What does Nicky Morgan not seem to understand?

[theluckiest]

Nicky Morgan urges teachers' unions to 'do their bit' www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35899478

No Nicky, teaching is not wonderful at the moment. No, teachers are not just moaning yet again (because that's what we usually do, isn't it?). No, your constant interfering, moving of goalposts and unnecessary 'reforms' are not helping anyone. In fact, you are damaging education irreparably.

Here's an example: the 'more rigorous' testing that you insist all 11 year olds should be put through are actually damaging. They are demoralising teachers but much more importantly, they are seriously damaging children's mental health. Yes, really. The stress these children are being put under is unforgivable this year. As a school we are held to ransom because of these tests (let's be honest, tests that we teachers, parents and schools know are bullshit).

They feel like they have failed already because your 'rigour' is inappropriate, unnecessary and completely pointless. They despise learning this nonsense and I can't blame them. At a time of their lives when learning should be exciting, they are force-fed inaccurate, archaic grammar and given the message that their writing cannot be good enough if it doesn't have a semi-colon.

Sounds crazy doesn't it? Because it is. So forgive me if I don't "Use the tools available to them to build up teachers, promote the profession and tell the story of what a rewarding job teaching really is" at the moment. (how I laughed when I read that one!!)

And don't get me started on academisation....Nicky, take your fingers out of your ears and listen. Before it's too late.

I'm fairly sure that when the 2017 results come out and the pass rate falls by 23% as predicted, you'll get parents on here saying 'why didn't anyone warn us?'

If teachers just get on with it, even though it's crap, then we will get it in the neck when parents are oblivious to how bad it is until the inevitable happens.

This thread hardly demonstrates a concerted effort by the teaching profession to protect students from the negativity, does it?

I'm fairly sure my students don't read mumsnet.

I'm in agreement with PrettyBrightFireflies

For months now I have been listening to colleagues use the new curriculum as something between a threat and a prophecy of doom; i understand why , but there comes a point where it's just not helpful.

Giraffe I agree there will be a higher rate of failure. Is that such a bad thing?

When everyone or nearly everyone can obtain something it loses its value.

Well, raining, if you had prepared for an exam, worked hard, and then when you turned the paper over found that the questions were on a topic which were not on the syllabus, would you be sanguine and say Oh well, just one of those things? Or would you be spitting blood about it?

If you fail because you haven't bothered to work then that's a different matter,

I'm fairly sure my students don't read mumsnet.

Yours may not, but lots of students do; are you only concerned about the impact of your words on the students you currently teach?

will be a higher rate of failure. Is that such a bad thing?

In the first two years, those who fail GCSE maths and English won't be forced to resit, in future years those who fail will. I would say that this is a bad thing. Those first failures will be left with qualifications which will disadvantage them compared to future cohorts when applying for jobs.

Incidentally only about 2/3s of students currently pass GCSE maths so it's hardly something that nearly everyone achieves.

Oh, another thing that teachers do wrong. Perhaps it was just me and my colleagues then. And you seem to be saying now that teachers should not express any negative opinion about current education policy on any kind of public platform, for fear of encouraging negativity amongst students/parents. So, again, put up and shut up, no matter what changes are implemented.

Is it Eastasia or Eurasia we're currently being positive about? I find it hard to keep track.

but lots of students do

If you're on school holidays and reading this thread, please post so we can do a headcount.

You're suggesting that I should censor an adult conversation on an adult forum in case there are kids listening in on a fairly dull thread about politics?

Bloody hell I've heard it all now. If kids are reading this thread then they are perfectly capable of reading the news where the same concerns are raised.

Peregrine that isn't even remotely close to what is happening; I really don't know how you have managed to make that comparison to be honest.

I don't think anyone is saying teachers can express misgivings and concerns but the problem is that teachers do it every single time something is changed, with the result that it's become meaningless.

Yours may not, but lots of students do; are you only concerned about the impact of your words on the students you currently teach?

Ha, ha. i just can't take you seriously anymore Pretty. Are you seriously suggesting that students reading teachers expressing opinions on mumsnet will have an effect on their learning. Even year 1 students are taught not to believe random people on the internet.

Anyway, even if there are thousands of students reading this I think it is good for them to see people standing up for what they believe in.

the problem is that teachers do it every single time something is changed, with the result that it's become meaningless.

It also seems that teachers focus on the worst possible scenarios, such as the exam paper post ^^.

In some cases, teachers actually perpetuate untruths - I've seen several teachers post on their FB wall the myth about school playing fields being handed over to the private sector to profit out of by selling the land off for housing. Parents and students believe them and assume that they must know what's going on in their own sector.

Expressing reasoned, balanced concern is one thing - knee jerk doom-mongering in order to win support for a cause is another. The NUT seem to prefer the latter.

I don't think I can express that any more articulately.

So is it a bad thing, raining or merely doom-mongering that the first two years of failures will be disadvantaged by their qualification compared to future cohorts?

Bad thing or doom-mongering that we can't give pupils a clear idea before they sit the exam whether they will pass or not?

Just to get an idea of what you think are reasonable concerns...

I remember my teachers telling me that I'd be disadvantaged in the job market because employers wouldn't understand the GCSE system and that jobs would go to people who had O Levels, even if they were lower grades.

Just for the record I'm not an NUT member, never have been and never would be.

Reasoned, balanced concern. Hmm. Is it unreasonable and unbalanced to point out that whole scale academisation is essentially an experiment, with no reasonable evidence that it will improve matters? Is it unreasonable/unbalanced to point out that the rate and speed of major change has increased in recent years, and that this upheaval has the effect of adding to teacher workload. The current (alleged?) recruitment crisis in England must surely be related to this? I recently left teaching after 12 years, resigning without a job to go to, because the workload was becoming untenable. Is that a coincidence?

So what, pretty? This is nothing to do with employers not understanding the new GCSEs. A 5 will be a pass. Students who do not get a 5 will be forced to resit except if they are in the first two years of the new exams. Then, failure will not force resits, but they will still be graded as failures.

giraffe Were my teachers wrong, then?

I'm not an NUT member either, if that makes any difference.

I do find it pretty appalling though, that I am being told to censor myself on the Internet in case people realise what a crock of badly-thought-out rushed-through shit these changes are.

Teachers shouldn't talk about how bad government education policy is because what? People might become disillusioned with it?

I will not be told to sell the Emperor's New Clothes.

I don't know, pretty, I'm not that old.

I'm not sure if you are saying that you think no one should be made to re-sit, giraffe, or that everyone should.

The issue for me is not whether or not the concerns are reasonable ones. In a sense, whether they are or they are not, things are going to plough on ahead and change.

Every single time education has been changed, teachers have been up in arms. We have done ourselves no favours with that because the general attitude by now is that teachers won't like anything the government does, so people shrug and smile and roll their eyes a bit.

Mumsnet is not reflective of the general attitudes: we have a high proportion of teachers and people involved in education and posters who have children with special educational needs. General attitudes are very much that forced academisation is a positive thing, that GCSEs and A levels weren't adequately preparing students for further academic study (I agree, actually although I think a longer transition should have happened but understand why it did not) and that extra curricular activities are a positive (again I partly agree.)

If I went off social media my conclusions would be different, but I think my second paragraph is what most people think and I do partly at least agree with NM - at this stage of the game 'fighting' is pointless.

I'm the same age as you pretty, I think. I don't know the answer to your question either. Fortunately I didn't attempt to enter the employment market until 6 years after doing my GCSEs so I imagine by then employers had got their head round them, plus my A levels/degree etc were more important than my GCSEs. So I can't see how I can tell if it affected me. Perhaps there was research done at the time into effects on employment, don't know if they'd be accessible now.

I guess you think your teachers were wrong! And certainly I agree that they shouldn't have tried to scare monger, if that's what they did. I imagine it's another piece of evidence that convinces you that teachers are consistently doom-mongering. You seem to have come through your (state?) education fairly unscathed though?

raining you have no idea how relieved I am to read that from someone in the teaching profession. I was beginning to think the teachers who had shared that same opinion with me were the shunned Mavericks of the staff room!

I agree that fighting is pointless. That's a fantastically positive rallying call, isn't it!

If I went off social media my conclusions would be different.

What have you based your conclusions on then raining?