[Yug]

Fewer than 40% of all pupils are following ebacc.

FTFY

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I stand corrected.

[satnav]

The modern language department at the school where I work has really struggled over the last few years. We currently only have four languages teachers and two of them only work part-time, another member of the department is a member of SLT so she doesn't have a full-time teaching timetable.

Very few pupils took a foreign language GCSE this year and only half of those who did sit an exam passed.

The department used to have a full-time TA who was a linguist but she retired in the Summer and hasn't been replaced. It is difficult to tell if the Trust has deliberately downgraded languages or whether they realise there just aren't many language teachers out there.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

All too common a tale, I'm afraid.

Don't mention Brexit and the sudden lack of French, German and Spanish assistantes...

[Watchman]

But de Piffle says “ we all need Latin”

[Andy McDandy]

That's the Etonian we. He and his mates need that veneer of class to impress the proles. But if Latin were common currency, we'd realise they know a few tags and nothing else.

[kreuzberger]

At a bog-standard comp in the 70s, I had the choice of French, German, Spanish, and Latin. Russian too, at a push. Same once I entered the 6th Form college.

My son at the not especially cheap Kelvinside Academy learnt nichts, nada, rien.

He has since taught himself reasonably fluent Nederlans and a bit of German. Otherwise, I remain pissed off to this day.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Yup.

Back in the 80s - 00s we had French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Latin, plus Gujerati for kids from Indian Heritage families (not taught in classes but tutored)

Much diminished now. The 'what's the point' numbskulls have won.

[Samanfur]

My secondary school - a comprehensive in Leigh, which I attended in the early to mid-nineties - used its language department as one of its major selling points. French, Spanish and German were offered as standard, with Italian and Russian if you asked very nicely.

[Bones McCoy]

Before you can really conduct a culture war, it's necessary to segregate the lumpenproletariat from any attachment to culture.

There's a lot of that going on in education, presumably on the basis of "give me the child".

[RedSparrows]

Iris Murdoch on learning Russian - not really about Russian per se, or even languages, but I think languages are a shortcut to this:

'“If I am learning, for instance, Russian, I am confronted by an authoritative structure which commands my respect. The task is difficult and the goal is distant and perhaps never entirely attainable. My work is a progressive revelation of something which exists independently of me. Attention is rewarded by a knowledge of reality. Love of Russian leads me away from myself towards something alien to me, something which my consciousness cannot take over, swallow up, deny or make unreal. The honesty and humility required of the student — not to pretend to know what one does not know — is the preparation for the honesty and humility of the scholar who does not even feel tempted to suppress the fact which damns his theory.'

Yeah but Google will do it and everyone can speak English so what's the point.

The point, dear philistine, is the world is a bigger, richer place for it, and you're a boring grey nothing.

[mattomac]

I don’t think I can visit a country without learning some of the language, I would say Duolingo has been good for this, you won’t become fluent off it but it’s a tool that would have helped alongside the twice weekly classes of French I did at school.

I felt a embarrassed in Croatia to be fair.

[satnav]

I think schools are going to teach languages they need to throw plenty of resources at it and make sure students get sufficient time and support. At the school where I work I think most Year 7 students get one hour of French a week and one hour of Spanish a week. This really doesn't cut the mustard. Last year a supported a Year 7 group who had a Spanish lesson split half an hour before lunch and half an hour after lunch. Because it was a low ability group the teacher took 15 minutes to get the group settled before teaching for 15 minutes. This routine was repeated after lunch so it took and entire term just to introduce very basic vocab.

[Bones McCoy]

I think schools are going to teach languages they need to throw plenty of resources at it and make sure students get sufficient time and support. At the school where I work I think most Year 7 students get one hour of French a week and one hour of Spanish a week. This really doesn't cut the mustard. Last year a supported a Year 7 group who had a Spanish lesson split half an hour before lunch and half an hour after lunch. Because it was a low ability group the teacher took 15 minutes to get the group settled before teaching for 15 minutes. This routine was repeated after lunch so it took and entire term just to introduce very basic vocab.

See that "throw plenty of resources at it".
Ain't gonna happen with the current bunch in charge.
The controls are hardwired for managed decline.

[Tubby Isaacs]

How many people at the West London Free School are actually taking Latin now?

Things go in and out of fashion at different schools, but it was a minority subject at my public school in the 80s. Thinking back to our "third year" (ie third year of post 11 schooling, our first year in that school) I would say that barely half even did Latin. Barely half of those carried on to GCE. And we had 8 take A level, out of a year group of about 100, of whom one left after 2 terms.

It was unthinkable for a school like ours not to do Latin (or Greek, which had 3 at GCSE and 2 at A Level) and we could afford it. But how long can a state school sustain those A level numbers in the current climate?

Actually, I can well imagine some Toby Young type having the school fall down while protecting Latin.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I see the WLFS is still banging on about its "clear and distinct ethos", a "classical liberal" education. Apart from being something coined that Toby Young thought sounded clever, what does that actually mean? How is it different to what happens at other schools?

I can only find 2 classics teachers employed by the school, who have just under 900 pupils, who have to cover Classical Civilisation as well. I might be wrong, but it looks like the "compulsory Latin" lark which was stressed at the start may have disappeared. Either that or the teachers are world leaders in putting people off their subject (which they probably aren't).

[Bones McCoy]

I see the WLFS is still banging on about its "clear and distinct ethos", a "classical liberal" education. Apart from being something coined that Toby Young thought sounded clever, what does that actually mean? How is it different to what happens at other schools?

I can only find 2 classics teachers employed by the school, who have just under 900 pupils, who have to cover Classical Civilisation as well. I might be wrong, but it looks like the "compulsory Latin" lark which was stressed at the start may have disappeared. Either that or the teachers are world leaders in putting people off their subject (which they probably aren't).

Ahh I remember classical civilisation:
Sir! Was Scipio a good general?
Shut up lad and keep colouring him in.

If you were too thick for woodwork, CSE Physical Education was an option. *
If Physical Education was too challenging, there was Classical Civilisation.


* Physical Education: A noddy "Ten push ups and a forward roll" subject during my schooldays in the '70s.
#3 son recently studied the Advanced Higher (Scotland): I highly academic discipline packed with Sports Science, Physiotherapy, coaching theory, and the ability to run 1500 metres in less than 5 minutes.

[Yug]

It could have gone in the Freudian Slip thread, but being specifically about protecting the funding for private schools (while state schools go bankrupt) I thought here would be a better place.

Education experts have slammed Jeremy Hunt’s use of data from the leading private school lobby group to justify his decision not to raise £1.7bn by adding VAT to school fees.

Delivering his autumn statement on Thursday, the chancellor took a swipe at Labour’s policy of boosting funding for struggling state schools by ending tax breaks for private schools, saying he would be “practical” instead of being “ideological”. Referring to “certain estimates” that this would result in up to 90,000 private school pupils switching to state schools, he failed to mention that this statistic came from a 2018 report by the Independent Schools Council lobby group...

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2 ... vat-labour

"Practical instead of ideological"

The practical thing would be to cut the tax breaks for private schools. Protecting the wealthy and putting the boot in to the poor on the other hand...

Dr Malcolm James, senior lecturer in accounting and taxation at Cardiff Metropolitan University, who has published research on private school tax breaks and rising fees in the sector, said: “He seems only to have looked at evidence from the ISC – but, of course, they would say that, wouldn’t they?”

James said many families with children at private school would have no problem affording a 10% increase in fees, and schools would step in to help those who struggled to do so.

He added: “Ninety thousand pupils are simply not going to be dumped on the state sector, at least not overnight, since it would be far too disruptive to children’s education.”

They'll find a way. The sector is not likely to just turn it's back on ninety thousand annual fees, is it.

Helen Barnard, associate director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “It’s possible that some smaller and less wealthy private schools might close, but many, especially the larger and more established ones, wouldn’t be affected to that degree by a change to VAT.”


She added: “Private schools overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, giving access to powerful jobs and higher wages and widening inequality, so I don’t think giving them tax breaks is an appropriate use of public money.”

Bridget Phillipson, Labour shadow education secretary, said: “Ending tax breaks for private schools should have been an easy choice for the chancellor. Yet, once again, he chose to protect the wealthiest, whilst reaching for the pockets of working people.”

She pointed out that the cost of private education had already gone up in recent years, but parents were still choosing this option...

[Andy McDandy]

Replying to further up the thread, classical liberal tends to mean, as James O'Brien put it, rich kid who never learned to share. I'd add that it often comes across as a slightly more polished version of Littlejohn - "I've nothing against the [X], but why do I have to/can't they take a joke?"

In education terms, it seems to mean either what worked 200 years ago was fine then, so is still OK today, or look at these kids being nice and studious, the sort of thing that appeals to embittered grannies, potential sex case "real education" fanatics, and wannabe General Jumbo types like Young.

[Yug]

Remember Maggie's Youth Training Scheme, where companies were given 20 quid a week to take on an apprentice, who would be paid 15 quid a week to be trained in such skills as tea making, floor sweeping, mail opening and photocopying?

Some things don't change.

Thousands of people are dropping out of apprenticeships in England every year, after firms provided little or no training, according to a report.

The most recent official data suggests that nearly half of apprentices fail to complete their courses.

EDSK, an education think tank, found that the majority of people quitting cited "poor quality", including lack of training and bad management.

The government said it is introducing reforms "to boost quality".

Under apprenticeship schemes, which receive government funding, those aged 16 years and over must get one day a week "off the job" to receive teaching and training.

EDSK found that many get less than the minimum weekly requirement while some receive nothing at all.

The report also said that the government allows firms to count watching online lectures as well as doing their homework as training.

"As a result, apprentices can go weeks, sometimes months, without receiving any training from a mentor or industry expert," it said...

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63762317.amp

My nephew did his apprenticeship with Sulzer in Leeds, a Swiss company who would have no truck with UK government schemes. He got four days a week at university studying electrical and mechanical engineering . The other day a week, and skool holibobs, were spent doing on-the-job training, and he finished with internationally recognised qualifications in electrical and mechanical engineering, plus having the letters "IEE" and "IMechE"* after his name. If the ghastly forrin Swiss can do it properly, why can't the Grate British Government ensure that superior non-greesie-forriner Grate British companies do the same?


* (Member of the( Institute of Electrical Engineers & Institute of Mechanical Engineers