Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    There's always a way to make money out of anxiety. Better check that out, I've got Y1s next year, apparently.

    Comment


      Ha, a mate of mine has been congratulated by tweet on a speech he made at the NEU. He's not happy.

      Went to a Y6 moderation today. The writing made me weep. Not the paucity of quality but kids using "Furthermore" and "Nevertheless" straight off the learning wall but not being able to actually write anything. We are teaching kids to be technically correct but not to write. A teacher I was with was equally disparaging but said, "You've got to play the game, haven't you?"

      Comment


        Sadly he's right, it's a game and if you don't play it what happens? Your students fail their exams and you don't get a pay rise because of performance related pay.

        Comment


          Oh, I realised that years ago. It doesn't affect me presently as I am still supply. Small consolation as it just means that I never get paid enough.

          Comment


            Please sign this, against the latest plans to force joylessness and stress on four-year-olds and their teachers

            Comment


              Originally posted by E10 Rifle View Post
              Please sign this, against the latest plans to force joylessness and stress on four-year-olds and their teachers
              I'm worried by that petition. There are lots of reasons to examine the proposed introduction of baseline assessment, not least because first there's not yet been adequate research on developing a useful format or content of the test and secondly, neither the DfE nor OFSTED have shown themselves trustworthy with data.

              However the arguments on that petition are open to such easy rebuttal it's potentially actually damaging to the cause.

              It's Saturday night and I've other stuff to do, but briefly -

              Four-year-olds don't need exams is disingenuous - they're not 'exams' in any real sense of the word.

              Testing such young children is fraught with problems. It cannot provide a valid account of their learning, because they will not be able to show their true abilities in a test taken out of the context of familiar relationships and practical experiences

              This so much depends on what is being assessed and how it's done.

              Children will suffer through being labelled at a young age, particularly disadvantaging the most vulnerable children – those with special needs, those suffering the effects of poverty, the summer-born, and those whose first language is not English

              Like schools don't already know and recognise these children. And love them, because these are the children who bring pupil premium and the greatest opportunity for good progress scores.

              And many schools will 'teach to the test', so that early years education will become more narrow and formal.

              Well, no; firstly the tests are in the first term before teaching's been done and secondly, it's actually in the school's interest for the children to get low scores.

              Don't get me wrong; there are lots of issues with this and Gibb's motives are always suspect, but you have to make your arguments rationally and honestly and I don't think this petition does this.

              Comment


                Wingco will feel like he's never been away. News arrives of a free school closing.

                https://www.theguardian.com/politics...unced-plymouth

                It's another of the 14-19 schools. As Mary Bousted says, who's going to want to take their kid to a new school at 14?

                Comment


                  More destructive absolute fucking madness

                  Comment


                    This got rejected by enough Tory backbenchers before. Why is it viable now?

                    Comment


                      There's no money for education except for grammar schools and schools of religious indoctrination.

                      Comment


                        It's utterly poisonous

                        Justine Greening didn't exactly look like grammar schools set her pulse racing when she was Secretary of State. She's got a majority of 1,500 and a lot of Citizens of Nowhere in her constituency. I wouldn't be surprised if she voted against this.

                        Comment


                          Silver Birch Academy Trust in spotlight again over spending

                          https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...y_to_clipboard

                          I really doubt that this is the only academy chain to be doing very similar. Incredibly corrupt.

                          Comment


                            You beat me to it.

                            E10, do you know much about this lot?

                            Comment


                              Even if all the questionable sounding stuff is legit, this alone ought to be a scandal.

                              Silver Birch, which runs four primary school academies educating nearly 2,000 pupils in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest and Redbridge
                              An inquiry in 2014 criticised it for spending £26,000 on refurbishing Davies’s office. Queries have also been raised about her earnings. The trust’s latest accounts show she was paid £211,082 in 2016-17 – a rise of 10% from the previous year. The leaked investigation states that her pay was in the range £180,000 to £261,000 in January 2018.
                              That's likely over a grand per pupil.

                              Comment


                                The CEO gets that kind of pay and then each individual head of the four schools would be on £100k+. I'd also safely say that the CEO is dishing out contracts for services to friends or companies that they have a direct interest in.

                                It's a scandal, especially when teacher salaries are being cut in real terms and teaching assistants are being used for teaching not supporting. Add that to the reduction in support staff numbers and you'll get an idea where things are going wrong.

                                The academy system is corrupt as fuck.

                                Comment


                                  Problem is Antepli that no-one gives a shit in this country anymore, including teachers themselves (who moan and moan but do very little - aided and abetted by the Unions who don't do enough IMO, euphemism of the week).

                                  I was a teacher and HoD for over 20 years in England before I jumped out of the sinking ship two seasons ago, I suppose I was lucky in that I could jack it all in for various reasons but I wouldn't have stayed much longer anyway (I'm still in Education but not at the coalface anymore). I was also a Union rep for several years (late-1990s, and then mid-2000s) and I remember trying to gather support to protest against this dreadful academisation of the system when it started to be implemented circa 2006: about 20 people turned up outside the two LEAs/County Hall we "targeted", and they were mostly Union people... I remember a supposedly "national" demo in London in 1996 with hardly 8,000 teachers there. Etc. etc.

                                  Real militantism is dead at the minute in this country, hopefully it's only dormant and will return at some point in the future but at the minute, it's dead. When was the last big national protest? (apart from the fox-hunting related demos). The Poll Tax? that's nearly 30 years ago. People keep voting Tory and then they wonder why the Education system is fucked (40% of new teachers resign before their fifth year - £15 million spent every year on advertising, probably the only sector in the UK that needs to advertise 24/7 all year long with big £ incentive to recruit and is still woefully short of practitioners as recruitment and retention rates are so poor), the NHS can't cope, the prisons are badly run, the police have lost 25,000 staff since the Tories arrived etc.

                                  At some point in the near future, young-ish people (the U40s say) will have no alternative but to get their fingers out of their arses, go out on the streets, raise hell, vote Labour (by default) with the hope that at least the rot will be stopped and some positives will come out of it.
                                  Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 13-05-2018, 10:03.

                                  Comment


                                    Last big protest would probably be the anti-austerity March for an alternative in 2011 and the anti Iraq War in 2001.

                                    The lack of impact that either had may explain why there haven't been many more.
                                    Last edited by Etienne; 13-05-2018, 10:27.

                                    Comment


                                      Originally posted by Etienne View Post
                                      Last big protest would probably be the anti-austerity March for an alternative in 2011 and the anti Iraq War in 2001.

                                      The lack of impact that either had may explain why there haven't been many more.
                                      OK but the apathy across the board is extraordinary deep-seated, and has been so since the mid-1990s.

                                      Comment


                                        Page 11 of the NUT Teacher Mag Nov/Dec. 2017:

                                        BMWs and pay rises for academy chiefs

                                        An Academy trust has defended its decision to provide senior leaders with BMWs at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds. The Swale Academies Trust, which runs ten schools in Kent, Bromley and East Sussex, had already awarded chief executive Jon Whitcombe a pay increase from £150-155,000 in 2015 to £170-175,000 in 2016. The trust told the Sunday Times that his “frequent journeys” to schools needed to be “safe and comfortable”.
                                        Meanwhile, academies around me are busy sacking/pushing out/not replacing all manners of staff (from caretakers to language teachers to Special Needs specialists) or compressing 5-teacher departments into 4 or 3 for instance or scrapping whole subjects altogether, + cutting costs left right and centre on vital provisions + freezing "expensive" teachers professional progression for dubious reasons etc. while the headteacher Academy Chief Executive and his minions' pay packages rise 5-10% year on year, sometimes over £200K + "perks".

                                        Comment


                                          Actually, it’s not 40% of newly-qualified teachers (NQTs) resigning after 4 years as I wrote in my post #841, but more like 40% of NQTs quitting within a year (~2014 figures). Many go abroad, go to the private sector, change careers or just stop, retrain or recover...

                                          Four in 10 new teachers quit within a year

                                          I absolutely loved teaching, it was all my life, a real calling, I had only wanted to teach since I was 13 etc. but I only kept my sanity towards the end thanks to my being able to go on two sabbaticals (sympathetic headteacher whom I got on well with - a great bloke who was turfed out by fucking incompetent OFSTED) and go part-time for a few years in my last professional decade as a teacher. I did volunteer work in the community, a bit of (unpaid) football writing, I looked after my in-laws, looked after my health which was fast deteriorating etc. Ironically enough, helping the community and therefore "not paying sufficient NI contributions" barred me, a spouse of a UK citizen, from applying for UK citizenship post Brexit! (because of cynical exploitation of the obscure CSI ruling, the Comprehensive Sickness Insurance for EU nationals - implemented in a totally illegal way by the Tories, Brussels complained but to no avail - but that absolutely nobody knew about until Brexit). But that’s May’s Home Office for you.

                                          Comment


                                            Originally posted by Kev7 View Post
                                            Problem is Antepli that no-one gives a shit in this country anymore, including teachers themselves (who moan and moan but do very little - aided and abetted by the Unions who don't do enough IMO, euphemism of the week).

                                            I was a teacher and HoD for over 20 years in England before I jumped out of the sinking ship two seasons ago, I suppose I was lucky in that I could jack it all in for various reasons but I wouldn't have stayed much longer anyway (I'm still in Education but not at the coalface anymore). I was also a Union rep for several years (late-1990s, and then mid-2000s) and I remember trying to gather support to protest against this dreadful academisation of the system when it started to be implemented circa 2006: about 20 people turned up outside the two LEAs/County Hall we "targeted", and they were mostly Union people... I remember a supposedly "national" demo in London in 1996 with hardly 8,000 teachers there. Etc. etc.

                                            Real militantism is dead at the minute in this country, hopefully it's only dormant and will return at some point in the future but at the minute, it's dead. When was the last big national protest? (apart from the fox-hunting related demos). The Poll Tax? that's nearly 30 years ago. People keep voting Tory and then they wonder why the Education system is fucked (40% of new teachers resign before their fifth year - £15 million spent every year on advertising, probably the only sector in the UK that needs to advertise 24/7 all year long with big £ incentive to recruit and is still woefully short of practitioners as recruitment and retention rates are so poor), the NHS can't cope, the prisons are badly run, the police have lost 25,000 staff since the Tories arrived etc.

                                            At some point in the near future, young-ish people (the U40s say) will have no alternative but to get their fingers out of their arses, go out on the streets, raise hell, vote Labour (by default) with the hope that at least the rot will be stopped and some positives will come out of it.
                                            Exactly this, nobody really gives a shite any more.

                                            We have no union presence in our recently academised school, the previous union reps were all members of SLT so massive conflicts of interest there. I've thought about doing it myself but I know it will mean me being targeted, that's how it works in my school.

                                            Ho hum, back to the chalkface tomorrow.

                                            Comment


                                              Any hope in the NUT and ATL merging?

                                              Comment


                                                What do you mean, they merged last year (NEU): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39351936

                                                But that's not the issue anyway, it won't solve anything. I'm afraid we're too far gone to rescue much now. It is a dreadful state of affairs. I'm mightily relieved, but very sad at the same time, to be out of it, although I might re-join the fray if I stay in the UK, but on my terms this time and only for 2-3 years as I'm not getting any younger.

                                                Comment


                                                  Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View Post
                                                  Exactly this, nobody really gives a shite any more.

                                                  We have no union presence in our recently academised school, the previous union reps were all members of SLT so massive conflicts of interest there. I've thought about doing it myself but I know it will mean me being targeted, that's how it works in my school.

                                                  Ho hum, back to the chalkface tomorrow.
                                                  Good luck with the rest of the year, hopefully it's easing off a little at this time of the year, particularly in June, especially if you teach GCSE/A level.

                                                  I thought you were in Turkey (up to a few months ago I mean), I'm an old Newbie here as I only "reactivated" my OFT account last year so I must have missed a few episodes.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Originally posted by Kev7 View Post
                                                    What do you mean, they merged last year (NEU): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39351936

                                                    But that's not the issue anyway, it won't solve anything. I'm afraid we're too far gone to rescue much now. It is a dreadful state of affairs. I'm mightily relieved, but very sad at the same time, to be out of it, although I might re-join the fray if I stay in the UK, but on my terms this time and only for 2-3 years as I'm not getting any younger.
                                                    Yeah, I should said "having merged". I was wondering if, allowing for a period of bedding down, there might be some improvement.

                                                    "Too far gone" is very much what I'm seeing everywhere.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X