gareth malone extraordinary school for boys... Are you watching

[VoldemortsNipple]

I cant wait. It looks very interesting!

BBC 2 Tonight at 9pm

pointydog I must have misunderstood your point about enrichment. What did you mean?

Oh bollocking bollocks. I forgot. Is it on iplayer?

Ingles2, my DP made the same point - the teachers could barely string sentences together yet complained that the children weren't speaking well. Some of these kids maybe come from homes where there isn't much by way of conversation, and if that's what they are then exposed to at school what do we expect?

Makes me sad.

I agree Ingles2. It wasn't just her accent (I have a regional accent) but the way she expressed herself. Wasn't she also the teacher who upon hearing about the Girls v Boys debate said 'my money's on the girls' and then laughed

I love Gareth, but am cringing a bit at this. Is this just an excuse to get Gareth on the telly? Now that they have done the singing thing to death?

Really hope he gets the results he's looking for. Can't help thinking the teachers (and head, who I presume invited him?) would enjoy him failing.

Of course they want him to fail, because they themselves have badly failed all those boys.

phew...am glad it's not just me thinking that.

Of course, and they are VERY defensive. Hated them in that wee meeting building it up with 'their behaviour has changed dramatically' and Gareth saying 'oh good!' and the year 6 teacher looking smug and snorting 'for the worse!!'

Bet they had planned that little speech. Poor Gareth. Still don't know what he was thinking, taking on this project.

joni, I only saw half the programme, but that seems like a bit of a mean comment.

Thing is, even if they don't do that well at school, over the next four decades those boys will still be paid more than women doing work of equal value (we won't get equal pay for another 34 years - 70 since the Sex Discrimination Act). I have every sympathy for those wanting children who are doing badly to succeed, but focusing on how boys are doing in Year 5 and 6 misses the bigger picture.

Yes I thought that was awful as well - very unkind. Also that teacher that said she's been 'working'on a child all year. WTF? Poor kid.

(mind you, fart's got a point about that meeting, bit of a stitch up.)

Based on the attitude of the HT and staff I wonder if it was the school governors' idea. I assume the decision was made following the success of Gareth's other youth programme.

I think it is a shame that in mainstream education there seems to be an assumption that boys and girls can be taught in the same way. Ime boys and girls are very different. Generally ds and his friends like to run around and play whereas the girls I know tend to be quieter. Of course there are exceptions to this (I was a real tomboy and have the scars to prove it!).

On a more shallow point (for that is how I am), he is still quite shaggable, but didn't like the red polo shirt, collar turned up look.

who is he?

I'm not doing very well tonight in terms of understanding posts.

Edam why shouldn't boys be valued in educational terms? The SDA and educating boys are two completely different things. Ignoring education will not improve SD in any way.

I thought that Year 5 and 6 were crucial years as they lead up to the move to secondary. I am not in education but I have two boys and the comment may seem 'mean' but I stand by it. The teachers appeared to have no real strategy as to how to help half their class (namely) boys improve their peformance.

joni, am with you on this one. I work with a group of women (of course!) who LOVE to see others fail, and I recognised it instantly with these teachers.

I agree as well... gleeful she was..
what was the school called btw? I missed it and fancy checking out it's SATs.

Pear Tree Mead. Believe it or not.

joni fwiw I agree with you. There was a lot of 'boys will be boys' attitude from the teachers. It would be interesting to know if that is really what they thought or whether it has been edited unfairly.

If I were a parent of a boy at that school I would be horrified by the negativity expressed by the HT and (female) staff.

Irrespective of educational ability one of the biggest gifts you can give a child is confidence. I've lacked it all my life (and faked it every day). It is a joy to me that ds has confidence in spades partly through his home environment but in no small part through his schooling too.

It was quite sad seeing that lad at the end (the one who decided he wasn't taking part, then did) - he said it was OK that they lost, because he was used to losing in his life! Wahhh!

Mollie, no-one said boys shouldn't be valued. That's a straw man.

The point is, getting worked up about the so-called feminisation of education is a bit rich, really, given however well girls do in school, they will still face a lifetime of discrimination. Men still have an unfair advantage purely by reason of being men.

We don't have equal pay and we won't have it for decades. We don't have equal access to power - look at MPs and especially the cabinet, look at the judiciary, look at FTSE 100 companies, look at science, look at any field you care to examine. Boys do very nicely thank you. Even those at the bottom of the heap - it was only last year that councils were forced to admit they'd been paying bin men more than cleaners for decades AND then they had the cheek to whinge about the cost of settling sex discrimination cases.

Btw, I am the mother of a ds and I'd be perfectly happy if we lived in a world where he had to succeed on his own terms.)

Discussion on Newsnight now.

It isn't just about life after education though is it edam. For me we are entitled to look at how we are educating boys and try to find out the reasons why they are not having the positive experience that girls often have. I can't dispute the fact that there is a disparity in wages between the sexes but that isn't the point. My point is why are boys of 9 or 10 not having the benefit of picking up a wonderful book (such as the Roald Dahl book one boy was given)and being able to read and enjoy it?

Edam I'm also the mother of a ds. I want him to have the best start in life possible and the best education.

I hope I will succeed in raising a man who supports and values women as his equals. His education is key to this imo.