Keep politicians out of education.

Surely politicians take advice from qualified educationalist? You would think so but no not always!

They don't think it all up themselves. often they do!

Education hit an all time low in the seventies. and your evidence is based on....

Surely politicians take advice from qualified educationalist? They don't think it all up themselves.

The blog is pie-in-the-sky rubbish btw.

Very nice in the cosy world the blogger might live in, but sadly not all children come from that background.

Education hit an all time low in the seventies. Someone has to try to sort it out.

Sadly no government has ever prioritised it no matter how hard those of us in school tried to deliver it! part of the island mentality I fear!

I started my teaching career in 1973 teaching Nuffield French in a primary school. I taught only French, every day, with a tape recorder and a projector and the children wrote not a word.The standard they reached in oral French was amazing but it all came to nothing because, as usual, the money ran out and the scheme came to an end. I taught for the rest of my career in secondary schools and to say that my attitude to language teaching in the UK is cynical is to put it mildly!

Yes nanej and there is a brilliant primary MFL framework which I used all the time, as there wasn't anything half as good provided for those of us teaching English in French primary schools!
JessM - I think all pupils, including SEN, should be included in MFL, we used to teach it in all the special schools in my LA. Of course, you don't get deep into the grammar; in primary it is about speaking, listening (with a bit of reading and writing later on) and an understanding of the culture of the language you are teaching. Here in France, I used to do masses of songs, rhymes, stories with my classes as well as basic phrases, counting etc
It sounds as if your secondary school is doing all the right things; I am sure you will miss being Chair, but it is a hugely demanding role, which isn't always valued as it should be.

I've been teaching MFL in primary for years now.

Instead of constantly increasing the subjects that have to be fitted in let's go the other way. Reduce the subjects and concentrate on the three R's initially (i.e. Y1 and Y2) along with PE, RE, Art and Music. Or if we have to include subjects like science let's reduce the amount of recording that has to take place. By all means let's do floating and sinking experiments but do the children really have to individually record evidence. Who are they recording it for?

It's the compulsory I worry about with the MFL - does that include special needs?
We do have a lot of literacy work going on Mamie - a senior level person in charge of the SEN side of things and another one working on whole school stuff for the rest - who also need a boost as you can imagine. Just put "accelerated reader" into the library. Ofsted are happy with us "GOOD" and progress is improving for all. Just as we get made to be an academy with a sponsor we should break the barrier of being above floor standards for the first time this year, despite them being moved. Ho hum. I have decided to give up as it is a natural break point but I will be very sad and it will be weird not having the school under my wing any more. Only one half term to go

Mamie I think you have jogged my memory! MFL was thriving in the LA where I worked as an advisor but as you say it hit a rocky patch when funding stopped!
In my school, in a different LA, I chose to provide Spanish lessons to our Y2 children. A local secondary school was trying to keep an excellent teacher but could not afford her full time so five local primaries bought an afternoon each of her! That was a while back now..keep up Govegrind!

Well shoot me down in flames, but I thought we had a primary MFL strategy and it was going quite well three years ago when I was teaching the French version and exchanging ideas / resources with the primary MFL strategy manager in my old authority. Then I thought the incoming coalition government's cuts stopped the funding..... I must be dreaming though, Gove couldn't be as daft as that could he?
A third on the SEN register sounds high JessM. I think that a secondary school with that intake would need to have an intensive literacy course for those pupils to catch up and a lot of differentiation in the teaching. Do Ofsted (or is it Estyn?) have a view about what the problem is?
I worked on the Key Stage 3 Literacy Strategy in my LA and there was masses of catch-up material. I did a lot of the training for Teaching Assistants for that - has that not continued to be implemented? It was really good stuff, I thought. The English department, with support from SEN, should be able to teach reading, in my opinion. Yes, you are right, anything below 4c at KS2 is a stretch for Grade C, but a lot of schools manage it.
I just worry that all these materials are there, but nothing ever gets properly implemented, because successive governments just don't trust schools and they have to have a new idea every week.

Govegrind will bring in some bilingual soldiers or send every primary school a Berlitz language CD! That should be OK shouldn't it. Anyone can teach for goodness sake!

Mamie I would have to check. It has improved a little in the last few years. Over a third come in with some kind of special educational needs label and that gives you some indication.
Hi montymops - I do have a PGCE in secondary science teaching - a long time ago. And nearly 10 years at the governor coal face tends to keep me up to date. But you are right that not all governors have a good understanding of education - some bring other valuable skills and knowledge to the role, from other contexts. You are also right that children with parents that read to them etc etc find it easy, usually, to learn to read. It is the others that are the challenge isn't it.
But would you not agree that if children come into a secondary at level 2 or 3 then, given the current "expected level of progress" - 2 KSs during their secondary years, they ain't got much chance of getting a C in Maths or English at the end of it? My friend's daughter on the other hand is turning in work at level 8 in English and she is not 13 yet.
And would you not also agree that secondary teachers are normally not trained to teach reading. A light came on in my brain when I realised that "literacy" to the English department was nothing to do with "learning to read" and related to things like "understanding the purpose of the text".
And pammygran I once sat at the back of an English lesson, on the Pied Piper, in which it was very clear the teacher did not know the meaning of the word "ermine". (great quote by the way.)
Gove - don't get me started - compulsory languages from 7. a/ who is going to teach these? That army of primary teachers who have been trained in teaching languages? b/ compulsory for non readers too, oh that is going to really help them catch up, spending time teaching them another language when they have a limited vocabulary in their own. (I remember when I was teaching I was allocated to the slow learners dept for 1 lesson a week - an 11 year old who had no idea what a daffodil was when trying to read the word in the book she'd been given... ) Language teaching at 7 is great for some - but this edict from on high approach to the curriculum is crazy.

Not exactly a deep analysis of educational standards pammy My kids know loads as do my grand kids...all state educated too!
Surprised she did not say a car! Why was she being asked that on TV?

Rubbish...state education is appalling...bring back facts..kids nowadays know virtually nothing, a young girl on TV recently, when asked what a Vulva was, she thought it was a French cheese!

To be honest I can't see much that is new with the Gove proposals. Phonics - already there; enjoyment of books and poetry - already there; lists of spellings for each year group - already there (The Spelling Bank, anyone?), can't remember if learning poetry by heart is statutory, but seen plenty of it done in primary schools.
Totally agree about each phase blaming the one before Montymops; that is why the cross-phase stuff that we have discussed before is so important.

Yes, he's tinkering and micromanaging. Apparently, there is now a list of specific words that all primary school children will be expected to be able to spell before they leave primary school. I am all in favour of correct spelling but that is absurd. I'm also in favour of teaching a foreign language at primary level, but this will require specialist language teachers and that means increased costs. Where is the money to come from?

What I am most in favour of is letting head teachers and teachers get on with their jobs without some politician who has no background in education continually poking his/her nose into school affairs and making constant changes.

Oh and learning poetry by heart??

Does the Chair of Governors necessarily have any more of a background in education than a politician?
It is very easy to blame the teachers - teachers blame teachers! Infant teachers blame Nursery teachers, Junior teachers blame Infant teachers, Secondary teachers blame Primary teachers, university lecturers blame the whole lot....but where does it get you?
In the end, most of those children who have books at home, who have parents who read themselves and who read to their children, who have parents who take their child to libraries and who give them a variety of educational experiences, who have parents who are willing to support the school in their efforts to teach and discipline their child, will succeed in reading - there will, even then, be a few who struggle.
In my experience, many children who have lacked that vital parental input in the early years, may never catch up.

I see it is predicted that Gove is going to tinker again this week

Focus on spelling etc ...not reading; 7yr olds to be taught a foreign language ...I wonder which one??

So yet again the primary time-table is going to be squeezed

Just out of interest, Jess, how many children coming into your Year 7 are below Level 3? I presume this is what you mean by a "non-reader"?

Course there will vampirequeen but in recent years there has been a lot more funding for special needs and still some primary schools turn out far too many non-readers who cannot access the secondary curriculum. As chair of governors in a "challenging" school I have seen this at first hand - and we have to play catch up despite fact that secondary staff have no training in teaching of reading .

There will always be some children with special needs who, no matter how hard they and the teachers try, will never achieve the levels expected. Many of these children still have to take the SATS exams even though everyone knows they will not be able to achieve level 4.

They may be cool girlracer but if the jobs aren't out there, the jobs aren't out there. You've got to have a market for hand crafted pots before you can make a living out of it.
There has been a huge reduction of manual jobs over the last few decades and an increase of jobs that need people to be literate, numerate and use a computer.
Unless you get those basics in place you are letting children down - they cannot fully take their place as adults in our complex society.

Simple answer to the education problem.

Make manual skills, e.g. bricklaying, building, plumbing, waitressing, cool again. As Maureen Lipman said in that memorable BT advert "People will always need plates" so teaching pottery is not a waste of time. Give these less academic teenagers a chance to learn a skill, rather than waste time studying academic subjects, this will give them some self-respect and hopefully a job for life. Down the road from my house, there is a recently completed corner wall on a property which is a work of art, I admire it every time I go past. Someone had to learn how to create this and if it had been me, I would have been very proud. Stop regarding university as the be-all and end-all of life, especially in the middle classes. All my friends agree, we can't be the only ones, so come on MPs in the Dept. of Education - listen to the masses out there!

Primary schools in this country have always turned out non readers, whatever the political regime in this country and whatever reading methods they have advocated. Hence high levels of adult illiteracy.

So glad to read this post and comments. You have all said what I have believed for a long while now: (www.Facebook.com/LearningDifferences)

In response to JessM's point "why is it, for instance, that a primary school can be paid a lot of money to teach a child for 6 or 7 years and fail to get them even started as a reader? It is a scandal!" I would say that state schools have to offer a "one size fits all" in order to reach the Government targets ... not the teachers you understand, the SYSTEM.

If education is a round hole and your child is a round peg - happy days. If they have any other type of learning difference, there is not a Plan B. Not really, not consistently across the primary years.

Has everyone seen Sir Ken Robinson speak? He is very witty and eloquent and a pleasure to watch. If you have 10 minutes, take a look at his famous speech at TED. It will really blow your hair back and get you thinking. Enjoy!

www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html