To be a bit naffed off with the advert for Jamie Oliver's "dream school"

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

I'm not a teacher (although thinking of becoming one...) and I know the programme hasn't even been on yet, so maybe I should give it a chance...

...but it just seems wrong to me to suggest that what kids who are struggling at school need are various low-level slebs coming in and pontificating. Why on earth should Alistair Campbell, for example, be an amazing/inspiring teacher? And I'm not aware that 'Expeditions' features highly on the curriculum of most schools, so gawd knows where they got that idea from.

I probably ABU, am v grumpy waiting for DS3 to finally show his face (9 days overdue and feeling twitchy about induction - gah!) But have felt irritated by the ad every time I've seen it, and think it's potentially a real smack in the face to the large number of good, dedicated and hard-working teachers out there who might be about to be undercut by some odd choices - and to what ends?

YANBU

I am applying for my PGCE next eyar, although as I will already have an MA in Autism I suspect I shall teach a specialist sector.

I ahve thought long and ahrd about whetehr it is right and will work hard to be good and stay good; not play it for a day then walk away.

The teaching bit I find easy. And for the record some schools and teachers are inspiring kids, but they don't get written about.

The hard bit is constantly being asked for sub level for all 500 kids I teach in a week, plus app grids and incorporating seal and plts in my lessons. Add the fact that I spend most lessons dealing with low level disruption

St Jamie out to save us again.

I wish he would fuck off sanctimonious arsehole.

I agree with Jamie Oliver, and I have worked in teaching and learning for years. Jamie Oliver's own background is interesting, because he did not succeed at school, had special needs and was made to feel incapable,yet he did succeed in life.
Children and learners generally are very often not well supported at school, and not taught how to learn for themselves in the future, which are skills we all need. Also, teachers can become very stale after a while, and can forget to teach in a way which is engaging and inclusive and stimulating, and this turns off kids.

I can also think of heaps of examples where kids are able to teach others better than staff themselves eg in IT, where they are often ahead in terms of the potential of technology.

Try asking your own kids for assessments of their current learning experiences. They are often negative, and much more often than not they are true.

there haev always been disaffected kids

tehre always will be

it does get TIRING though being told all the time our lessons need to be like game shows.

sometimes things are dull
sometimes you have to just WORK

i wonder why he isn't content to just stay at home and count his money spend some time with his lovely family for a little while.

i think teaching the disaffected kids with glove puppets would work

Very well said, CoastGirl.

I haven't seen the advert but quite frankly, if Jamie Oliver is involved I won't be watching. All Jamie Oliver seems really interested in is Jamie Oliver and he uses this 'mouthpiece for our generation' smug crap to plug Jamie Oliver whilst pretending to have 'the youth' in his bleeding heart.

I also agree that this is advertising for free schools.

I'm a teacher (an AST) - the teaching bit is brilliant 95% of the time. I wish they'd just leave me alone to get on with the teaching and stop moving the goal posts/demanding that we assess pupils within an inch of their lives and teach to the exam to such an extent that lots of pupils are coming out with Cs who are really not C grade pupils and won't cope with A levels because nothing has been consolidated in their learning and they've just managed to jump a few exam hoops.

Give me a couple of minor celebs for a month or two and let them work alongside me - then see what they think of their ability to teach.

or " lets take them out"

the bloody paperwork and hassle puts you off

Where can I watch this?

On the advert he says something along the lines of "I called up all the best teachers I know and asked them to join me".

So, these random celebrities (Alastair fricking Campbell FFS) are the best teachers he knows? And they're not even teachers. How fucking arrogant and ridiculous. Jamie Oliver is a big fake tosser.

I hope these slebs are teaching 5 lessons in a day with break duty and a lunchtime club and afterschool revision session. I hope they are given genuine classes with, as someone mentioned earlier, bottom set year 8 followed by top set year 11 followed by yr 7 nurture group. I hope there has been an incident before the lesson meaning the kids come in High as kites. I hope the kids in lesson 1 are 15 minutes late from assembly meaning the practical you have planned cannot take place because there's not enough time. I hope kids have to keep leaving the lesson for a careers interview or French speaking exam. I hope they are constrained by the unreliable equipment that is all the school can afford. I hope that the computer programme/ DVD they are showing stops working at they key point. I hope that ....... Well I could go on but it ain't going to happen. I love my job mr Oliver and I am a bloody good teacher but here's the thing I TEACH IN THE REAL WORLD. Give me' the same conditions as your slebs and I bet I could do a lesson that inspires the kids far more!

Personally i think that Jamie should stick to what he knows best- cooking.

YANBU. Alastair Campbell a fit and proper person to teach? You must be bloody joking.

Im not a teacher but find the premise of the series patronising beyond belief. Tho I wish he had done better at school. That way maybe he d never have made it on to our screens in the first place.

fiventhree, you do realise jamies father OWNED the restaurant he started out in? Not everyone who has issues at school has that opportunity.Makes me v annoyed, as a teacher, wish all the children had such a chance...

Jamie Oliver is an annoying arse, that's a given. We entertain his presence on our TVs and in our schools largely because he's perceived to have done a great job re the whole school dinners thing.

Is he likely to be a good teacher? Maybe, for a concentrated amount of time. Day in day out probably not - however the reality is that many schools are already full of crap teachers. My sons are taught on a daily basis by teachers with little or no concept of grammar or spelling, and a scary lack of knowledge outside the narrow confines of the curriculum. This is when the teachers are there of course - the use of supply staff (who may or may not be teachers, and who effectively act as crowd control) feature heavily, particularly at my eldest's comp.

Such is the way of life at most (non-selective) state schools, and pretending otherwise, and that all in the world of education is rosy, is frankly how we find ourselves with some of the most poorly educated, disaffected children in Europe. Jamie and his cronies may not do much good, but I doubt they can make matters much worse than they already are.

Jamie needs to stick to bloody cooking, wtf does he know about schools?

And Ellen McArthur. Christ. I'd rather boil my head than be in the same room as her.

Pippity IIRC Jamie's Father owned a pub where he got a taste of cooking, but he made a name for himself at The River Cafe.

Jamie Oliver said on his School Dinners programme 'I ain't doing this for my kids, cos, let's be honest, my kids ain't going to state school'.

how fucking RUDE. So all these people you're insulting, all the parents, all the advice you're giving them and all the things you're telling they must do to be halfway decent..... even if they do them all, they'll never be anything like good enough for your fucking flower named kids to rub shoulders with? If I'd been the head of any of the schools he came to patronize, I'd've thrown him right out for that.

bulby, excellent post.

Did he really say that, Joan?

Nob.

OK, may get flamed and have to say I haven't seen the ad, but are you all really saying that because he's successful and send his kids to privates schools he shouldn't put his energy into trying to improve things in the state sector?
He's a nob because he wants things to be better for children other than his own?
I don't get that?
If he DID sit at home cuddling his flower children and counting his money, and said "Why should I give a sh*t about you lot - I'm loaded" then I would think he was a nob.
Now I don't necessarily agree with all his ideas, but surely anything that brings some attention to a problem is a good thing?
And for what it's worth, if you have to insult parents to get them to feed their children properly then insult then! Surely?

Belligerent, yes, pretty much verbatim I think. Twat.

he shouldn't make it a moral issue and try to make dinner ladies on minumum wage feel shit when he knows damn well that no matter how hard they try, they will never be good enough for his kids.