ATL

Army base teaching

See the world, meet interesting people, become a teacher at an army school. Report talks to an ATL member about her experiences of working for Service Children's Education in a British Forces Posted Overseas school. Words by Alex Tomlin

You get used to the tanks rumbling around outside during class," says Liz Gregory. "It's just part of life out there."
Soldiers with rifles, camouflaged vehicles, signing the Official Secrets Act and being subject to military jurisdiction are all part of life as a teacher on an army base for British Forces Posted Overseas.

ATL member Liz spent five years working at Gütersloh in Germany, which followed five years of working at a school on an army camp in the UK. "I really enjoyed it and I'd recommend it to anybody," she recalls. "It's a great environment to work in."

Drawn by the opportunity to work abroad but to still be part of the English pay scale system, Liz admits there are some "nice monetary perks: free housing and no bills for five years, cost of living allowance and you can buy things tax-free - like cars." Smaller class sizes, of around 20, are another benefit.

"You're part of army life, you're allowed to be part of the officers' mess as a teacher," she recalls. "Obviously we try to use the army in lessons - when transport was the subject for the reception class they could go in a helicopter. They didn't go anywhere but had a look around inside. You have opportunities that you wouldn't necessarily have [in a traditional UK school]."

However, a downside of army schools is the transitory nature of the job - families are moved around on a regular basis. "You could have a child in year 6 who's been moved seven or eight times and never had a full year in the same school. It makes it very difficult for them," Liz explains. "They adapt very well though; they make friends very quickly and they're very used to moving on. They are also good at welcoming new children into the class, partly because they don't know anything else, I suppose. They often seem unaware that other children spend seven years in the same school."

Children with special educational needs can also find it hard frequently starting again at a new school. "Staff have to get to know them and if a statement [of SEN] was in process at their previous school, that has to be started again," says Liz.

Exams can present a challenge too, as "SATs results don't take into account whether the child has been at the school for four years, six months, or if they walked through the door on the day of the exam", she continues. A similar issue arises if a child is transferred during their GCSEs and their existing coursework isn't accepted at the new school (which may be running a different syllabus), meaning extra work is needed to fill in the gaps. "It's up to you as the school to deal with those difficulties," Liz explains.

In her second year of teaching at an army base on Salisbury Plain, there was a regiment move and Liz ended up teaching 50 children in one year, with her class shrinking and then growing with a new intake in a matter of weeks.

Another source of instability is the fact that fathers (and less frequently, mothers) are away at war for six months at a time. "They can get unsettled just before dad goes and just before he comes back, but they deal with it well," Liz believes. "Iraq and Afghanistan are on the television all the time, so it must be on their minds, but they don't really talk about it."

Liz has now returned to the UK. "I had a great time, but it's quite a closed community and I just wanted to expand my horizons and do something else. You only meet teachers or people in the army, so you can feel isolated, although there was the opportunity to jump on a train at weekends and see some of the country."

Now teaching at a primary school in Dorset, Liz is enjoying the continuity that a non-army school can provide. "You get to know the children better. You have them for longer so you can see you're making progress. It can be quite frustrating in an army school because you feel you're just getting somewhere and then they leave. But on the other hand, we don't have a helicopter for the children to explore."