Open Evening stresses!

[Piggywaspushed]

I work in a large secondary school. We have two open evenings coming up : one main school and one sixth form on two consecutive Thursdays .

School day finishes 3.10 pm as normal and the evenings start at 5 for three hours. Not all of us need to be at both but many do.

Work life balance!!??? hahahahahahhahhaaahhhaha! I actually dodn't think many of our SLT have children between 0 - 16 and a full time working spouse. Most hods and hofs have grown children, no children or SAHPs as partners... I, on the other hand , am a FT working mother with a FT fellow teacher DH. I thought it would get easier as my DCs got older but it really hasn't.

Anyone want to compare/play Top Trumps/ gloat?

DH (largeish private school) has two Saturday Open Mornings but only needs to attend one and he doesn't need to go to the sixth form evening.

Our school calendar was published on the 7th September, 2 weeks before open evening. Not enough time for my DH to book annual leave to be able to collect DS from the childminder which means I have no childcare. I’ve compromised and am doing the sixth form one which is in 4 weeks time so more one for DH to be able to organise his schedule.

Where did I moan about/express surprise at running extra curricular activities, fffion?

I did moan about no lunch break, but said it’s totally worth it because my job’s so enjoyable.

Yr6 parents- would mixed ability teaching put you off?
I think it would me (but DD only in Y3).
The (horrid) academy I work in has moved to mixed ability, as has the last 3 schools I've supplied in. 32 in every class too

Depends on the subject.

History / Geography / Tech / even most MFL: probably fine.

Maths: not so fine (though Y7 is a moot point, as with many feeder schools with different approaches to SATs etc, it might be reasonable to teach mixed ability for a while to get the eventual setting accurate)

English / Science: Fine for a year or so.

DS / DD's school is wholly mixed except for maths in Y7, then sets progressively for Y8 and even more for Y9. GCSE core subjects are set, others are not to allow the most flexible options blocks. It's been like that as long as anyone can remember and seems to do OK.

I'm a fan of mixed ability . Sorry. Not very fashionable view.

can see it doesn't work well in maths.

The obsession with it at our school extends to PE.

I teach mixed ability in my GCSE subject and I love it. Grades range from to 2.

I teach sets and single sex groups in the core subject. It's OK at GCSE but our first year group (year 9) don't need it. The info from feeder school is so haywire they might as well not be set.

I don't like the ghettoising of low ability boys either...

But I would say leccy good MA teaching works with classes under 24...

As a teacher in a primary that did set but now doesn't, I can't see what changes SO much over a single summer between Y6 and Y7 that children can no longer be taught in mixed ability classes ...

Even in Maths, a diamond mode of very small numbers at top and bottom being taught in different sets with a very wide 'middle' band would almost certainly work fine.

That said, the run up to GCSE in, say, Science or english is almost certainly aided by setting, just in terms of focused exam prep targeted at different audiences.

Mixed ability teaching is becoming more fashionable because the EEF toolkit says that the evidence shows that setting has a negative impact at low cost so moving to MA is seen as a cheap fix.

I have exceptionally strong doubts about the quality of the evidence regarding maths, and also don't think that the evidence regarding maths setting from other countries applies to England.

Our SLT has been rumbling about making maths MA. If they do, they can kiss their teachers goodbye.

Have they??

Our school blithely ignores everything in the EEF findings apart from an obsession with feedback!

Sorry to teachers for letting the cat out of the bag regarding penis desks. Parents will be on the look-out now, so the worst desks may even need shifting to the classroom next door. Don't forget to check the backs and seats of chairs too.

Still don't know what to do with my arms. I've just realised that lessons I'm either holding a board pen or a remote control which I tend to juggle between my hands when not talking (only occasionally dropping which I then have to style out). And now I'm going to think every parent is a MNetter looking at them making it worse!

Piggy I think my school ignores anything that looks like it might cost money, but if it only costs teacher time then it's fine.

Maths gets the best results in the school and we set, so SLT can jog on.

I noticed a chair today which had a sticker on it, saying 'Jackie Kay, the lesbian poet'.

Reckon that's been there for 15 years.

I just googled, and it turns out Jackie Kay is a lesbian poet, so at least it's an educational 15 year old sticker. Call it part of your classroom display.

Yes, she is indeed. Last taught circa 2000 for A level.

We of course we urge students not to label poets as 'women' let alone 'lesbians' as if that is somehow defining of their poetry.

She is more accurately described a s shit poet.

FFS she's 55 which means 15 years ago she was about my age and already being taught for A-level. She might be shit, but that's certainly something to put on your CV. Thanks to Wikipedia I now know she went out with Carol Ann Duffy who I didn't realise is also a Lesbian
Poet.

It's a bit weird, as a maths teacher, to see women's stuff being taught and when they're still alive. This week I've covered Pythagoras, Newton and Eratosthenes. All male, all very dead.

Goodness, I've just caught up on this thread. I wouldn't dream of telling another person to stop moaning about their job (that I probably would know very little about anyway), on a forum dedicated to that particular job! I just wanted to say I feel your pain. Open evenings and parents' evenings are EXHAUSTING! Some evenings it feels like I have barely stopped for breath, talking non stop for up to 4 hours. I feel so tired, after a full teaching day, duties etc, that I struggle to articulate what I need to say! We have 4 weeks in a row with parents evenings in January - I am not looking forward to that! And I agree with you about open evenings in an over subscribed school. I certainly do not feel lucky to be there! I would much rather be spending time with my own family.

To be fair, most of the people we teach are white. male and dead.

Duffy is thrown in for 'representation'

Kay ticked every box as she is also mixed race and adopted. And Scottish.

still a bit shit though I love Duffy, though.

I share nobles misgivings about mixed ability teaching in maths. We used to teach mixed ability just for y7, but it was a complete nightmare. Now we set based on the y6 sats, then tweak them based on our own tests later in the year. It's much better for most of them to be given work appropriate to their ability. Although I could happily work with a couple of "top" sets, one "bottom" set, then the rest in middle sets. I can't see a massive difference in the way I teach set 3 or set 4 in my school, and they cover the same curriculum so mixing them together may help with motivation and aspirations for some pupils.

Although I could happily work with a couple of "top" sets, one "bottom" set, then the rest in middle sets.

I think that's what I mean by a 'diamond' model, with small numbers at top & bottom and a "slightly mixed ability" large middle group divided into different classes but not by ability.

It will be interesting, as the relatively new primary curriculum beds in and children who have been taught with it move into secondary, whether secondary schools notice a 'flattening' across the ability range, because of the emphasis on deepening / understanding / mastery rather than on accelerating into material from higher years.