The broom cupboard 2 - just for when we get briefly stranded without a staffroom

[TheHoneyBadger]

I'll pop a link in the old one so you know where to find safe haven. I have tried to clear out some space by getting rid of the ohp and vcr trolley and gin is hidden behind the sick sand bucket.

Colleagues think I'm weird for using an ink pen, let alone the kids doing it!

@MrsHamlet

I think that's likely because for some reason they're not even asked to do that level of independent writing in many subjects/schools again until year 9 sadly.

This is definitely us. I was working with super local feeders before the first lockdown and it was eye opening. The plan was for every English teacher to go in... but the feeling from the hod was that there was nothing we could learn

After the leadership team came to our school, they had a similar plan. Then the secondary got an outstanding and all plans were abandoned because, obviously, they had nothing to gain from it.

Call
and it's all "really easy."

This is what I get told time and time again by returning students visiting. Like you said, you've got to take it with a pinch of salt but there may well be something there when the majority feel like that.

Possibly they're not bullshitting because I'm a 0.4 teacher and with shared groups etc I actually teach 330 different students. I could not possibly know the quality of handwriting I can/should expect from each of them and can't risk telling someone their handwriting isn't good enough and they can make more effort without being very confident of what they're capable of because that would be evil of me/picking on them/risking offending someone who has never been able to write neatly etc.

Even if we had a ton more information we could not humanly hold all of that information in our head. There's already too much.

Our year 7 poetry unit is acrostic, limerick, haiku, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, simile, metaphor and personification.
I suspect that's considered "really easy"

Agreed that even if we did know the information, it wouldn't be possible to use it because we teach so many. Even one class of year 7 is only 4 hours a week of my timetable. I can't remember every students potential and how they could be on their best day. This year has been interesting having no data on year 7 at all. There are definitely students that haven't been pushed because they're 'coasters' and we don't know they're more capable. The setting for year 8 is possibly going to cause some issues with parents. If little Johnny was excellent at maths in primary and ends up in set 3 because he hasn't worked hard for us then I forsee some upset parents.

I think the students have enjoyed us not knowing who is "the best" before we walk into the room.

@MrsHamlet

Our year 7 poetry unit is acrostic, limerick, haiku, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, simile, metaphor and personification. I suspect that's considered "really easy"

I mean, other than assonance, there's nothing there that they haven't been doing since Y4. However, it all just depends what's done with it.

But, yeah, perception likely plays a part. If the kid is saying really easy but they're doing crap then, obviously, it isn't.

And yet most of them still don't know the difference between simile and metaphor: they genuinely don't.

I mean, other than assonance, there's nothing there that they haven't been doing since Y4. However, it all just depends what's done with it.
We teach them what they all are. And then they get to spot them. Sometimes we might let them write them.
The year 5 class I was in was doing much harder work than we expect y7 to do. When it's been suggested that we look at the KS2 curriculum, that's when we start with the "wrong grammar" stuff.

@DanglingMod

And yet most of them still don't know the difference between simile and metaphor: they genuinely don't.

But is it that they don't know or is it that there's an attitude issue or laziness? It may even be to do with curriculum construction and the impact of decay on long-term memory due to a lack of regular recall.

I do genuinely believe that in Y7 the children develop a type of learnt helplessness stemming from lower expectations.

Yes but teaching things before you're old enough or at the right stage to remember and embed and intuitively grasp and store that is a waste of time. When I hear some of what has to be covered at primary now it's just madness. The fact it was all crammed in and managed to come out for a sats test doesn't really mean it has been integrated in any meaningful way and that it is therefore embedded and becomes an intuitive skill set that is transferrable.

@MrsHamlet

I mean, other than assonance, there's nothing there that they haven't been doing since Y4. However, it all just depends what's done with it. We teach them what they all are. And then they get to spot them. Sometimes we might let them write them. The year 5 class I was in was doing much harder work than we expect y7 to do. When it's been suggested that we look at the KS2 curriculum, that's when we start with the "wrong grammar" stuff.

Then, yes. 100% that is a unit they are describing as too easy.

I mean imagine technically knowing all of that grammar but never having read a decent novel independently or having picked up a newspaper or magazine and read articles? It's just disembodied 'stuff' not a part of you.

Our year 7 English curriculum is definitely not too easy. I personally think it's too hard because it focuses on the wrong things with no bridging (all analysis, very little creative writing, comprehension or non-fiction).

Absolutely, Honey, which is why schools shouldn't be changing their Y6 curriculums to focus on KS2 assessments. That's another hot button issue for me. One of my colleagues trained in a school where the Y6 class did no science at all until after the exams and then forced it all in during June and July. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour and will definitely cause issues in secondary.

Of course - but it's not on the sats so why bother? It's rote, drill learning with constant reinforcement in a way that just can't be sustained or retained.

@TheHoneyBadger

I mean imagine technically knowing all of that grammar but never having read a decent novel independently or having picked up a newspaper or magazine and read articles? It's just disembodied 'stuff' not a part of you.

But they do those things. We pick apart articles, historical accounts, etc. in English, History, Science, etc. My children are reading Northern Lights, the Hobbit, Goodnight Mr Tom, etc as part of our Y6 reading programme and exploring quality texts taught in reading and writing lessons.

@TheHoneyBadger

Of course - but it's not on the sats so why bother? It's rote, drill learning with constant reinforcement in a way that just can't be sustained or retained.

And whilst there are some settings that elect to do things in this way, the vast majority of primaries don't. At least, in my experience they don't.

If anything we should retain the literacy and numeracy programme at secondary that they do at primary - ie. they have an hour a day of literacy and numeracy that is very skills based, very able to do that drilling and reminding and filling in gaps and reinforcing of basic skills and building on them. That's how it is all 'in there' at primary and for sats and if they want to keep it in there in that way it requires dedicated space for doing that.

Where you find that space though god knows. Maybe not everyone does GCSE English and Maths and Science but everyone does core coverage and gets a certificate or passes a basic level and those more able and willing do the GCSEs? I really don't know but we can't do what primaries do in terms of Gove like conformity because we have too many kids, too little time and make so little accommodation for kids who aren't getting by in the classes of their year group and are just being left further behind.

Right. Wasting energy here because it never changes really. Very frustrating.

I do genuinely believe that in Y7 the children develop a type of learnt helplessness stemming from lower expectations.

Oooh meow!

We have Goodnight mr Tom in year 8...

But I'm talking about having read for pleasure, having the intrinsic motivation that makes knowledge 'sticky' rather than something you have to do for school and remember for a test. Learning vocabulary and tackling difficult styles of writing because you want to understand the content of something you're reading. Sorry if I sound critical of primary school teachers - I'm not - it's the curriculum changes that concern me and all of the focus on sats and crazy, until recently unless you studied foreign languages, obscure grammatical terms.

@MrsHamlet

We have Goodnight mr Tom in year 8...

You don't! Ds did Animal Farm in year 8. Do you do anything challenging like that that broadens their critical awareness of the world and different perspectives? I fear everything has become so focused on picking apart literature that there's not much learning 'from' literature. It was the learning from and the mind expansion that made me love reading and English as a child.

@ChloeDecker

I do genuinely believe that in Y7 the children develop a type of learnt helplessness stemming from lower expectations.

Oooh meow!

Sorry - didn't mean it as catty as I can see that could be read. It's just something I'm really passionate about. I don't think it's the fault of secondary school teachers at all. It's the way the system is contructed. Everyone is doing their best but there's a fundamental disconnect in the structure of education that needs correcting if our best is going to pay off in the best for the children.

They genuinely must forget all this stuff over the summer then, because we do not have low expectations - definitely the opposite. I mean, if they've been able to spell accurately, why would they stop doing it? They seem to, though, as one example.