What do we think about the Tories proposed education policy?

[faraday]

here

This is just one article I read- there will be links here and in The Guardian on the same subject.

The bones of it seems to be that the Tories will effectively give parents 'vouchers' to spend where they want, school-wise, 'good' schools will be allowed to expand, and poorer DCs will get higher value 'vouchers' thus making those DCs more attractive to a school.

Can you see a 'middle-class backlash'?

Can we REALLY follow a Swedish model seeing as our societies are so very different?

We are a very good school with a specialism in peforming arts.

But yes agree not specialist schools are good ones or failing ones. Our specialism status reflects the fact we have outstanding facilities as well as what we are good at. We have our own theatre as well as running a successful arts festival for the local community.

Schools get a fat load of cash for having specialist status. Having specialist stautus in performing arts for example can pay for a new drama studio.

It's hard work to get it and takes a team of dedicated staff who are prepared to work their socks off to get the extra funding - all signs of a good school.

I think subjects are having much less emphasis on coursework.

I would like to see the same as you, education should be a great leveller.

You are very right kathy. The system needs to be easy to navigate without parental involvement in order to be fair to children.

Coursework is on the way out, thank God.

The pupils who are least likely to do well on coursework units are boys from disaffected backgrounds. They just don't have the means or motivation to do the work at home. The number of lads I have taught who have got Ds and Es on coursework, then As and Bs in the final exam, makes me feel ill.

That's good to know, KingRolo and Flatcap. I was in the first cohort of GCSEs at a grammar school and you would not believe the help we got from our devoted parents. For the history 'empathy question' we had to write an editorial for 1920s magazine 'The Flapper', and the girl who did best was one whose mother actually took her to an archive to look at genuine 1920s magazines.
The unfairness of the system has been bothering me since 1988

Maybe there could be coursework-only GCSEs? Because I think that the research skills that can be developed by coursework are fantastic. It just isn't fair, however, to incorporate coursework into standard examinations.

For example, I could imagine a "History by Coursework" or "Geography by Coursework" GCSE...

Yes, coursework is deeply unfair. Contemporaries of my DCs have openly discussed 'doing coursework' for their girlfriends etc, and this is getting their grades up from B to A or A to A*. God knows what is must be like for poor children who have no help, no parental encouragement and no idea what to do. When coursework first came in, colleagues at work with older children openly admitted doing it for them!!!

I left my DCs to it, but they are pretty bright and could do it without any hinderance help from me or DH.

The only way it should continue, IMO, is if it is done under controlled, examination conditions AT school.

margot - I think I'm right in saying that subjects where coursework is necessary (art, media etc) it is continuing but will be done under controlled conditions at school. A good move which will level the playing field considerably.

I teach Media GCSE (among other things) and in the past the kids who have done well have often been the ones whose parents have done the design work for them on the home PC. It's totally obvious the work is not theirs but difficult to do anything about it if the kids and parents lie about it.

Coming back to Tory education policy, what do those of you who are teachers think about their proposals for 'Giving power back to teachers'? (link to the actual document is on the right in the downloads section under the photo of Michael Gove).

Is this sound common sense or ignorant and unworkable?

am reading it but this leapt out:

'we have surveyed the top 100 state schools and there is a clear pattern: they have uniforms, prefects, home school contracts, and children stay in school grounds during breaks. We will encourage this best practice by publishing details of OFSTED inspections of these various policies so that parents can see what the best schools do and whether their own child?s school is doing the same.'

is this a little bit like saying 'we see that the highest-paid earners in this country have neat heaircuts, wear suits and drive BMWs; therefore we suggest that to increase one's earning power you should get a haircut, wear a suit and drive a BMW'?

hmm?

LOL MrsBadger. Maybe compulsory Latin mottos should be part of the plan too?

well i can certainly see that neat haircuts and suit wearing would help increase one's earning power

but not as much as more vital things, like perhaps some qualifications?

well ..there's obviously a connection then.. perhaps not thinking about fashion helps the children to focus on the purpose of school, home school contracts obvious one children staying in school grounds, helps to remind them they are there to learn, not to socialise ..

all in all, responsible behaviour

It's obvious vote grabbing isn't it? Parent power, tick; Discipline, tick; Uniform, tick; etc, etc. Seems to appeal to most people whatever their background, but all it's really saying is we want good schools where kids behave and do well. D'oh, of course we all want that, but surface changes such as shiny uniforms aren't going to create that, it's about the culture within the school and you only get that with good teaching and mutual respect between students and teachers. Doesn't matter what the kids are wearing if you haven't got that.

I think if any government REALLY wants to improve DCs life chances, the best policy is to encourage 'wanted' children- which is a HUGE issue!

Whilst I agree entirely with schemes that attempt to reach out to 'disaffected' youth, the simple fact is you are weeing in the wind. At its core, I believe that for a DC to have a reasonably good 'chance' in life in general, that DC MUST feel themselves to be valued, cared for, nurtured and loved. I am annoyed at how much time is now taken up in school trying to teach the sort of thing a DC OUGHT to learn at home. THIS is why our curriculum is so full of 'soft' subjects!

Of course we must continue to help these DCs as best we can- ignoring the problem only increases the risk further that they will become tomorrow's 'social problem', spawning yet further generations of the unteachable.

On the subject of the ever expanding 'good' school, I think it was BonsoirAnna who noted that the nature of a good school changes with expansion. We have seen this locally: Due to the direness and failure of a couple of comps in our nearby big city, many DCs came from there to the comp in our small market town, Within a year we had knives, drug trading, punch-ups at the school gates. And a groudswell of existing parents removing their DCs and sending them 8 miles to another town. Ridiculous.

I think one DOES reach a point where all those DCs who can be helped have been and we will always be left with a small group who will only ever disrupt classes and wreck the education of others.

We may praise grammar schools. Once upon a time, one's future was completely circumscribed by one's birth. The grammar school came along and gave the more intellectual the chance to change their futures- into the sunlit uplands of the massively expanding middle class professions. Meanwhile, jobs for the less academically able were 10 a penny, honest employment providing income, respect and status.

Now the manual jobs are disappearing like scotch mist, (and many middle class jobs are in trouble in financially straightened times) and the grammar schools have to a large extent been hijacked by the 'private-abled' parents. We live in a different world!

MY solution (apart from the nasty spectre of the social engineering necessary to ensure more babies are supported and wanted!)- is a massive expansion of selection: We'd have academic schools (or section in a school), we'd have PROPER technical schools which you'd have to have an interest and ability in to gain access; you'd have Sports colleges; Arts colleges etc. As I say, perhaps all on the same campus. But this One Size Fits All educational dog's breakfast we've been left with suits few except those parents able to engineer their DC's passage into a state grammar.

Or those who have done what we've done: gone to a lot of hassle and expense to get into the catchment of a good comp that happens to be in Middle Class Central!

I wonder what other 'clear patterns' there are in those top 100 schools? I would love to see some data on average parental income, price of house in catchment area and entry requirements...

Actually in the interests of research I have just perused the BBC league table of the top 94 schools at GCSE level,
44 of them are independent so I am not counting them.

Of the remaining 50 state schools guess how many are academically selective?

go on guess
go on go on go on

yes, every single sodding one

what other 'patterns', eh?

• a fair few of the schools with such good Ofsteds are the new Academies started by New Labour. Jury's out on them as far as I'm concerned, but it's interesting that Mr Gove neglects to acknowledge the source of his ideals. Not so much a new Tory policy, as a stolen one then.

Also, I'm not sure Public School boys are necessarily the best ones to be engineering the education of the rest of us! Esp as THEIR DCs will go private too.

It's a voting policy, not a real one surely????

faraday you have put your finger on one of the reasons the thought of the Tories in power makes me very uncomfortable

I think the basic premise of the Academy is a good one. It's a bit of a return to basics. They have perhaps grabbed some ideas from 'successful' models eg grammar schools- BUT of course at a grammar, the simple fact is discipline is going to be less of an issue as the DCs there are bright enough to recognise what exactly they're THERE for! Strict uniform so enforce the idea of there being straight, clear rules you cannot break; and of course in some cases fierce competition for places ensuring they get the 'committed'.

Good performing comps will tend to be in more middle class areas where DCs will tend to be more school-ready.

I actually don't know what one does with the disaffected!

"..it's about the culture within the school and you only get that with good teaching and mutual respect between students and teachers. Doesn't matter what the kids are wearing if you haven't got that..."

Yes but surely the very basics of learning self respect and respect for others starts at home from the moment of birth? I think 4.5yr is actually too old to change the damage of exposure to anti-social behaviour at home, let alone 11!

It's the parents who have to take the responsibility!

the trouble with glib, surface-skimming motherhood-and-apple-pie window-dressy voting policies like this is they have a terrible habit of being enacted because they are, like smee said, things that look good but have no substance

(NB there is a ncie concise word that means 'glib, surface-skimming motherhood-and-apple-pie window-dressy' but I cannot think of it just now)