CONCERNS over our Education System

[17rosie]

Just wondering who else has seen this article? It makes for very sad and concerning reading. Children are no longer the priority in our data driven/Ofsted obsessed education system ....

www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/11/secret-teacher-teaching-climate-fear-ofsted

I feel sorry for the teachers, but surely the big issue is resources, ie smaller class sizes, less paperwork and more staff?

This would allow teachers to put even more time into raising academic achievement as well, as they could work in small groups.

In the few years of my children being at school I have seen class sizes rising massively and no provision being made to address this issue. In my whole area (north of England), every school is bursting at the seems, with infant class sizes of 32-36 per class.

I don't understand why the teaching unions are not up in arms about this, because I think they would get a lot of media and public support.

Resources, yes, but there is a culture of fear and managerial bullying in many schools which is completely unnecessary and counterproductive. Good teachers are leaving the profession.

Sorry I have no sympathy,all sectors have the bar raised consistently and have to face the consequences if they don't achieve targets.

For parents like us with kids in schools Satisfactory or below the drive for improved standards is more than welcome.

We didn't need Ofsted or data to tell us our school was far from Outstanding and sitting on it's laurels,it was blatantly obvious.

Having said that I think there are far too many teachers suffering under crap head teachers.

Blueskies I do agree but are there many other professions where external influences beyond the control of an employee affect targets so significantly?

Badly written article -eg 'fear in our bellies' 'don't get me wrong' .
Why do they consider visits to other school 'humiliating'?
They seem to have taken on a victim role ('people crying in their cars') and are passively waiting for some external agent to fix it for them.

In all areas external influences affect attainment of targets! It would be interesting to know if these people have ever worked in other jobs, or if they have gone the school-university-teaching route.

Errr yes.

They're called clients.

In the current climate there is no prospect of smaller class sizes, more resources etc. The accepted thinking appears to be to squeeze Education and Health to the absolute limit and if the public don't like it then those that can will go private. Tough luck for the rest of us.

We live in rural Wales and have been lucky enough to enjoy smaller class sizes until recent years. The local authorities nowthreaten all the small schools with closure. This in itself becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy as all the pushy parents jump immediately to grab all the places at the "better" schools (which then become overcrowded....but bigger is better no?)

The pressure on teachers and health care professionals right now must be unbearable. Do double/triple the work for ever decreasing pay and resources and if anything goes wrong, the buck stops with you. (I'm not either btw, just my observation).

I'd rather my dc were taught in a larger class by a decent teacher in a school with a decent head than in a smaller class with a less than satisfactory teacher under a satisfactory or under head.

If that was the choice I'm sure many would agree, but it isn't necessarily is it?

It's just that the bullying and humiliation approach doesn't work, the teachers unsurprisingly have breakdowns or leave.

"Having said that I think there are far too many teachers suffering under crap head teachers." You may or may not be correct with this, but maybe the government also needs to address why so few people want to be headteachers.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22554938

MrsSalvoMontalbano

"It would be interesting to know if these people have ever worked in other jobs, or if they have gone the school-university-teaching route."

that you posted this just means that you are not worth listening to.

I teach in a secondary school which became an academy 2 yrs ago having been in special measures for the previous 18 months. I enjoy it very much. The kids are great, I have the autonomy to run my non-core dept how I want (to an extent) and I get great results. However, in a teaching staff of 40 (small school) there are 6 currently off with long term stress and all three heads of core depts are leaving at the end of the year. Clearly something is going wrong. I don't believe it's something unique to my school. I used to teach in London, in a school which is now very well regarded, but used to be known as a school where a teacher was stabbed and another beaten up in the playground. It seems that teaching is becoming a profession for the resilient- if you can't handle it, you will end up ill. That concerns me greatly.

This is just a sign of the future. I'm not a teacher, but in my industry it is a LOT more stressful now than 20 years ago. My DCs will never have the life my parents had - not even I do. They had little stress, dad had 9 to 5 working hours, mum was SAHM. Still earned enough to have the nice things in life though.

In future, there will also be a lot more people with a lot less jobs. This kind of competition will mean that everyone has to be able to deal with stress and give 100% at work. So if you get stressed now, I don't know how you'll cope in future. I know not everyone can handle this - but that's where the future is going unless people decide to have less kids. Amazing how some people put their noses up, when I say that China is probably the future (problem there: too many people!). And yet, these very same people often don't agree that maybe it is better to just have 2 rather than 5 kids.

So whatever job you have, however stressful it may be now, all I can say is you need to build up resilience. Things will only get harder...