Gove's latest - computer programming for all...

I seem to remember supply teachers always got inspected, Jess. I think unannounced inspections are a good thing, though I agree it is difficult for governors to get there.

Common sense prevails not in the education system. I have been teaching for 30 years and find most government initiatives ridiculous. Teachers should be trusted. The curriculum should be more flexible and tax payer's money should stop being wasted on daft initiatives which are usually driven home by advisors and other 'experts' that apparently care so much about education that they would rather support all this nonsense that actually take on the hard task of teaching. This latest one will no doubt find many supporters who will fast track their careers out of the classroom.

Supply teachers used to teach mamie - it is quite hard to find ones that do this.
Hi booboo you sound fed up. Round here all the advisers were made redundant a year or so back in the cuts.

When I retired as Chair of Governors of a primary school, a long-serving and well loved and respected teacher (of year 6) took early-ish retirement. She told me that she loved the children, she loved the teaching, but not having to teach for SATS. So sad that a very competent and dedicated teacher felt she didn't want to go on because of the rigid curriculum and the need to 'get results'.

My close friend retired for the same reason - she has been a dedicated and successful teacher for over thirty five years and loved her children. She always went that extra mile, teaching whole classes of Asian children whose families had English mainly as a second language. Their families took her to their hearts and trusted her implicitly. A couple of years ago, she started getting anxious about SATS and worried every time Ofsted were due, and in the end she decided she had to put her health first - what a loss to education. She has taught three generations of families, and they were still coming to her to tell her that she had set them on the right path for adulthood, and remembered her as that special teacher who cared about them. On the day she left, there was a crowd of families wanting to wish her luck and say goodbye and thankyou. What a fabulous way to end your career, except that the federated head was very uncomfortable about her presence in the school because she had been on sick leave due to stress, and might have said something about the effect of unreasonable targets to the parents. Hopefully, someone will get the balance right one day - an inspirational teacher works wonders.

When I trained as a teacher (mid 1970's) it was considered a very good thing that the curriculum was not laid down by the government. Now that it is, Mr Gove is demonstrating by his suggestion that schools replace ICT with computer programming that we we right in our thinking in the 1970's. I have been involved with computers for over 30 years. In schools pupils should learn how to use computers. Computer programming, if offered in school at all, should be a specialism for those with a particular interest in the subject. For the majority of pupils, using the computer as a tool is far more important than learning programming. Did Mr Grove really suggest such a thing?

Does anyone remember being taught the binary system? Pre-computer programming being taught by a long shot, but it was supposed to have some relevancy to how computers worked. It was, I'm afraid, all lost on me.

Yes, the binary system is based on using only 1's and 0's. Electrically this is represented by on and off. For example 1 might be 6 volts and 0 would be zero volts. Digital computers use only binary and any instructions to the computer must be in binary form. A set of instructions written in binary is known as machine code. To make programming easier computer programmes are written in a high level language. The high level program is then converted to machine code by a computer using a program known as a 'compiler'. Does this help?

I think, boaz, that Gove is suggesting that programming should be one option at Key Stage 4. I don't really think that schools are likely to abandon ICT across the curriculum for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 and as I read it, he hasn't suggested that they should. There does seem to be a suggestion that the programmes of study will be left to schools to decide. The big problem has always been about getting the teachers for the Key Stage 4 curriculum.

I can't be the only person on GN who wishes to goodness that politicians would shut up about schooling. Them and their half baked ideas!

absolutely. us schools that have an intake that has struggled in primary get kicked around by all of them. I think it is going to become more and more difficult to recruit heads for such schools. They have to keep on bouncing back, for instance when you meet your target only to find it has been moved. ANd then moved again. You need extraordinary leadership, great teachers and lots of energy on everyone's part to keep moving forward.
Gove is rapidly eroding the role of school governors.
He seems to be in the game of setting such schools up for failure - the possible outcome is that in a couple of years he will start taking them off academy sponsors and giving them over to big private companies to run. And that will really make a difference to standards and help the recruitment of heads no doubt.