Fear for your children's education under the Tories

[MissM]

Ed Balls' letter to Michael Gove today

This is the end of huge amounts of hard work by committed professionals in the education sector with the best interests of children at heart. Vote Tory for higher teenage pregnancy rates, financial mismanagement and boring teaching.

no, I am asking you which boarding school cost 20k 12 years ago. Did I say you were lying? Eton costs around 28k now I believe, so I'd be surprised if even there had cost that much 12 years ago. Feel free to lay elaborate and enlighten me! For my part, suggest you read NoseyNooNoo's post...

regarding Assisted Places "saving the LEA money", I'd also love to know on average what it costs the state/taxpayer to educate each child annually in the state sector. Can't find this info though...

It saved the LEA money because, certainly when I was under the scheme, the amount that the school charged the LEA was less than the cost per pupil at a state school, presumably because the independent school was more efficient.

So, if you don't know how much it costs to educate a child in the state sector, how can anyone say that it saves the LEA money

Bit illogical.

I think you're mistaken again. When I was under the assisted places scheme, it is a FACT, that the amount my school charged for my fees was less than the cost per pupil in a state school in my local LEA and also less than the England and Wales average at that time. I did not know at the time that I would have to remember the figures many years later but I can assure you that the above is FACT because I used those figures when people with chips on their shoulders attacked my assisted place.

Riven, did DC say when you met him that he was anti-inclusion?

We have an excellent SN school near us - I guess it's the old post-code lottery again.

I'm not really one for choice per se. I just think everyone's local school should be excellent. I think Labour have failed on that one.

This IFS report estimated private day school fees as £8000 pa and average state costs as £5000 pa in 2006. There is big regional differences and so it would be feasible that e.g a rural boarding school would have 'cheaper' fees (without the boarding element) than average costs in an urban state school.

what a load of rubbish (the letter not the thread!) do you think Michael Grove read it? (other than for a laugh) I wonder if he just chucked it in the bin!

The letter really is a load of guff isn't it?

Crikey ILove - can see you've benefited from a Labour education system!

re your 23.12;

Nosey said she had an assisted place and it saved the LEA money. I would think she has detail to back this up.

You don't appear to a have a scooby doo about assisted places 20 years ago AND you are willing to back up this lack of knowledge with no evidence at all, despite other posters being better informed than you are. And then you accuse people in general of being illogical.

In fact, I think you are Ed Balls and I claim my £5.

David Blunkett does have children. Two grown up sons I think, and one little son with Kimberley Quinn.

I think there are going to be big cuts in education, as there were under Mrs Thatcher. This government has created thousands of classroom assistant jobs. If these jobs are axed, I am concerned that teachers who have qualified in the last 10 years won't feel confident to teach 30 children on their own.

Maths under Labour

This is quite simply not good enough.

I agree with the Tories' analysis on maths, I just wish they weren't using Carol Vorderman to lend an air of intellectual credibility sleb vacuity when talking about it.

ilovemydogandmrobama, can you tell the difference between NoseyNooNoo and my posts? We're not the same person. It's more than slightly bonkers to say that because I don't know what it costs to educate a child in the state sector that no-one else can say that Assisted Places saved the LEA money. And you still haven't answered my question as to which school you were referring. Do you know which one it was?

Yes, I do.

LAbour are all about interferance in people lives and CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL. How dare they think they can dictate how I educate my child . MISSM Just out of interest can you give us an idea of what you do for a living so I can try and get a handle on where you are coming from?

This is an interesting thread which is helping me make my mind up on who to vote for.

Someone mentioned that the Conservatives will be cutting the education budget meaning less ta's in the classroom, but (apologies for my naivety) surely Labour will be cutting the budget too, and what will suffer then?

Secondly, it seems the Conservatives will be making it easier for schools to exclude unruly pupils (and rightly so) but where will these children go? Will they be sent to another school or pru or will there be a proper facility/training scheme/boot camp for them?

'I am concerned that teachers who have qualified in the last 10 years won't feel confident to teach 30 children on their own.'

We frequently teach 30 plus kids on our own - in my case, year 10s who towered above me, and I had 35 of them in a classroom which took 32. I managed. We all do. Not every class has a student that needs a TA, and some TAs can be less than useless anyway. The ones I worked with for the most part were excellent and hardworking, but some weren't.

Sheas, I expect MissM does much the same as LisaT06 on the Tory policy on inclusion thread further down the Politics section. I posted a couple of comprehensive replies to some comments she made, especially on Labour and Defence and Education, and she doesn't seem to want to play any more.

Just to second scary, its often the smaller classes with the weaker pupils which have TA's in. I teach two classes of 15 each with two TA's in for the kids with statements, but no support with my class of 32. Many of whom are well over 6ft and fill a classroom, especially when its also full of practical equipment.

A reduction in class sizes would be extremely beneficial for both ends of the achievement spectrum.

Bloody hell, I'm beginning to see how Paxman feels when talking to politicians...

That's what I'm hoping the Tories will achieve,
smaller class sizes, then each end of the spectrum and the average child who sometimes get lost in the middle will benefit.

Oh, and get rid of that pernicious database.