Nice People 13: Nice Save

silvercar

We have been educationally spoilt.

DS1 went to a grammar school, nearly everyone took all 3 sciences.

DS2 went to a small private school. Each science subject was taught by a specialist. The general idea was that most pupils would do double science award. Anyone with flair in sciences was encouraged to take triple science. Anyone who had a weakness in one of the subjects was allowed to take the other 2 as single subjects. So you could find yourself in the "extra biology" class because either you were taking triple or you had dropped physics and were picking up more biology instead. Timetabling was made easier by having 6 option blocks with the plan that one of your blocks would be empty to fit in these extra sessions. Teachers would in theory have more free periods than in state schools with the expectation that some of their non-timetabled slots be used to offer help to students. Quite a few subjects were taught by 2 teachers, so out of lessons you could find either if you needed help.

lostinrates

My school were determined everyone got their choice. they felt however I owed them ( scholarship, flexibility over other pursuits which failed to materialise into glory for them) and wanted me to do their choice of A levels ( boosting numbers in subject areas and chances of high grades ). I left school at the end of first term of lr sixth. Mainly I think because I didn't like the way I felt I was treated. My parents then took legal advice about fees, and some other stuff, and were lucky enough that their solicitor had a partner who was a school governor to a similar school who knew my old school well.

I was not invited to join the old girl's association though. I feel bad, and not, about that. School was both a refuge for me and a place that was sad. There were all the normal tormenting teachers and cliques and stuff, and also some pretty wonderful ones. The head teacher was a !!!!!! of the first order, interested in money over all things, then appearances as a close second. and there were some pretty diabolical heads of depTment too ( see head teachers priorities) but there WERE some amazing teachers! some amazing mentors and some incredible guidance if one cared to find it. It was a damn sight more stBle than home and its not their fault they were catering for a society that's dying out.

GDB2222

lostinrates wrote: »

I was not invited to join the old girl's association though.

You're not old enough?

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

You're not old enough?

My cleaner this morning said "how old are you? 32?" I knew I liked my cleaners. Maybe slightly impertinent question but as I have my visual age as much older than I am anything that shaves a couple of years off is good.

lostinrates

There is a prep school not so far from us that offers things like bee keeping. Its not really an academic hot house, but I feel somewhere tht taught things like bee keeping might offer real, perspective on the world. If I had a child I would have hoped he or she might study bee keeping alongside languages, arts and sciences and sports and music. I would have hoped that if cricket and foot ball and netball were not that child's strength I might be able to provide a school environment that offered choice of something like dance and running and yoga. I'd like a child to know how to present itself, verbally, in writing and in body language and how to work with others, but also how to work alone.

lostinrates

tom9980 wrote: »

A lot of these stories go to show politics and education don't mix well at all. Pressuring children to do a subject or stream pupils to do certain subjects to manipulate a largely meaningless league table is wrong and it does a lot of damage.

In recent days the rhetoric from politicians have been hitting the news, no more cuts to the budget they say but we won't increase it by inflation (so a cut then?) this despite the previous rounds of cuts still being rolled out, my wife's school lose more from next years budget.

If politics doesn't get involved in the important things then ...frankly, what is the point of it?

I do feel there is too much chop change and fiddling which serves to confuse and not improve. But to suggest politics and education or health should be separate is a bit shocking. If we cannot vote on the important stuff....are we a democracy?

zagubov

Some of the stories make me wonder what qualifications you needed to have to be a teacher here in the past!

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

Some of the stories make me wonder what qualifications you needed to have to be a teacher here in the past!

In the private sector afaik you didn't need qualifications but most had them, There really were some excellent teachers.

Our language staff were great, and in the main our English staff and classics were great. Science were less great. Geography was a disaster dept. and I feel very sorry for the history teacher for whom I have to admit I was trouble. :(. Its not that I didn't like her, its just she got us mid week, thurs, last bit of the day, and I was over tired and got the giggles a lot, and spent a lot of time outside, and it know she thought I was laughing at her, but I wasn't. It got so bad, I didn't have to be told to go out side, I would just get. Up and go.

vivatifosi

LydiaJ wrote: »

I think the same about NHS spending. They need to give figures on NHS spending per head of UK population, so they can't claim they're giving the NHS more money when the money's gone up by a smaller % than the number of people it needs to serve.

I agreed with that post so much that I was banging the table and shouting "yes, yes, yes".

That's where the When Harry Met Sally similarities end though.

tom9980

lostinrates wrote: »

If politics doesn't get involved in the important things then ...frankly, what is the point of it?

I do feel there is too much chop change and fiddling which serves to confuse and not improve. But to suggest politics and education or health should be separate is a bit shocking. If we cannot vote on the important stuff....are we a democracy?

What i am not explaining that well is everyone just needs to ease off, give teachers more power over their teaching after all they spent years training for the job. It just mystifies me why a politician with no experience in the job who did a totally non related qualification suddenly can chop and change everything. So in that regard i do not feel politics and education mixes at all well. For me an education minister, ofsted etc should be helping improve standards not beating the profession with a stick to the extent many believe every teacher is a lazy left wing nutter who is so unfit for duty they must teach by rote.

Surely the way to judge any teacher is on how well they get children to progress. A league table doesn't measure progression it measure how good the schools catchment is, how good the parents are and if a child had SEN or not. A good teacher enables a child to reach their peak ability even if that is only a D grade in Art.