and somewhat famous after one term
of teaching at Gloucester Primary in South
London.
Bulgarian teachers don’t make the front pages of Britain’s tabloid newspapers very often. In fact, until last June, they had probably never done so. But on June 15, the top-selling Sun newspaper ran a front-page story headlined ‘Russians to teach our kids English.’
The story went on to explain how, because of teacher shortages in Britain, some schools had begun hunting for staff abroad. One school, Gloucester Primary in South London, generated the headline when it successfully recruited three Russians – and four Bulgarians.
After rigorous interviews, Diana Vulcheva (35), Lyudmila Tsanova (32), Daniella Velikova (34), and Yana Buchkova (24) were recruited. Originally, around 400 Bulgarians had replied when Gloucester Primary’s head teacher - who already had a Bulgarian and a Montenegrin on his staff - placed adverts in 24 Chassa and Trud newspapers.
After a one-month summer training course in Smolian, Bulgaria, attended by the Gloucester Primary deputy head, they left husbands and children behind in Asenovgrad, Botevgrad, Varna and Plovdiv, respectively, and moved to England. Training sessions on behaviour management and the English curriculum preceded the start of the September term.
Talking to The Echo at the end of an exhausting first term in London, the quartet seemed generally content with how things have gone. It seems as though their energies have been absorbed as much by the media’s requests for interviews - frequent since the term began - as the challenge of keeping kids occupied for eight hours each day.
After The Sun’s article, Gloucester Primary has received visits from other British print and broadcast journalists. Footage of the foreign teachers in classrooms has been featured on the BBC and Channel 4. “The press have really been more interested in the Russians,” said Tsanova.
“Similar to the one in The Sun, we also saw one headline: ‘The Russians are coming!’ This is more interesting, of course, than ‘The Bulgarians are coming!’”
This is not the only British school that has recruited Bulgarians recently. It is estimated that around 10,000 foreigners teach in Britain’s schools and, although most are from places such as New Zealand and Australia, the number of Eastern Europeans being recruited is on the rise.
The case of Gloucester Primary is particularly appealing to British journalists because it is located in the North Peckham Estate, a deprived area, euphemistically described as ‘tough.’ The area had a high media profile from the previous year when a 10-year-old, Damilola Taylor, bled to death in one of the housing blocks’ stairwells, reportedly after being stabbed with a broken bottle.
Many of the estate’s 1960s five-storey housing blocks have since been bulldozed as the government has stepped up a local regeneration scheme. Nevertheless, rather ironically, the blocks that surround Gloucester Primary lend the area an aesthetic similarity to many cities of the former Eastern bloc.
The Bulgarians are reluctant to talk about problems they may have found working in Peckham - instead they emphasize that difficulties usually stem from a lack of familiarity with teaching in England. “Often the teachers refer to something that happened ‘last year,’ and we don’t know what that means. However, this problem is the same for all new teachers, not just us,” said Vulcheva.
Their students age between three and 11 and are almost completely from ethnic minorities. Many of the school’s 900 children have English as a second language - something they have in common with their newest teachers.
The Bulgarians’ spoken English is certainly sufficient to teach at a primary level and it is improving rapidly. Buchkova has an MA from Kings College London, and is studying for a PhD in English literature at Plovdiv University. All four have had no real problems with their students’ London accents: “Even the parents have problems with their children’s accents sometimes,” she said.
When asked if they think there are any lessons Britain’s education system could learn from schools in Bulgaria, Vulcheva - formerly a head teacher - had an interesting response. “In England, sometimes I am in the same room with the same children for two hours,” she said. “In Bulgaria, lessons are shorter and break-times are shorter.”
The implication is that, in her experience, shorter playtimes and shorter lessons mean more attentive children and focused learning.
Outside of school, the four have managed to see as much of London and the rest of the country’s traditional tourist hot spots (Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Brighton, etc.) as time has allowed. “These places really are beautiful,” said Velikova.
“We were also impressed to see the tour brochures in Stratford printed in Bulgarian,” added Tsanova.
London has a burgeoning Eastern European population, many of whom are students, often doing bar work in their spare time to make ends meet. Aside from one another, they’ve seen many familiar faces.
“In the centre of London, I once ran into a friend I hadn’t seen for ages - even in Bulgaria,” said Tsanova. “She’s now working in an office in Westminster. We couldn’t believe we should run into each other in London.
“Every time I go to Oxford Street, I always hear a Bulgarian voice,” she added.
All four Bulgarians make phone calls home every two days or so - they know the relative charges of each international call well - and plan to return home every school holiday.
When asked what their friends back home will probably ask them when they return, they responded unanimously: “How much money are you earning?” (More than 17,000 pounds per year, plus a London allowance - the standard starting salary for their British peers).
“My son likes the postcards I send that have London buses on,” said Tsanova. And, she added, turning to look up the road where the Bulgarians live together, “the famous red buses pass right by the end of my road.”
The story went on to explain how, because of teacher shortages in Britain, some schools had begun hunting for staff abroad. One school, Gloucester Primary in South London, generated the headline when it successfully recruited three Russians – and four Bulgarians.
After rigorous interviews, Diana Vulcheva (35), Lyudmila Tsanova (32), Daniella Velikova (34), and Yana Buchkova (24) were recruited. Originally, around 400 Bulgarians had replied when Gloucester Primary’s head teacher - who already had a Bulgarian and a Montenegrin on his staff - placed adverts in 24 Chassa and Trud newspapers.
After a one-month summer training course in Smolian, Bulgaria, attended by the Gloucester Primary deputy head, they left husbands and children behind in Asenovgrad, Botevgrad, Varna and Plovdiv, respectively, and moved to England. Training sessions on behaviour management and the English curriculum preceded the start of the September term.
Talking to The Echo at the end of an exhausting first term in London, the quartet seemed generally content with how things have gone. It seems as though their energies have been absorbed as much by the media’s requests for interviews - frequent since the term began - as the challenge of keeping kids occupied for eight hours each day.
After The Sun’s article, Gloucester Primary has received visits from other British print and broadcast journalists. Footage of the foreign teachers in classrooms has been featured on the BBC and Channel 4. “The press have really been more interested in the Russians,” said Tsanova.
“Similar to the one in The Sun, we also saw one headline: ‘The Russians are coming!’ This is more interesting, of course, than ‘The Bulgarians are coming!’”
This is not the only British school that has recruited Bulgarians recently. It is estimated that around 10,000 foreigners teach in Britain’s schools and, although most are from places such as New Zealand and Australia, the number of Eastern Europeans being recruited is on the rise.
The case of Gloucester Primary is particularly appealing to British journalists because it is located in the North Peckham Estate, a deprived area, euphemistically described as ‘tough.’ The area had a high media profile from the previous year when a 10-year-old, Damilola Taylor, bled to death in one of the housing blocks’ stairwells, reportedly after being stabbed with a broken bottle.
Many of the estate’s 1960s five-storey housing blocks have since been bulldozed as the government has stepped up a local regeneration scheme. Nevertheless, rather ironically, the blocks that surround Gloucester Primary lend the area an aesthetic similarity to many cities of the former Eastern bloc.
The Bulgarians are reluctant to talk about problems they may have found working in Peckham - instead they emphasize that difficulties usually stem from a lack of familiarity with teaching in England. “Often the teachers refer to something that happened ‘last year,’ and we don’t know what that means. However, this problem is the same for all new teachers, not just us,” said Vulcheva.
Their students age between three and 11 and are almost completely from ethnic minorities. Many of the school’s 900 children have English as a second language - something they have in common with their newest teachers.
The Bulgarians’ spoken English is certainly sufficient to teach at a primary level and it is improving rapidly. Buchkova has an MA from Kings College London, and is studying for a PhD in English literature at Plovdiv University. All four have had no real problems with their students’ London accents: “Even the parents have problems with their children’s accents sometimes,” she said.
When asked if they think there are any lessons Britain’s education system could learn from schools in Bulgaria, Vulcheva - formerly a head teacher - had an interesting response. “In England, sometimes I am in the same room with the same children for two hours,” she said. “In Bulgaria, lessons are shorter and break-times are shorter.”
The implication is that, in her experience, shorter playtimes and shorter lessons mean more attentive children and focused learning.
Outside of school, the four have managed to see as much of London and the rest of the country’s traditional tourist hot spots (Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Brighton, etc.) as time has allowed. “These places really are beautiful,” said Velikova.
“We were also impressed to see the tour brochures in Stratford printed in Bulgarian,” added Tsanova.
London has a burgeoning Eastern European population, many of whom are students, often doing bar work in their spare time to make ends meet. Aside from one another, they’ve seen many familiar faces.
“In the centre of London, I once ran into a friend I hadn’t seen for ages - even in Bulgaria,” said Tsanova. “She’s now working in an office in Westminster. We couldn’t believe we should run into each other in London.
“Every time I go to Oxford Street, I always hear a Bulgarian voice,” she added.
All four Bulgarians make phone calls home every two days or so - they know the relative charges of each international call well - and plan to return home every school holiday.
When asked what their friends back home will probably ask them when they return, they responded unanimously: “How much money are you earning?” (More than 17,000 pounds per year, plus a London allowance - the standard starting salary for their British peers).
“My son likes the postcards I send that have London buses on,” said Tsanova. And, she added, turning to look up the road where the Bulgarians live together, “the famous red buses pass right by the end of my road.”
