Men wanted in the classroom

DARREN RUTHERFORD is a strapping rugby player who is fearless on the pitch. But he is just as happy doing potato prints or making jigsaws with his young charges at Funfishers, an out-of-school club in Fishergate, York.

“I’m a big softy,” says Darren, known affectionately as ‘Daz’. He is the sole male play worker at Funfishers, which caters for children aged two to 11. Friends and family, Daz admits, were surprised at his career choice.

“They didn’t expect me to want to do this,” he says. “But they think it’s brilliant.”

Daz thinks so too. “It’s great watching the kids develop skills and helping them learn to do things. It’s really rewarding just watching them grow up.”

He has been working at Funfishers for a year and got the job after volunteering at the club.

As part of a big family, with younger siblings, Daz says he feels at home with small children. And although he enjoys playing sports and rough and tumble with the boys, Daz is just as happy doing quieter, indoor pursuits. “We do lots of jigsaws – although lots of girls like to get involved in wrestling too.”

He is studying for a qualification in play work and says the key to working with small children is two-fold: “You have loads of patience and the kids have to like you.”

Daz is one of a tiny minority of men working with pre-school-aged children. Latest figures show that just two per cent of childcare workers are men.

However 55 per cent of parents – and 66 per cent of single parents – would like a male child-care worker for their offspring.

At primary schools, 16 per cent of teachers are male, but parents and educationalists want to see more men at primary level. They believe it is important for children – especially young boys – to have positive male role models.

Dave Brown is head teacher at Heworth Primary in York. It’s a small primary, with only five classes, but Mr Brown is proud to have five men working with children at the school.

“We have another male teacher and a man who comes in on Thursdays to do PE. We also have a male teaching assistant and another is employed at the after-school club. So that’s five men with links to a school with just five classes – so that’s quite a lot.”

Mr Brown would like more done to encourage men to consider teaching as a career. But he adds there are other ways to bring men into schools.

“We did a dads reading-in-school event and dads’ football nights to give them an opportunity to get involved in school life.”

James Rourke, 24, has been teaching for two years. He teaches year five – nine and ten year olds – at St George’s RC School, Fishergate, York.

“I am the only male teacher at St George’s, so it is unusual,” he says. “But it is nice for them to have me, it adds a bit of diversity and a lot of children don’t have male role models at home.”

Mr Rourke says he was inspired to go into teaching by his own experience at primary school. “Teaching was always something I was interested in. I had a good time at primary school and I had three male teachers, so I was lucky in that I had those male role models.”

A survey for the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) found that nearly half of men questioned thought male primary school teachers had acted as “fundamental role models”.

It also found one third of men felt having a male primary teacher challenged them to work harder at school, while a fifth believed male primary teachers helped build their confidence while they were young.

Mr Rourke says: “Primary teaching can seem a strange career choice for a man. When I did my degree at York St John, out of 120 students, only ten were male, so already I was standing out from the crowd.”

Taking a different career path from his friends has its minus points, but bonuses too, he says.

“Lots of my friends have gone into finance, business or technology and they started on better wages than me and have a lot more prospects in terms of career progression.

“But teaching is very stable, it’s not like working in the finance sector where your company could crash and you could loose everything.

“Teaching is a job for life – and you can make a difference. You can bring a lot to children’s lives, you can help them and there is a lot of job satisfaction. The real beauty is that every day is different. In primary teaching, you teach across a varied and wide curriculum.”

Mr Rourke says male teachers can have an impact on behaviour.

“I think it’s a fallacy that male teachers make better disciplinarians, but there are some children who do respond well to male teachers; troublesome boys often respond better in behaviour terms to male teachers.”

Jill Hodges, assistant director for school improvement and staff development, at City of York Council, says: “Male teachers are good role models for pupils, particularly for reading and languages, and they tend to have a particular teaching style.

“However, what we really need is outstanding teaching, regardless of whether the teacher is male or female. It’s important to have a balance of teaching styles, strategies and different people young people can relate to.”

Graham Holley, chief executive of the TDA, backs parents in wanting to see a more even gender balance in schools.

He says: “Both male and female authority figures play an important role in the development of young people, and we want the teaching workforce to reflect the strengths of our diverse society.”

He advises men interested in a teaching career to get work experience and apply for courses as early as possible, stressing that entry to primary training courses was very competitive.

He says: “This reflects the rewards that the job offers – an incredibly diverse role, competitive pay and benefits, excellent progression opportunities, and the most valuable reward of helping young people grow and flourish.”