| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 22:44 - Jun 21 with 3037 views | connell10 |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:06 - Jun 21 by Dorse |
The list is pretty endless but the one that really sticks in my craw is the insidious privatisation of education through academies. And the 'EBacc'. And the devaluation of any subject that isn't arbitrarily defined as being helpful. My favourite example of which was the devaluation of RE through the ideological decision not to include it in the Ebacc measurement and then shouting about how important the subject was in fostering understanding in a multicultural society. Damage done you fcuking wet-lipped, chinless kunt. Oh, and the decision to arbitrarily remove National Curriculum levels for all students in KS3 without having any sort of replacement, leaving it to individual schools to make up their own measurement (non-transferable) whilst simulataneously changing the GCSE marking criteria, so no-one has the faintest clue whether student X is below, at or above expected progress entering Year 10. And hammering Schools using RAISE Online / FFTD / YELLIS data based on their projected target grades (not the fcuking Schools' who have been asked to come up with their own which are then disregarded in the calculation) which will then affect their funding etc as they've been forced to become Academies, thereby forcing teachers from TA to Head to teach with the Sword of Damacles placed firmly against their spinal column. This pressure is passed directly onto the students who are targeted to death in a sort of Zeno & The Tortoise game of death by a thousand measurements.
Other than that, he's fine.
Grade.
A*.
Kunt. |
he sits in the lower loft , i could drop a piss bomb on the tit for you if you want mate, would you require fresh piss or week old? |  |
| AND WHEN I DREAM , I DREAM ABOUT YOU AND WHEN I SCREAM I SCREAM ABOUT YOU!!!!! | | Poll: | best number 10 ever? |
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| (No subject) on 23:45 - Jun 21 with 2979 views | CiderwithRsie |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:06 - Jun 21 by Dorse |
The list is pretty endless but the one that really sticks in my craw is the insidious privatisation of education through academies. And the 'EBacc'. And the devaluation of any subject that isn't arbitrarily defined as being helpful. My favourite example of which was the devaluation of RE through the ideological decision not to include it in the Ebacc measurement and then shouting about how important the subject was in fostering understanding in a multicultural society. Damage done you fcuking wet-lipped, chinless kunt. Oh, and the decision to arbitrarily remove National Curriculum levels for all students in KS3 without having any sort of replacement, leaving it to individual schools to make up their own measurement (non-transferable) whilst simulataneously changing the GCSE marking criteria, so no-one has the faintest clue whether student X is below, at or above expected progress entering Year 10. And hammering Schools using RAISE Online / FFTD / YELLIS data based on their projected target grades (not the fcuking Schools' who have been asked to come up with their own which are then disregarded in the calculation) which will then affect their funding etc as they've been forced to become Academies, thereby forcing teachers from TA to Head to teach with the Sword of Damacles placed firmly against their spinal column. This pressure is passed directly onto the students who are targeted to death in a sort of Zeno & The Tortoise game of death by a thousand measurements.
Other than that, he's fine.
Grade.
A*.
Kunt. |
With all respect to NorthernR, Gove is the classic example of a journalist who thought he knew better than the professionals and then screwed up when he actually had to run things rather than just shout about them from the sidelines.
In defence of NorthernR, I don't suppose he would actually try to get himself appointed as manager of QPR.
I think he'd be a better PM than Boris, in fact I'd say he's the only one of the Exit camp who's remotely qualified for the job, so he might well get it in event of a "Leave" vote. So quite feasible really. But as Antti, says, that's a very low bar to clear and I reckon he'd be as bad a PM as he was SoS for education.
Apparently a lovely bloke if you meet him, and I'm sure he's a genuine R. But then the same could be said of most of us. |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 00:00 - Jun 22 with 2970 views | Brightonhoop |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:40 - Jun 21 by SimonJames |
My missus has been a teacher for 25 years and was a head teacher for 8 years.
Gove and the mess he created drove her to a mental breakdown for which she is still on medication 3 years later. Now she barely copes as a KS2 teacher working 4 days a week. |
I remember there was a massive flight from the profession, many retired, many switched professions. Genuinely sorry to hear of your wifes plight in it all.
These people, like Jimmy Saville, walk amongst us.
Gove is a proper wrong un.
I hope your Mrs recovers fully and continues with her potential. Very brave to take on running a school. |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 00:16 - Jun 22 with 2954 views | A40Bosh |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:06 - Jun 21 by Dorse |
The list is pretty endless but the one that really sticks in my craw is the insidious privatisation of education through academies. And the 'EBacc'. And the devaluation of any subject that isn't arbitrarily defined as being helpful. My favourite example of which was the devaluation of RE through the ideological decision not to include it in the Ebacc measurement and then shouting about how important the subject was in fostering understanding in a multicultural society. Damage done you fcuking wet-lipped, chinless kunt. Oh, and the decision to arbitrarily remove National Curriculum levels for all students in KS3 without having any sort of replacement, leaving it to individual schools to make up their own measurement (non-transferable) whilst simulataneously changing the GCSE marking criteria, so no-one has the faintest clue whether student X is below, at or above expected progress entering Year 10. And hammering Schools using RAISE Online / FFTD / YELLIS data based on their projected target grades (not the fcuking Schools' who have been asked to come up with their own which are then disregarded in the calculation) which will then affect their funding etc as they've been forced to become Academies, thereby forcing teachers from TA to Head to teach with the Sword of Damacles placed firmly against their spinal column. This pressure is passed directly onto the students who are targeted to death in a sort of Zeno & The Tortoise game of death by a thousand measurements.
Other than that, he's fine.
Grade.
A*.
Kunt. |
And that ladies and gentlemen is the exact argument in a nutshell.
Dorse you did well to confine it to one page. [Post edited 22 Jun 2016 0:18]
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 03:03 - Jun 22 with 2909 views | timcocking |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:10 - Jun 21 by QPRDave |
Did anybody else read that and think it would've been easier in arabic? |
ha
yes |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 07:40 - Jun 22 with 2872 views | easthertsr |
I'm another teacher who had to retire early due to health reasons because of that bast*rd's education 'reforms'. I don't care if he is an r , I hate that chinless wonder! [Post edited 22 Jun 2016 7:42]
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 09:10 - Jun 22 with 2839 views | Dorse |
My own mental (clinal depression, suicidal, anxiety) and physical (2 prolapsed discs caused by hunching over a desk marking for 30 hours a week) reasons for leaving teaching are pretty well reported and whilst I don't blame Gove directly, he was the reason for the context in which I got ill.
I'm genuinely sorry to hear those stories of how it has affected others - I hope you're in a better place. Me? I now have my own music shop, I play in bands and spend all day talking bollocks with like minded people. I still tutor A2 students and I miss working with the kids but, as far as I am concerned, the education system can go forth I and multiply. Next academic year I will be running drop-in jam sessions for local students and musicians networking nights for the grown ups.
Gove? I can't even be bothered to hate the bloke - it doesn't change his day one iota and it costs me too much energy. |  |
| 'What do we want? We don't know! When do we want it? Now!' |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 09:23 - Jun 22 with 2829 views | danehoop |
Apparently Gove tweeted this morning that he would leave politics if there was a remain vote. Should sort out the votes for all those in the teaching profession I thought. |  |
| Never knowingly understood |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 10:01 - Jun 22 with 2807 views | CiderwithRsie |
My daughter goes to one of the top performing state schools in thew UK. Exactly the sort of school Gove would approve of.
I recall going to a meeting where the Head introduced one of the teachers as the bloke "whose job it is to check the e-mail every morning for whatever Michael Gove has dreamed up today."
Tim Farron had it spot on: "Michael Gove says we've all heard enough from experts. When I send my children to school I want them taught by experts, not some bloke from down the pub." | | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 10:59 - Jun 22 with 2772 views | Metallica_Hoop |
Education was screwed the minute they put band 1 kids with band 3 and said 'everyone's equal'. |  |
| Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 11:12 - Jun 22 with 2753 views | SimonJames |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 09:10 - Jun 22 by Dorse |
My own mental (clinal depression, suicidal, anxiety) and physical (2 prolapsed discs caused by hunching over a desk marking for 30 hours a week) reasons for leaving teaching are pretty well reported and whilst I don't blame Gove directly, he was the reason for the context in which I got ill.
I'm genuinely sorry to hear those stories of how it has affected others - I hope you're in a better place. Me? I now have my own music shop, I play in bands and spend all day talking bollocks with like minded people. I still tutor A2 students and I miss working with the kids but, as far as I am concerned, the education system can go forth I and multiply. Next academic year I will be running drop-in jam sessions for local students and musicians networking nights for the grown ups.
Gove? I can't even be bothered to hate the bloke - it doesn't change his day one iota and it costs me too much energy. |
Glad your new career is working out for you, Dorse.
Since she's in school from 7:45-18:00 each day, my missus has to use her day off to do all her marking and planning (so it's effectively unpaid work). She still loves teaching the kids, but not all the constantly changing administrative crap and Ofsted related pressure that goes with it. (In her school the current management are so nervous they are doing classroom observations of each teacher 1-3 times per week!)
A recent survey found that 43% of teachers intent to quit within the next 5 years; and expect the missus will probably leave by then end up showing homes or something. |  |
| 100% of people who drink water will die. |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 12:52 - Jun 22 with 2695 views | Mytch_QPR |
I'm depressed to discover that having moved from Surrey Heath into the Guildford BC I still seem to have Gove as my MP.
Still, if he keeps his promise to resign from politics there is some light at the end of the tunnel. |  |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 12:57 - Jun 22 with 2684 views | DeepcutHoop |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 09:23 - Jun 22 by danehoop |
Apparently Gove tweeted this morning that he would leave politics if there was a remain vote. Should sort out the votes for all those in the teaching profession I thought. |
Don't tease me like that. | | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 13:36 - Jun 22 with 2662 views | Dorse |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 11:12 - Jun 22 by SimonJames |
Glad your new career is working out for you, Dorse.
Since she's in school from 7:45-18:00 each day, my missus has to use her day off to do all her marking and planning (so it's effectively unpaid work). She still loves teaching the kids, but not all the constantly changing administrative crap and Ofsted related pressure that goes with it. (In her school the current management are so nervous they are doing classroom observations of each teacher 1-3 times per week!)
A recent survey found that 43% of teachers intent to quit within the next 5 years; and expect the missus will probably leave by then end up showing homes or something. |
43%? And how many have they got coming through Teacher Training...?
I'll give an example of how fcuked up everything is becoming in that regard: in my last place, the History Department got through 2 NQTs before Easter. The first left by Christmas - effectively the pressure under which they were forced to perform was too much. The constant observations, marking load etc was way more than he was led to believe. Not to worry, they thought, we'll get another one. The next one in, joined at Christmas and was gone by Easter. Reason? Take a wild guess. The poor sod they brought in to replace one lasted until the Summer. 'Nuff said.
I pity the poor, wet behind the spoons, buggers who are being sold this in the PGCE or GTC. They walk into it like Tommies at the Somme. The old lags, who've been round the block a few times are either treading water, waiting for their pensions or leaving early and taking supply work until the pension kicks in. Anyone who's any good is punished by being given 10 times more to do in order to fulfil the latest dictat from central command. Creativity is crushed under the weight of target-driven threats.
I remember having a chat with one my Dep Heads during the Easter break one year (we were both in School working with students - him because he was told he had to target Maths C/D borderline kids; me because I wanted to help my AS group). He said to me: 'This has all changed. We used to have time for each other and the kids. Now we've pissed off the staff, pissed off the kids, pissed off the parents by implementing all these targets and stats. And for what? So far, our averages have improved by half of 1%. Is it really worth it?' I'm sure things have improved more since then, but that was how he felt and he'd been at the School for over a decade. That particular School has a staff turnover you wouldn't believe.
I wouldn't go back now if you paid me double. | |
| 'What do we want? We don't know! When do we want it? Now!' |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 13:52 - Jun 22 with 2630 views | CroydonCaptJack |
Unfortunately we now have a tick box mentality prevailing through life.
We used to trust teachers, nurses, police etc to use their initiative and get on with their jobs as the professionals they had trained to be. Now we tell them exactly how to do it and check it relentlessly, No wonder there is a shortage of good people. [Post edited 22 Jun 2016 14:15]
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 13:55 - Jun 22 with 2517 views | TacticalR |
Thanks Dorse, it's good to hear all this from the horse's mouth. I remember you posted about academies before, and I meant to comment at the time.
I wonder if the word 'privatisation' is misleading, as what we are witnessing are permanent state payments to these academies, whether to individual academies or to academy chains, so a bit like the railways. Such state-sponsored 'privatised' hybrids really are one of the strangest products of the fag end of Thatcherism.
One thing that has struck me, apart from the enthusiasm of the upper echelons of the Tory party to force through this measure even in the face of opposition from their own supporters, is the room for corruption scandals as these academies are getting handouts from the state with little supervision. These academies can therefore be taken over by businessmen who want to get their hands on school assets, or by religous or political cults.
The academy movement at least provides some insight into the fantasy world of the Tories (and the American right), who appear to believe that social inequality arises from lack of aspiration. These parties also seek an explanation for the decline of British and American capitalism not in the social and economic system, but in the education system. The debates about education are therefore not really debates about education (and how to make it better), but more explanations of national decline.
At least Toby Young admitted last month when stepping down as CEO of the West London Free School that 'it was arrogant of me to believe that just having high expectations and believing in the benefits of a knowledge-based education for all, that those things alone would be enough to create successful schools', although at least one author who reported on this regards this as a temporary retreat.
A Toby Young U-turn on free schools? Don’t believe the hype
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/09/toby-young-u-turn-free-sch [Post edited 22 Jun 2016 13:59]
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 14:13 - Jun 22 with 2490 views | olderR |
I think they all hate Nicky Morgan now.
Comes with the job. |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 14:26 - Jun 22 with 2469 views | eastside_r |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 13:55 - Jun 22 by TacticalR |
Thanks Dorse, it's good to hear all this from the horse's mouth. I remember you posted about academies before, and I meant to comment at the time.
I wonder if the word 'privatisation' is misleading, as what we are witnessing are permanent state payments to these academies, whether to individual academies or to academy chains, so a bit like the railways. Such state-sponsored 'privatised' hybrids really are one of the strangest products of the fag end of Thatcherism.
One thing that has struck me, apart from the enthusiasm of the upper echelons of the Tory party to force through this measure even in the face of opposition from their own supporters, is the room for corruption scandals as these academies are getting handouts from the state with little supervision. These academies can therefore be taken over by businessmen who want to get their hands on school assets, or by religous or political cults.
The academy movement at least provides some insight into the fantasy world of the Tories (and the American right), who appear to believe that social inequality arises from lack of aspiration. These parties also seek an explanation for the decline of British and American capitalism not in the social and economic system, but in the education system. The debates about education are therefore not really debates about education (and how to make it better), but more explanations of national decline.
At least Toby Young admitted last month when stepping down as CEO of the West London Free School that 'it was arrogant of me to believe that just having high expectations and believing in the benefits of a knowledge-based education for all, that those things alone would be enough to create successful schools', although at least one author who reported on this regards this as a temporary retreat.
A Toby Young U-turn on free schools? Don’t believe the hype
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/09/toby-young-u-turn-free-sch [Post edited 22 Jun 2016 13:59]
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Toby Young is definitely an R as well.
Was sat a few seats away from me last season when we embarrassed ourselves at Selhurst. |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:18 - Jun 22 with 2395 views | essextaxiboy |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 13:52 - Jun 22 by CroydonCaptJack |
Unfortunately we now have a tick box mentality prevailing through life.
We used to trust teachers, nurses, police etc to use their initiative and get on with their jobs as the professionals they had trained to be. Now we tell them exactly how to do it and check it relentlessly, No wonder there is a shortage of good people. [Post edited 22 Jun 2016 14:15]
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Thing is how do you know if things are improving or going backwards if you dont measure them ?
We are all measured , whether it is profit, customer satisfaction , no of bricks laid .
It just seems to have been done in the wrong way ? |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:24 - Jun 22 with 2388 views | wortonranger |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:40 - Jun 21 by SimonJames |
My missus has been a teacher for 25 years and was a head teacher for 8 years.
Gove and the mess he created drove her to a mental breakdown for which she is still on medication 3 years later. Now she barely copes as a KS2 teacher working 4 days a week. |
I have been dealing with a similar situation with my missus, who is passionate about her job and the children she teaches. I myself was forced into retirement by the crazy and exponential reform rate he started. Basically the man wants to Turn back the clock to a halcyon bygone age that never existed for most people, hence the type of stance he takes on the EU. Mind you, maybe we'll get the chance to watch a 1960's type Rangers team if he gets his way, because football as we know it would change as well. I have never come across anyone so easy to dislike ( oh except for Farage, Boris and that sickly energy woman ). |  | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:49 - Jun 22 with 2359 views | CiderwithRsie |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 16:18 - Jun 22 by essextaxiboy |
Thing is how do you know if things are improving or going backwards if you dont measure them ?
We are all measured , whether it is profit, customer satisfaction , no of bricks laid .
It just seems to have been done in the wrong way ? |
Quite right, Essex.
Trouble is that its obviously a lot easier to measure how many bricks have been laid than whether or not someone's a good teacher. You can tell which kids have the best exam results, but it's a sight harder to tell whether that's because of the teacher, or the intelligence of the kid (or their work ethic), or the effort put in by the parents, or circumstances outside the control of any of the above.
I've never worked in teaching (though my late wife did, so I understand where Dorse etc are coming from) but I did work in legal advice services where a similar process occurred to some extent. Partly it was right and proper, rather than just handing over public cash without any assessment at all, and some of the people complaining just didn't get that.
But the two big problems were that, firstly, the civil servants and politicians deciding how to do the measuring frankly didn't know what they were talking about (hardly any of them had ever done the job themselves, still fewer had ever used the services as a client). And secondly, because it was hard to measure, you spent almost as much time filling in forms to try to measure it, as you did actually doing the job. There were really experienced good staff who just got fed up with spending an hour or so of every day having to prove they were up to snuff when I, as their boss, could tell they knew what was what after about 5 minutes of conversation. | | | |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 18:12 - Jun 22 with 2323 views | A40Bosh |
Some excellent points made on here and it is difficult to start replying without writing a Neil_SI novel.
My basic view as a Chair of Governors at a primary, a Governor at a Secondary and with my wife working in a support role in and Academy having also worked in both primary, secondary and a 6th form college is that education from a teaching and standards perspective is not broken in this country. It is by no means perfect, a lot of things need changing, there are some horrendous teaching and there is a lot of good and amazing teaching and teachers out there. However, Gove and others like him who are civil servants trying to climb the greasy pole in the political world, walk in to a Govt role which might last 2yrs, spend 5mins looking at it and then think they know best and then make things worse because they are doing the wrong thing? - Why are they doing the wrong thing, because they are trying to make Education in the UK vanilla.
There have always been and there always will be children who will excel at school and life, there are others who will coast and do ok at school and in life, and then there are those for who mainstream school is never going to be anything but a rough ride and they may or may not go on to make the best of themselves - that is often down to the home and family support network around them, the school and the other authorities and agencies. In this country we used to recognize this and the flexibility in the national curriculum meant that different students followed different pathways through secondary and then further and higher education. Alternatives to GCSE (GCE,O Level) were made available that were more vocational based and then in this country we had proper apprenticeships. The flexibility was there to cater for the majority and then you had to accept that there were always going to be those who for whatever reason were never going to be able to achieve anything regardless of what you tried to do for them. So it wasn't perfect, but I like to think that teachers and others working in the education sector at that time would feel that with their passion they were helping young people to learn and that school was about knowledge and life experience and growing up and hopefully for the majority it might also be a fun and enjoyable time of their formative years.
But not now - Unfortunately in around 50 yrs time history will look back on this time as the dark ages for education. Our secondary age children, especially once they get in to year 9 onward are not being educated, they are being taught how to pass exams - this is not the same thing as being educated. Why not go the whole hog and start renaming schools "The West Ruislip Examinations Institute".
It's not the school's fault, you can't blame the schools for having to concentrate on achieving what they are going to be measured on in terms of the school's performance in the league tables and then the other main measurement is from the government's inspectorate. My two older girls did Spanish for 5 years. They did not really learn to speak Spanish, they still cannot speak Spanish, in year 10 and 11 they have been taught to memorize how to write down about their holidays in Spanish which is spoon feed to them by the teacher. My eldest who has a pretty much photographic memory could write down a page and a half of perfect Spanish which described her holiday, but ask her to translate it back in to English and she would struggle with about 40% of it because they did not learn how to speak Spanish, they learnt how to write certain words in Spanish in the correct order so that they got a minimum of a "C" grade pass for GCSE to ensure that the school met its fundamental measurement targets of the %age of student achieving 5 or more A*-C GCSE passes (Including English and Maths) and so job done. My daughter has not learnt much conversational Spanish in 5 yrs of lessons but she has achieved the school target of passing the exam, so again job done - but surely pointless. The Spanish teacher then has to try to deflect her position on her approach to the subject by saying its about learning about the Spanish people and their culture and not to get hung up on actually learning how to speak Spanish - Bollix - it is not your fault love - but all the same it is bollix.
And it is all because the Government think that as a country we are falling behind in the international tables and the Chinese kids are going to get all the world's best jobs and therefore we have to ensure that every child in this country studies only academic subjects and we make education even narrower but insisting that all schools now get measured on their E-Bacc performance - i.e. the schools have to report the number of students obtaining 7 or 8 GCSE passes in "facilitating" subjects which are the traditional academic subjects, English, Maths, The Sciences, Modern Foreign Language and Humanities, so normally either History or Geography. So the arts can go hang, music, ICT, textiles, engineering, forget any of the "ologies". So try and shoehorn all kids in to the same academic exams and regardless of who your kids are and where your kids come from which make up your cohort each year, they all have to go through the same sausage mincer (I have visions of Another Brick in the Wall video ironically) and all they have done is put another largely irrelevant measurement in to the public domain which means that those schools who don't get a fair share of able and bright settled children, will never be appreciated for how good the teaching and support is within a school because all that parents will see is the 2 indicators on the exams and an Ofsted report which is merely a subjective snapshot usually over a 1-2 day period that often does not reflect the true situation in the school.
We are currently in the Dark Ages. | |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 18:20 - Jun 22 with 2316 views | PunteR |
My kids school has just been turned into an academy. The turnover of teachers is ridiculous. My eldest is doing his mocks now. He picked certain subjects because of the teachers he had at the time. They've nearly all changed and now he either doesn't enjoy the lessons or projects he was doing just seem to get scrapped when the new teacher comes in and he loses interest.
The school is going down hill. The head teacher just seems to sit there sending out emails to parents. |  |
| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 21:35 - Jun 22 with 2243 views | SimonJames |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 18:12 - Jun 22 by A40Bosh |
Some excellent points made on here and it is difficult to start replying without writing a Neil_SI novel.
My basic view as a Chair of Governors at a primary, a Governor at a Secondary and with my wife working in a support role in and Academy having also worked in both primary, secondary and a 6th form college is that education from a teaching and standards perspective is not broken in this country. It is by no means perfect, a lot of things need changing, there are some horrendous teaching and there is a lot of good and amazing teaching and teachers out there. However, Gove and others like him who are civil servants trying to climb the greasy pole in the political world, walk in to a Govt role which might last 2yrs, spend 5mins looking at it and then think they know best and then make things worse because they are doing the wrong thing? - Why are they doing the wrong thing, because they are trying to make Education in the UK vanilla.
There have always been and there always will be children who will excel at school and life, there are others who will coast and do ok at school and in life, and then there are those for who mainstream school is never going to be anything but a rough ride and they may or may not go on to make the best of themselves - that is often down to the home and family support network around them, the school and the other authorities and agencies. In this country we used to recognize this and the flexibility in the national curriculum meant that different students followed different pathways through secondary and then further and higher education. Alternatives to GCSE (GCE,O Level) were made available that were more vocational based and then in this country we had proper apprenticeships. The flexibility was there to cater for the majority and then you had to accept that there were always going to be those who for whatever reason were never going to be able to achieve anything regardless of what you tried to do for them. So it wasn't perfect, but I like to think that teachers and others working in the education sector at that time would feel that with their passion they were helping young people to learn and that school was about knowledge and life experience and growing up and hopefully for the majority it might also be a fun and enjoyable time of their formative years.
But not now - Unfortunately in around 50 yrs time history will look back on this time as the dark ages for education. Our secondary age children, especially once they get in to year 9 onward are not being educated, they are being taught how to pass exams - this is not the same thing as being educated. Why not go the whole hog and start renaming schools "The West Ruislip Examinations Institute".
It's not the school's fault, you can't blame the schools for having to concentrate on achieving what they are going to be measured on in terms of the school's performance in the league tables and then the other main measurement is from the government's inspectorate. My two older girls did Spanish for 5 years. They did not really learn to speak Spanish, they still cannot speak Spanish, in year 10 and 11 they have been taught to memorize how to write down about their holidays in Spanish which is spoon feed to them by the teacher. My eldest who has a pretty much photographic memory could write down a page and a half of perfect Spanish which described her holiday, but ask her to translate it back in to English and she would struggle with about 40% of it because they did not learn how to speak Spanish, they learnt how to write certain words in Spanish in the correct order so that they got a minimum of a "C" grade pass for GCSE to ensure that the school met its fundamental measurement targets of the %age of student achieving 5 or more A*-C GCSE passes (Including English and Maths) and so job done. My daughter has not learnt much conversational Spanish in 5 yrs of lessons but she has achieved the school target of passing the exam, so again job done - but surely pointless. The Spanish teacher then has to try to deflect her position on her approach to the subject by saying its about learning about the Spanish people and their culture and not to get hung up on actually learning how to speak Spanish - Bollix - it is not your fault love - but all the same it is bollix.
And it is all because the Government think that as a country we are falling behind in the international tables and the Chinese kids are going to get all the world's best jobs and therefore we have to ensure that every child in this country studies only academic subjects and we make education even narrower but insisting that all schools now get measured on their E-Bacc performance - i.e. the schools have to report the number of students obtaining 7 or 8 GCSE passes in "facilitating" subjects which are the traditional academic subjects, English, Maths, The Sciences, Modern Foreign Language and Humanities, so normally either History or Geography. So the arts can go hang, music, ICT, textiles, engineering, forget any of the "ologies". So try and shoehorn all kids in to the same academic exams and regardless of who your kids are and where your kids come from which make up your cohort each year, they all have to go through the same sausage mincer (I have visions of Another Brick in the Wall video ironically) and all they have done is put another largely irrelevant measurement in to the public domain which means that those schools who don't get a fair share of able and bright settled children, will never be appreciated for how good the teaching and support is within a school because all that parents will see is the 2 indicators on the exams and an Ofsted report which is merely a subjective snapshot usually over a 1-2 day period that often does not reflect the true situation in the school.
We are currently in the Dark Ages. |
Well said.
In (my vision of education in) 50 years time they will look back at schools and wonder why children were: a) not taught sufficient "life skills", b) banded into cohorts based on their age.
Instead they will continue to build their social skills in a classroom environment, but will learn subjects in the order (and at the pace) in which they are mentally and emotionally ready for them. Which might mean, for example, that some children might spend the first 5 years learning just reading and English and then switch over to predominantly maths.
Either that or they'll all have a data port in their heads that they link to a computer and download everything. | |
| 100% of people who drink water will die. |
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| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 22:16 - Jun 22 with 2230 views | PunteR |
| Michael Gove - Proper Ranger on 21:35 - Jun 22 by SimonJames |
Well said.
In (my vision of education in) 50 years time they will look back at schools and wonder why children were: a) not taught sufficient "life skills", b) banded into cohorts based on their age.
Instead they will continue to build their social skills in a classroom environment, but will learn subjects in the order (and at the pace) in which they are mentally and emotionally ready for them. Which might mean, for example, that some children might spend the first 5 years learning just reading and English and then switch over to predominantly maths.
Either that or they'll all have a data port in their heads that they link to a computer and download everything. |
"Either that or they'll all have a data port in their heads that they link to a computer and download everything."
This^ | |
| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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