The Faculty system
Posted by John Naples-Campbell on March 22nd, 2008
I have recently read an article printed in TES in 2003 by members of East Lothian council based at Dunbar Grammar School. It made me think…
I graduated from University of Edinburgh in 2005 and was placed in a council that had went down the faculty route and am now at a school that has also went down the faculty route, I haven’t known anything else.
I’m in the expressive arts faculty, before I was in the communication faculty (English, Drama and Modern Languages). I have to say on a personal level that I much prefer being in the Expressive Arts faculty, as creative people we can bounce ideas off each other.
I’m intriqued to know what others think of the system, do people want to talk about it? Is it a taboo subject? Can we openly discuss it? (if not… i’m in the dole que)
There are pro’s and con’s to the faculty system…
Pro’s
- We can discuss national objectives together and create cross curricular links
- CfE works better within the Faculty remitt
- Schools are able to save money and work round budgets
- PT faculty links are managers of people
Cons
- As a single person department I am doing everything really that an old PT used to do; create courses, manage daily running of dept, link for students re SQA etc
- Teacher on normal payscale
- PT Faculty has little subject knowledge of department (is this positive or negative?)
I have found it interesting to see some councils in the West and up North going back to PT subjects and the majority of City of Edinburgh schools staying with dept PT’s.
Will the faculty system survive? Can it?
I really think it depends on the school - in my current school, within my faculty, I think it does work however I did not feel like that when I first came into teaching.
How can we improve the faculty system? I honestly feel each dept should have a link teacher that liases with the PT Faculty that is in charge of running of dept, courses, subject knowledge etc (in theory this link teacher would act as head of department) but then defeats the point of faculties doesn’t it?
hhhhmmmmm…. where to I stand on this?! who knows! I find it interesting though… next discussion… Higher Still!!!!!!!!