

Teach First London Conference 1: Discussion: Teaching, Parenting and CPD

These conferences are mostly attended by first and second year Teach First participants, but all the sessions are open to Teach First ambassadors and anyone working in a Teach First school so if this is you, come and take advantage of a whole day's worth of free CPD. As an ambassador, all you have to do is sign up to sessions on the community website. If you're not an ambassador, either use the Teach First channels in your school to get signed up, or get into contact with me (e-sheppard@hotmail.co.uk). 

The MTPT Project forum is open to anyone who's interested, whether you have affiliations with Teach First or not, but you'll have to let me know in advance so that I can create a guest list for fire safety and probably insurance reasons. Use the email address above, or the Twitter handle, @maternityCPD.  

Date: 24th October

Time: 3-4:30pm

Location: Lilian Baylis School, Vauxhall, London

Blurb: I'm anticipating a different audience for this event so the forum will repeat the structure of the WomenEd workshop.

Remote access: hopefully I will have figured out and organised equipment to live stream by this time, so will tweet the link.

Childcare: because the majority of Teach First's attendees at these conferences do not require childcare, it is not offered - something that might start to change as the ambassador community (quite literally) grows.  Again, my son will be with me during the workshop, so please feel free to bring your little ones and any equipment they might need.

Teach First London Conference 2

Date: 12th November

Time: 13:45-15:15

Location: Regent High School, Kings Cross, London

Blurb: this will be the first session focusing specifically on empowering and inspiring MaternityTeachers and PaternityTeachers, directing them towards the support that will help them to achieve their CPD goals.  If you are thinking of starting a family, if you or your partner is currently pregnant or on parental leave, then this workshop is aimed at you.  

We would still like to hear stories from former MaternityTeachers and PaternityTeachers and any input from SLT, CPD Providers and interested parties who have not been able to attend previous events.

Remote access and childcare as above.

Case Study: A Maternity Leave Masters

Jessica Carter (@JessoftheShire), primary school teacher and Mum of two, currently on maternity leave, explains how she has balanced her Masters with the Open University around her children and flexible working hours, and how the study has enriched her teaching and learning.

I'm currently part-way through a part-time MA in Childhood and Youth with the Open University. This will take three years in total (the recommended pace is 16 hours a week). The course is interdisciplinary and explores policy and practice in services for children and young people. I enrolled on the course after we moved back to the UK from overseas at the end of a teaching contract. I didn't feel ready to be back in the classroom, but I wanted to continue my professional development: to keep my brain firing on all cylinders whilst I immersed myself in the work of being a mum. It has always been a personal goal to work towards an MA, but it took time to find a course that really suited my interests and seemed worth the financial sacrifices.

When I began, my daughter was eight months old. My husband was working full-time but we lucky to have the support of both sets of grandparents and, at one year old, some time at a local nursery. One term later I also felt able to take on a part-time teaching post alongside the study and mum-time. In lots of ways it was the perfect balance for me: I benefited hugely from the flexibility of home study during my second pregnancy but, being a compartmentaliser, I struggled to fit study around newborn nap-times and toddler exuberance after the birth. The wonderful, flexible Open University were able to grant me a postponement and, now that my son is five months old I am thoroughly enjoying engaging with my studies again, with the continuing support of my tutor.

When my husband and I first had The Conversation (who would take what amount of leave) we were surprised to find that the traditional two-week paternity/long maternity leave model seemed the best fit for us. He was incredibly supportive of my MA and career development plans, despite the huge dip in household income it would entail: I fully appreciate that this is not an option available to everyone. For these 'baby years' he feels strongly that his priority is family: he wants to be able to come home for dinner, bath and bedtime each night without bringing work with him. Ironically, during the last few years he has been promoted twice while I am back on the lowest rungs of the pay scale with no leadership responsibilities. Research into the 'fatherhood bonus' versus the 'motherhood penalty' in the workplace certainly mirrors our experiences so far.

So what do I hope to get out of it? As well as reigniting my passion for education the course has opened my eyes regarding government policy and the importance of integration between services for children and young people. There is a strong emphasis on reflection on personal practice: the things I am learning can and have been immediately applied in the classroom and staffroom. It also promotes the view of teachers as active researchers, encouraging me to explore my potential impact on the profession and the wider field of children's services. I haven't enjoyed the temporary loss of income but I believe there will be a longer term benefit on the trajectory of my career, in terms of both financial and personal development.