To think something has gone wrong in schools? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz0m2x30p4eo

What i do agree with is that the model hasn’t changed for many many years (more like decades, it’s not that old) but I absolutely do not agree that it still works.

I’ve taught enough classes to know that it works. I know that when it doesn’t work there are kids that it doesn’t work with who it would never have worked with. However now, as opposed to previously, we’re actually expected to get to learn stuff and it is deemed our fault when they do not. Accountability is much higher.

I encourage all those things and lots more, but when, out of a class of 30, you have

1 non verbal pupil with severe ASD, in nappies with an EHCP that doesn’t fund anywhere near full-time support.

4 pupils who almost certainly have ADHD but are too young for a referral in our LA.

5 pupils receiving SaLT, all of whom have therapy programs that should be implemented daily.

1 child with significant physics needs (PEG/hoist) again with funding for very little support.

The usual distribution of children needing interventions for fine motor skills, social interaction support and literacy/maths catch up.

The usual distribution of children whose parents are divorcing, who don’t get enough to eat at dinner time, whose shoes are a bit small, whose coat has too many holes in, who don’t get read to at home.

Plus a phonics screener to get through in June, an Ofsted lurking, and a curriculum that is narrow, boring and over-inflated.

There is only so much one teacher can do.

I would absolutely love to love my job again. It’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was tiny. I can’t do it alone with no resources or funding, whilst simultaneously being slated as a profession for being ‘snippy and negative’.

We’ll have to agree to disagree 😊

What i do agree with is that the model hasn’t changed for many many years (more like decades, it’s not that old) but I absolutely do not agree that it still works. I think it could potentially work if it was modernised but until it is I foresee more and more problems such as the ever growing number of teachers and pupils leaving and the continuation of 1 in 5 of all school leavers leaving without qualifications.

So no real solution then. Because that's just wishy washy word soup and something that a lot of teachers do anyway.

You can't love or monkey dance a child's needs away.

It is singularly focused on academic ability. It doesn’t take into account skills needed for the modern world such as critical thinking skills, communication and interpersonal skills, teamwork, conflict management, reasoning ability, resilience, problem solving etc etc

This 'skills versus knowledge' debate has been going on in education for decades. You cannot teach critical thinking without knowledge to think critically about etc etc. The great IT revolution in teaching has yet to come. Lockdown was the biggest killer of that. The idea that kids can sit in front of a computer and absorb knowledge without the need for a teacher was comprehensively put to bed when vast swathes of them failed to do that during remote learning.

The model of imparting knowledge to children via an expert adult teaching to a group hasn't changed for thousands of years, and it's not because we're stuck in the mud, but because it works.

Pray for our generation who will be elderly and needy when they are grown up 😬😬😬

You’re still missing the point of what I’m saying though. I’m not disagreeing with you that some knowledge is important. I’m pro-learning and pro-education. I’m not suggesting there is NO value in Romeo and Juliet or in learning about history.
I am talking about intrinsic motivation and your students are in fact communicating that to you when they say ‘but miss I can just put this into my calculator which I happen to carry around in my pocket’. It’s true! They can! Unfortunately a lot of stuff has become meaningless for this generation because of our technological advancement. The world has moved on and school hasn’t and this is why so many kids are disengaged with it.

You might be able to deal with the question but it doesn’t alter the fact that learning huge amounts of academic information and regurgitating it onto a test paper is demotivating for today’s youth. Yes for a very small number of kids who might want to go into a very academic field or who might want to read law perhaps the old ways still work. But there is no doubt in my mind that for a large proportion of young people today the curriculum and the qualifications system is outdated. It is singularly focused on academic ability. It doesn’t take into account skills needed for the modern world such as critical thinking skills, communication and interpersonal skills, teamwork, conflict management, reasoning ability, resilience, problem solving etc etc. It doesn’t account for the fact that information is literally at our fingertips 24/7/365. And is unfairly balanced towards academic achievement and not creativity, original thought or enterprise.

There needs to be a shift in what is important and how we measure it and honestly I am surprised that as a teacher you don’t see this ( I am an ex teacher by the way so do have first hand experience too) but please know that I am not criticising teachers. I know how dedicated and unbelievably hardworking they are.

You are putting the whole onus onto teachers though.

1 teacher in front of 30 pupils with a hugely wide cross section of needs can only do so much, when they are given inadequate funding and a broken curriciulum. If you add incredibly stressful testing and inspection pressures, it’s a perfect storm.

The situation we are in now, is massively different to the classes we taught in the 90s.

I was with you until you said that teachers don’t bother getting to know kids or put strategies in place. That’s basically all we ever do - put endless strategies in place so kids can fit in.
I agree though there is a massive problem. Children don’t like school. Schools and parents have a difficult relationship. Heads are too concerned with avoiding complaints. Schools are chronically under funded and staff are exhausted and undervalued.

I , if anything, significantly MORE positive in my approach to children who have learning and behavioural needs. It doesn’t make their needs magically go away.

(Sorry, meant to quote: if I said a child has poor eyesight, and weak hearing, I would be negligent in not acknowledging their needs. Similarly, adapting work for a child with poor working memory or weak impulse control is not a ‘stereotype’, it us recognising and meeting a need)

None of the teachers I work with do this. They try their hardest to meet all children's needs and treat them fairly.

So you are only ever talking about your own exceptionally narrow position, but extrapolating as if it applies to the entirety of the education system?

Except I don’t do that and even if I did - how does that change the problems I have outlined? How do you deal with the fact that there aren’t enough seats for people to sit where is best for them? How do you deal with the noise level that needs to be different for different pupils?

I would approach a child with documented SEN in exactly the way, and with exactly the adaptations, suggested in their IEP (or similar). My aim would always be to adapt their provision to enable them to make the fastest possible progress, but it would be negligent of me NOT to acknowledge their known differences and difficulties.

OP, have you nothing positive to say about your SLT?

Op, I am a little confused by the change in recommendations between your early and later posts on the thread.

Your earliest posts were about discipline; guidance; structured teaching and activities. More recent posts are about freedom; fun; love as the solution.

And you think by being positive we can meet the needs of massive classes? Believe me, I go into the classroom every morning with a positive mindset. Absolutely doesn't cut it.

I’m still not quite understanding you. Are you saying that children with poor working memory, weak processing skills etc are just needing a more positive role model?

Are you a current teacher in school? Do you have classes of 30+?

Well if you'd just stop constraining them and be a little bit more joyful, I'm sure that their numerous difficulties would just melt away. And then you'd only need one worksheet.