Educating Greater Manchester

[Hepzibar]

Just love this series.

Rani

I thought Lily dealt beautifully with Jacob for an 11 year old. She’s going to do well in life I think, she has a sweet spark about her.

Am very glad they split us the boys Tiger and Billy and they both did so well separately but are still best friends.

I thought the Jacob and Lilly situation was quite a depressing example of how an 11 year old boy has already absorbed the idea that he has the right to keep on at a girl who is saying 'no' to him. And how that 11 year old girl didn't want to upset him by being assertive about it.

Fully agree youcanstay....
it's not helping him either. Behaviour that can be "aw cute" in an 11 yr old quickly becomes "ugh creep" in a few short years.
Also in feminist terms I found it quite weird how the ht kept saying the photo the girl had sent to a boy in snapchat was degrading, to the extent he forced her to repeat it. I mean, yes, obviously it's not ideal, but making her say that her body in underwear is degrading? She's in year 11 so 15/16 ...models only a year or so older than her pose in underwear for catalogues as normal, and celebrities pose nude and say it's empowering...no wonder the poor girl is confused about what is/isn't appropriate, and she needs someone to discuss it with her with sensitivity, a bit like the women in the office advised her about locking down her fb...not just to be told she's degraded herself!

I felt The reason the HT kept saying that was to emphasise the point home as she’d been very naïve and because she came from another country and an all girls school he probably felt he needed to be very hard on her to stop her sharing pictures of herself half dressed on the internet. Her reaction of a shrug to her friend who told her not to do it again showed me how she didn’t really know the dangers she was potentially opening herself to.

I can’t imagine a more demoralising meeting than that one discussing only 5% were tracking to pass maths and English after the mocks. Must have been so disheartening.
Good for them for highlighting ridiculous class sizes and the lack of funding.

Yes very demoralising the teachers worked so hard. I couldn't help feel though that the main focus was behaviour issues rather than learning. They should have enough been doing the extra classes all year not just when they realised very late in the day they were up the creek. They were battling chaotic home lives, fractured families, low confidence, government cuts but the lessons weren't great. For example kids listening to music or being on phones isn't acceptable at our comp if they get them out their bag they're confiscated. I think a bit more strictness and focused learn would have gone some way. Feel sorry for the brighter ones but results wise the school was crap despite the lovely staff.

You’d really feel the frustration from the head and teachers over the change in grading and it not being across the board.

I do agree that behavioural expectations seem very low in this school although I know that it’s better than where they started 11/12 years ago when MR Povey arrived. It’s probably more effective to increase the standards bit by bit every year rather a massive culture shock and parents and students rebelling.

I feel for any child in the school who turned up in the morning wanting to work hard but instead had to put up with the nonsense going on. I think I would have thrown some of them out the door or said to the headmaster - Im not going back in that classroom until you sort them out.

And I'd have liked to know if the 30% was up or down on last years results.

I couldn't help feel though that the main focus was behaviour issues rather than learning

I agree.

All the headboy headgirl stuff was faff that took away from learning too. The bright motivated students benefited but no real benefit for the 95%. I think the school had lost its way and become a daycare centre and forgot about the teaching

I don't think you can do all those extra lessons for the whole year before exams ,you risk burn out that way. I'm surprised the results were such a surprise to the teachers though,surely they would have had an idea from class work/ assesments/ tests?

Ds had pre mocks,mocks and finally exams

I loved the Head Boy, Head Girl stuff.

A report today says that fewer children from the North of England get to Oxbridge. I think this programme shows us why! It must be so disheartening for the brighter children who want more out of their education.

Um no. There are plenty of bright kids and good schools north of the Watford Gap. Maybe less public schools, which are the main recruitment ground for Oxford/Cambridge.

Dame, at a few comps in my (deprived) area, afterschool 'intervention' every night runs all year. Well, I say intervention, it's more like extra unpaid lessons for the teachers. Y11 already look burnt out and it's only October.

Children in the North in state education are playing against a rigged deck when it comes to applying to Oxbridge.

Interesting points from pps about extra lessons in year 11. I've seen different schools do it different ways in year 11 and I don't think one single approach will suit all pupils.
I know one local school did breakfast sessions during the actual GCSES. That would have made my head explode! However some people really like it. My ds was desperate for some extra sessions in April/May but the school didn't give any so I did what I could for him in English which he was stressing over.
I think, in a school like Harrop Fold, having regular extra sessions is a good idea, given many children comes from disadvantaged backgrounds. We spend a fortune on revision materials and printing out past papers. Some families just can't do that. It's a strain on the staff but it could help these children.
I read an interview with Drew Povey where he was talking about the awful financial constraints he has, including an historical debt. He said he's actually started playing the lottery every week and would give the money to the school if he won. I totally believe him. He may not be perfect but he is absolutely dedicated to that school.

That school must get more pupil premium money than most though, that's presumably what they are using to pay for the behavioural support team etc.
Our local comprehensive runs booster sessions all year fir gcse English and maths specifically focused at the kids from more challenging environments or those at risk of not passing.

I'm full of admiration for Mr Povey because it takes a certain kind of person to be able to spout the nonsense he had to spout to the majority of those 'problem' kids who were for the most part just downright bloody obnoxious.

A lot was made of the fact that many of the teachers/staff came from the same kind of background and place as the kids but perhaps thats one of the problems - it doesn't help, its counterproductive.

The extra classes? I think the children who were wanting to work hard and who were at a disadvantage because of the 'problem' kids in the class should also have had their own classes in order to make up for what they were being deprived of during the day.

I know one local school did breakfast sessions during the actual GCSES. That would have made my head explode!

They were running them at ds's school, they had to be at school for 7am. They were compulsary. Ds didn't attend, it was more important for him to have a good sleep and breakfast. He'd have been exhausted by the time the exam started especially as straight after exams they went into revision sessions. It was bloody ridiculous.

** I emailed the school to say Ds wouldn't be attending, didn't hear anything back so can't have been that compulsary.

My sons school has started “study club” mon-thur afterschool. it started a few weeks ago and I assume will run throughout the year. This is his first year there so I don’t know if they do it every year. They got absolutely fantastic results this year at gcse and A level.

2014newme. So, by "They should have enough been doing the extra classes all year" you mean "the teachers who already do loads of unpaid work outside of the school hours should have done a further extra 5 hours, per week, all year." Do you routinely work an extra day or two a week at your job for free?

Also for the majority of the year who didn't apply for the head girl/boy stuff, the only time out of lessons was the quick explanatory meeting about it, which looked as though it would have been part of their normal year assembly anyway, and then the 'debate.' So maybe one hour out of their normal schedule. How would that have made the slightest bit of difference? However it was a boon for the 5% of the year that did appear to actually try hard.

I agree with the bad behaviour ruining it for everyone else. If you have 36 in a class, you only need 2 or 3 who are disruptive to put everyone off.

I found it shocking when they talked about the top set for the mocks and said there were one or two 6's, a few 5's, and then the rest were lower. So even in the top set the best mark was a B. I didn't go to a great school, but even if the target 5 A-C for the whole year results weren't great, there were always a few pupils who did get good grades (As & A*s) even if they did it mostly themselves because the teachers were concentrating on the bad behaviour/borderline students.

I found it shocking when they talked about the top set for the mocks and said there were one or two 6's, a few 5's, and then the rest were lower. So even in the top set the best mark was a B

And thats it in a nutshell!

I don't know how school timetabling works so no I'm not suggesting the teachers work for free perhaps some pupils premium money could have been invested in this area at an earlier stage.