Poor Billy Russell was buried today. No more worries for him but a great loss to the pupils he taught when he was suspended from teaching.

Well done to the Educational body which took him out of his job .... you a**holes !!!

My mother, who taught for 38 years, told me stories about teachers back in the 60's who had been teaching for 20 years without a degree had to go back and earn college credits to keep their jobs. She said before those times, if you made it to the 6th grade, you could teach 5th grade. I know that sounds mad now, but that's the way it was. So that shows that you learn to teach through experience. However, the states do not want to held liable for someone who is by standards, uneducated teaching the uneducated.

I am a former pupil of ICHS & Billy is one of the best teachers I have ever been taught by, He teaches the children in multiple ways which engage their learning & he varies his teaching methods in order to adapt to how they best learn. He provides a high standard of education & has to be praised for the amount of music qualifications children from the school leave with. He is entirely & solely responsible for the high quality level of music which is taught to the students. He allows for every child to be unique & encourages their individuality. He is one of the easily relatable teachers in the school & a lot of children focus well with his teaching & general personality. I am proud to say that I had the pleasure of being taught by Billy & I'm sure both previous & current students will agree, I have never come across a teacher with such a positive response from the students, this shows how highly students think of him. Although he does not supposedly have a teaching degree, he was defiantly one of the schools finest teachers.Regardless of whether or not he has a teaching degree I think the exam results of the students he teaches speak for themselves. To employ a new teacher who does not have the same bond & character as Billy would be a shame as whatever he does seems to be working.
We support you Billy!

This guy was a lecturer at the local college for many years (One of my lecturers for a few years and held in very high regard by all) so the lack of qualification refers to a bit of paper and obviously not the experience and skill that Billy so obviously has.

The focus here should be on getting Billy back into the classroom where he clearly belongs instead of heading out on a witch hunt.

BIlly you have my 100% support and I sincerely hope this gets resolved with some common sense very soon. It would be an absolute tragedy for the education system to lose someone like you.

Instead of having the best person for the job they want someone who was able to fake their way through college and get a piece of paper . Shows you anyone can be a teacher .

i think 6 years on the job amounts to more than enough training!!

We rely *far* too heavily on bureaucracy and so called "qualifications" these days.. If you have the mental capacity/skill set to do something - then you should be able to do it!

So, let me see, when people go for a 'Masterclass' with someone at the top of their profession, they should ask to see their teaching certificate first then?

Sounds to me if he was a good teacher he should be treasured.
Qualifications do not always mean you are any good at what you do.
What about all the well qualified bad teachers out there?

Oh for goodness sake, give the man his job back, he's good at it and the kids like him, what more can you ask for?

How many people have set up business, and consequently 'trained' employees to high skilled levels without any paper qualifications, creating businesses worth many millions in the process?

Most teaching these days seem to be done on a formulaic basis, with 'teachers' following a set recipe.

It could easily be seen that a simple course on how to deliver that set formula is all that is required, so why the emphasis on paper certification after a three year degree course?

After reading about this music man, one can see we need far more of his kind, not less.

It is to be deprecated that an education authority can cast such aside because his capabilities, which probably exceed the required level anyway, are not substantiated by a piece of paper stating he has the necessary 'qualifications'.

Paper qualiication does not make good teachers. Music is a practical art , you either have the skill or you don't. You put youself up for judgement at every stage, you can not fake it.

There could be punishment for bad teaching on one hand and punishment for dishonesty on the other hand.

It would be interesting to find out his pupils exam stats, in comparison to other local schools and the school's previous music teacher.

...those who can, do....those who can teach, do...those who can't push paperwork and give those who CAN a lot of crap! The "systems", especially the levels of control and review, are chock full of those who can't do ANYTHING and wouldn't know or learn how if their lives depended on it....follow that line to the species decline....it's a human cancer....until WE CURE it! Life's school is never out and we are all desperately under schooled in most of what really counts....duh!

PMSL !.