How can challenging schools attract teachers?

Challenging behaviour is a hot election issue. Louise Tickle reports on efforts to attract staff in tougher schools

• Louise Tickle
• The Guardian, Tuesday 4 May 2010

Leonie Martin, who teaches at Lilian Baylis in south London: ‘I’m giving the children things I didn’t have’. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

"

Evidence shows that paying more doesn't work, says Gary Phillips, the headteacher at Lilian Baylis technology school in Kennington, London. Three- quarters of his pupils claim free school meals, half arrive unable to read and write in English, and, in the lower school, 10% have a statement of special educational needs.
"What you want is people who are motivated by the challenge and by the moral purpose – and by that I mean we are here to transform the life chances of all our students. We have teachers from a real range of backgrounds, but it's about what they believe in and what they're prepared to do for the students."
Phillips, who leads the seventh most improved school in England, says that it's essential to be upfront with applicants about what the job entails. "If you want to come in before a job interview and spend time here, it's not going to be a filtered experience. We want to say, 'This is how it is – do you want to be part of the tough stuff as well as the amazing stuff?'" he explains.
Leonie Martin, who has taught citizenship at Lilian Baylis for the last two years, laughs as she says emphatically: "This is a challenging school – though not as challenging as the school I was in before."
Senior management's presence around school premises on a daily basis is important not only to teachers, but to children, too, says Martin. It means that everyone knows they are valued, and that their headteacher is interested in their progress. "He [Phillips] might pop in when I'm teaching and sit with the kids. It freaked me a bit at first, but I can see why he does it, and the children are comfortable with it, too," she says.
Martin only applied to work in schools she knew would require enormous commitment. For her, the motivation is personal. "I'm giving back. Being a black woman working with black children and in their communities, I'm giving them things that I didn't have," she says. "I left school with no GCSEs and had to do it all again at college. I know exactly where the kids are coming from. It's more challenging, but it's more rewarding. If I worked in a private school I'd be bored out of my head."
"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/04/teacher-recruitment-challenging-schools