8 weeks off for school teachers!!
16 July 2015, 12:04 AM
#35
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I have a friend who is a teacher - he seems to work harder than anyone I know
when I go to parents evening (and with 5 kids I have been to a few) they all seem, by and large a really committed bunch of people - totally dedicated in what they do
50 years ago they had the same social standing/pay as lawyers, bankers, doctors, and accountants
how they must wish they had a union like the fire brigade union
when I go to parents evening (and with 5 kids I have been to a few) they all seem, by and large a really committed bunch of people - totally dedicated in what they do
50 years ago they had the same social standing/pay as lawyers, bankers, doctors, and accountants
how they must wish they had a union like the fire brigade union
17 July 2015, 01:26 PM
#36
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http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Li...ail/story.html
High profile story on Look North last night with Mr Orange.
So other than the unproven link to better learning by having a shorter break, the obvious plus side is that when they take a week off at other times of the year, it won't be normal school holiday time, so holidays will be cheaper for parents.
The flip side of this that I've seen is that a lot of sporting type events are scheduled to take place in school holidays. If schools no longer have a unified approach to holidays, then it's going to be difficult to plan such events without someone, somewhere having to take their kids out of school. An example I know of first hand is sailing events. I'm sure some other sports are exactly the same. Can't see this ending well.
High profile story on Look North last night with Mr Orange.
So other than the unproven link to better learning by having a shorter break, the obvious plus side is that when they take a week off at other times of the year, it won't be normal school holiday time, so holidays will be cheaper for parents.
The flip side of this that I've seen is that a lot of sporting type events are scheduled to take place in school holidays. If schools no longer have a unified approach to holidays, then it's going to be difficult to plan such events without someone, somewhere having to take their kids out of school. An example I know of first hand is sailing events. I'm sure some other sports are exactly the same. Can't see this ending well.
17 July 2015, 01:35 PM
#37
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17 July 2015, 04:48 PM
#38
Sharon Close, executive principal at Tall Oaks Academy Trust, which runs the schools, told the BBC: "It's a big break and parents are telling us that, after four weeks, they would like their children to come into school, so we are responding to that.
WHEN will these idiots realisethat the sole purpose of a school is to educate.
NOT childcare, NOT socialising, NOT discipline...all those are the responsibility of PARENTS!!
Who shouldn't have had children if they can't do the simple things.
LOads of places have been bleating on about the so-called four-term year, in order to equalise the lengths of the terms. My wife's LA have recently EXTENDED the Autumn term by almost a week, she re-starts 1st Sept
And as for kids forgetting stuff, no-one has yet explained why countries whose children get FAR longer breaks than ours, (France, Germany, Finland, the USA etc etc) do far better than ours.
Of course, it COULDN'T be our very proscriptive National Curriculum...could it?????
17 July 2015, 09:38 PM
#39
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they are acting as the "catch all" for societies social ills
part of the problem is that we seem to have built a society where it is virtually impossible to survive on a single income
the pressures on families are overwhelming
17 July 2015, 09:51 PM
#40
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My other half is a department head at her school. I don't think that's her job title because they have all sorts of guff titles/acronyms these days and I glaze over when I hear them.
Anyway, my point is that being a teacher isn't a cushy little number IF you do the job properly. However, as it's Public Sector the usual lack of accountability applies and as a result it can be a very cushy little number if you play the numbers. The absence figures due to 'sickness' (often in name only) are truly shocking/disgraceful/reprehensible etc. More often than not now, I don't want to hear what some of the staff are up to because it winds me up. In the private sector where profits rule it would never happen but politics and complicity at all levels appears to create an environment where nobody wishes to rock the boat.
Anyway, my point is that being a teacher isn't a cushy little number IF you do the job properly. However, as it's Public Sector the usual lack of accountability applies and as a result it can be a very cushy little number if you play the numbers. The absence figures due to 'sickness' (often in name only) are truly shocking/disgraceful/reprehensible etc. More often than not now, I don't want to hear what some of the staff are up to because it winds me up. In the private sector where profits rule it would never happen but politics and complicity at all levels appears to create an environment where nobody wishes to rock the boat.
18 July 2015, 09:27 AM
#44
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Exactly, which its frustrating as to why they spend the last 2 weeks of the summer term messing about watching dvd's. The same is true in the run up to Christmas
18 July 2015, 10:31 AM
#45
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Obviously it is full of flaws but it was lighthearted dig at Ofsted if anything
There is an awful lot wrong with education in this country
18 July 2015, 05:21 PM
#46
Absolutely, most of it down to successive governments, beginning with that spiteful cow in 1988.
OFSTED, the enabling of parents, the start of lay governors, SAT's, league tables .........much of it already dumped in Wales and Scotland, but kept in England for us lucky enough to live there.
OFSTED, the enabling of parents, the start of lay governors, SAT's, league tables .........much of it already dumped in Wales and Scotland, but kept in England for us lucky enough to live there.
18 July 2015, 05:52 PM
#47
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Absolutely, most of it down to successive governments, beginning with that spiteful cow in 1988.
OFSTED, the enabling of parents, the start of lay governors, SAT's, league tables .........much of it already dumped in Wales and Scotland, but kept in England for us lucky enough to live there.
OFSTED, the enabling of parents, the start of lay governors, SAT's, league tables .........much of it already dumped in Wales and Scotland, but kept in England for us lucky enough to live there.
18 July 2015, 08:25 PM
#51
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18 July 2015, 10:30 PM
#52
It gets even dafter if you look at the age differential, ie: academic age vs real age for girls vs boys. Girls mature so much earlier at that age.
If they didn't fudge the exam results, they would have ended up with grammar schools being 2/3 girls.
If they didn't fudge the exam results, they would have ended up with grammar schools being 2/3 girls.
18 July 2015, 10:33 PM
#53
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I am an August baby, so always struggled at school
19 July 2015, 06:57 AM
#54
But my problem was the thicko's that didn't get it, then I'd just get bored listening to the same crap over and over, then start to mess around and end up in the corridor, when what I actually needed was the next class or two up. 
19 July 2015, 10:16 AM
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Absolutely, most of it down to successive governments, beginning with that spiteful cow in 1988.
OFSTED, the enabling of parents, the start of lay governors, SAT's, league tables .........much of it already dumped in Wales and Scotland, but kept in England for us lucky enough to live there.
OFSTED, the enabling of parents, the start of lay governors, SAT's, league tables .........much of it already dumped in Wales and Scotland, but kept in England for us lucky enough to live there.
19 July 2015, 10:23 AM
#56
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I'm a march baby and I always struggled at school. But my problem was the thicko's that didn't get it, then I'd just get bored listening to the same crap over and over, then start to mess around and end up in the corridor, when what I actually needed was the next class or two up.
But my problem was the thicko's that didn't get it, then I'd just get bored listening to the same crap over and over, then start to mess around and end up in the corridor, when what I actually needed was the next class or two up. 
19 July 2015, 10:24 AM
#57
Most inside the profession agree too.
Yet EVERY time the politicos want some change, or something headline grabbing, they don't ask teachers, they ask the media and stupid think-tanks. Worse, they EXCLUDE teachers from the discussions, then, when it all goes wrong, it somehow becomes the school's fault for not implementing it properly.
This latest round of SAT's: what mastermind came up with the idea that 65% of the population should be above average? Do they not understand average?
And what's this crap about "coasting" schools? You get good results and a good OFSTED, you don't improve AGAIN the next year, suddenly you are no good?
Bull****.
Yet EVERY time the politicos want some change, or something headline grabbing, they don't ask teachers, they ask the media and stupid think-tanks. Worse, they EXCLUDE teachers from the discussions, then, when it all goes wrong, it somehow becomes the school's fault for not implementing it properly.
This latest round of SAT's: what mastermind came up with the idea that 65% of the population should be above average? Do they not understand average?
And what's this crap about "coasting" schools? You get good results and a good OFSTED, you don't improve AGAIN the next year, suddenly you are no good?
Bull****.
19 July 2015, 11:20 AM
#58
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19 July 2015, 01:08 PM
#59
Oh it will be, plus it's a good stick with which to beat schools.
My father was a well-respected deputy head in a hard school. I used to think he was exaggerating when he said that "everyone hates teachers".
Then, as soon as the Bliar government got in, and OFSTED had been run by an idiot called Chris Woodhead, that ALL teachers loathed, (a real "do as I say, not as I do", guy), Bliar wanted rid of Woodhead, but the blindman, who was education minister, told him no, we need to keep him, the public like to see a government tough on teachers.
My dad was right.
My father was a well-respected deputy head in a hard school. I used to think he was exaggerating when he said that "everyone hates teachers".
Then, as soon as the Bliar government got in, and OFSTED had been run by an idiot called Chris Woodhead, that ALL teachers loathed, (a real "do as I say, not as I do", guy), Bliar wanted rid of Woodhead, but the blindman, who was education minister, told him no, we need to keep him, the public like to see a government tough on teachers.
My dad was right.