To say thank fuck for Nicola Sturgeon

[Chippednailvarnish]

I can't stand her anti English stance, but at least one political leader is doing something for the refugees...

Yeah it's great here.

Free school meals for all p 1-3 while all the principal teacher posts have been cut.

Free bus travel for all pensioners while it's £36 a month for my 16 year old to get to school because all the free school transport has been cut to 3 miles distance (we can afford it but there's a lot who find it a struggle)

Practically unchecked one chamber and one party politics in a so called democracy supported by layers of bureaucrats who move department so often they often know very little about what they are working on while local authorities are on their knees and front line services are under threat.

And don't fecking start me on housing policies or the ineptitude and unaccountability of the regulator.

Welcome to the promised land kids.

And how's the Scottish budget deficit getting on?

My view of the CfE is that it lets good teachers teach well but allows the lazy and poor a lot of room to hide. Certainly I have feedback from a High school Maths teacher at a school in a deprived area who says the children arriving in his class from primary have the least attainment that he has ever seen.

I have one in 3rd year too.

Oh and somehting shocking no one seems to have picked up on relating to exam results - 70 percent of young people sitting the new life skills maths qualification failed.

That's calculating mobile phone usage, interest rates, etc.

I've got a p7 and an s5 and I also work with a lot of schools and wi young people lewving school, it's interesting to see the differences between individual schools as well.

Didn't know that RJ that is shocking and sad in equal measure. Maybe it will be okay, maybe NS will come along on her white charger and sort these kids out with a job for life...

derxa NS wants to bring in something like SATS...just been announced.

Standardised national tests for primary children so they can assess and lower the widening gap between the progress made by children from affluent and more deprived areas... exactly how this can achieve that more than actually talking to what the teachers in the schools in deprived areas want and suggest I don't know (TAs and more one to one I would imagine would be a good start).
Primary children are currently assessed by council wide etc tests - just not in this way, children are not taught to the test (which happens in England) and the results aren't published. Which I would suggest is how they know the gap is widening...
The tests are against the whole ethos of the Curriculum for Excellence the whole child and child led learning - I have been told the language used and the description of targets is being changed - after all the upheaval of CfE more crap ... I know a group criticised for not using the right language (developing, consolidating, secure) when reporting ALL aspects of learning...by 3 yos - how few toileting accidents before you say they are no longer consolidating but are now secure?
Also talking about a cult etc - the media seems quite quiet on this - even the teacher's union - every teacher I have spoken to about it is up in arms from what they currently know ...having to waste their time learning about the 'new' changes and tests AGAIN when they'd much rather just get on and actually...you know... teach! (Possibly why literacy attainment has gone down - the teachers have spent so much time getting to grips with CfE)

Children are taught to cope with the tests in England. I've been a PS teacher in England for more than a decade. However the levels of literacy and especially maths are good. In most primary classes, there will be children who could cope with a lot of GCSE Maths. There is nowhere for the school to hide. Everyone sits the same tests on the same day and the results are published. Is this going to be the same in Scotland? I doubt it.

Can also vouch for AS being one of the nicest people I've ever known. Both genuinely have Scotland and it's people at the heart of their interests

We will have to disagree there. Salmond has never struck me as having anyone but Salmond's interest at heart. His recent utterances are interesting.

m.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/alex-salmond-reveals-he-prefers-people-of-faith-1-3876408

dexra You can read the details online - I really can't face even looking at it in any more detail...as others have said the whole CfE thing has been a chaotic nightmare. I could rant about it for pages ...but I'll spare you
Enough to say I think SNP and the phrase 'piss up in a brewery' springs to mind...

m.scotsman.com/news/education/higher-maths-exam-pass-mark-lowered-to-33-8-1-3848951

^Pupils needed almost 34 per cent to achieve a C-grade and 60 per cent for an A, according to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
Last year, a pass mark of 45 per cent was required for a C in Higher Maths^

I sat what was then called Ordinary Grade Maths in 1975. At that time Arithmetic was taught as a separate examinable subject so that O-Grade Maths concentrated on the more difficult purely mathematical side of the subject. Arithmetic was taught without using calculators (they didn't exist) Getting 100% correct answers in the Arithmetic paper was commonplace. Arithmetic was taught as a practical skills for life, not an academic subject.

I passed Mathematics and Arithmetic at Ordinary Grade with an A which meant a pass mark of at least 70%.

I sat Higher Mathematics in 1976 and got a "compensatory O Grade" These were awarded to candidates in any subject who had pass marks of between 45%-49%.

By this level of dumbing down last year I would have had a C pass and this year possibly a B pass in Maths. I know that I was rubbish at Higher Maths. The leap from Ordinary to Higher was huge. I didn't deserve a Higher Maths award having failed more than half the questions. I fail to see how it is possible to "pass" now having failed more than half the questions.

I teach. My school had NO passes at N5 Maths. Small school, but still....The Maths teachers that have presided over this fuck up have been there 10 years plus and NOTHING has been done. There are generations of kids who do not have a pass at that level and who are either having to resist as adults, sometimes years later, or having their life chances reduced. For comparison, 100% pass in my own subject and lots of As. But no action. Union protection means that the needs of teachers (a job) are out before the needs of children.

That's very worrying about no passes at N5.

Sturgeon may drone on about getting her hands on the "fiscal levers" but the Scottish economy is going to go swiftly down the pan if we have an illiterate and innumerate workforce.

I would like to take NS around our local primary (very mixed area). Where teaching assistant hours have been cut. After school sports virtually eradicated. Sports classes cancelled for lack of space. Kids changing in classrooms together. Walls crumbling.

It makes me fucking mad. We are failing these kids.

So, no - the SNP are utter gobshites with hollow promises and populist policies.

Don't forget that this year's Higher Maths paper was unusually difficult, and that is why the pass mark was low - it was adjusted so that this year's candidates that would have achieved a C grade last year would still achieve a C grade this year.

Union protection means that the needs of teachers (a job) are out before the needs of children. Could this be one of the problems? Don't want to inflame the argument too much but teaching unions are powerful in Scotland. Not against unions and used to be a union rep myself.

Both genuinely have Scotland and it's people at the heart of their interests

The only thing at the heart of AS & NS's interests is breaking up the UK. It's their raisin d'être and they'd do or say anything to achieve that regardless of whether it was actually in the best interests of the people living in Scotland.

The council tax freeze has resulted in devastation to local public services throughout Scotland and has cost £0.5B the country to date. That may be your idea of doing what's best for people but it's not mine. It's classic smoke and mirrors SNP politics - make the people think we're on their side when really were manipulating them and blaming it on someone else all to achieve our end goal.

Queen, Wanker, I'm so glad to read your comments about being in the dark re how your children are progressing. I was worried it was just me who felt like that. I have two DDs - one in P7 & one in P5. I think they are doing ok but I have no real idea. Report cards aren't worth the paper they're written on and the lack of formal testing worries the hell out of me. the once fantastic Scottish education system is being dismantled in front of our eyes and it scares me.

I was another one who failed Higher Maths and got a Comp O lol
I am horrified how little homework Ds gets (in third year) in what is a good state school, allegedly. What he does get he dashes down, all untidy and half assed...and gets good marks! His hand writing is atrocious. In my day the whole thing would be red penned and given back to me to do properly! He is clever with science subjects but struggles with French and seems to have the kind of French vocabulary that I would have had after the first few months of learning the subject. He never has formal vocabulary learning to do- we had a list every single night.
He is not being stretched at all and is capable of so much more
We also pay to get him to school and back as we are out of the catchment for school buses and the service bus which used to run at school time has been taken off. We pay for music tuition even though he is taking music as a curriculum subject. The discipline in many Scottish high schools is almost non-existent - I gave up working in schools years ago because of it. And while I'm on a rant, the state of the fucking roads is appalling - potholes just being patched if you are lucky! But we have free prescriptions so its all OK!

demented - yes, that's my experience of S3 though S4 does seem to be a bit busier as far as homework is concerned. DS1 definitely seems to have something on every night now - he didn't last year in S3 and DS2 currently in S3 is the same in terms of handwriting and general slap dash last minute work. Also a good state school, we are also out of catchment and bus was removed - i'm wondering if it is the same one? Blue Blazer?

I failed Chemistry Higher in '83 and got a comp O - already had an O'grade so now I have 2 :)

Purple blazer wanker which probably outs me. However he hardly ever wears it, along with the rest of them who look like the raggle taggle gypsies oh as they slouch along to school!

It would be really interesting if English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish children sat an identical test at the age of eleven. It would show which educational systems were working and what wasn't.

Back to the thread. I feel that the SNP is the only oppostion in the houses of commons at the moment. I wish that labour would get of their arse.

blazer is compulsory and is generally worn - those who don't wear it are usually walking up in their shirt sleeves or wearing the jumper - they don't look too bad to be fair compared to some - you don't want to look at the state of the blazers too closely though :o

My kids aren't in school yet but several teacher friends who are staunch socialists admitted that if their kids were in exam years (nats/highers?) they would send them to private school as that's how bad it is here. I have to say I was utterly shocked to hear that things were that bad.

I can't afford private so I just need to keep my fingers crossed that they get enough passes at a decent level to do whatever it is they want to do.