middle class

[southeastastra]

why is it so important for them to all conform to a certain standard

the right playschool, the right school, university, job

the right clothes, politically correct opinions, cars. does it not get suffocating to conform?

You can supervise rather than teach private study. Supervisors are cheaper than teachers.

Yes and the results would reflect that.

Perfectly happy to pay teachers more and with a higher rate of tax. But that would have to go hand in hand with more rigorous performance management. My DD attended a small comp with a wonderful reputation. In five years she had one incompetent maths teacher, one incompetent Spanish teacher, one incompetent geography teacher, exceptionally mediocre science teaching, etc. 30 pupils suffering poor teaching year on year. The head was on 105,000k per annum and was there for eight years during which time results declined significantly.

I'm all for better pay for teachers but I don't think SLT members are underpaid and I do think if salaries increase performance needs to be dealt with swiftly so that fewer children suffer poor teaching for shorter periods of time.

Anyway sorry that was so far off topic.

I don't understand the obsession with class on Mumsnet - no one talks about it in real life. I find it all quite oppressive...do people really try to live a life of things they dislike to appear middle class are people really so insecure? It all seems so dull and unnecessary to feel constrained by these things - yet I feel intrigued by people who do.
People often judge me to be someone I'm not - my image and my personality have always been strangely at odds - I apparently look stuck up but I am anything but - I'm a slack rebel at heart.

Sorry belle don't see how performance management could be stricter. very few poor teachers

Perhaps we were just at the wrong school. It felt scandalous.

If you want to recruit more teachers then you need a better work life balance. They are leaving in droves- I don't see how stricter performance management helps- it is already strict. It is very difficult to recruit Heads or Maths or Science teachers.

Agree mehita it's awful.

Mehita I agree. Good job we've got people like Beaufort Belle to keep us all in line- nothing like someone who knows nothing about a topic to consider themselves an authority on it.

I don't think more rigorous performance management is the answer but it will be interesting to see what happens with exams with a more academic slant to them.