[Malcolm Armsteen]

One of my abiiding memories as a Head of Year is when a science teacher, a proper tit and a complete whelk in human form, decided to take against a kid wearing a Rastafarian hat in his lesson. The kid (15 years of age) had asked my permission to wear the hat as a religious symbol and I had (somewhat cynically but not thinking it very important) agreed. Said science teacher told him to take it off, kid replied that I had given permission, teacher (who disagreed with my attitude to pupils) tried to pull it off his head... Took two dreads with it...

So the kid lamped him, broke his nose, blood everywhere. I was called for, and met the kid outside, who told me what had happened, so I instructed him to scarper, and we'd deal with it.

Went into the classroom to find the teacher laid on the floor groaning and bleeding. "Who will look after my kids?" he groaned. "I'll look after them to the end of the lesson" I replied. "No" he said, "my children if I die?"

I almost choked. The rest of the class backed up the Rasta kid, but even so the shitbag of a science teacher got him expelled.

A year later he accepted the true facts, that he was an inadequate person incapable of teaching and started an electronics shop in Tooting. Which went broke...

If only kids could get treated like people.

[Yug]

If only kids could get treated like people

This ∆∆∆

Most especially the age group which seems to bear the brunt of this cuntishness. They're usually referred to as "young adults". Start treating them like it.

[satnav]

Since the school I work at was taken over by academy change SLT have wasted an awful lot of time and goodwill concentrating on students wearing the correct uniform. Two and half years ago the head pledged that he would have behaviour at the school sorted within 6 months but behaviour is as poor now as it was when we were taken over.

Before the academy came along the uniform was quite simple it was a white polo shirt, black sweet shirt with a logo and black trousers. The majority of students wore the uniform without any problem. Students were allowed to wear their sweat shirts for PE if they had forgotten their kit so it meant there was no problems with students forgetting kit.

Now we constantly have dozens of students every day being sanctioned or isolated for not wearing the correct uniform. Students are expected to wear clip on ties which are easily lost or broken so students get sanctioned simply because the ties are not fit for purpose. Attendance seems to be a lot worse since the academy took over and I'm sure that parents who have struggled to get get their children into school are unimpressed when they then get a phone call telling them that there is something wrong with their child's uniform.

Cracking down on uniform always seems to take precedence over ensuring that students are doing their homework or behaving in lessons. What is really bizarre if that members of SLT stand on the gate every morning welcoming students onto sight but rarely challenge students for not having the correct uniform but then expect class teachers to challenge students about their uniform.

[Spoonman]

Why can't these inadequates in charge of academies get the idea that those people sat in the classrooms are just that, people?

* Pic of Eric Cartman, an obese spoiled brat young bastard that is one of the main characters of the American animated comedy series "South Park".

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I'll go further.

The most important word to a teenager is 'fair'. They want to be treated fairly, to have things explained (often more than once) and for adults to try to understand them and treat them with a little respect.

Many who have entered the teaching profession in the last 20 years have no commitment to those things. They believe that pastoral care is none of their business - you even hear them say "I'm not here to be their friend."

To quote Keith (you'd love Keith, he trained teachers after he quit as our Head of Science)
"Three things; get 'em in, get on with it, get on with them."

He was also keen to point out that the teacher is the adult in the room.

[Yug]

Every state school in England is to receive a cash boost, as primary and secondary schools are allocated extra funding for the next academic year.

The additional cash is part of a £2 billion injection of new funding for schools – being made in both this year and next year – topping up budgets to help headteachers manage higher costs like energy bills and teacher pay. This sits alongside the Prime Minister’s promise to halve inflation...

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/scho ... ding-boost

Translation

Rejoice! Peasants. We're grudgingly handing back a tiny fraction of the cash we've thieved off you over the past 13 years.

£2 billion? Big number to impress the intellectually challenged.

[Andy McDandy]

24,413 schools in England. Roughly £90,000 per school. Sounds a lot, but it won't go far.

[Yug]

Aye. Looking at the Torytown upper school. Nearly 900 students. Remove holidays. That's around £2.60 per head per week. Wow! Awesome!

[Yug]

Stop rejecting unsuitable candidates, teacher trainers told

Teacher trainers have been told by the Department for Education’s top civil servant to stop turning away so many applicants amid “significant rejection rates”, even in shortage subjects.

But initial teacher training providers have accused ministers of “trying to wring the towel dry” by “blaming” them for the chronic recruitment and retention crisis.

Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, told providers a 7 per cent jump in applicants this year had not led to an equivalent rise in offers for courses.

“This is concerning when we know we have need of teachers,” she wrote in a letter seen by Schools Week. “This is not explained by the subjects or phases being applied for – we are seeing significant rejection rates even for subjects we know are in shortage.”...

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/reject-fewer- ... -trainers/

What I find concerning is that whichever politician instructed PS DfE seemingly cannot tell the difference between quantity and quality. Unless, of course, teacher training bodies are rejecting suitable candidates for a laugh.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I think this is a common problem of the Tory mindset. The actual job, what people have to do, whether or not they are suited or if they have the capacity is a concept beyond them.

[Andy McDandy]

When your own selection process went "Yeah, they're a mate", and there are no real consequences if everything goes wrong, it's easy to see how that came to be.

[davidjay]

Tories are trained from birth to help "one of us" while being suspicious of clever book learning. It's high up in their rules of life.

[satnav]

In recent years more and more teacher training is actually being carried out by academies. The problem with this on the job training is that trainee teachers only get to work in on particular school so they don't get to experience working in different types of school. When I did my PGCE in 1990 I was part of an Internship scheme which meant I was based in the same school for the entire year. Despite the fact I was at Leeds University my school was in a small town just outside Wakefield.

Most of the staff at the school had been there for their entire careers, and most of the kids thought going into Leeds was a big adventure. Whilst being in one school meant you meant to get to know the staff and pupils very well it wasn't really a good grounding for trainee teachers who eventually wanted to work in inner city schools.

Where schools act as teacher training facilitators the school are expected to invest a lot of time and money into trainee but they only get a bonus if their trainees successfully complete their training and get a job in teaching. This does seem to be a bit of a conflict of interest because presumably if a trainee fails then the school loses money. There could be an incentive for schools to pass all their trainees simply to ensure they get any bonuses that come with successfully training a trainee teacher. Equally schools might be picky about which trainees they take on if there is a chance that the trainee might not stick out the training.

[Yug]

Here we go again

Rishi Sunak will force universities to limit the number of students taking “low-value” degrees in England, a measure which is most likely to hit working class and black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants.

Courses will be capped that do not have a high proportion of graduates getting a professional job, going into postgraduate study or starting a business, the prime minister will announce on Monday.

But vice-chancellors say the measures will act as a “red flag to students”, who will be turned off the idea of entering a capped course as they feel it will damage their life chances, at considerable cost to institutions...

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2 ... ue-degrees

The article doesn't give examples of these "low-value" degrees, but does say Oxbridge won't be affected. Classics is still on the menu then. Johnson will be pleased.

It would be nice if we had some clue as to which Tory branes trust will be selecting the degrees to be culled. Lord Frost? Dorries? Peter Bone? I'm sure they've all got ideas on which degrees are good and which are useless.

[Andy McDandy]

Harry Potter, David Beckham studies blah. Meanwhile go to Oxford and spend 3 years trying to fuck posh girls behind a marquee and get a placement at your mate's father's company and that's fine.

University as finishing school for PLU. Fuck off.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

So Sunshine Ricky and Bad Enoch decided to push their culture wars bollocks onto schools, on this spurious trans kids line they are spinning.

Schools were told they would have to adhere to new guidelines (as opposed to acting like concerned adults with a bit of sense).

Schools were promised the guidance before the summer break. The timing is important because it will impact teaching next year, the preparation for which is being done now. It will impact on school policies, and these will have to be rewritten and go before governors in September, failure may lead to a poor Ofsted judgement or even legal challenge.

So timing is important.

However, the DfE has now said it can't provide the guidance before the break because - wait for it - legal advice is that some of it is illegal...

You couldn't make it up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66243698? ... gn=KARANGA

This speaks much of the world view of people like Keegan and Gibb: Just emit a directive, never consider the effects on those who have to implement it. No concept of the way things work, just 'make it so'.

Fuckers. I hope they rot.

[Andy McDandy]

Meanwhile, 6 to 8 weeks of shit stirring by their media friends, and in September the rough parents will be lining up at the school gates to make sure "there's no fackin' trannies in this gaff".

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Reminds me of a kid who, in a sex ed lesson, assured me 'there's no gay teachers in this school, my old man wouldn't allow it'.

His tutor was Keith...

(You'd have to know Keith (or look him up in my Facebook friends) but he is about as gay as it gets).

[satnav]

I got a email today from the Chief Executive of our Academy chain announcing that he is to become the new head of OFSTED. Making him the head of Ofsted is an absolute joke and sends out all the wrong messages.

Under his leadership the trust has axed loads of teaching assistants and cut the pay of those teaching assistants who still work for the trust.

The trust claim to adhere to the Nolan Principles of public life but rarely do. Many of the big appointments in the Trust are done on the nod with very little transparency. Are school has an executive head who is executive head at two other schools, he earns serious amounts of money but I think he has only been in are school twice since September. The first thing he did when taking over was to cut the number of teaching assistants from 12 down to 5. We did however acquire two extra temporary TA's last month who will be with us until the end of term. Surprise, surprise these two TA just happen to be the daughters of the Executive head. They didn't have to go through an interview process which seems to be a blatant disregard for Nolan Principles.

Since taking over the school the Trust has hardly invested anything into the school. Despite sending in a firm of architect two years ago to look at possible improvements nothing has been done to the school apart lots of money being spent on purple paint and other Trust branding. Most of the computers and laptops in the school are 10 years old and most of the software used in school is free stuff like Google classroom and other free stuff.

When a school in the Trust does get an a visit from OFSTED the Trust swamps the school with all it's regional directors and Super teachers to ensure that the school puts on a 'good show' for the inspectors. How can a chief executive who has pioneered this approach to dealing with OFSTED be deemed a suitable candidate to run OFSTED.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's a sign of the times that I read that with a sense of resigned disgust.