The Sixty-Second Republic - Pop da pop pop, the beat don't stop until the break of term

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

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@DreamingofBrie honestly it was amazing. I learnt so much, and really took away how teachers and education are respected and held in such high regard compared to here.

They have about 36 in a class and feels packed in. They have a state produced textbook they teach from so it is consistent across the whole of Shanghai. When you get your class you have them all the way through the school. You teach probably two classes, same year group per day. Maths was always in the morning and then the rest of the day was spent planning and marking and intervention.

Teaching really is a craft and so they do these amazing lesson studies both within departments and across schools and districts - in these massive televised classrooms. They have competitions and the winner gets to teach a showcase lesson in some big arena type place! When not teaching they work with the other teachers of that year group to improve the lessons that they have from the previous years. Every single example and question has been chosen for a specific reason and they can tell you why it’s there. They are passionate about the kids doing well and teaching the best they can. They get homework every night and if it’s clear the class need more time they would then adapt lessons the next day to address this. They do lots of testing (every week) and anyone struggling attends intervention straight away.

It should be noted that ALL kids go to Saturday schools - not run by the schools but where they spend 3-4 hours doing questions and being helped which I suspect makes a BIG difference despite much playing down of this by the schools…

Thanks, MrsHP. Sounds wonderful!

The maths I'm currently expected to teach in Year 4 is what I used to do years ago in Year 6, for example, finding non-unit fractions of large numbers. 7/8 of 960 came up in a test recently, for instance.

born, that’s fascinating!

Sarah Vine has written a very odd piece in the Daily Mail about men in high-level politics treating their wives badly and leaving them for sycophants. On the surface it is comparing Matt Hancock unflatteringly with David Cameron, but it very much looks like it’s about Gove.

So are we about to be treated to a video of Gove having a snog and fumble too? 🤮

So are we about to be treated to a video of Gove having a snog and fumble too?

I most sincerely hope not. But if there is one, I bet Mrs Gove has a copy.

Thank you Jan. I wouldn’t expect many to agree but to me it explains a great deal about problems with Maths in this country in particular (I’m not sure how much language and teaching methods have to do with it but I suspect they add additional burdens).

I would expect Sarah Vine, more than anyone in Westminster, knows where the bodies are buried. Dominic Cummings probably thinks it's him, but women are always underestimated.

st 35% contact time.

Honestly that’s the first thing I would change if a shit load of money was provided to schools.
My lessons would be so much better if I had more time to plan.

Teachers also don't have to deal with anything except teaching do they MrsHP?

I was having a bit of a ponder, I’m new so maybe there is a big reason why this wouldn’t work.

It seems to be normal for teachers to teach 4 or 5 different year groups in secondary. If teachers only taught 3 (or even 2) year groups, they would have fewer lessons to plan for. So could do so to a higher quality.

Obviously this would throw up an issue with parents evening. Does it seem like a sane idea. Hardly any schools I know do this, which makes me think there’s a massive problem with it somewhere.

@WhenSheWasBad

st 35% contact time.

Honestly that’s the first thing I would change if a shit load of money was provided to schools.
My lessons would be so much better if I had more time to plan.

That comes up all the time on Teacher Tapp when those options come up about 'more money', 'more equipment' more TAs', 'more time'. Time wins every time.

There's a lot of 'times' in that post.

Anyone seen the Twitter spat about the headteacher being repeatedly attacked by a 10 year old?

Anyone seen the Twitter spat about the headteacher being repeatedly attacked by a 10 year old

How can you have a spat about that? One of my dd’s classmates is bigger than some of the teachers. I wouldn’t want to try my luck with him. I could easily beat her best mate though, she’s tiny

Another thank you for the fascinating maths discussion. In terms of Shanghai, more time to plan and probably zero behaviour management much be massive in allowing teachers to precision teach and make sure no one slips through the net.

It's all about (or being framed as) the zero tolerance lot vs the never exclude brigade.

No one ever discusses the right of the other children to be safe when bickering. the people who always talk about what marvellous things they would do with the child never work in mainstream or work aboard!

abroad, although the relevance of their input might as well mean they are sealed up on a cruise ship.

In Wales the kids have 3 online tests each year from y2 to y9. Procedural numeracy, reading and mathematical reasoning.

The maths ones are 'adaptive' so they are supposed to give them an easier question if the last one they got was too hard or a harder question if the last one they got was answered correctly.

Sounds great, until they do them. And you get questions about pi and other things they just havent been taught at primary.

Even our y4 pupils were getting that sort of question. It's ridiculous and a waste of their time.

The results we get from them are pretty pointless too.

And in other news the DM thinks 10 year old girls 'fall pregnant'.

It's all about (or being framed as) the zero tolerance lot vs the never exclude brigade

I guess I’m closer to the zero tolerance camp. Are there really people out there who think teachers should be repeatedly attacked?

Yes, there are. Or , to be more accurate, that somehow it is the (usually female) teacher's fault.

Those same children will be subjecting other children to this behaviour. My own DS was nearly blinded in year 2 when another child threw a dolls' house shelf at him. The lad was very poorly parented and did end up being excluded and that was very sad but that was how he exhibited 'friendship' to DS and DS wasn't safe.

There is a lot of focus on it 'never being the child's fault' and I sort of wonder at what age that becomes not true. Never?

Rather than a GCSE at age 16 it would make more sense for Maths to be a series of pass and move on, fail and repeat assessments/certificates. So some kids might only complete and get a Level 3 certificate say and others could go to Level 5 and the very able could be starting on what you'd see as A'level content earlier. It's so skilled based that it seems mad to move on to harder Maths if you haven't secured the basics that will be taken for granted as secured the next year. At secondary instead of sets you'd have the different stages of qualification being worked towards together. Am I missing an obvious fault with this idea?

Off to look at wtf the DM is on.

I've loved all the maths chat. We had a visit from some Chinese teachers (I'm not sure they were from Shanghai) a few years ago. One of the things that they said was pupils who need extra help in the classroom have a parent come in to help them. There was no expectation that any child might have some sort of special needs, those children didn't appear in their classrooms. I asked about children who were struggling who didn't have a parent who could help, thinking about my nephew who has gdd/ADHD/possible asd and his mum also has SEN and left school with no qualifications. She can't help. His dad can't help (he also left school with no qualifications). They looked at me blankly, they have no idea what happens to that sort of family, it's as if they don't exist, but there must be some families like that. The culture is incredibly different, and they struggled to teach our kids because our kids aren't as keen to learn as theirs are apparently. They definitely said that in China the kids work much harder, but in England the teachers work much harder. It was interesting, but without a massive, massive investment in education over here we just can't hope to replicate their systems.

My own DS was nearly blinded in year 2 when another child threw a dolls' house shelf at him. The lad was very poorly parented and did end up being excluded and that was very sad but that was how he exhibited 'friendship' to DS and DS wasn't safe

I’m so sorry that happened piggy

The never exclude crowd always seem to forget the other 29 kids in the class. Those kids should not have to witness or god forbid be hurt by another pupil.

There was one kid in my year 8 class who’s behaviour was frankly appalling. Eventually he was expelled. But only after he massively interrupted the learning of 29 other kids.

The HoY always say him next to “nice quiet” girls. That used to drive me mad. He was a complete misogynist, treated those girls appallingly.
I actually had a number of nice quiet boys he could have been sat next to. It wouldn’t be fair on them either, but at least he was less likely to sexually abuse them.

Sorry for having a rant, I can generally see the good in all kids (no matter how much they hid it ) but I really disliked this kid.

I didn’t feel I could keep other kids safe while he was in the room, i loathed having him in the class.

I don't think I'm in either camp for behaviour. I think kids who are exhibiting dangerous behaviour need more intensive interventions. A short time (half a term/a term/as long as it takes) away from their normal school in an environment where there are adults trained in getting to the bottom of the behaviour quickly and helping the child learn more appropriate behaviours would be my ideal. Sort of like a PRU, but with far more spaces so the interventions are put in place before it gets to a critical level. And staffed by will trained experts in behaviour (which doesn't seem to be the case with our local PRU) But that would take money, so it will never happen. It should never be solely down to the classroom teacher to deal with children who are violent, that's not at all what we trained for.

Anyone seen the Twitter spat about the headteacher being repeatedly attacked by a 10 year old?

Oh yes, I'm in on that one. Michael wotsit and thingy having a right barny.

I'm struggling with the inclusion thing at the minute. The education of most children in my class is being impacted by the few. They have extreme behaviour challenges - if I hada child in my class, and knew what went on, I'd take them out of the class. And that's from a former SENCO who mostly agrees with inclusion. My own child has a tricky one in her class too, I ask about it in a round-about way quite often, because if it's interrupting the education of others significantly, or scaring and hurting other children, then I'll be 'that' parent about it.

Which is not very inclusive of me.