Does Your Child Go To A Proper School Or An Academy?

ViolaLass

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

For your PGCE you do get OFSTED style ratings as in Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory based on observation gradings by the university, but they do not appear on your transcript and have no real meaning in the outside world.

True. It's so inconsequential (apart from for our egos) that I'd forgotten about that aspect!

thegirlintheattic

ViolaLass wrote: »

True. It's so inconsequential (apart from for our egos) that I'd forgotten about that aspect!

I think the egos lasted about a week. Two of the people who were graded outstanding failed to find jobs and one of them only managed 2/3rds of his NQT year before being told to drop out before he failed. One of the reasons I now take anything 'OFSTED' with a pinch of salt.

DecentLivingWage

Oh well, maybe this failed QTS 'teacher' will be one of the first to wash up in one of these new lower standard 'academies' - I hope the parents there will be hot on asking questions about who is teaching their children and whether all children are being taught by the same quality of teacher, and not divided into unfair groups. That's what we all need to do as parents -ask a lot more questions at school and to MPs about these 'policies' and what the real genuine effect will be on our kids futures. I see today that 5o Million Pounds is being put aside by the coalition to fund extra teaching when schools open 2 weeks early for some children to give them a head start. (Nottingham 14-19 yrs) many of us have children who would benefit but we won't all be invited!

(PS The First was for degree, followed by Outstanding! )

DecentLivingWage

The fact that 'academies' don't have to have proper qualified teachers isn't the only worry - they can also change the school day/term times. i can see big price rises for parents in this.

susancs

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

The fact that 'academies' don't have to have proper qualified teachers isn't the only worry - they can also change the school day/term times. i can see big price rises for parents in this.

My children's faith "outstanding" secondary school academy did change the school day this year to make it longer to ensure that lesson periods were longer to further children's education. Although it was only 20 minutes a day, the children were not pleased lol, but the head explained that all the teachers felt the quality of the children's education would be greater with longer periods and he had done research on the matter and found that longer periods did benefit children's education.

I don't understand the "big price rises for parents" as we don't pay for the extra education in the school. As teachers are paid a salary to do a job rather than paid an hourly rate for hours worked a lot of teachers will do extra lessons with classes or individuals within school outside of school hours.

DecentLivingWage

susancs wrote: »

My children's faith "outstanding" secondary school academy did change the school day this year to make it longer to ensure that lesson periods were longer to further children's education. Although it was only 20 minutes a day, the children were not pleased lol, but the head explained that all the teachers felt the quality of the children's education would be greater with longer periods and he had done research on the matter and found that longer periods did benefit children's education.

I don't understand the "big price rises for parents" as we don't pay for the extra education in the school. As teachers are paid a salary to do a job rather than paid an hourly rate for hours worked a lot of teachers will do extra lessons with classes or individuals within school outside of school hours.

I'm looking this up as we speak lol - I've just heard that Primary Academies are going to be profit making - and just who is there right at the front waiting to be made money out of (lol grammar!) yup, the parents!! Will be back later with my findings:

How would you all feel if school finished at 2 (a la MummieClegg in Spain!) but..... we paid for childcare for the rest... say ... up til 6pm? Shock Horror? You hear it here first -' runs off to research...'

Penny-Pincher!!

The academies where we leave are on a much lower academic par than standard comprehensives. Some of the Ofstead reports are appalling. I am grateful that DD managed to get into a Grammar school where she received excellent teaching.

peachyprice

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

The fact that 'academies' don't have to have proper qualified teachers isn't the only worry - they can also change the school day/term times. i can see big price rises for parents in this.

Jesus, More to moan about? Price rises in what exactly?

Thank goodness I haven't encountered a teacher with such an impossibly negative attitude to change as you, and hopefully never will.

Bringing school times more in line with the working day? Bring it on.

You sound like a teacher who get there 5 mins before the bell and leaves as the last pupils are leaving the plaground.

thegirlintheattic

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

I'm looking this up as we speak lol - I've just heard that Primary Academies are going to be profit making - and just who is there right at the front waiting to be made money out of (lol grammar!) yup, the parents!! Will be back later with my findings:

How would you all feel if school finished at 2 (a la MummieClegg in Spain!) but..... we paid for childcare for the rest... say ... up til 6pm? Shock Horror? You hear it here first -' runs off to research...'

Actually most of the discussion re: changing the school day is towards lengthening the school day or, in secondaries, starting later and finishing later. Cutting the school day to 2 pm would involve starting around 7:30 am, which I don't think many schools would do. We do not have the weather that Spain does to justify such an early start and finish.

peachyprice - I have never seen a teacher turn up 5 mins before school and leave when the bell goes; yet if you listen to people on MSE it happens all the time. In fact it's much more common, at least round here, for teachers to be in before 7:45 and stay till gone 6. Similarly in these 'holidays' many of my colleagues have already spent several days in school. I myself am planing to spend the week before we go back in school.

Spendless

When I attended a parents evening about my son's Secondary turning into an Academy, we were told there were several types. Some could become one because they had received good Ofsted reports, some had to go into a syndicate together because their ofsteds weren't good enough to go it alone. Some were connected to other succesful schools. My son's school did change earlier this year, but I can't say I've seen any difference so far.