Nick Clegg to propose voluntary 'summer school'

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Morning.

Apparently Nick Clegg is going to use his keynote speech to the LibDem conference to give his response to the recent riots and propose a voluntary summer-school scheme providing catch-up classes for around 100,000 pre-secondary school children who are at risk of 'falling through the cracks'.

The full story is here.

What do you reckon? Could this be an effective intervention and help prevent children 'going off the rails'?

DS was a volunteer tutor/mentor on a similar scheme 10 years ago.

He says it was a disaster as none of the kids wanted to be there, they wanted to be out and about playing with their mates!

The inference is that children go off the rails because they are badly educated and falling behind. I would have said that it's the other way around. Many who go off the rails will be already be persistent truants from compulsory education and therefore a voluntary scheme won't reach them. It could be useful for motivated children who want to improve themselves, however. So I wouldn't dismiss it entirely

are the teachers going to be volunteers as well then?

Wouldn't it be a better idea to put more resources into schools to stop children 'falling through the cracks' in the first place?

I think it could help some children, who realise they are falling behind and want to do something about it. But it's not going to help those who don't know or don't care, or whose circumstances have already pushed them so far the wrong direction that they don't see any alternatives.

But if it nudges even a small number of children in the right direction, that's got to be worth a try.

those children could(and should) be helped in school though surely? It is going to be much more difficult for a teacher that doesn't know a child and has no existing relationship with them to tackle this over a very short time period. If they are intending to target pre-secondary (current year 6) children then there is a whole school year to put something into place.

Interesting. So the transition from primary to secondary is a factor??

So why on earth were the government hell bent on getting rid of the 3 tier system? It works well, snd fortunately, csnerons cuts mean fir now, we get to keep ours

We have middle schools for years 5 to 8, then year 9 they start upper school

Middle school is a combination of primary and secondary I guess, but has been great for my dc. Very easy transition

It sounds like a gimmick to me.

Sort out the schools in the first place. Stop closing children and centres (don't blame local councils - they do it because central gov has cut their funding), stop slashing EMA and demonising families on benefits.

perhaps the government shouldn't have cut the one to one tuition? That could easily have been used to target 'at risk' children.

I do wish governments would stop patronising us with their gimmicks and desire to make new headlines instead of actually taking an objective view of what has and hasn't worked in previous administrations. How many designs of the wheel are kicking about now...?

How is this going to be paid for? How are the group leaders going to be paid? bet they will be expected to give their time for free through the fucking Big Society

It looks like it'll be paid for from the 'pupil premium'.

IMO - there is no point in forcing schools to do this. It's one thing for a Free School or Academy (or any school in fact) to 'choose' to spend some of their budget on this - If they see this will help the transition and have longer term benefit. But I don't agree with forcing schools.

For 99% of children, good parenting will stop children going off the rails.

all parents, should attend compulsory parenting classes for their child's pre-school year, and keep having intervention if a child's behaviour remains a cause for concern.

Oh, that costs money, and governments aren't interested in throwing money at Cinderella projects