Parents becoming teachers? Is it me or has Gove totally lost it?

[sogrownup]

How do you feel about going into school to cover for a teacher who is on strike? Is there anyone out there who believes that this is a sound idea.... I think it's madness!!

dd's teacher, who has two young children herself, gets in at 7.30am latest, works all day without drawing breath and stays cheerful with it. She gets home at 6pm, has 2 hours with her children, eats then works till midnight at least four nights per week. She is on the lowest pay rate (NQT) and still gives her time freely to participate in school fairs, open evenings, fundraisers etc. She is the norm at dd's school.

Most of the other people who work those kinds of hours around here (leafy suburb) are either bankers or doctors. Shorter holidays, wages no comparison.

State school teachers get less than 14 weeks non contact weeks. I don't knwow of any teachers, even less dedicated ones, that take their full 13 weeks non contact weeks as holiday.

I don't teach anymore.

Nice italicising/punctuation Feenie, I was thinking myself about how to put it so precisely.

gove not give!

Thank you

MsInterpret - my children only have on life and I am not sacrificing their education by sending them to a failing school. For you or anyone. Especially not when so many Labour MPs send their DCs private.

Ahem....but MoreBeta, aren't you the same poster who pays a fortune for his ds to be taught Maths in a class who all work at the same pace, without any differentiation whatsoever and straight out of a textbook????

I'm just saying, MoreBeta that if you "would like the state sector to be better" you need to act on that.

I, and thousands of other teachers across this country, are doing so. Please don't criticise us for a doing the job of supporting state sector standards, which you, clearly, would rather not.

That's how I remember it Feenie - and why I am confused about your professions of wanting to improve state sector teaching MoreBeta

MoreBeta - you want your children to be taught as you were. What evidence do you have too show that the teaching methods that were used when you were a child are more effective than the teaching methods used today?

interesting idea, if only we could get the parents who think that teaching is an easy job to do it!

I wouldn't do it, if the lovely teacher who has my DCs was striking I'd not want to tread on her toes - regardless of my opinions re the strike. It'd be like saying that I did not respect her own feelings and saying that they were not important.

Eerrrr how about children used to leave school being able to actually read and write???!!

Feenie - yes because the state alternative is so much worse in my area and I'm very annoyed by it and my DCs are leaving the school in a fortnight. As I said, some teachers are rubbish and some are in the private sector.

MsInterpret - what am I supposed to do. I don't have any say in how my local schools are run.

Anyway, this is getting way away form the thread. Teachers need to get in the real world and Govt needs to make state education work for all children.

MoreBeta there are a great many misunderstandings about schools in Special Measures. I teach in one currently. We have been in SM just over a year, and will be out by Christmas (OFSTED monitoring visit last week have told us so) I recently attended a course for outstanding teachers, during the course of which it became apparent that I, and my two collagues, had far more knowledge, understanding and appreciation of teaching than any of the others on the course - all of whom were from "good" or "outstanding" schools. This is precisely because we teach in a school in SM. Our "failure" was more due to poor management (HT and Governors all sacked) and poor budget management (again, HT and Governors) than anything else. Far from being "sacrificed", the children I teach are getting excellent teaching, and when we come out of SM, we will go into the "good" category. You, and others like you, help to push the myth that once a school has "failed", it is terminally useless, and only an idiot would "sacrifice" their children by sending them there. That's not how it works.

My dsis is a primary teacher and she showed my some marking she was doing. I pointed out that she hadn't corrected a number of spelling errors. Her response was that they are not meant to correct them as it will dent their confidence. Say what? Horrifying. That was the day I decided I would pay for my DCs to go to private school whatever it takes.

Evil - yes it was a failure of management in that school too. Any parent who could do so took their children out.

NunSoQueer - how do you know that?

How do I know what?

Well said EvilTwins.

MoreBeta - if your children attended their local state school you would. And the point I am trying to make is that sending your children to independent schools is not in any way going to help state schools to improve - which you claim to want to happen. The more conscientious and supportive parents who sent their children to local schools, regardless of their Ofsted category (and not agreeing that that's necessarily a good way to judge schools) then the better, theoretically, the local schools would become.

A blunt version of the argument, I know but I am trying to be succinct. Possibly failing; it is nearly half ten and I have to be at work in 9hrs...

that children used to leave school able to read and write

Because I have lots of them wanting me to employ them!!!!!!! I would say 1 out of every 25 CVs/letters is well written (i.e. no spelling errors and grammatically correct).

But the management has, presumably, been changed? And the school is now being run by different people in a different way? Schools change. One school, or one teacher, for that matter, who once had an Outstanding judgement from OFSTED does not become outstanding by virtue of that one judgement. The reason I think being in SM has been a good thing for my school is that it's forced all of us teachers to be completely focused and to continually strive to improve ourselves for the good of our students. Some of the others on the outstanding teachers course I attended were quite lazy in their approach. Schools are transient - only as good as their current staff and students. And that works both ways. A school which was once deemed "failing" can be "outstanding" a year or two later.

Oh and I know they used to be because I am one of them, as are all my contemporaries.

I love Michael Gove anbd think he is a brave man with noble ideas who is prepared to take on the unions and uncover what really happens in state run schools.

NunSoQueer The point about not correcting every single spelling is about focusing on the specific learning in that lesson and addressing issues to do with that in your marking.

A good teacher would note the mistaken spellings and address that in a future lesson or perhaps specifically for that child in additional personalised spellings to learn. 'Denting their confidence' sounds wishy-washy but who can argue that a page full of red markings and crossings-out is disheartening? And will rewriting each and every one of the correct spellings for each of the 30 books actually help any of the children to learn them?