Primary school strikes

[Vaud]

dazwalsh said:

Fine these idiot mothers too, what is it, £100 for taking your child out of school?.

At the discretion of the head to report to the local authority, as I understand it.

Shame they don't show the same discretion for the odd holiday.

[clonmult]

dazwalsh said:

Kids dont get stressed, missing the ice cream van is about as bad as it gets when your 6. Give them the bloody tests and see how they are progressing.

Fine these idiot mothers too, what is it, £100 for taking your child out of school?.

These tests are just not needed. If the teachers aren't capable of keeping a track of how the kids in their class are doing, they aren't up to the job. I get regular updates on how my youngest is doing at school without needing any formal testing.

As for the fines for taking kids out of school, thats bang out of order too.

[turbobloke]

Vaud said:

dazwalsh said:

Fine these idiot mothers too, what is it, £100 for taking your child out of school?.

At the discretion of the head to report to the local authority, as I understand it.

Shame they don't show the same discretion for the odd holiday.

This may be of interest.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2015-10-19/man-wi...

[Mr Snrub]

Saw one parent on the news yesterday saying she didn't want her son to do the test since he was autistic and found it too stressful. So presumably he won't be autistic by the time he has to take the 11+, GCSEs, A Levels, Uni degrees etc?

[Jockman]

Vaud said:

dazwalsh said:

Fine these idiot mothers too, what is it, £100 for taking your child out of school?.

At the discretion of the head to report to the local authority, as I understand it.

Shame they don't show the same discretion for the odd holiday.

As soon as you include 'discretion' you are open to interpretation by the Heads themselves. If they support the parent's stance they obviously won't report it.

[andymadmak]

clonmult said:

dazwalsh said:

Kids dont get stressed, missing the ice cream van is about as bad as it gets when your 6. Give them the bloody tests and see how they are progressing.

Fine these idiot mothers too, what is it, £100 for taking your child out of school?.

These tests are just not needed. If the teachers aren't capable of keeping a track of how the kids in their class are doing, they aren't up to the job. I get regular updates on how my youngest is doing at school without needing any formal testing.

As for the fines for taking kids out of school, thats bang out of order too.

well, it may well be that the information that the school is providing you in respect of your youngest child is completely accurate, in which case, as you say, you may feel that the tests are superfluous. However, that experience of "accurate reporting" is not universal. The fact is some teachers will tell you anything you want to hear, and you only find out the truth when it is too late. I speak from some experience of my own children's school here. The unfortunate fact is that we live in an an era when the only way to be absolutely certain as to how your child is doing, (and therefore get them such additional help as they may need in good time) is to set objective tests against a clearly defined standard.
I'm not entirely convinced that some of the "protests" by parents and teachers are not just a wee bit orchestrated by those who fear being rumbled... .

[dazwalsh]

clonmult said:

These tests are just not needed. If the teachers aren't capable of keeping a track of how the kids in their class are doing, they aren't up to the job. I get regular updates on how my youngest is doing at school without needing any formal testing.

As for the fines for taking kids out of school, thats bang out of order too.

The upside of more tests is that future tets are less daunting as they have been through the process but i can see your point too.

As for the fines i dont think its out of the question, they can protest if they want, stand outside the school with signs and whatnot but why remove the child from school? Its achieving sod all apart from ruining a days education. Its just a bit bizzare.

[Jockman]

andymadmak said:

I'm not entirely convinced that some of the "protests" by parents and teachers are not just a wee bit orchestrated by those who fear being rumbled... .

Interesting angle. Is this why parents then turn to personal tutors a few years down the line...?

[markh1973]

dazwalsh said:

Kids dont get stressed, missing the ice cream van is about as bad as it gets when your 6. Give them the bloody tests and see how they are progressing.

Fine these idiot mothers too, what is it, £100 for taking your child out of school?.

Kids do get stressed and to suggest otherwise is naïve. Kids get stressed in the same way as adults.

My view is that if kids are getting stressed about these exams that stress is being brought on by parents and schools and not the exams themselves.

[Timmy40]

To me more than anything is speaks volumes about the idiotic attitudes of the parents. These kids are being tested in order to quantify whether they are meeting certain targets of basic literacy and numeracy not to label them as sucesses or failures, if they are not meeting those levels at this early stage action can be taken to ensure that they do before they end up as adults failed by the education system.

We've tried the non testing non structured approach in the 1970s, it resulted in young people ( like myself ) entering adulthood with no grasp of grammar and woefully poor mathematics.

As others have said I rather wonder who is really worried about being labelled a failure and stressed out by the tests here. And it's not the parents or kids I'm talking about.

[andymadmak]

Jockman said:

andymadmak said:

I'm not entirely convinced that some of the "protests" by parents and teachers are not just a wee bit orchestrated by those who fear being rumbled... .

Interesting angle. Is this why parents then turn to personal tutors a few years down the line...?

I will be honest and say that that is EXACTLY what I ended up having to do for my youngest. I was told at every parent teacher consultation that my son was doing great, would pass all his exams, was probably going to be a straight A student. Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Geology.
My spidey senses told me that this could not be right. He was not doing much homework, plus the quality of his work that I did see was hardly of grade A standard to my eyes.
Yet the teachers persisted. He will be fine! Keep in mind this was no inner city pit of a school. This was leafy, middle class, supposedly good quality public sector education.

At the pre Christmas parent teacher consultation I was told again that my son was doing great. This despite some desperately poor results in his mocks. I was told " the poor mock exam results are expected - don't worry". Easter time came, (so just a couple of months later) and I get a note from the school. My son apparently was not doing so well after all. He would have to drop some subjects just 2 months before the exams! There was nothing the school could do. Indeed, it might be better if he considered leaving the school and getting an apprenticeship.
I went in and queried what had changed in just a couple of months? Straight A student to straight out the door in 12 weeks? Really? I got an independent assessor to test my son. I was clear that if he really would be better off out of school I would not prevent it, I just wanted to know why the hell the story from the teachers had changed so radically in just a few weeks. The assessor worked with my son for a few hours. The report? A bright lad, and she was mystified as to why he was struggling.

I spoke to my son - Why did you not let us know you were struggling? Dad, he said,we were all in the same boat in the year, we all questioned why what we were learning in class did not equate to what was on the papers. We were all told the same thing, - "its normal". Teachers kept telling us we were special, that we were doing enough, that it would be OK.
Of course when it became clear the exams were going to be armageddon time then several kids were asked to leave. Those that stayed on and did the exams came out with decidedly lacklustre results. Bright kids many of them, failed by their teachers.

Long story short, after much fighting my son was allowed to do the year again. He did all the work himself on 2 of the subjects but I also engaged a tutor to cover the maths side of things. Result - He blitzed the exams and got great grades. He's now at Uni and on course for a 1st in Geology.
The tutor said that she could not believe just how little basic understanding of the core subjects had been covered in the school. Properly taught, my boy did just fine.

I went back to the school with my son on the results day. The head of year, who previously been so sneering and dismissive of my son ( he alluded to my only asking questions because I could not accept that my son might not be gifted!) was man enough to apologise unreservedly. He said "we got it wrong. I have never seen a pupil turn things around so comprehensively. We have made his story a case study .... Lessons will be learned" I was tempted to reply "not in this bloody school they aren't". But I didn't, because I was taught some manners as a boy.

So no, I'm sorry, I simply don't believe a bloody word the teachers say. A lifetime spent getting 3 kids and two step kids through our country's education system, plus participating in PTA's and governing bodies, plus working with LEAs as an engaged parent, and even teaching in school as a volunteer business coach has taught me that far too many of the people tasked with teaching our kids are a waste of oxygen, lacking in the sense they were born with, but reassuringly possessed of a sense of entitlement.
For many, the imposition of testing is the worst nightmare, not because the kids will be stressed, but because the shortcomings of the teaching staff will be exposed.
That some parents seem complicit in this nonsense is a crying shame. Lord help their kids to survive in the world they will grow up to compete in.

[turbobloke]

andymadmak said:

That some parents seem complicit in this nonsense is a crying shame. Lord help their kids to survive in the world they will grow up to compete in.

The parents keen on striking and keeping their childen away from school for no good reason may well fall into one of these three categories: firstly, keen followers or potential followers of Fiona Millar's witterings (*) i.e. politically aware and left-leaning; full-on Labour Party members; and middle class hippies who wonder why the uniform isn't a kaftan complete with beads of course. They'll all claim their kids are stressed and they'll all be the ones stressing their kids while using them as pawns.

(*) Alastair Campbell's other half contributes to Education Guardian and the Local Schools Network website.

[BlackLabel]

'Rogue marker leaked' primary test paper

bbc said:

A "rogue marker" attempted to leak a test taken on Tuesday by children aged 10 and 11 in England, the Department for Education has said.

The Sats answers appeared for four hours on Monday on a password-protected website for test markers.

It blamed an "active campaign by those people opposed to our reforms to undermine these tests".

bbc said:

[t is the second time in three weeks a primary school exam has been published.

Test supplier Pearson apologised for the error which it said it was investigating.

In a statement it said: "A small number of markers accessed the paper, although as contracted markers they are bound by confidentiality and have a duty not to share any papers.

"We do not have any evidence that the content of the paper has been compromised and it is important that the test should go ahead, not least as it follows so much hard work by teachers and pupils." /quote]

[andymadmak]

BlackLabel said:

'Rogue marker leaked' primary test paper

bbc said:

A "rogue marker" attempted to leak a test taken on Tuesday by children aged 10 and 11 in England, the Department for Education has said.

The Sats answers appeared for four hours on Monday on a password-protected website for test markers.

It blamed an "active campaign by those people opposed to our reforms to undermine these tests".

bbc said:

[t is the second time in three weeks a primary school exam has been published.

Test supplier Pearson apologised for the error which it said it was investigating.

In a statement it said: "A small number of markers accessed the paper, although as contracted markers they are bound by confidentiality and have a duty not to share any papers.

"We do not have any evidence that the content of the paper has been compromised and it is important that the test should go ahead, not least as it follows so much hard work by teachers and pupils."

Ahh, so the "education professionals" are sabotaging the plan. One wonders what they have to hide.
Actually no, scrub that... judging by the state of what comes out of many of our schools these days I think we already know what they have to hide.
As always with the Public Sector.....holding them to account for poor performance is like nailing jelly to the wall.

[Timmy40]

boxxob said:

everyone wants in on the anti-x/activist game now. Placards and badges for all!

Arsebook and stter have alot to answer for.

[Mr Snrub]

On the front page of my local rag today

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Mum-takes-son-scho...


Remember kids, if something seems to hard and stressful, just avoid it altogether. Works brilliantly for exams, job interviews, meetings, court cases and many more