The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127613 Message #2861700
Posted By: Jean(eanjay)
11-Mar-10 - 06:38 AM
Thread Name: BS: £800 fine for low school attendance
Subject: RE: BS: £800 fine for low school attendance
Well, the BBC's timing is something else, lol.
It would have helped if the 3 politicians had spoken one at a time and not altogether; I think I missed a few points!
There were two things that this programme highlighted for me:
Our teachers today were described as extraordinary and that was supported by the quality of the teachers who were there. I think we can safely say that most teachers do NOT abuse children.
I said in a previous post that I had reservations about teaching to exams. I have worked in a school where that was the case and to be quite honest I felt that too much time was spent preparing pupils for SATs - it can narrow the teaching; it does of course help in league tables. That is something that needs addressing by government.
I have to comment on this idea that if you do not get a grade 'C' or above at GCSE then you are a failure. I have a lot of experience teaching children with low ability. No matter how high the quality of teaching some children will never achieve a grade 'C' in some subjects but that does not mean that they are failures. I have witnessed the distress caused to some children when they get their grades and those grades are not what everybody else would like them to be.
I have taken the following:
Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a £1million-ayear director of the supermarket giant, told a skills conference that many have basic literacy and numeracy fail-ings as well as an "attitude problem" and "don't seem to understand the importance of a tidy appearance and time-keeping".
She went on to criticise a 'complicated' education system for distracting teachers from their main duties in the classroom, saying: "I would guess that the paperwork mountain with which teachers have to struggle is even worse than the red tape we face in business." from here:
"attitude problem" and "don't seem to understand the importance of a tidy appearance and time-keeping" is often down to parenting and of course a lot of children these days keep being reminded by their parents about their rights. It's a shame that some of those same parents are very quick to disregard the right to an education when they are taking their child on a holiday during term time.
The paperwork mountain is something that should have been addressed years ago but appears to get worse not better!