Good news on UK education

Someone is always compiling a global league table of education. The criteria are rarely the same and the order of countries is usually different. The UK generally appears further down than it does in this Pearson one. I suspect that such tables are completely pointless and pretty much inaccurate.

I certainly wouldn't put too much faith in them. However they are always quoted when people want to be negative about education in the UK, but strangely enough good news doesn't get reported very often. Having had the opportunity to compare three European education systems at close quarters, I think UK schools are far better than the press and the politicians would have us believe.

League tables prove nothing. I worked in a school where one year we were at the top end of the league table and the following year we were near to the bottom. The school hadn't changed. The teaching hadn't changed. The cohort of children had changed. The first year we'd had a Year 6 who were particularly bright and so did incredibly well in the SATS. The following year Year 6 had a lot of hardworking strugglers in it and they didn't do so well in. In each case the children did the best they could do but the league table made it look as if something had gone drastically wrong in the school.

Absolutely VQ. Of course cohort size makes a huge difference. I used to work with tiny rural schools, where one or two children can make a ten percent difference. You can never tell from media reports, but it sounded as if this survey had a more robust methodology than some. I know PISA say you can't compare their historical data, but everybody does it.

UK schools are certainly better than French schools, were individuality is frowned on and everything is regimented. I thought my grandchildren's schools were excellent.

When I was a school governor, one year, our Y6 had 7 children with special needs of one kind or another. This wasn't taken into account when the league tables were compiled, so parents looking for a place for their children got completely the wrong impression. There are lies, damn lies and statistics...

When I was a school gov, (2ndary) we used to have about 1/3 "special needs" and never got any credit for that in league tables either. Individual school league tables measure, mainly, demographics of intake!
Schools in Uk have improved a huge amount under the last government. They put a great deal more money in per child.
Yes Gove will be trying to get credit no doubt but we know it takes more than 2 years to make a difference...
Meanwhile his minions will be puzzling about what Finland and S Korean systems have in common
Any thoughts?

I know that entry into grammar school was closely related to parental income! The rich get richer..............

I can see why the reforms in Finland have worked. Excellent local schools, no creaming off the bright pupils, highly qualified and valued teachers, consistency of reform programme for forty years.
That would be nice, wouldn't it?
No clue about South Korea!

I believe children don't start school in Finland until they are seven. The UK's obsession with league tables and targets have resulted in some really bad suggestions - like setting attainment tests for four year olds.

Well obviously South Korean education is gangnam style.

absent!

I think they have excellent free, consistent, state pre-school provision as well.

Now can we have a league table of the happiest schoolchildren?

Not that sixth place isn't very good.

Finland that is!

I wonder how some of the Asian countries would fare on a table of children's happiness, seeing how some children are relentlessly hot-housed practically from birth.

First you have to find out how to measure happiness! My GDs are very happy at school, though.
Slight digression, but when I took them in on Monday, the elder said "Right, you drop me off and walk straight past" and the younger one said, "No kissing, when you leave me in the playground".
Oh dear.....

Wel, the government seem to think they can measure our happiness!

The government seems to think it can walk on water.

Seems it's Ok for the Government to make excuses for missing its own targets (i.e. Back to Work programme) but not for anyone else..schools, hospitals etc!

i thenk the government needs to become an academy as it has failed!

We had a South Korean girl come to our school. She was amazed that we didn't hit her and the other children with a big stick. Apparently in South Korean schools if a child misbehaves they get hit with a big stick. If they get a question wrong they get hit with a big stick. If they answer too slowly they get hit with a big stick. You get the drift. Everything is learned by rote and there is no room for individuality.

She was amazing at mental maths but had no imagination when it came to literacy.

There are quite a few hangers and floggers not too far from home who would probably like to bring back the birch!

Oriental kids often good at maths because:
languages make maths easier - ours is illogical - eleven? fourteen? eh?
they use the abacus to calculate.
Bet they don't get hit with sticks in Finland