So very angry right now!!

esmerelda98

Gingham_R wrote: »

Half of all prisoners are at or below Level 1 (the level expected of an
11-year-old) in reading
• Two-thirds are below Level 1 in numeracy
• Four-fifths are below Level 1 in writing
• 52 % of male and 71% of female adult prisoners have no qualifications
• 30 % of prisoners were regular truants during their school years
• 49 % of male prisoners were excluded from school
• 58% of those released from prison are reconvicted within 2 years
• 4 out of 5 prisoners have served a previous sentence
...

Home Office report (Clark, 2001) found that those who did not participate in
education or training while in prison were three times more likely to re-offend
than those who did take part in such programmes.

Taken from The Dyslexia Institute
The incidence of hidden disabilities in the prison population
March, 2005

Article can be found here: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=dyslexic%20prison%20population&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CC4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dyslexiaaction.org.uk%2FHandlers%2FDownload.ashx%3FIDMF%3D07d5f968-e4cf-4bd6-b667-c6ee48a342db&ei=Ey8sT8-vBsfA0QX0mv2tCA&usg=AFQjCNEv_V-HWz1Wr__98EoXK4KIH_EpYA&sig2=eVhLjoT1ayizUKv2XYRShw

Edit - I'd like to clarify what they meant by 'level 1' given that level 4 is the level expected of most 11 year olds.

So many prisoners are poorly educated. I'd be surprised if anyone is surprised that that is the case. However, the reasons for a person being poorly educated are of course multi-factorial. To what extent can a decent teacher outweigh the effects of a chaotic home environment, with repeated truancy, suspensions or exclusions? What about poor parental appreciation of education or low parental expectations? The leadership of schools and the atmosphere/attitudes that leadership leads to amongst the staff? Successive governments tinkering with the education system, sometimes not so successfully?

In any case, it could be that factors which lead to poor education (e.g. chaotic home environment) also independently increase the risk of criminal behaviour.

I'm sure good teachers make a significant difference, but on their own I don't think they can make enough of a difference in many cases.

daisiegg

OP, I'm confused by your post about asthma. WHY would the fact that your daughter has asthma make you concerned about her being taught about it in science, to the extent that you need to 'prepare' her for it? I have asthma, as do loads of people, and it never crossed my mind to be concerned about learning about it in science...I'm confused, do you think it would upset her or something? are you maybe overprotecting her a little bit?

Gingham_R

milliebear00001 wrote: »

This is an ideal scenario, which most teachers would love to be able to achieve.

It is almost impossible with 30 children, and (I would think) completely beyond reach if you have 100 to teach.
.

As an English teacher I'd teach three times that. As head of PSE I would teach 6 times that.

I asked. It was that simple. I'd find out part of the story and if I needed more I'd ask for it.

It's not difficult - really it's not. And it's not particularly time consuming.

Every morning we'd have staff shout and people would bring up new issues with the children - if any parents had phoned in etc. For example, a girl in my form lost her grandma and wanted to wear her grandma's ring though there was a no jewellery policy. I announced that morning that she'd be wearing it on a chain under her blouse for a couple of weeks and would staff please let her do this. Job done.

Another boy had surgery on his heart. As well as spending some time visiting him in hospital, I helped prepare for his return by ensuring that other children would be escorting him round school and that one class had a room swap so he didn't have to climb any stairs.

Another child developed diabetes and I found out through staff shout so I made sure I spoke to him discretely at the end of a lesson about what he needed work wise (eg more time on homework like the little girl with cystic fibrosis) while I found out what I'd need to do in an emergency.

Another child in my form had asperger's and I would look after him and a friend at breaks and before school until I became exhausted with having no breaks and made sure he had support from the learning mentors and I would take him there with his friend to play safely.

Or another 3 children whose dad had died falling down the stairs at home (I found out how because I asked) and I would make sure if I spotted any signs of upset they'd be allowed to step outside with a friend or I'd talk to them after class or whatever needed to be done at the time.

And so on and so on. Either teachers do this or they're not supporting their emotional needs.

And, sorry, if a teacher only has 30 students, I think it's shocking that they wouldn't cater for their needs. My eldest's school teacher has a note on top of every day's planning to remind her to remind my son of something. There are other children's names there so she doesn't forget. How is that difficult?

daisiegg

On the subject of teachers not being told everything about their pupils, that's absolutely right. In fact it can be frustrating sometimes how 'confidential' things are treated - i.e. "pupil x has very difficult personal circumstances at the moment" but they don't tell you WHAT those circumstances are, so you have no idea if you are going to inadvertently upset the child by saying something innocent in a lesson.

daisiegg

Gingham R, I think it depends how your school treats this information. In my school, it's very secretive and as I said, you may be told something like "pupil x lost her father under difficult circumstances when she was 10" but you won't be told the details at all. Or "please be gentle with pupil y as her family are going through a bad time" - well, ok, but you're not told WHAT is going on so you can be gentle, but you can't necessarily avoid every potential issue that might be coming up as you don't know what it is.

thegirlintheattic

We get told "pupil x is going through a hard time" if something is happening right then, if it's something that has happened years ago we're likely to be told absolutely nothing where I work.

daisiegg

True - finding out about things that happened years ago wouldn't necessarily be told as a matter of course, it would only be if you probed or if it happened to come up. For example I taught a very difficult pupil in Y11 in my first year of teaching, who was now in care but had come from an awful home life - her mother had been a known prostitute. However I didn't find this out until near the end of the year, and by this point we had studied Of Mice and Men and discussed the presentation of the prostitutes in the book in great detail - which couldn't have been easy for the girl.

Gingham_R

I think that's a problem with the school management. I also taught an 11 year old whose mother was a prostitute and there was grave concern about the girl. mad:

I knew what was going on but most of the staff didn't. They DID know that she was extremely vulnerable and to send her to the office if she became distressed or to let the head know if she said anything that caused concern.

We dont' always need to know what the issue is - just that there is one and to watch out for any changes in behaviour or demeanour. However, if it's not a child protection issue, it's best to let other staff know what is going on - eg re a child's illness or if there has been a major family event.

Naturally, it goes without saying that children's special needs need to be known and understood and catered for by EVERY teacher. Anything less is a disgrace.

daisiegg

Yeah, my school is absolutely ridiculous about confidentiality and secretiveness. For example recently the head of Year 9 needed to talk to a colleague of mine about a girl in her class - it had to be arranged and done in secret, she wouldn't explain to the colleague in front of me what it was about, it was very confidential - and it turned out all it was was that the girl's mum wanted to know why she wasn't in top set. Hardly a state secret! If that's how they treat simple issues like that, imagine how secretive they are about pupils' personal circumstances.

Gingham_R

That's just ridiculous. What a waste of time better spent just getting on with it.