 Poster: A snowHead
|
Just had confirmation that all the kids will be at home on Tuesday due to strike action
Apparently missing a days education isn't that important after all 
Sure teachers have the right to strike etc, but seriously can they not see the irony here!!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
What if your kids decided to go on a one day strike in protest at the stupidity of teh new rules 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| Boris wrote: |
| Sure teachers have the right to strike etc, but seriously can they not see the irony here!!!!! |
Maybe the teachers are just as frustrated as you are about the inflexibility of the authorised absence rules...?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Thornyhill, that thought had crossed my mind, or to deduct the cost of childcare from any fines I may be sent.
rob@rar, I'm sure they are - I should perhaps have said can the Unions not see this.
Off topic but personally I think striking is an out-dated concept, it doesn't seem to achieve anything apart from get people backs up, be it teachers, firemen, air-traffic control whatever. I find it very difficult to have sympathy for groups who want to cause others maximum inconvenience. There are ways and means to lobby your employer for better pay and conditions, millions of people cannot strike and it's written in to our contract.
I will repeat for the sake if it, that my parents were teachers so I know how hard teachers work and all the extra unseen work which goes on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Boris, The kind of Govian rubbish which is rightly annoying you is also annoying teachers (who get a lot more of it). There is no end to that man's crassidity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| pam w wrote: |
| Boris, The kind of Govian rubbish which is rightly annoying you is also annoying teachers (who get a lot more of it). There is no end to that man's crassidity. |
but probably no less of an "end" than Ed Balls, having worked for the man, and "The Department".
Perhaps we should "fine the teachers" for unauthorised absence... pointless in my case as Mrs Ansta1 is a teacher...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ansta1, I don't know what we've done to deserve those Education Secretaries. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
pam w, i suspect our values have gone all t'cock somewhere. big houses, big cars, fancy (skiing) holidays. No more giving the kids a little tap to the ear hole if they give us lip.
What has the country come to eh.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
I've just drafted a letter to our head asking to extend the feb half term by a week, however it may well be like...
Just having it approved by the boss and it'll be sent out shortly.
Disclaimer:- If you're trying to look hard enough to find something offensive about that gif then there is something wrong with you so please don't take offence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
| Quote: |
So yesterday my son spent the whole day out of school visiting another for a 'curriculum day' as day that he got nothing out of - reckoned it was a whole load of silly tasks leading to school 'points'.
|
A school boy's account of what he gets out of school activities can't always be entirely trusted. If I had believed my younger son very large parts of his education were a complete waste of time. Didn't stop him getting a first class degree in a highly demanding subject, though, so my own guess is that his educators were doing a better job than he realised at the time - it wasn't all down to his inherited genius.  If you put his complaint to the teacher who had organised that day, Megamum, what would the counter-argument be? Can you put yourself in their shoes and see things from a different point of view? Were parents given access to any information about the objectives of the "curriculum day"?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Megamum, just out if interest, does your kids' school do anything that you are supportive of?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
pam w, has a point. According to my 8yo school is boring and a waste of time. And he's always getting fingered for doing things wrong or being naughty. On further questioning it appears none of these things are true. The root cause is he doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning and he would rather bay blade, lego, scooter, computer game it all day! TBH I often feel quite sorry for the teachers when I drop the kids off in the morning. Me and the missus have enough trouble dealing with two on evenings and weekends. Having to deal with 30 of them for 6.5 hours for 5 days!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
According to my 12 yr old twins they do "nothing" at school
According to the teachers, they are lovely well behaved boys
Someone's lying!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
My daughter often says "nothing" when I ask her, that or "I can't remember"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| NickyJ wrote: |
| My daughter often says "nothing" when I ask her, that or "I can't remember" |
mine used to say that till I sent them wearing Gopro's to record their day....
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
rob@rar, pam w, I have very little time for this sort of activity, esp. when the schools can get away with organising this sort of thing and taking my kids out of the classroom for a day for activities that I think have little overall benefit in the great scheme of things, because they want to, and Gove says I can't ask for one day a year to take them on holiday.
Just because they want to call their day out competing in daft activities for 'school points' 'educational' then its fine, but I can't claim the same thing for taking them skiing because I'm not an educator - sorry not on IMO. No, I don't agree with all this time spent not in formal lessons - I didn't have it and I didn't miss it. They wonder why half the kids need to sit dumbed down exams - IMO its because they don't spend long enough teaching them. Between all these trips, visitors and sports that the schools seem obliged to include these days and paperwork that the teachers end up having to do no wonder they don't end up teaching them what they need to know by age 16. Yet its the parents that are penalised by being told that holidays during term-time are not on becasue it wastes precious school time. Sorry, I just don't do double standards and if that makes me wrong, then I'll be wrong.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Megamum, do I take it from your answer that there's very little your kids' school does that you are supportive of?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| Quote: |
I have very little time for this sort of activity
|
what "sort of activity"? You don't seem to have any idea what the objectives were, or to have made any effort to understand what role the day might have played in your son's education.
Your thread last night about your daughter's maths homework was illuminating; she appears to be doing some very interesting maths, at an early age. I did O level maths and was actually very good at it, up to that level though I'm not sure I could have taken maths successfully beyond school level. I was certainly not tackling that kind of problem at your daughter's age. Yet you seem to be determined to cling to the idea that if aspects of their education are different to your own, then it's a waste of time and that if you didn't have it "and didn't miss it", then it's not worth bothering with. My daughter has taught GCSE history and the work they do on using different kind of sources and reaching some judgement about which resources are most, or least, reliable is very valuable. We never did anything like that - we were just basically taught "the facts" and some received opinions and if you could accurately regurgitate them in the exam you did well. I have no doubt that the modern approach to history teaching is better than the one I experienced.
I hope you are not conveying to them your judgement that their time is being wasted in anything that is not formal, 3Rs type learning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
rob@rar, pam w, Some of the things that the schools do are fine - the maths as pam w, notes is at least of a level that I can recall doing, possibly slightly above for the age she is. I too was impressed with the standard of questions that she was expected to answer - if it was all like that I wouldn't have a problem. However, there are plenty of other things, that 'no' I am not supportive of. A lot of that I don't tell the kids, and I don't stop them doing (some of the things they enjoy doing), but the latest trip from the outset my youngest didn't want to do, he has no interest in attending that school - has no wish to make links with it, and wanted to spend the day in his own classroom. Yet it was a trip organised for the whole class, there was not an option to opt out (probably would have been no teacher to look after them), they had to go - I even had to fight to get him to take the permission slip back in (and fight I did!). He came back and without prompting announed 'well that was a waste of time' - clearly he got very little from it, he told me that nothing they were asked to do taxed him at all, he walked through everything - IMO was it worth him going 'no'. Did he take part 'yes', but in this instance only because it was the only option on the table. Do I tell them a lot of what I think? 'No' because for their day to day life it doesn't help if they think I don't agree with certain things they have to do - they have to grow up thinking school is wonderful and worthwhile - sometimes things are great, sometimes I shake my head and wonder. Secondary school does seem a little better than primary overall though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When I was at school, I enjoyed almost anything that got us out of the classroom - and I liked lessons!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Megamum, thanks for that. I used to have a professional interest in how and why parents chose the schools they did for their kids. Do you have any primary school alternatives close enough to you? Or is it just that school that is close enough?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
rob@rar, I had three primary schools that were closer to us than our catchment school for where I live. I picked the best of those three - it has actually just been officially recognised as the best state primary in Essex - so whether I agree with what they are doing or not they must be doing what the Government wants. In fact I don't necessarily have a problem with the school/any school - I have a problem with what they Government puts on the curriculum and forces the schools to teach. I know that the hands of the school are tied in so far as what they teach and to a large extent how they go about it. It isn't the fault of the school it is more the fault of the Government IMO.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Isn't this thread about kids stopping us grown ups going skiing???
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
homers double, this conversation contributes IMO. i.e. the schools can do what they like with the kids - even if the parents don't think it is worthwhile, but we don't get the chance to make the same decisions regarding what we think is worthwhile for them. I wasn't the one that then decided this was a good place to, yet again, bash my attitude to the school curriculum which was well established on other threads a long time ago
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NickyJ wrote: |
| My daughter often says "nothing" when I ask her, that or "I can't remember" |
My kids have wised up and usually just answer "Maths", "Literacy" or "Science" when I ask. I guess this is correct more often than not.
I only know for sure when they're telling the truth when they tell me they've done "RE" because a) they hate it and b) they know I think RE (as taught) is a waste of time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
Megamum, don't you sometimes think that if your primary school as recognised as being one of the best in the business, round your way, that perhaps some of the things they do have more value than you believe? Much of the time I spent in the last year or so primary school was, in my view, wasted because we just did 11 plus type drills, almost all the time. We had a timetable which spoke of such wonders as "geography", "history" and "physical education" but they didn't happen. We had one teacher so she could decide exactly what to teach us, with no interfering national curriculum. The absolute highlights were when we got out into the playground for a game of rounders, which I loved, especially if I could get to be backstop. That seemed like once in a blue moon. The rest of the time was all the 11 plus basics which, as it happened, I was quite good at. I would have benefited enormously from a wider curriculum though once I got to the grammar school things looked up a good deal. I can still remember the thrill of sitting in the music classroom, with the very lively and inspiring music teacher telling us about the lives of some of the more colourful composers (the ones who took drugs and killed themselves for love) and playing us some of their music, and marvelling at being thought old enough to be taught such stuff.
My nephew, then 6, met my son's Swedish girlfriend last year. She speaks beautiful english, with an accent. He asked where she was from. "I'm from Sweden", she said "Do you know where that is?". He thought for a moment and said "Is it next to Norway?". She was very impressed, and so was I - no way would I have known that at his age. I picked them up from school earlier this week and he was busy telling me about what they were doing in science - "parts of flowers". Not the most exciting topic, you'd have thought, but he was engaged and keen to tell me about it. They go to a highly-rated state primary school too and in the view of my son and his wife (she's a trained teacher, secondary art) they are getting a first class education. They enjoy school. I enjoyed it to start with but my overwhelming memory of the 8 -11 years was sheer boredom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
| Megamum wrote: |
| homers double, this conversation contributes IMO. i.e. the schools can do what they like with the kids - even if the parents don't think it is worthwhile, but we don't get the chance to make the same decisions regarding what we think is worthwhile for them. I wasn't the one that then decided this was a good place to, yet again, bash my attitude to the school curriculum which was well established on other threads a long time ago |
Sarcasm shieds at the ready!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
| pam w wrote: |
Much of the time I spent in the last year or so primary school was, in my view, wasted because we just did 11 plus type drills, almost all the time.
I would have benefited enormously from a wider curriculum though once I got to the grammar school things looked up a good deal. |
Did you need to pass your 11plus to get to Grammar School?
If so, then surely the last year at primary school was highly important, as it enabled you to get to Grammar School.
If not, then I share your view that a broader education would be better. (Though as it happens, at that age, I much preferred doing mindless rote learning and "drills".)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
The Flying Snowplough, yes, I needed to pass 11 plus, but I didn't need to spend 2 years doing nothing else to achieve that. And as only 7 of the 44 kids in our class passed the 11 plus (and 2 of those were for the technical college which "didn't really count" ) it meant that those two years had been a complete and utter dispiriting waste of time for the 37 others, half of whom were basically illiterate. There's a lot of rubbish talked about the "good old days" of education.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
You've a pretty good memory, or are trolling.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| pam w wrote: |
| The Flying Snowplough, yes, I needed to pass 11 plus, but I didn't need to spend 2 years doing nothing else to achieve that. And as only 7 of the 44 kids in our class passed the 11 plus (and 2 of those were for the technical college which "didn't really count" ) it meant that those two years had been a complete and utter dispiriting waste of time for the 37 others, half of whom were basically illiterate. There's a lot of rubbish talked about the "good old days" of education. |
I take your point, but given the educational landscape at the time, the work you did to pass your 11plus to go to Grammar School was probably the best use of your time (if not the 37 who didn't pass).
To the bit in bold, you can never be sure about this, as you've not got yourself having taken an alternative course of action for comparison. Better safe than sorry, given the implications of not passing your 11plus. Though Seb Coe failed his, and he didn't do so badly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
The Flying Snowplough, yep, my brother failed too, ended up with a stack of quals and has done very nicely for himself. The idea that your fate was sealed at 11 is highly exaggerated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
The Flying Snowplough, the whole point of the 11 plus, as it was, was to test native cognitive ability rather than stuff that could be "rote learnt". there is a small, once and for all, gain to practicing psychometric tests, but not beyond that - the improvement which can be achieved by familiarity with the kind of test used happens quite quickly. I didn't get any better at them for the last year's practice - I had a good ability, quite enough to pass the 11 plus, but was never going to be in the 160 IQ category, even if I'd practiced till Kingdom Come.
The handful of kids who did well on the tests from the beginning carried on doing well (when they could be bothered to pay attention which wasn't always, given the terminal boredom) and the others carried on being forced to do them, and being pre-destined to fail, over and over and over again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
However, there are plenty of other things, that 'no' I am not supportive of
|
Megamum, IIRC from earlier education threads, you only really value the three R's in education and hate anything wishy-washy (such as reading for pleasure, art, drama).
Why is your child's school 'making links' with another? Is it the secondary school for the catchment area or a different primary school?
I think maybe your children are picking up on your attitude, most children would relish a day away from the class room, with their friends, being active and taking part in different activities.
| Quote: |
clearly he got very little from it, he told me that nothing they were asked to do taxed him at all, he walked through everything
|
Great. His fellow work mates will love him on their corporate induction when there is a massive box of chocolates for the team who can build the tallest tower out of paper and straws nad hold an egg.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Megamum wrote: |
| A lot of that I don't tell the kids, and I don't stop them doing (some of the things they enjoy doing), but the latest trip from the outset my youngest didn't want to do, he has no interest in attending that school - has no wish to make links with it, and wanted to spend the day in his own classroom. |
It sounds like he's got a tough life ahead of him. Very few people get to spend all their working life doing things they want to - some times you just have to suck it up and get on with it.
We work closely with staff at the job centre. Sheffield has a lot of graduates who are unemployed and often deemed unemployable, despite having good academic qualifications. The soft skills and experiences are what employers look for alongside a good education.
| Quote: |
| No, I don't agree with all this time spent not in formal lessons - I didn't have it and I didn't miss it. |
From your postings on here I would beg to differ. Maybe more time out of the classroom would have given you a broader set of experiences and a more open mind towards things that you don't necessarily understand.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Ooh, this is getting personal!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Layne, It always does - I'm off to start a thread in après as there is a very important point that everyone forgets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
