A teachers plight

[bodsier]

Do we really want this for our children?

http://timparamour.com/2016/03/07/the-story-of-the-teaching-crisis/

[Elfy]

No we don't want this for our kids. It's so depressing.

See also this:

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/one-primary-teachers-open-letter-government-standards-expected-are

It appears schools and teachers are being set up to fail. I suspect ultimately so all schools have to become academies or free schools.

[bodsier]

That's exactly what they are doing. Tony Blair has recently talked about privatising schools. Enough is enough. ....what are we going to do about it? I think our childrens mental health is suffering because of these stresses. We can't just sit back and let it happen can we? I certainly can't watch our EDucation, our NHS, and our housing be decimated in this way.

[uncleglen]

I'm surprised to see my old tutor Prof Dylan Wiliam saying 'life without levels' when, as far as maths and science is concerned , he and his peers at King's defined them- referring to cognitive development.

When I was training I attended the statutory 2 week placement in a primary school not a million miles away from ED.

The class I was assigned was year 5 and the classroom teacher was head of special needs.

I was shocked at the amount of time spent wasted...for example I do not think a whole afternoon spent copying a painting by an impressionist is useful.

I was asked to help a boy read from the Red box and I went and picked up a book and he refused the book- opting for another one. He proceeded to 'read' the book at speed and 'misread' several words. When I pointed at a word and asked him to read it in isolation he had no idea what it was- I could see his eyes looking at the pictures and it was obvious he had memorised the text after he had been told what it said. Reading? You must be joking...and moving on to secondary school how on earth can this be preparation for textbooks. But it explained a lot.

They had one maths lesson by a specialist once a week...absolute joke. And the only nod to science in the room was a book of Victorian glassware!!

When I started my first job the whole department had to fill in a form and on it was a question asking the teacher what they were aiming for in their job. My immediate line manager wrote 'to be headteacher'- kind of summed it all up really

[FatherJack]

It's time to say no to this constant testing of young children, Reception SATS, Year 1 phonic SATS, Year 2 SPaG SATS (the latter will be marked externally...at what cost?? And what company got this gig...one with a special relationship with a Conservative minister?)

We are told that's it's not a test on the child but the standard of teaching, however when the teaching becomes all about the test...where are the standards?

And Bodsier you are right to point out the effects of this style of education/teaching/performance on mental health.

My child will not be taking this new SPaG test.

I'm sooooooooo angry about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! < those are for Nicky Morgan!!

[????]

Yup let's go back to the absolutely fantastic standards that characterised LEA inner city state schools in the 70s/80s and 90s....er not

[Aristide]

???? Wrote:

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> Yup let's go back to the absolutely fantastic

> standards that characterised LEA inner city state

> schools in the 70s/80s and 90s....er not

I think, if you actually read the article, it is saying go back to the Ed Balls period in education of the last but one government.

The Labour government started by investing in London educaton, this was then cut off at the knees by the coalition and now London has the best state education in the country, go figure!

[DaveR]

Teachers are always claiming that disaster is looming. Just like they're always claiming that they're not paid enough, that they only care about 'the kids', and that if only people would leave them alone to do exactly what they want everything would be fine.

The author of the first piece rather gives himself away when he writes:

"..unless you want Ofsted to sack your head teacher and give your school (and the land it?s built on) to one of Michael Gove?s friends (or if your school is already controlled by one of Michael Gove?s friends)"

OK for an NUT campaign leaflet, but not very convincing in what is masquerading as the plea of a 'professional'. But it will reliably find favour with the typical one-note metropolitan hand wringer who writes:

"...I certainly can't watch our EDucation, our NHS, and our housing be decimated in this way..."

Most teachers are fine, most kids are fine, there is no crisis.

[Monkey]

I agree with DaveR when he says that teachers are always claiming that disaster is looming. It was already like that when I was at school in France thirty years ago.

I am, however, horrified at the speed things are being taught in y2 this year. One day it's reading the time, the next it's fractions, then it's geometry. There is zero time for consolidation. My daughter is supposedly doing well, but we have to do everything at home again, and again. All this for these sodding SATS. This is crazy.

[LondonMix]

I don't know if the current accountability regime is the best it can be. I'm sure it could be improved.

However, the UK skills gap is real. 37% of London residents are foreign born and despite a lot of the rhetoric surrounding immigration most of those come because various industries need their skills to grow. In the financial services sector, immigrants dominate all the sectors requiring math skills. I would say typically in the city Brits account for less than 20% of front office staff and even accounting staff.

That as much as anything is indicative of a problem.

Anyhow, I think the link below from National Numeracy is informative. The US has similar problems (our economy needs to import math and science skills in high numbers too to staff the economy).

http://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/children-issue

[Aristide]

London is the most successful city on the planet at the moment, our creative industries, the envy of the world- we must be doing something right. London's economy is a tribute to the education system of the past.

Testing and bashing of professionals whilst marginalising the value of the arts and sport and the privatisation of one of the most important public services doesn't seem a very clever way of building on what, as the article stated, was a system on the up.

The problem with education as that everyone has an experience of it which makes them think that they know more than the professionals. You wouldn't do it with dentists, lawyers or engineers, why do it with teachers?

[LondonMix]

Do you really think other professionals you named aren't held accountable for performance and get it measured? I'm guessing you work in the public sector Aristide.

Anyhow, the UK is ranked around 18th in the world in numeracy and literacy. The education system is not terrible but its hardly exemplary and it creates a real skills gap that needs to be filled by foreigners, particularly within maths and science. Would London be able to grow as it has without these imported skills? Not likely. The same is the true for the US.

These are real problems that need to be addressed if the UK wants to remain competitive in a global world. I'm not saying the current regime is the best to achieve this but pretending like no measurement of how different approaches are working and having no accountability mechanisms is the right path is misguided at best.

Aristide Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> London is the most successful city on the planet

> at the moment, our creative industries, the envy

> of the world- we must be doing something right.

> London's economy is a tribute to the education

> system of the past.

>

> Testing and bashing of professionals whilst

> marginalising the value of the arts and sport and

> the privatisation of one of the most important

> public services doesn't seem a very clever way of

> building on what, as the article stated, was a

> system on the up.

>

> The problem with education as that everyone has an

> experience of it which makes them think that they

> know more than the professionals. You wouldn't do

> it with dentists, lawyers or engineers, why do it

> with teachers?

[DaveR]

"The problem with education as that everyone has an experience of it which makes them think that they know more than the professionals. You wouldn't do it with dentists, lawyers or engineers, why do it with teachers?"

I agree with this, with one very important caveat. All the other professionals that you mention, and others, expect to be held to high professional standards by colleagues, professional bodies, regulators etc., and (these days) to have to be able to explain to lay clients/patients etc. in non-technical language what they are doing and why. FWIW my experience of my kids' teachers is that most of them recognise this, and are good, some very good. They seem to be focussed on getting on with the job, as opposed to whingeing about the government, too much pressure, and claiming that the world is about to end. Which is where we began.

[Aristide]

Hi DaveR

I think the problem with your argument is, like the one where one accuses all cyclists of jumping red lights whenever they try to talk about the dangers of cycling,that it belittles justifiable concerns over the ever increasing pressures on a profession that we all rely upon. There is a huge recruitment crisis in state education at the moment, and this governments way of attacking that is to force all schools to become academies so that hey can employ unqualified teachers.

The crisis itself justifies the article.

Would I be right to assume that you think all Junior doctors are all whingers as well?

[????]

Aristide Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> London is the most successful city on the planet

> at the moment, our creative industries, the envy

> of the world- we must be doing something right.

> London's economy is a tribute to the education

> system of the past. -

given the dominance of the privately educated in arts, sports (excluding Football), business, politics, and most of the creative industries (as we are always being told by the Guardian), + journalism, I don't think it does at all.

>

> Testing and bashing of professionals whilst

> marginalising the value of the arts and sport and

> the privatisation of one of the most important

> public services doesn't seem a very clever way of

> building on what, as the article stated, was a

> system on the up.

>

> The problem with education as that everyone has an

> experience of it which makes them think that they

> know more than the professionals. You wouldn't do

> it with dentists, lawyers or engineers, why do it

> with teachers?

"You ignorant plebs"

[Aristide]

I would have thought you might be someone who would not believe everything they read in the Guardian ;)

[uncleglen]

The lack of maths skills in the country is down to the obsession with literacy- where the 'literati' are feted . It is interesting to note , as a teacher, that people are very quick to admit that they are 'no good at maths', and parents say their child is 'no good at maths' because they themselves are 'no good at maths', but will do everything in their power to hide the fact that they cannot read well. This means that people who are 'numeracy illiterate', i.e. those who cannot perform percentages and decimals, are at the mercy of those who can.

When teaching standard form I always used the example of the paediatrician who made a mistake with standard form and overdosed and killed a baby.....

Being able to quote Shakespeare was never a matter of life and death.

[Aristide]

Would that be the German doctor?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/may/23/family-man-killed-gp-overdose-compensation

[LondonMix]

Agree 100%. Less than a quarter of working age adults in England have math skills equivalent to a C at GCSE level. According the the National Numeracy website I linked to, 1 in 4 adults don't believe school maths prepared them well for maths in everyday life.

http://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/what-issue

Those are harrowing figures...

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The lack of maths skills in the country is down to

> the obsession with literacy- where the 'literati'

> are feted . It is interesting to note , as a

> teacher, that people are very quick to admit that

> they are 'no good at maths', and parents say their

> child is 'no good at maths' because they

> themselves are 'no good at maths', but will do

> everything in their power to hide the fact that

> they cannot read well. This means that people who

> are 'numeracy illiterate', i.e. those who cannot

> perform percentages and decimals, are at the mercy

> of those who can.

> When teaching standard form I always used the

> example of the paediatrician who made a mistake

> with standard form and overdosed and killed a

> baby.....

> Being able to quote Shakespeare was never a matter

> of life and death.

[DaveR]

"I think the problem with your argument is, like the one where one accuses all cyclists of jumping red lights whenever they try to talk about the dangers of cycling,that it belittles justifiable concerns over the ever increasing pressures on a profession that we all rely upon. There is a huge recruitment crisis in state education at the moment, and this governments way of attacking that is to force all schools to become academies so that hey can employ unqualified teachers.

The crisis itself justifies the article.

Would I be right to assume that you think all Junior doctors are all whingers as well?"

I don't really follow the cyclist analogy at all, so I'm going to ignore that. I would also question whether there is a 'huge recruitment crisis' - the NAO report that generated a lot of headlines is much more measured, as you would expect, and makes clear that trends are uncertain and (so far) short term. But even if there are recruitment problems it's a huge jump to suggest that it's because of (very recent) changes in the approach to pupil assessment. Your point about academies and unqualified teachers is obviously rubbish.

Junior doctors have only recently joined the ranks of whingers.