Cut length of school holidays , says Michael Gove

snowflake wrote:Teachers have always been the least valued of all the professions.
nothing changes

Maybe so snowflake and their pay has been frozen for the last couple of years hasn't it ?

I know my daughter has to cope with difficult children sometime and difficult parents and She teaches in a school out in the 'Posh' suburbs goodness knows what teachers in the inner city's have to deal with.

Apart from that i think it should be said that the vast majority of kids grow up to be very decent Human beings regardless of wether they can read or write and many who have had a 'limited' education can become very successful.
Some very well educated kids can grow up to be murderers,rapists and very poor parents.Make of that what you will and also it looks like the Boston terrorist had a scholarship at the Tech Uni.
So don't condemn or judge a Nations kids on a poor education system because that is only part of the equation.

I don't believe i have judged or condmened any child.
Teachers are the least rewarded in both financial terms and in public appreciation of all the professioms.

strange isnt it

never understood why dentists are much better paid than teachers.

great hours
great pay.

snowflake wrote:I don't believe i have judged or condmened any child.
Teachers are the least rewarded in both financial terms and in public appreciation of all the professioms.

strange isnt it

never understood why dentists are much better paid than teachers.

great hours
great pay.

Sorry snowflake i wasn't criticising you,not this time anyway.I was referring to pandas earlier posts which suggest a very jaundiced view on,well,pretty much everything really.

thanks,
i've never understood how completely lacking in understanding most have and how difficult a teacher's job is.

Takes four or five years to become a teacher, huge responsiblity,the extras done in after school hours, running clubs, preparing lessons,marking ..........

I don't even think that being number 18 as far as education goes is very bad since the UK ranks 26 in the Human Development Index.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index

School league tables: brightest pupils 'going backwards'


Almost 110,000 of the brightest schoolchildren finished compulsory education
last summer without gaining a string of good GCSEs in core subjects, official
league tables show.








The Department for Education
said every child had to be 'challenged to achieve their best' Photo:
REUTERS






By Graeme Paton, Education
Editor

1:22PM GMT 24 Jan 2013

183 Comments




More than six-in-10 pupils considered the highest achievers at the start of
secondary school failed to ultimately gain A* to C grades in academic
disciplines demanded by employers and leading universities, it was revealed.



According to figures, fewer than half of these pupils were even entered for
separate GCSEs in English, maths, two sciences, a language and either history or
geography – subjects combining to form the Government’s “English Baccalaureate”.



It also emerged that 600 schools and colleges – one-in-four – failed to
ensure that a single pupil gained three good A-levels in academic subjects.



The disclosure sparked fresh claims of a “culture of low aspirations” at
large numbers of state comprehensives.


It comes after Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, warned that thousands
of bright teenagers were being failed by the “curse” of mixed-ability classes,
with pupils aspiring for Oxbridge being given the same tuition as those at the
opposite end of the ability range.



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The Department for Education said every child had to be "challenged to
achieve their best".

“These results show that some children who were struggling at 11 have made
real progress by the time they do their GCSEs – they are now performing as well,
or even better, than we expect," a spokesman said.

“However, there are still too many cases where the opposite is true. It is
unacceptable that children who made such bright starts to their school career
have fallen back into the pack by the age of 16."

For only the second time, school-by-school league tables for England split
children into three ability bands based on results in Sats tests taken at the
age of 11.

It then reveals the progress made by low, average and high-achieving pupils
in GCSE exams sat five years later.

According to data from the Department for Education, 176,538 pupils across
England fell into the top category. But of those:

• More than 108,500 – 61.5 per cent – failed to achieve the English
Baccalaureate, which is awarded to pupils with C grades or better in five
academic subject areas, although it was an improvement on the 62.8 per cent last
year;

• Some 54 per cent were not even entered for separate subjects that combine
to make up the “EBacc”;

• Around 10,000 – one-in-20 – were unable to score at least five A* to C
grades in any subject, including the basics of English and maths;

• Some 25,000 – 14 per cent – effectively went backwards in maths at
secondary school by gaining worse results at 16 than they did in comparable
exams at 11.

The figures also showed that 29,300 pupils – 16.5 per cent – failed to make
the expected progress in English compared with just 12.8 per cent a year
earlier. The dip is likely to be down to a sudden change in the GCSE English
pass-rate which has prompted outrage among teachers’ leaders and led to
high-profile calls for a mass re-grading of papers.

The figures also underline standards achieved by low and average pupils
between the age of 11 and 16.

It was revealed that seven per cent of mid-ranking pupils gained the EBacc
while numbers dropped as low as 0.3 per cent among those with the lowest prior
ability.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has been attacked for introducing the
EBacc measure, with critics claiming that it narrows pupils’ education and fails
to recognise achievement in the arts and sport.

But Chris McGovern, a former head teacher and chairman of the Campaign for
Real Education, said: “This culture of low aspirations for children is
depressing. The Government is trying to change things – a greater focus on
academic GCSEs and restoring rigour to A-levels – but it is very hard to do in
the face of such strong criticism. Trying to shift the vested interests of the
educational establishment is an incredibly tricky job.”

But Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said:
“Today's figures show that even on the basis of the Government's flawed
measures, the overwhelming majority of schools are securing the highest levels
of attainment for the young people they teach. They should all be congratulated.


“No one is complacent. Everyone recognises that there is more to be done to
ensure that the best is being achieved for every child, but the Government's
approach of manufacturing deficiencies to seek to justify its flawed education
policies, rather than celebrating success is counter productive and divisive.”

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League Tables




In League Tables




GCSE league tables: compare your school's
performance





A-level league tables: compare your school's
performance





Primary school league tables 2012: compare
your school's performance

So the teachers are complaining about the changes in practice, inflicted on them by Government, that has led to an apparent drop in Educational standards. Quite right too. Teachers don't need to be micro-managed, they need to be left alone to get on with the job in hand.

And if you think the state of Uk education is bad... over in the US this morning the CZECH Embassy have had to release a public statement saying tbat they are nothing to do with Chechnya.

Iris wrote:And if you think the state of Uk education is bad... over in the US this morning the CZECH Embassy have had to release a public statement saying tbat they are nothing to do with Chechnya.

And what was it a comedian said about the US? Ah yes! War is a way of teaching Yanks geography!