Quango cuts: full list of bodies under review

silvercar

bendix wrote: »

With the greatest of respect, radiansoul, I strongly suspect - and rather hope - you're talking out of your a**e.

Why on earth would discipline be less important in a Llandudno school than in Brixton?

Seriously, I'd quit while you're ahead, if I were you.

Because in Llandudno you don't need to shout from the rooftops that you have a zero tolerance of knives and scanners at every entrance, its a non issue.

silvercar

Bonia77 wrote: »

I do not get it....
So you are saying that the school in inner city won't bother with preparing my (future) children to study at the uniersity as they will concentrate on racial issues and violence??? :rotfl:I have to agree with Bendix that the 'strategy' concept sound completely naff....

Stage 1 is to establish a safe learning environment. In some areas that is a given and done by the parents, in other areas the school has to be responsible for making the school environment weapon and drug free, that the children are dressed appropriately and have been fed more than a packet of crisps in the morning.

So in better areas, the children can concentrate on learning, in others the school needs to create the environment first.

silvercar

A recent TV programme on BBC2 called the Big School Lottery, showed school choices in Birmingham. One school had a police officer stationed at the school. Some parents saw that as a good sign that the school would be safe, others saw it that the school had a problem.

Radiantsoul

bendix wrote: »

With the greatest of respect, radiansoul, I strongly suspect - and rather hope - you're talking out of your a**e.

Why on earth would discipline be less important in a Llandudno school than in Brixton?

Seriously, I'd quit while you're ahead, if I were you.

Different environment and different peer groups.
The difference between these factors probably accounts for more of the difference in outcome in education than the difference in performance in schools.

bendix

Have you been to Llandudno lately?

Those quiet little places are scarier than where I live in Central London. I was in Great Yarmouth recently. It's where I went to school originally. It's vicious now - an awful place.

I've wandered around Harlem at night, Rio slums, Manila shantytowns and Phnom Penh during a blackout where I could hear a gun fight between rival drugs gangs three streets away, and to tell you the truth, I found Great Yarmouth on a Saturday night more intimidating.

And - frankly - I blame the namby pampy approach adopted by schools in the Uk for that.

misskool

amcluesent wrote: »

> encouraging foreigners to come here <

Noooooo! There should be "We're full! Clear off!" sign hung in every BC office and UK Embassy

Then explain how the UK will continue to fun it's universities were it not for the foreign students that pay full fees?

Each students will pay £7500 per year for a non science course, £11500 per year for a science course and up to £20000 a year for a medical degree. They will then also pay living costs of more than £10000 a year.

not worth it?

Radiantsoul

bendix wrote: »

And - frankly - I blame the namby pampy approach adopted by schools in the Uk for that.

Possibly, although I don't believe schools have that much power over society. And I suspect that many schools in better areas are probably more "namby pampy" in their approach.
And presumably we are arguing for the same thing, a stronger focus on discipline in deprived areas. Even if this is at the cost of educational focus.

GingerSte

I imagine the work done by a lot of these will be taken over by government departments or larger quangos (ie the NHS or Network Rail). I imagine that in a lot of cases that this can easily be done and should be done. One of the examples quoted was about archiving historical information about the railways. This does need doing (as an engineer, I know that archive drawings of bridges/stations are needed for renovation/demolition/replacement), but the job could be done by a department of Network Rail without the need for an extra layer of chief executives, etc.

I also imagine that a lot of the work carried out by these quangos doesn't need doing at all. I've just spent five minutes trying to figure out what "The compact" (http://www.thecompact.org.uk/) does, but haven't figured it out yet.

I am a little concerned about British Waterways though, and possibly some others (that I may have missed) where the work would pass to local authorities. British Waterways has a good understanding of the requirements of running a canal, and have a decent knowledge base in that area. Recreating that knowledge base in every council may end up costing more overall. I can also imagine an added risk of problems caused by a lack of expertise.

But all in all, we should be trying to reduce what we spend on these, whether it be through scrapping some of them, giving the respoonsibilities to local or national government departments, or merging some of them (do we really need seperate Offwat, Offgas, Offwhite etc?). As long as the services that are needed from these bodies are still carried out, and we don't end up making things more expensive by fiddling with them.

bendix

Radiantsoul wrote: »

And presumably we are arguing for the same thing, a stronger focus on discipline in deprived areas. Even if this is at the cost of educational focus.

I don't know. I'm arguing for a stronger focus on discipline, full stop.

Radiantsoul

bendix wrote: »

I don't know. I'm arguing for a stronger focus on discipline, full stop.

In many schools there just isn't the need. Kids are broadly well behaved. Sure in all schools there are some bad kids, and all kids play up occasionally. Additional focus discipline is probably not really necessary and diminishing returns are bound to set in.