The Sixty Third Republic - as we glide into staycations the DfE whip up anti-school media storm

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

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@noblegiraffe

Did primary colleagues see that Gav said schools should be allowing parents into schools to watch activities during the last week of term?

I didn't see that, no, but we've already done Sports Day (in bubbles) last week, Open Evening this week (also in bubbles and everyone masked up) and the Yr 6 play is going ahead in the last week (over 2 nights with reduced numbers in the audience).

So I have, for example about 10 exam essay marks (done in exam conditions in the classroom) and marked with the official mark scheme throughout the year plus how they scored on their mocks at the end of the year. I do find it meaningful for individuals and the class as a whole to know how they're doing, what needs improvement, whether eg. they're clearly not getting the '12 mark question' so I will do a lesson going into those in depth etc and I have a lot of data on where they're at.

No choice given - decision made by the Head.

Have to say though, that our parents were hugely grateful and appreciative.

Honey, I just wanted to say that the offering from your ds's Maths teacher really doesn't sound enough.

I've got a pupil who needs intervention for the summer and in discussion with his parent, I've written weekly exercises for him to complete, taking a few topics from the year for each week - based on the gaps in his exam paper. It's on Dr Frost so self-marking and linked to tutorial videos. Only 1h per week and basic rather than exam-style questions. Tbh, I think that's possibly a bit above and beyond, but it was only the one pupil so I could customise it and it didn't take too much time.

If you know what topics your ds needs support with, I'm happy to do something similar for him - can make those exercises visible to users outside of school and then send you a link - let me know.

Blimey @TheHoneyBadger if I had to mark that often and deeply there would be no time to actually teach them anything!

We’re also forced to assign grades and like @MrsHamlet they are taken very seriously and totally made up…

Yeah marking is intense but it's constant intervention for the students because you're always giving them really detailed feedback and getting them to do 'next steps' so they put into practice what would have gotten them a better grade so I do see it paying off. But yeah - my marking load is crazy at times. Some of them will be short 8 mark qs, rarely full 16 markers so it's not all lengthy essays and it doesn't take too long and we're making templates as a department of coded strengths, weaknesses, next steps etc so the marking requires a list of numbers at the end rather than writing much.

Not saying this is necessarily a great way of doing things but just explaining that yes, actually we do have reliable data to be able to say what grade a student is working at at the end of year 9.

We assign grades. They are total BS. We do assess using exam Qs but the cumulative nature of maths means the grades are BS until they sit the actual exam. I've had many a professional debate with SLT about this.

@noblegiraffe

My kid's primary had a bunch of parents turn up on sports day (to which they were not invited) and try to watch through the school gates.

I think there were a few parents from dd2's class who were planning on doing this. But year 6 are now missing sports day because they're isolating, so that's put paid to that plan.

One of the parents is apparently organising a whole class trampoline park trip one evening in the last week of term. I'm waiting for our invitation with baited breath.

@noblegiraffe

Did primary colleagues see that Gav said schools should be allowing parents into schools to watch activities during the last week of term?

We've already had our sports day without parents but believe the production and award evening will be taking place with parents but outside.

Got our Fayre this week but only children in attendance.

This is the question about parents and Sports Day from the debate this afternoon:

Steve Brine (Cons)
Last Monday, I made clear my view, and that of many in my constituency, about the unfairness of the bubble system and the consequential isolation, so I welcome today’s confirmation. However, is it not the case that sending the whole bubble home because of one positive case is no more necessary now than outdoor sports days being cancelled or held behind closed doors, or end-of-term events being ruined? These are things we never get back. How can the Secretary of State and his team help colleagues across all educational settings feel supported to get the balance right come the new term?
Gavin Williamson
My hon. Friend hits upon the issue of sports days. Let us be absolutely clear: the guidance is there in black and white saying that sports days can proceed, and parents should be able to attend. We encourage schools to be able to do this because, as he rightly points out, these are things people cannot get back. That is why we wanted to be able to lift those restrictions at the earliest possible moment. I know that he is familiar with his regional schools commissioner, and if there are challenges, having local dialogue with the regional schools commissioner’s team plays an important part, as they can deal with the school directly.

Wait.....whaaaaat???? "having local dialogue with the regional schools commissioner’s team??!!!" Isn't that "report to Ofsted" all over again?

BASTARD!

Just to cheer everyone up: funding really has shifted from schools in deprived areas to schools in wealthier areas under this government.

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/02/funding-for-deprived-schools-in-england-has-shifted-to-wealthy-areas-study-finds?twitterrimpression=true

Yes Gav has gone from ‘thank a teacher’ to ‘whip a teacher/school’

He doesn’t like the profession because we know he is an idiot. The Defence team leapt for joy when he was moved out of that department.

Fingers crossed the idiot get moved out of Education soon

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Sports day. Awful as a kid, fucking horrendous as a teenager, hate it as a teacher, no interest as a parent.

SO true! How has Sports Day come to be viewed as an essential part of the School Experience? And that parents judge it as the be-all-and-end-all of "how to be a good parent?" So, for instance, dads who have almost nothing to do with their children's everyday lives, merely have to take half a day out of the office in order to attend, and they will get a bloody medal from their admiring colleagues for being "such a good dad." It's SUCH a dull event, too. Most of it is spent hanging around all afternoon whilst other people's children run races. Only a few lucky parents get anywhere near the finishing line in order to be able to see who wins. Why would anyone even want to attend? They don't come to PE lessons, after all.

We're having 4 sports days this year. Normally we all have to go and sit and watch the bloody thing.
I have contrived to miss all four.

@thecatfromjapan

Just to cheer everyone up: funding really has shifted from schools in deprived areas to schools in wealthier areas under this government.

[[https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/02/funding-for-deprived-schools-in-england-has-shifted-to-wealthy-areas-study-finds?]]twitterrimpression=true

In fairness though, is that because some schools were overfunded? My previous school was in a highly deprived area with very high pupil premium. SLT literally had to invent ways to spend money because they couldn't get through their budget in a year, despite having much, much higher staffing levels than average. There's another school like that near my current school. They regularly replace things that don't need it - sports equipment, tech even flooring throughout the school - just to spend money that they can't carry forward.

Sports Day can be quite painless. Nice day having a picnic and chatting with friends. And your children waving to you as they participate in low-key events.

But I must admit, I wouldn't have identified it as a key thing to stress about.

I think people are just sad about the ongoing disruption and focussing on sports day.

I'm so looking forward to the end of term. I just feel worn out by everything.

as they can deal with the school directly.

Like the school is some sort of naughty child - ‘deal with’ - I loathe this man

I've got a mate who teaches in Sheffield who says that their school has loads of cash, new textbooks, subscriptions to whatever maths websites they like while my school is still teaching from textbooks with Intermediate Tier written on them.

So I was very interested to read Sam Freedman say that when working for the DfE he was always confused as to why Sheffield had such comparatively high funding levels. He was told it was because it was David Blunkett's constituency back in the day.

Why would anyone even want to attend? They don't come to PE lessons, after all. We actually have quite a lot of parents who arrive early to collect kids from after school sports clubs every week, just do they can stand at the edge of the field and watch their child. I can't think of anything worse tbh, and I can't stand sports day. Our sports day was supposed to be today but rain meant it has been postponed til next week which I hope will be rainy too.

We do assess using exam Qs but the cumulative nature of maths means the grades are BS until they sit the actual exam. I've had many a professional debate with SLT about this.

Yep, total bullshit for maths, this MEG system would have us ranking pupils by end of year assessment, estimating what grades they'll eventually get for GCSE, then counting back a couple of grades and going with that.

That's probably more accurate than marking a real paper without the mark scheme, using real grade boundaries and then adjusting them to ensure golden child (member of staff) looks good.

But I thought there was specifically a part of the current (altho has new DfE stuff been released this evening - think Gav said it was going to be?) Guidance which advises against parents viewing sports days and other end of term events?

It's just so short sighted and shitty to ask teachers to do anything at late notice that involves parents. No idea of how much hard work it is. I hate this government so much I can't put it into words.

Jan it said you can have parents there but must follow particular rules about how many and how they are structured. Most schools looked at it and recognised that it wasn't possible or sensible in a lot of cases.