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    The Edwards family who owned Man United made their money supplying dodgy meat to Manchester schools

    Comment


      Yep. I think they were exposed by World In Action. Been looking for it for ages.

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        Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
        Basically the Government replaced political oversight with the dodgy builder culture
        Yep. I expect the bill for the job was "a bit more than I said before".

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          Interesting Nef, I didn't know.

          In that BBC2 programme (my post #997), the all-staff Q & A meeting with the Head of this small Multi-Academy Trust is very interesting (from 16’50 to 18’40), eg for instance when one teacher mentions that a lot of the educational trips have gone and with it teachers' goodwill (with all that it entails, i.e an awful lot) which is what I was explaining last week in my posts #987 and #988 in response to NHH as I went through exactly the same situation in Northumberland as those Gloucestershire school teachers are now experiencing but much earlier than them, roughly from 2008 onwards. (Northumberland was hit very early by these budget problems & cuts as our per-pupil funding was the lowest in the country throughout the 2000s, less than half of what London schools were getting for instance, the problem worsened massively when the Tories arrived of course. It wasn't just about money of course, as I explained, deregulation, deprofessionalisation etc. changed a lot of things in schools. I wonder to what extent Labour, but especially the Tories, made sure that they didn’t shaft everybody in the country equally at the same time as it would have created a potential for massive simultaneous resentment and more risk of industrial action from the unions. Much better from the gvt viewpoint to fragment and phase in the shit over a decade and treat areas differently so you lessen the risk of concerted action. A bit like what Thatcher did to the miners I suppose, she made sure that some areas were much better treated than others first, and then screwed everyone once the anger had died down.)

          Anyway, the Head replies (in summary): “I am telling you that we [meaning YOU] are going to have to do more with far less. We’ve been protected in this school compared to what other schools have had to do much earlier because we’ve been in a better financial position than most. The school vision will need to change as times have changed. You, teachers, will have to stop doing the extra-curricular things you were doing or hugely reduce what you’re offering as budgets are now very tight.

          Yep, priorities have changed in schools: it’s all about the exams & pass rates, that’s what this Head is wanting to say but can't. However, I'm sure the teachers there in the documentary have understood the thrust of his message.

          Also good in the programme, the bits about the hollowing out of the pastoral structure and staffing/budgets (eg fewer staff, teaching staff but also mentors, pastoral care staff, support staff etc.), they hugely impact on the delivery of lessons, pupils’ welfare (all pupils) etc. That's on top of budget cuts in the Social services. This is something that this programme does well, it links the various actors along the education chain, so those who aren't privy to the system can appreciate that people don't work in isolation, it's all linked, when the social services are affected, it has repercussions for schools and so on. Special Educational Needs pupils are largely seen as unimportant in many schools as most won’t get the all-important pass rates in exams so “data-wise” they’re fairly irrelevant. Schools have to provide for them for Ofsted reasons as they check on that of course but it’s relatively easy to mask inaction.

          The Head also explains about those school reserves that Tubby flagged up in a recent post (that particular school is now affected). And how the MAT will be in deficit by over £1 million very soon. And this is important as the gvt continuously repeats that schools have never had more money than now etc. But this is a very narrow way of seeing things, schools’ share of NI and Pensions have gone up substantially in the past few years, school populations have increased, building costs have gone up (eg those rotten PFI arrangements) etc. The end result is that many schools are in deficit, like this one in the documentary.

          Equally good is the ITW of the young science teacher at about 25’40 when he briefly talks about targets, “teachers’ stats” and pay progression directly related to your pupils’. (However, what he says about how “in the past you automatically got a pay rise” is a little vague and needs explaining but I suppose he wasn’t teaching when performance-related pay was introduced in 2000. Yes, in the first few years, the way performance-related pay was done was tame, there is no doubt about that, but it quickly became much harder for teachers to benefit from pay progression as many were blocked for (mainly) below-par results, and certainly when the Tories took over with the added complication of funding cuts which had implications in all sorts of areas, performance-related pay being one of them of course, which brings issues of staff retention etc.

          His bit on working conditions is equally valid. It got better when Labour took over as investment went hugely up but these things need sustaining, buildings, classrooms need a lot of upkeep, equipment needs replacing every few years etc. and the Tories haven’t provided enough for that, hence relatively new buildings that look good from the outside but aren't up to scratch and full of defects etc. like this teacher is explaining about his science lab with dodgy windows, holes in the ceiling etc. and kids having to keep their coats on when it's a bit cold.

          However, not sure I agree with him when he says, at 26’50, that “if parents realised the extent of what’s happening they would demand change”. Not sure, they may but would it actually make them stop voting Tory?

          All in all, many interesting bits in this programme, well worth watching.
          Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 07-11-2018, 21:56.

          Comment


            I wonder to what extent Labour, but especially the Tories, made sure that they didn’t shaft everybody in the country equally at the same time as it would have created a potential for massive simultaneous resentment and more risk of industrial action from the unions.
            That's a very interesting argument. I'd always thought it was incompetence that funding formulas seemed so uneven, maybe it was more devious than that. I think the Coalition actually failed to bring in a new funding formula in its five years. Some Tory areas seemed to be very unfairly treated, and their MPs were probably worried for their seats. Lucky that strategic foreign affairs genius, David Cameron, pulled the election out of the fire with the EU Referendum. I'd have thought it would have been easier to knock up a school funding spreadsheet than do Brexit, myself.

            Comment


              Originally posted by Pérou Flaquettes View Post
              It does make a difference and remember that even little improvements are always gratefully received by the staff. It doesn’t necessarily have to be confrontational but given what you’re saying, it looks like there could be some serious shit to sort out.

              I was a Union rep for most of the 2000s (NASWUT) but times were very different then (only ~10 yrs ago but a world away) + it was in a maintained school, not an academy + I got on reasonably well with the Head (well, the Head at the time, they changed a few times) and most of the management team. Not sure I’d have done it with a full mortgage, iffy-ish relationship with the Head & management team and in an academy. I then handed over the baton to s.o else when my position as Head of Dpt became too time-consuming, I then took a sabbatical etc.

              It’s a tricky one, given the sort of climate there is in many academies these days. It can energise you and it empowers you but it can also make you a target. Equally, the management team may be more wary of you (you personally + "you" plural) and back off a bit if you feel they are breathing down your neck(s) a bit too closely.

              1) What sort of Head/management team do you have?

              2) What’s your personal relationship with him/her and them?

              3) When are you likely to be next Ofsteded?

              If you know you're likely to be Ofsteded soon/this year, I'd personally wait to see what happens.

              I would say do it as it’s a great role, you learn a lot etc. (and who knows, you may end up working for the union in a few yrs’ time, part-time or full-time, I’ve know several people who’ve done that and became caseworkers relatively quickly) but best not to choose an Ofsted year I’d say, Ofsted years are very stressful and suck a lot of energy out of you especially if your school is likely to get RI or I (what rating do you currently have?), also very time-consuming. A lot of things to consider there.

              I take it there is no departing union rep in your school so you can’t obviously have a word with him or her but:

              a) try to find out who the last one was, if there ever was one (are you one of those brand-new academies?) and have a chat with her/him

              b) try to contact a union rep in a nearby academy, I know all schools are different etc. but that would be my first step in yr case. If you ask directly the regional rep, they may twist your arm into taking on the role whereas at the minute you are just putting the feelers out and gathering info.
              Thanks for this, much appreciated. I didn't go for it in the end, your advice and my instinct told me to give it a miss.

              Comment


                Thanks Ant, probably a wise decision for the time being, it's best to wait for the right moment, and the right school (I take it you're applying/will be applying for other jobs elsewhere, there are decent schools out there, esp. maintained schools, not that many but there are). Best of luck.

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                  I'm constantly on the look out for a new job but my area is one that is the first to be cut. There always seem to be jobs coming up in west or north west London but I'm looking to moving closer to home. I've also done more than two years so my position is relatively secure.

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                    [TWEET]https://twitter.com/michaelrosenyes/status/1064626256950558721?s=21[

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                      You’ve made a right cochon-oreille of this pobrecito Nef… I used to be just like you before being rescued from my fathomless ignorance by Uncle Ursus who was kind enough to teach me the ropes, I really was hopelessly "heap lie on" on this as they say in North Northumberland (I love that phrase: very messy, all over the place). To embed your tweets, bookend your tweet url with the following tags: and , and then use the "Go Advanced" function, bottom right corner:

                      https://twitter.com/MichaelRosenYes/status/1064626256950558721
                      Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 20-11-2018, 20:02.

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                        FFS, it hasn't worked.... Ah, I understand, I forgot to use "Go Advanced", very important that.

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                          It's [tweet] and [ /tweet] for the tags (but if I post them as they should be, they don't show for some reason so I'll tell you what: use them as I've just written them but NO space in the second tag.
                          Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 20-11-2018, 20:03.

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                            Christ, I thought Durand was sorted ages ago. I think there's a knighthood to be withdrawn there.

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                              I thought so too but clearly it’s been a protracted affair.

                              Now, from the Guardian article linked in the Tweet:

                              It is the latest development in a long-running saga involving Martin, who was knighted for services to education and was once a favourite of Tory ministers, before falling out of favour as concerns grew about financial management and governance at the school.

                              […]

                              The hearing offered some fascinating insights into the complexities of transferring schools from one trust to another. The Dunraven Educational Trust, which finally took over Durand, was given just 48 hours to make a decision after the Harris Federation pulled out, though Harris helpfully shared all the information gathered during its investigations. Nevertheless, committee chair Meg Hillier described it as “a 48-hour fire sale”.

                              The hearing was also told about troubles at Bright Tribe, which ran 10 schools in the north and east of England which are now being rebrokered. The academies troubleshooter, Angela Barry, who was brought as interim chief executive, refused to give details about ongoing investigations but apologised for past failings.
                              From this one: https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...-of-management


                              A state school in south London lauded by politicians is likely to be stripped of its management after refusing to repay £2m in government funds and charging pupils to use its own swimming pool through a tangled network of payments and companies.

                              […]

                              At one point Martin was paid £160,000 a year as director of a leisure centre that rents property from the school, on top of receiving his £230,000 annual salary as head.

                              […]

                              “What has been achieved here is inspiring,” Gove remarked, and later that year described Martin as one of his “heroes” as part of a select group of “great headteachers”.
                              Nothing unusual or out of sync in this all too common story, it makes perfect sense. Big pay-offs are uncommon in Education AFAIK but that’ll change soon, give it another 10 years and it’ll be routine practice. This is the next thing isn’t it, big golden hellos matched by bigger golden handshakes.

                              But there are so many more, less spectacular dodgy things that go totally undetected in the Academy system (eg I knew an Academy Head who was constantly on “educational fact-finding missions” round the country and the world with his PA – all his farcical attempts to implement what he’d seen work in Finland, China, UAE, California or God knows where else failed miserably but that didn’t stop him from enjoying many more jollies and travel Emirates). They may be “legal” but always happen to the detriment of pupils/parents & staff and go massively against the common good.

                              Like the example in my post about the fleet of BMWs bought by a MAT in Kent for their headteachers CEOs to make their “frequent long journeys safe and comfortable”, allowing them to “focus on improving the schools in his care”.

                              That bit about the BMWs has never appeared anywhere in the media, there’s only 1 reference to it on Google, the one I picked in post #955 3 weeks ago, it was only 3 lines in the Union mag that I receive, so short in fact that I copied it out in extenso 6 months ago in this thread (here).

                              The general public doesn’t really care, people are obsessed with the NHS and would rather hear about Megan Markle’s new frocks anyway. Sadly, even the unions are blasé about it and the (mostly young/recently qualified) teaching workforce has other things to worry about (like trying to survive a few years to clear some debts and trying to last in teaching longer than the 3/4 years than the average Newly Qualified Teacher manages before buggering off abroad or to the private sector, or leaving teaching altogether). That sort of (BMWs) thing has become so routine that it’s not even reported anymore, anywhere, nobody bats an eyelid anymore.

                              This Greg Martin was earning £390K a year through that school (+ a generous pension package too) so is it really morally acceptable to give him another £850K on top and what could possibly justify that? Those Kent Multi-Academy Trust headteachers who bought 4 BMWs are on £170K a year so is it too much to expect them to use their own car to travel between their 15 schools all located within 25-30 miles of each other? It is no doubt legit under the anything-goes academy system legislation to buy your “chain of schools” 4 brand-new BMWs or twist people’s arms to give you nearly a million £ as a pay-off but it’s so unbelievably morally and educationally wrong, it’s downright corrupt to me.

                              What this corrupt shit leads to also is ridiculous escalation and academies’ CEOs trying to outdo each other, just because “they’re worth more” than the smaller colleague next door. If the Senior Leaders of a small MAT like in this Kent example with only 15 schools and 9,000 pupils (some chains are much bigger, eg The Academies Enterprise Trust has 70, The Kemnal Academies Trust, Oasis Community Learning, Harris Federation etc. all have 40 schools+ each) feel that it’s perfectly OK to buy a fleet of BMWs and probably renew them every few years, then what to expect from the CEOs of big MATs?

                              These people are referred to as "Super Heads" by the media, they see themselves as the Ronaldos and Messis of the education world, and some of them are on nearly £500K a year, so they won’t take kindly to some much lesser mortal Heads on a third of their salary outdoing them in the one-upmanship game. It’s a bit like your main striker who suddenly finds out that the new “less important than him” centre-back is on twice what he gets and has massive bonuses thanks to his better agent. Even if your striker is happy with his wages, he’ll still pressure the club into giving him a huge pay rise pretty damn quickly so he can continue to be top dog.

                              So, what next then for the Super Heads of the big academy chains? Chauffeur-driven Hummers as they have a top NCAP safety rating and those Super Heads’ schools are scattered all over the country? Armoured cars driven by bodyguards like for the big FTSE 100 CEOs? Helicopters?

                              Yeah, that shit is the future isn’t it, fucking helicopter trips between schools “to raise standards more quickly” we’ll be told no doubt. I can just see the huge banner proudly displayed in front of the school : Our OUTSTANDING Ofsted-rated academy has bought a new helicopter for your benefit. Together, we are reaching for the stars, and faster than ever before!

                              Comment


                                Meanwhile, in tonight’s series School on BBC2 tonight (9pm, in 15 mns): At Marlwood School in Gloucertershire, the Education Trust’s chief executive meets a parent who is angry that her child is being taught maths by a member of the PE department.

                                (extremely frequent for teachers to teach completely outside of their specialism or comfort zone – and not just in academies. As I wrote in one of my posts, it’s one of the common by-products of the recruitment & retention crisis. Even if that teacher has a maths A level or similar, (s)he would be unaware of the maths syllabus, the exam requirements, exam material, the resources etc. and is far less likely to be up to the job than a qualified maths teacher).

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                                  Free education is disappearing before our eyes

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

                                  Thought this was a decent piece of writing.

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                                    https://twitter.com/warwickmansell/status/1082295162376724480

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                                      I might be remembering this wrong, but I don't think Agnew's predecessor, Lord Nash, even bothered to resign from his own academy trust he was overseeing as minister.

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                                        Good Lord, I used to think things were bad in the old days when I was on the Local Schools Network site, angry at Gove nonsense. Compared with Brexit, feels like a pre-lapsarian age.

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                                          Tubbs's absence has meant this thread's been neglected of late. It shouldn't be, what with shit like this, this, and an unsually good BBC docco last week on a scandal in my manor, which is academisation as straight-out theft and corruption.

                                          So hurrah for people like this, in Waltham Abbey.

                                          Closer to home, our own daughter's school is set to lose nine teaching assistants, and an industrial action ballot is underway. In a normal news cycle, this should all be headline stuff.

                                          Comment


                                            The "isolation booth" story left me completely gobsmacked this morning.

                                            35 days?!?

                                            How can that be legal?

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                                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                              The "isolation booth" story left me completely gobsmacked this morning.

                                              35 days?!?

                                              How can that be legal?
                                              I'm sure schools are taking advantage of parents who don't or don't know how to complain. These are tips of icebergs UA. The education system here is broken, the curriculum is not fit for purpose and many schools are so data driven that students become numbers.

                                              More than 60k of students are home schooled, many of them are forced to leave a school and cannot find another place. By forced I mean strongly advised .

                                              The Lord of the Flies thread was also about education, perhaps we should merge it into here.

                                              Comment


                                                Originally posted by E10 Rifle View Post
                                                Tubbs's absence has meant this thread's been neglected of late. It shouldn't be, what with shit like this, this, and an unsually good BBC docco last week on a scandal in my manor, which is academisation as straight-out theft and corruption.

                                                So hurrah for people like this, in Waltham Abbey.

                                                Closer to home, our own daughter's school is set to lose nine teaching assistants, and an industrial action ballot is underway. In a normal news cycle, this should all be headline stuff.
                                                Tubby Isaacs and Kev 7 leaving have not helped this thread. I'm too depressed about it to post.

                                                Children who have an EHCP (education and health care plan) are being failed horrendously. Legally they are entitled to x number of hours per week. In my school we've got 20 students and all bar 1 get little or nothing. Hugely illegal. I've checked OFSTED to whistle blow and there's no way to do it. You have to go to the LEA but if you're an academy then it's different.

                                                Cheating in SATS is so common, we can tell when a student comes from a primary with baseline scores of over 100 yet has a reading age of 5 that something has gone on. Data does have its uses.

                                                Comment


                                                  SATS cheating is a f*cking nightmare for everyone. The amount of kids you get entering year 7 with unachievably high target grades is phenomenal.
                                                  The other thing that winds me up is really clever EAL kids doing poorly in SATS because their English isn't great when the take it, but come year 9 they're fluent in English, highly intelligent yet stuck with a low target grade as a result of SATS and dumped in vocational subjects.

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                                                    Good God

                                                    I thought things were bad here (and they are), but the UK looks to have gone off a cliff.

                                                    For what desperately little it is worth, the British International schools seem to be doing better on average (though a lot depends on the head).

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