Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (21 mails)

["Adrian Wells" <adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> This really does piss me off.   Leagues tables mean absolutely nothing in
> terms of good teaching quality.  There was an interview with the
headmaster
> of the primary school that came bottom of the recently-published league
> tables, on BBC Radio4.  He was rather annoyed that his school has been
> "named and shamed" like this.
>
I heard that one too.  Equally interesting that the head of the top primary
said it was nonsense on stilts as well.
***Indeed, We tend to come top in the county and we're dropping the tests.
As a private school the reason for taking part is to give a bench-mark
against other schools, however jaundice the scheme is, it's all that many
parents can use as a barometer. We complain every year in the papers how
unfair it is, despite topping out.

> So what if he came bottom?   That bears nothing on the teaching ability of
> the staff.   There's plenty of other factors that are considered, such as
> the funding of the school.   Heck, it was a tiny primary school...
***The trick to use with OFSTED is that used by my sister who owns/runs a
couple of infant schools/after school care units. Know the OFSTED rules so
well that you can pull the inspectors to pieces if they so much as open
their mouths - she's even had one sacked! ;-) But then she runs her schools
to a much higher standard than OFSTED demand. One is private the other was
purpose built for a local council, so she sees both sides although neither
are in 'deprived' areas.

It is easy to blame the victim though.  Many schools come low down on the
tables because of low "value added".  According to the faceless bureaucrats,
a child's score on various tests determines their place in life.It also
determines how many GCSEs they get or how high their levels are.
***Yes, it's about time that we started taking the long view in education
and prepare people for jobs other than lawyers, chemists, pop-stars and
footballers - oh, but that's okay, we can import all the menial workers we
need and keep our own kids on social benefit until they die. Problem is that
these people who are in an underclass at school become part of the
criminal/fraudulent underclass that we spend the rest of our lives paying
for and trying to "deal" with. When we should have "dealt" with them years
before and helped them to be self-confident, socially aware individuals,
with an understanding of their own strengths.

  If students
do not get these results, then the school has not added value so is no good.
I agree with you that it stinks.  However, it conveniently masks the wider
social issues that underpin poor performance from students like where they
live and what their parent's do for a living etc.  That is costly, blaming
and shaming and working teachers like dogs to meet semi-meaningless targets
is far cheaper and easier to manage.  The only target I have ever set myself
in teaching is how many young people I turn into decent adults.  I see that
as the only meaningful "target".  I don't see it on any tables though.
> What I like even more is that prior to OFSTED looking around the school,
> all the teachers are running around like headless chickens, desperately
> trying to pull the wool over the inspectors' eyes.  It's pathetic.  OFSTED
> should just turn up, and look around on a typical day... then see what
> happens.
***I also have to agree with Adam, there should not be any warning given of
inspections since this skews even further in favour of the better off
schools who can react to the tip-off, allowing what amounts to social
destruction to continue unabated.


Yes, smoke and mirrors is very much the name of the game.  In most schools I
have worked in the senior management either bully staff to do work for
students or physically do it themselves.
*** :-) Didn't one of Charlie's boy's have problems because of this -
allegedly!

I have been to far too many inset
days where the focus is the magic "C/D borderline".  If you could
potentially
achieve a grade C if staff dictate a lot to you by forcing you to stay in
after school, you're worthy.  If you will never get a C, and therefore never
affect the league tables, then you can *&%$ off.  I think it is sickening.
many senior staff I have worked with do not give a damn about how hard
little
X worked to get their G or E.
***All we are doing is depriving children of their childhood with this
obsession for tables. When my son's prep school tried to brow-beat my wife
and I into coaching boy for his stats (he was already in the top stream), I
told the school that although I didn't agree with homework at his age, we
will support them fully in their efforts to educate boy, but I would not be
party to pressurising him for the glory of the staff or the school. Even
after his sats, they weren't happy with his high score that he obtained off
his own back. I remember his teacher telling me that boy was 1 mark short
off the next band in his English and she was going to appeal! (not to me!)
We all know that when you turn the heat off in the hot-house environment,
the blue-greens and the slimes slide back to their natural levels! Let's not
burst their bubbles or burn them out before they begin to understand what
potential they truly have.

This mania is endemic. It always amuses me how the grades are given in
reports. (I wrote our reporting system so I see a lot of reports) Wow, boy
is truly remarkable, he was only average in political geography for this
terms report, for everything else he was way above average - cool! Good boy!
But then in the same breath they tell me he likes to chat in class! So is he
not being stretched (even in the express maths set) or are the teachers
flattering themselves? maybe we need to have insets on statistics and logic?
Oh yes, and chalk throwing techniques, I think my boy would chat less if he
had to keep a weather eye out for low flying gypsum ;-)
Sorry, didn't someone have a puter to rebuild? ;-)


> Of course, I realise that that is only one facet to the overall metric
that
> OFSTED use in determining where on the league table to put the school, but
> even so, the league table does absolutely nothing in helping anyone
> determine what the school's ability to _teach_ is like.
>
As I said above, the league tables I believe are more based on how much
higher
your students achieve in various metrics than the number crunchers have
predicted.  The only real value of league tables is as a guide for middle
class parents to decide where to buy their new or second home.
> -- Thomas Adam