[satnav]

It looks like Britain's strictest headteacher has made a bit of a blunder. She has released a video saying why schools should be promoting the national anthem etc. The only problem is that one of the quotes she has got painted on the wall at her school attributed to Winston Churchill was actually a quoted used to advertise beer in America. I think the school caretaker might be busy in the morning painting over the quote.

[Boiler]

It looks like Britain's strictest headteacher has made a bit of a blunder. She has released a video saying why schools should be promoting the national anthem etc. The only problem is that one of the quotes she has got painted on the wall at her school attributed to Winston Churchill was actually a quoted used to advertise beer in America. I think the school caretaker might be busy in the morning painting over the quote.

No, it would seem she's doubling down, as I believe the popular expression to be.

https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2022/0 ... -birb.html

[Tubby Isaacs]

Brief article by Sam Freedman on the forthcoming school funding formula.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/g ... its-needed

In passing he mentions this rather shameful fact.

The Education Policy Institute has calculated that, between 2017-18 and 2021-22, the average secondary pupil on free school meals (FSM) saw their allocation increase by 3.5 per cent but a non-FSM pupil got an increase of 5.9 per cent.

So, for example, a grammar school would have seen a much bigger overall increase than the secondary modern down the road.

And if I understand him correctly, the DfE (ie Tory politicians) is trying to increase the basic amount that all areas get while trying to cut the overall cost. That would seem to mean poorer areas will get less.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Freedman mentions that some (Tory) areas have small rural schools. That's a bit of a bugbear of mine. I can't believe how many small primary schools survived the Osborne cuts, let alone the position we're in now.

My village got a new build primary in 2018. It looks very nice, under 200 pupils. 10 mins drive away, there's another village with a primary with 100 pupils. Both are C of E.

How can that be justified? Never mind the ongoing efficiencies, property round here goes for an absolute fortune.

[Andy McDandy]

Because people in those areas know how to complain. They know their local councillors and MPs, how to run a campaign, how to get traction in the local media.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Indeed. The council is a bit of an oddity though- a unitary, with an coalition of Herefordshire Independents, It's Our County and Greens. But I doubt that's particularly conducive to "difficult" decisions being made (and taking on affluent parents would certainly be difficult).

[Cyclist]

More penny-pinching coming to an under-funded school near you

The government wants to find another £1 billion of savings in schools and trusts, freeing up funding to “prepare for and manage” rising energy and other costs.

School leaders warned the strategy would not be enough to make up for soaring costs and “inadequate” funding, and said the cost-cutting drive could prove controversial.

But officials say everyone has a “duty” to spend wisely and the strategy was not about reducing spending, with schools able to keep and reinvest savings made.

Schools Week recently reported on the DfE declaring victory on a past similar push for £1 billion of savings. A teaching union dubbed it “shameful” and experts called some savings claims “eyebrow-raising”...

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/school-resour ... cut-costs/

The mind boggles. General Dynamics are having £billions thrown at them for an armoured vehicle which is already more than £3 billion over-budget and five years late. Billions were spent on lining Tory chums pock.... sorry, PPE contracts and track-and-trace, neither of which actually delivered anything meaningful. But yeah, whack those wasteful schools.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's plenty of waste in standalone academies. The knows this. Trouble is the parents and governors at these schools didn't opt out of the LA to be told they needed to join up with a trust a hundred miles away that probably gets worse exam results.

[Cyclist]

This is unacceptable

The country’s largest exam board has been criticised for creating an “avoidable problem” with a geography GCSE question “inaccessible” to colour-blind pupils, even though the board had engaged in talks to improve accessibility.

AQA’s geography paper last month featured a question that included a coloured map and key to explain details required to answer the question.

But teachers and campaigners warn such practice places pupils with a colour vision deficiency (CVD) at a disadvantage.

One in 12 boys and one in 200 girls are believed to have CVD. It affects on average one child in every UK classroom.

Exam boards have access arrangements in place for CVD pupils, but campaigners warn the majority are undiagnosed so do not apply for support.

Kathryn Albany-Ward, founder of Colour Blind Awareness (CBA), said: “All exam papers should be designed to be accessible to colour-blind children as a matter of course”.

The charity estimates around 11,700 geography pupils sitting GCSE and A-levels this year could be colour-blind...

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/aqa-geography ... nd-pupils/

A serious accessibility fail which leaves AQA open to prosecution.

Ofqual, the exams regulator, told Schools Week it had discussed concerns regarding the question with AQA. However, it would not reveal the nature of the discussion.

AQA have previous...

In 2017, Schools Week reported that exam papers produced by Edexcel, AQA and OCR featured questions which relied on colours to explain details.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's also an issue in some forms of dyslexia, often repeated in textbooks, and usually misunderstood.

Of course to Mailites it's a non-issue...

[Andy McDandy]

Until it's their kids...

[Bones McCoy]

Until it's their kids...

Frankie Boyle's shocked audience syndrome...

[MisterMuncher]

It's a source of continuing surprise and disappointment to me how such basic provisions for accessibility can be considered a problem by those who don't need them.

[Nigredo]

It's a source of continuing surprise and disappointment to me how such basic provisions for accessibility can be considered a problem by those who don't need them.

Soon such considerations will be disregarded as "woke".

[MisterMuncher]

There was at least one case in America of students being asked not to bring peanuts or peanut products to school lest it lead to the death of a fellow pupil, and rather than comply with such a thing, the parents sued to have the allergic child removed from the school.

[satnav]

I've been doing a lot of invigilation work over the last 5 weeks mainly with kids with special needs and the access arrangements really are a joke. Many of our SEN kids get 25% extra time for their exams but most don't make use of it because if they have already been in an exam room for 2hours the idea of staying their a further 30 minutes doesn't really appeal.

Having looked at the timetables the exam boards have scheduled all the exams for practical subjects like DT, PE and Cooking in the afternoon this is really unhelpful for kids with special needs because it often requires them to do 2 and half hours work in an afternoon, most pupils are not used to working that long in an afternoon because in secondary schools most school days are designed so that pupils do 4 one hour lessons in a morning and just 1 lesson in the afternoon. The exam boards have either not taken this into consideration when drawing up timetables or they have decided that practical subjects are not that important.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's dreadful. I've nicked that and posted it elsewhere for information.

[Cyclist]

Wtf?

A leading exam board has been slammed after a GCSE geography paper wrongly named countries on a map of Africa.

One enraged teacher said that his pupils were left confused after the map wrongly labelled Gabon as the Republic of the Congo in a question about countries on the continent that produce oil.

He said he feared the ‘atrocious mistake’ could damage students’ results...

https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/16/countrie ... 37220/amp/

Private sector efficiency the Tories keep banging on about

Parson Edexecel, which is the only privately owned examination board in the UK, boasts of being ‘the world’s leading learning company’ and offers academic and vocational qualifications in schools, colleges and work places.

[Cyclist]

Tories shocked by students not wanting to listen to racists, transphobes, homophobes, climate change deniers, and other assorted right-wing bigots.

Ministers have warned that students are showing “shocking growth in support for censorship” after a survey revealed that many favoured safety and avoidance of discrimination over unrestrained free speech.

The survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) found that current students are more likely to support measures that restrain freedom of speech or expression on campus, and approve of removing offensive materials and memorials, compared with their predecessors six years ago, when it last conducted the survey.

Nick Hillman, Hepi’s director, said the survey showed “a very clear pattern” of a majority of students preferring interventions such as trigger warnings on course content and restrictions on speakers.

“In 2016, we found considerable ambivalence and confusion about free speech issues. Now it is clear most students want greater restrictions to be imposed than have tended to … in the past,” Hillman said...

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2 ... sters-warn

The more I hear about da yoof the more hope I have for the future.

[Andy McDandy]

Michelle Donelan throwing a wobbly there.

Thing is, it's not about having a "debate". It's not even so much about converting the students. It's now moved on to:

1. Benefiting from the kudos attached to the institution. "Addressed the Oxford Union" sounds so much better than "ranted in a car park".

2. Wearing "being banned" as a badge of pride.

3. Appealing to the target audience, who think all students and academics are arty farty fairies who need a good kicking.