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Headteacher Sue Seifert with Montem pupils |
Retiring head: I still love teaching despite the tests and targets
We’re making children stressed when they should enjoy learning, primary boss warns
INSPIRATIONAL headteacher Sue Seifert revealed this week that she is retiring next year because she is “fed up” with administration, tests and targets.
One of London’s most outspoken heads, Ms Seifert, 63, has decided to leave Montem primary school, in Hornsey Road, Holloway, at a date yet to be decided.
A leading figure in the Anti-SATS Alliance – opposing testing in primary schools – Ms Seifert admitted she felt sad at the prospect of giving up full-time teaching after 40 years, including 10 years as head of Montem.
She added: “I hate the bureaucracy which has increased over the years. And I’m really fed up with tests and targets. We’re taking children’s childhood away. We’re making them stressed out when they should be enjoying learning.”
The winner of a lifetime achievement award in 2004, she warned: “There is a danger that with all the testing we will put them off learning for good.”
Ms Seifert, whose father Sigmund was a leading left-wing solicitor and libel lawyer to the Daily Worker (now the Morning Star), began her classroom career at Laycock primary school in Highbury in 1968.
She added: “When I first arrived at Laycock, class five had had about six supply teachers because they were so awful. I think there were 41 children of whom 30 were boys. I remember they were climbing the walls and calling out: ‘How long is she going to last?’”
Her first headship was at Thornhill primary in Barnsbury in 1982. “It was a lot easier in those days,” she said. “There was more time for teaching and the kids. There was less administration and the school secretary did most of that.
“You simply made a phone call when you wanted something.”
She believes the rot set in with Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government. “Labour has been very generous to education, but has simply brought in more tests and targets and is always changing the curriculum,” Ms Seifert said.
Despite the problems that tests have brought she adores teaching and still recommends it as a career. “It’s been a roller-coaster but I love it,” she said. “It’s also very good fun. The bit I hate and I want to leave behind are the anxiety bits. Have I enough staff and will I have enough money to run the school? What will I do if the roof falls off?”
Ms Seifert is married to retired art teacher Alan Wood. The couple have two daughters, Alex, who teaches at Pakeman primary school in Holloway, and Jessica, a civil servant in Australia.
Ms Seifert expects to continue teaching part-time, and will carry on speaking out against tests for primary schoolchildren. She will be among speakers at the Anti-SATS Alliance meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, November 12, at Friends Meeting House, in Euston Road. Admission is free. |
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