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

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement for school staff to let off steam.

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Just deleted a very grumpy post. 😁

Angela Merkel wouldn't have made it as a PM in the U.K. she'd have been mistrusted as 'too academic,' 'too clever by half,' and the tiresome thing about whether her academic qualifications made her 'authentic' or privileged.

This is how we end up with an Old Etonian who's 'thing' is to act like a clown parodying himself.

It's just bizarre.

I mean - maybe it is the fault of schools? People have such a weird experience in school that loads of people need a course of therapy afterwards to deal with irrational thoughts/feelings about it afterwards?

Sorry about all the grammar typos.

It’s the fault of the school system isn’t it rather than the school?

You end up with a two tier system where money in public school like Eton essentially bought your way into oxbridge whether you deserved the place or not. And a lower tier where plenty of exceptional candidates will have been missing out on places because of the way others bought there way in.
So alongside societal attitudes to education, you’ve got a system that seems rigged against social and educational mobility. Just chucking PP money at schools won’t change that.

Jan have you got bicarb?

Would someone mind explaining the PISA tail to me please - it's not something I've come across - I presume it's to do with children left behind?

Honey

PISA compares maths attainment across many countries.

In the U.K., our high achievers score very highly. However, achievement then declines and we have a lot of children who achieve poorly.

I'm hoping noble can find the graph.

It looks like a snake, lifting its head.

It's why we do less well in the over-all rankings. Our high achievers do very, very well - but the overall ranking is pulled down by the very poor performance of a good whack of our children.

Other countries are placed higher than the U.K. because there's less of a split in the achievement profile: they don't have thd high achievers but they also don't have this 'tail' of poor achievement.

It's one reason for the drive for 'maths mastery' in primary schools: to iron out that massive disjunction.

PISA - maths, English and science. Not just maths - but maths is the one that gets everyone very excited ...

Yes, is that what you reckon for coke stains honey?

@Piggywaspushed

Apparently a history degree 'just' from Cambridge, achieved by a state educated black woman in the early 70s makes you thick as mince if you're Diane Abbott... Cat knows what I am referring to there

I saw that and apparently most of Mumsnet are better qualified.

What's the methodology of PISA, do they include a representative sample from each country? Or does it reflect the state education sector?

They set their own tests, and it's a sample.
Which is an issue.

I'm feeling guilty about introducing the subject of PISA. We've had some great discussions on here about PISA. Noble is really good at analysis.

But it's a bit of a de-rail.😁

Nothings a derail here cat - I’m personally appreciating the derail from the snogging chat 🤣

I am not fully convinced by PISA tests but don’t know enough about it to be honest. It did strike me that China for example don’t have all their kids in education from secondary. Who chooses the samples? I’m sure we’d be higher up if we manipulated our own… 🤷‍♀️

As for Diane Abbott ... it's just weird how common-sense flies out of the window, there. Well. Not weird. The answer is depressingly obvious.

Yes. I might not agree with everything that Diane Abbott has said or done in her life, but surely no-one could doubt the hurdles she must have overcome to achieve what she has done?

I feel similarly about Cherie Blair, who also gets a bad press but must have a towering intellect.

Speaking of derails, was it MrsHP who did a WGAC toilet paper order? How do you like it?

@DreamingofBrie yes it was! I went bamboo and it’s good. It feels to me like it’s the wrong way round/inside out, as in the quilted side is on the underside not outside as you unravel it. But maybe that’s just me. And I can turn it over if I wish 🤣

I have swapped from recycled to bamboo . Looking forward to my first shipment in August!

No bamboo loo roll for me but I've just driven to Fleetwood to replace a saucepan. It's a rock and roll life.

This is how we end up with an Old Etonian who's 'thing' is to act like a clown parodying himself.

I was looking at that picture of him outside Number 10 on the flag, thumbs up like.. well, like Benny from Crossroads. Which I know is not an appropriate thing to say, but you know what I mean? Who thinks that's a 'good' thing for a PM to be doing? My dad, Tory voter and complete Tory target voter, thinks he's a dick - so who thinks he's OK? Is it all because it's just factored in for him?

Urgh.

Honey is THE BEST!!! 🏆 for getting coke stains out of expensive hoodies so we can return them and get the right size. (Bicarb)

Thank you!

This was taken two weeks ago - a man in a shell suit running our country.

I bought some bamboo socks that didn’t last very long, and put me off most things bamboo.
I recall that for one of my “big” PGCE essays I wrote about the contradictions in Conservative education policy. (The National Curriculum was just coming in, which wasn’t in itself a bad idea, though the original structure was poorly thought through and the way it was implemented was about what you’d expect.)
However the dichotomy in their approach to education was that on the one hand they said they wanted a generation of independent thinkers, while simultaneously requiring obedience and uniformity. Actually I think that tells us a lot about the Conservative party, and not just with regards to education.
Are PGCE students allowed to write big essays on more or less random stuff now? One of my others was on body language and, looking back, I had some weird ideas. My tutor called it “thought-provoking”.

@MrsHerculePoirot

Nothings a derail here cat - I’m personally appreciating the derail from the snogging chat 🤣

I am not fully convinced by PISA tests but don’t know enough about it to be honest. It did strike me that China for example don’t have all their kids in education from secondary. Who chooses the samples? I’m sure we’d be higher up if we manipulated our own… 🤷‍♀️

As far as I remember, it is our sampling that is, in part, the issue.

It samples 15 year olds. If 15 year olds are not in school - or if the less academic 15 year olds are not in school - in a particular country, they are not sampled. A bit like representing the academic ability of a country simply based in 19 year olds, including only those attending university.

China's results are based only on a couple of cities, one of which (Shanghai) has rules that only allow the children of 'residents' - ie no internal migrants from elsewhere in China, who fill most of the more poorly paid jobs - to attend school there. So a bit like England being represented only by naice leafy middle class comprehensives. About a third of children in Shanghai are not included in their PISA measure.

Equally, countries are able to omit from the sample those who they decide to have special needs. Some countries omit a very significant percentage of their lower-performing students on this basis. I think - though I may have misremembered - that one of the Scandinavian countries omitted about 3x more of its students in the PISA round after one in which they did poorly, and celebrated their improved results as a success.

So it may not be a case that we have a longer tail than others. It may just be that the long tail is more visible, because more of them are included in the sampling.

I own a massive tub of bicarb. I use it for loads of things. If you add just enough vinegar to make it a slight paste it's good on stains. if you tip a load down the plughole and then pour in a bit of vinegar it volcano cleans your drain. I sometimes put a handful in the washing machine with whites. I reckon it would sort the scuzz in the rim of the washing machine that someone was asking about recently too actually - may give it a try.

Ooh and I used to mix cleanser and a handful of bicarb and rub it over my ex's back like a mask and let it sit for 15 minutes before he took a shower - very good for spotty backs. Ew.

Thanks for the pisa explanations.