All these groups that the goverment has put in place has to be seen to be doing something. If they just sat there going everything is great then people would wonder why are they employed.
You find this sort of rubbish thoughout business as well, middle management jumping up and down now and again, as if to say, look I am here, I am important and to prove it I am going to make chances for chances sake.
My first two wives were both teachers. I have been a co-opted school governor. I have had kids and step kids who have attended almost every type of school widely available. (That's my ego sorted now lets debate.)
I think many schools lack an adequate management structure. This is hardly surprising given that most managers (the heads, deputies etc) in schools are trained to be educators not managers. On top of that my experience is that the people I describe are subjected to all sorts of administrative toot form the local council and assorted quangos.
Threre are good examples out there of how good management can make a school. Check out the Thomas telford website, there are other factors but I believe proper management has been the key to their success.
In summary nope we dont need any more quick fix quangos we do need a strategy to move towards a more effective management model for all schools.
Keeps his sensible head on and resists the urge to litter the post with intentional spelling and grammar errors in the sure knowledge that there are enough unintentional ones.
It was around the time that I was in my last year of school that new rules were introduced banning the use of corporal punishment in all schools. Quite a lot of the kids at my school had been expelled by another school in the area and I wad one of those kids. The school had a reputation for being strict and we used to make jokes about how the different senior teachers, heads of year, etc had different ways of caning us. One, a mr Johnson was a keen golfer and he would make you touch your toes and swing the stick as if it were a golf club. Another would make you hold out your hand and jump up in the air before whacking it down accross your finger tips. Of course all of this was banned in the early 1980's and discipline went out of the window. I remember being told that because of my behaviour I would spend a day in solitary confinement, sounds tough but in reality I had to sit in a locked room on my own and work from a science text book, I was to take my breaks and have my lunch seperately from the other children. I was allowed out at around 11am to use the loo, so I just walked out of school and went home. The truancy officer arrived at my house in the afternoon with a notice from the school suspending me for a week, that'll teach me huh?
We all knew that the teachers had lost their authority and that we could get away with just about anything. It is not the fault of the teachers that they have been handicapped by the nanny state. So many children behave like animals today that I often wonder how the teachers cope. Even with all the holidays they get, I wouldn't want the job. :0(
Corporal punishment DID work when I was at school, but it ain't ever coming back.
Not saying that is a bad thing here, but without that deterrent yes it does seem that kids laugh at authority now.
The most important thing now is when parents back the school in whatever they do.
IF you do not have the backing of the parents, then is it any wonder the kids think they can get away with nearly anything....and they do.
Being a teacher can be as much a rewarding job, as a shit one. It is difficult enough trying to teach, let alone trying to teach unruly kids.
I think schools should adopt the three strikes rule, then on the third time you are expelled. The trouble is even IF you could do that, another school has to take the toerag on. So your only pushing the problem onto someone else.
The parents are the most important asset a school has, without that then teachers will continue to leave, and more less qualified ones will come in to take their place, being no good at all. We need experienced....good teachers, not like some of the ones out there nowadays.
The problem is is it is darned near impossible to get rid of a bad teacher. The ones who ruin the subject for every child, turning them off it and possibly education completely. The ones who have their favourites and ignore or mock the rest. The ones who won't set interesting work, or any homework in case they have to mark it. Who can't engage the kids with the subject.
Of course, teachers who physically harm kids, who abuse them sexually or who fiddle the schools expenses are got rid of - agfter being on paid leave for months sometimes. As, appallingly are ones who are falsly accused of abusing kids (fume).
But 'bad' ones - not nearly often enough.
A school is identified as failing - but how many educations have been ruined before Ofsted act? Hundreds, maybe thousands.
I don't think you can just blame bad teachers, bad parents are too blame too, by bad I mean disinterested other than for sound bites, as well as all the couldn't give toss types.
When I was at school I was put in isolation for the benefit of others. The reason was a lie and I was luckymy parents believed me, investigated and presented proof, along with a potential law suit (no violence or threats of it I might add) and so I was let back in to the main stream. This was a mistake by a concerned teacher trying to protect others, she was wrong, but hey we all make mistakes and it stopped there.
I was also excluded from History because I was too ugly to look at while teaching was taking place. This was a bad teacher.
My father spoke to other parents, put together a full case to the Board of Governors and she was dismissed.
I truly believe that if you, as a parent or student, can present comprehensive evidence as to why a teacher is bad then it's not that difficult to get rid.
I appreciate times have changed, however if the evidence is there, it's there, and no tribunal will back someone in the face of well presented, factual evidence of incomptence, bad attitude or bad teaching practice.
Jas
XXX
As Jas has said - It doesn't matter if a teacher is excellent at what they do if the pupil knows no discipline. If the child is not given discipline and knows nothing of right and wrong, then anything else taught to that child is wasted. The school I went to between 1984 and 1991 was average, but even the delinquents in my year knew exactly where the line they shouldn't cross was without any cane to be punished with. I was talking to someone on FB a while ago who was one of these and he had told me that he regretted being such an arse at school and indeed he has made sure that his children are behaved and takes an active interest in what they do at school.
Discipline like Charity begins at home.
in my day you never heard of teachers having sex with the it happens all the time.
jeeeeesssss they never had it so good.
