Features

LSJS graduate Camille steps successfully into training

BY DAVID SAFFER

London School of Jewish Studies is renowned for training teachers across Jewish primary and secondary schools.

LSJS provides different access points into teaching whether it’s for graduates wanting to be teachers, candidates looking for a career change, older people getting into teaching, teachers in schools who haven’t qualified or people that want to be Jewish Studies teachers.

Candidates are from a wide spectrum of backgrounds. Camille Compton decided to become a teacher 12 months ago after working in the Jewish charity sector for two decades.

Completing the teacher training programme during the Covid-19 pandemic has been no easy task but Camille graduated last year, the ceremony took place last month, and she is now working at Independent Jewish Day School (IJDS) in Hendon.

Camille, who is married to Michael and lives in Edgware, had been a volunteer with British Emunah for over 20 years including two terms as Chairman.

The mum of three was also a member of the Trustees and on the executive committee.

“I have always cared about the welfare and education of children and set-up the Emunah Mother Daughter Bat mitzvah Tour and a programme to raise money to bring vulnerable teenagers in Emunah centres to the UK to experience life in a Jewish home in the UK and to show them they are valued,” Camille recalled. “In January 2020, I spent the afternoon as a guest artist in a year five class at IJDS. I had done this previously but, on this occasion, as I sat in my car on the journey home, I had a light bulb moment when I realised I had really enjoyed myself and could see myself teaching.”

Shortly after the ‘light bulb moment’ Covid-19 hit and by late spring Camille realised this feeling was not going away.

“We all had lots of choices to make and mine was to turn the time into something productive, so I applied to LSJS to join their SCITT programme,” she recalled.

Despite having a degree in Humanities and Art History, her O’ Level grades in Maths and Science were not high enough for the course so she spent the summer cramming and passing both GCSEs.

“The application process for the training programme was simple, we all had to pass tests and an interview to be accepted,” recalled Camille. “LSJS were extremely supportive and despite Covid-19 restrictions and sitting tests on Zoom I earned my place on the course and was ready to start teacher training in September 2020.

“The summer had been difficult, living and breathing maths and science, and I went straight into LSJS training with lectures at the LSJS campus and via Zoom with the University of Roehampton. It was intensive, and the workload was heavy as we were all attending our placements and studying simultaneously. I spent a couple of weeks at Mathilda Marks and Wolfson Hillel but spent most of the term in years two and five at IJDS.”

In January 2021, another long lockdown began. Camille was placed at Edgware Primary School working with children of key workers and vulnerable children.

“It was extremely challenging physically and mentally,” she recalled. “The classrooms were freezing cold as we had to keep the windows and doors open and teaching online and in person simultaneously was exhausting. I had a ‘bubble’ of children from years three, four, five and six which created further issues educationally and socially. When all the children returned to school things settled down again and I continued in year four at Edgware Primary until the end of term. After Pesach I returned to year five at IJDS which was fabulous as I was reunited with the children I had started with.”

How does Camille look back on her Covid-19 experience and becoming a teacher through LSJS?

“It has been fulfilling and exhausting,” she said. “Continual staff shortages due to the virus and continually changing regulations has meant we have all had to be flexible. My technology skills have improved immensely but all the extra work of teaching live in the classroom while teaching those at home remotely has added extra pressures for all teachers.

“In terms of the yearlong course, six of us bonded nicely. Having the support and friendship of the other students was an important part of the training. It was particularly useful to share experiences and discuss the academic side of things. It was just unfortunate that much of the time we were interacting remotely on Zoom. The essay submissions were quite pressured but with the help of Helena Miller at LSJS we all got through it. She was good at proofreading our essays and pointing us in the right direction. There was lots of homework, course work and essay writing in addition to lesson planning for placements. Creating a file on Teacher’s Standards was very time consuming, especially collecting the evidence required.

“From a practical point of view, studying with LSJS ensured I didn’t have a clash of work-homelife during Shabbat or over the Chaggim. During uncertain times being with a group of like-minded people was helpful and so was being given the opportunity to experience working in a Jewish and secular environment. Learning remotely has had its positive and negatives. I didn’t have to travel to Roehampton but missed the interaction of fellow students, it isn’t the same on Zoom and access to sources was restricted to the books I could buy or access online.

“When I started my training there had been a changeover of staff at LSJS and Jillian Dunstan was new to the role. The whole Covid-19 education experience was a learning curve for us all and she really had her work cut out with the constant changes.”

Camille said that LSJS offered support and advice in applying for work and she was fortunate to be offered a position at IJDS.

“I began working immediately with Year 5 and love being in the classroom,” she noted. “There is more administrative work to deal with than I imagined but I enjoy watching the children grow and learn new things. It is so fulfilling when a child is excited about what they are learning. The highlight of my career so far was last week when a pupil arrived in school with a card they had made at home which said ‘Best Ever’ on the outside and when it unfolded revealed the word ‘teacher’ in the middle.”

Lastly, what tips does Camille have for wannabee teachers?

“Be prepared for lots of work outside the timetable to begin with so choose a time in your life to do it when it is convenient,” she said. “You need to be totally focussed and dedicated during the training year without too many distractions. Be realistic about your expectations, there will be good days and there will be less-good days.”

Camille Compton receives her graduation certificate from LSJS' Joanne Greenaway

Camille graduated last year, the ceremony took place last month, and she is now working at Independent Jewish Day School (IJDS) in Hendon.

LSJS offers a range of training courses to get your career in teaching started. To find out more and details on bursaries please visit www.lsjs.ac.uk or call 0208 203 6427.

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From the front line…

Trying times indeed. NHS - please try harder!

BY JACQUELINE CURZON

We are living in a society where obesity is fast becoming a national epidemic. Many people ultimately have to resort to weight loss surgery with gastric bands etc, but some good news is on the horizon. A new weight loss injection has proved to be as effective as a gastric band, and is scheduled to be prescribed by the NHS, which is expected to give the green light to a drug called Wegovy, a once-weekly injection which acts as an appetite suppressant. Trials found an average weight loss of almost 2.5 stone for those put on it, compared with those given a placebo. Those taking part lost an average of 20% of their total body weight, and the recommendation is expected to indicate this treatment to those with a BMI of 30 - if they’ve been referred for specialist help, or to anybody with a BMI of 35 or more. Manufacturer Novo Nordisk said the treatment should be taken alongside changes in diet and exercise habits. Rachel Batterham, Professor of obesity, diabetes and endocrinology at UCLH, said the results were a major breakthrough for improving the health of people with obesity, and no other drug has come close to producing this level of weight loss. She said it ’really is a game changer.’ Britain has some of the worst rates in the western world with two of every three adults now overweight or obese. US research found that an extra hour’s sleep could also cut calorie intake by around 270 calories a day, which is the equivalent of around three chocolate digestive biscuits, so over a period of three years this could lead to an additional weight loss of 26lb, according to researchers from the University of Chicago in their study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Cancer is still a big casualty in the covid portfolio. Even as we await a proposed Covid enquiry, the extraordinary toll and cost of lockdown and other pandemic measures has become very clear. It has recently been reported in the Telegraph that almost 90,000 cancer cases are likely to have progressed to non survivable stages, after millions of patients missed out on referrals, with oncologists noting that ‘a deadly timebomb of unnecessary cancer deaths has built up.’ The government has this week announced a major initiative to chop waiting lists for testing and treatment, partly by rolling out rapid diagnostic clinics into community facilities such as shopping centres and football clubs. One day….. perhaps.

Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary said in a speech at the Francis Crick Institute, that Britain’s survival rates lag far too far behind those of other countries, as he launched an eight week call for evidence to inform a 10 year cancer strategy. I reported at least 18 months ago that Britain’s track record on cancer treatments was absolutely lamentable, particularly for cancers such as the one I have. The Health Secretary hopes that more than 100 centres will open over the next year and the plan is to offer up to 9 million scans and other checks initially on an appointment basis. Currently 55% of patients with cancer are diagnosed in early stages when it’s easy to treat. Javid said he wanted to go further than this, to achieve this for 75% of patients by 2028. Research suggests that every four week’s delay in treatment cuts survival rates by 10%, and in my own case having had to wait an astonishing 12 weeks to begin treatment potentially reduced my curative treatment chances by 30%.

Patient responsibility and taking the NHS monopoly to task is key to delivering a future of medicine to a now aging population with more complex needs, but without crippling the nation’s finances. But just going back to the cancer statistics for a moment, while very little was known of the novel coronavirus, the human costs of cancer were obvious to all. Who of course would dare argue and challenge a government dedicated to lockdown and other attendant Covid restrictions? Let’s hope that we are never put in this invidious position again, for like the 90,000 mentioned above, it could again come too late. Professor Karol Sikora, one of the world's leading experts on cancers, said this attempt by Javid is ‘total rubbish’ and says it is never going to happen, adding that his colleagues in Europe laugh when he explains a potential cancer patient might be seen in two weeks. ’British people have such low expectations. In France, Germany and Italy you would be seen the next day. Our system isn’t much cheaper, but yields far poorer results.’ Instead of the community diagnostic hubs being promised, Professor Sikora says we have to smarten up the diagnostic system, mapping endoscopy, biopsy and work out how to best staff them, using CT and

MRI with ruthless efficiency, working weekends, through the night and using private hospitals like we failed to do during lockdown. We have to do something within a month if we’re going to make any dent in cancer survival.’ This will be the true life and death for the people of

Britain.

I read this week that various recruitment drives for NHS Trusts have spent millions going to overseas countries to try and cover their staffing shortfall.

Managers have found their way to the

Philippines from where, I noticed as an inpatient, the bulk of the lower paid nursing staff are indigenously from.

Now one has to ask at the wisdom of spending enormous amounts of money on a bit of a jolly holiday, when they could simply advertise and use zoom?!

They recruit nurses who feel that they’ve been brought in to essentially change bedpans. This is not a flippant remark, but comes from the mouths of current staff, some of whom shared with me the appalling salaries they are brought in on. Often they are several pay bands lower than other trained staff because of a need to level up to UK pay grades, but they accept this to escape poverty and access welfare benefits. On the flip side, they are by and large the friendliest and most genuine of people, who approach you with a sphygmomanometer and a smile.

It's a further ongoing disgrace that the Britain is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t bill patients from foreign countries, effectively costing us millions a year whilst the fat-cat NHS managers on eye watering salaries make no effort to recover this. A recent case underlining this was that of Romanian Dorinel Cojanu, who cut his hand whilst trying to murder his wife, and was awarded £17,500 after suing the NHS for ‘criminal negligence.’ Doubtless he had legal aid paid by the taxpayers. Lawyers argued that the failure of a London hospital to perform reconstructive surgery soon enough on his 2 fingers, left their client with ‘life changing injuries.’ Like a burglar claiming compensation for breaking a leg whilst being chased off your property. It’s nonsense!

You would’ve thought that prevarication in cancer treatment could be classed the absolute ‘life changing’ injury (death), but yet we seem to happily treat and variously pay out to terrorists, criminals, murderers etc in addition to medical travel tourists, where people come to have specialist treatment, surgery or give birth, and then do a quick runner. So spare a thought for them should you find yourself in Spain, Italy, Romania, America and Australia, in fact practically anywhere else, paying your bill. There’s no such thing as a ‘free fix.’

For those of us who thought we had large families you’re in for a little bit of a shock here, because it’s recently come to light that a family born to James and Alice Giles of Canterbury, managed to send 10 of their sons to the Great War of 1914 -1918. Their sons were only some of the 19 children of the Giles family, it not being clear if the remaining 9 were daughters. The sons who fought on the front included George (b.1881) who joined the Navy (d.1947); Arthur (b.1885) enlisted in the Royal East Kent Regiment (the Buffs), and then in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (killed in action 1917); Herbert (b.1888) took part in operations in Pakistan then moved to Canada; James Amos (b.1889) emigrated to Canada in 1808 (d.1920); Albert Harry (b.1890) emigrated to Canada (d.1976); Frederick (b.1891) served in the Grenadier Guards and CEF, (killed in action 1916); Harry (b.1892) emigrated to Canada (killed in action 1918); Amos Mark (b.1894) emigrated to Canada (d.1960); Verney Richard (b.1897) enlisted in the Territorial Force (d.1979) and Stanley (b.1899) who claimed to be 19 when he enlisted with the Buffs aged 15 (d.1978). Stanley was able to get away with enlisting underage as he was 5’11” at the age of 15 and served for 300 days on the Western front with the Buffs before his mother was able to get him discharged. He then re-enlisted with the Grenadier Guards on his 18th birthday and survived the war. I’m blown away. A spokesman for the Guinness World Records said, ‘we don’t have a current record holder for the most siblings to serve in WW1, and the Giles family would be welcome to apply for this title.’

Now for a little conundrum. When is a Jew not a Jew? According to Dame Maureen Lipman it is when a Jew is played by a non-Jew. Dame Helen Mirren, who is cast as Golda Meir in the forthcoming biopic Golda, came under criticism for reasons of ethnicity, to which Mirren rightly responded, ‘if someone who’s not Jewish can’t play Jewish, should someone who is Jewish play someone who is not Jewish?’ I feel that this shows a very narrow attitude from Lipman, for not only has Helen Mirren demonstrated a consummate range of character portrayals, including the Queen - and of course, she’s not royalty - but nobody made the same fuss, unless I’m mistaken, when Sir Ben Kingsley was cast as Gandhi - Kingsley being of mixed parentage. Nor was there any furore when Kingsley portrayed Itzhak Stern in Schindler’s List, a film in which he played his Jewish role convincingly, plausibly and expertly. Not bad for an actor who is 50% Indian and 100% a Quaker. So, to end the argument for the two Dames, I feel a good actor or actress transcends religion and race. You go, Dame Helen. Love

Jacqueline x

Jacqueline Curzon

PHOTO: LARA MINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY