Maggie Jarvis

The researchers measured job satisfaction, symptoms of stress and coping strategies.

I'd be interested to know how these were actually 'measured'. Perhaps they have invented a 'moan meter'? I fear that this sort of study lends itself to a large amount of 'interpretation' through the language that is used to describe 'job satisfaction', 'stress symptoms' and the like and will not, therefore, be taken very seriously by anyone who can actually change anything!. Furthermore, I do feel that some researchers enjoy being paid to carry out studies that state the blindingly obvious!

The research suggests the key way to help teachers is to rescue the profession from the government's obsession with grading teachers and their work.

This is definitely not 'rocket science'! Speak to teachers in any staffroom and you will get the answers ... too much government interference and burocracy of all kinds, too little recognition of actual achievement, too much of a blame culture created through the 'league table' systems, too much testing causing students to 'switch off' and become disillusioned and disruptive.... I could go on and on!

Studies are great but they are pointless exercises if absolutely nothing improves as a result of them.

Basically, I don’t know how to say “bollocks” in an email without causing offence.

I don't think there is any way of using a word indicating disagreement with some individuals on the net without causing offence! I had the timerity of saying that someone's view was, in my opinion, 'claptrap' ... quite a mild word one would have thought, but apparently it warrented a serious lecture by way of response!

Perhaps you could refer to 'small spherical objects'??

Today another solution has been found to the obesity problem .... a call has gone out for all advertising of junk food on TV to be banned before the 9p.m 'watershed'. That's because all children are in bed by then so they won't be influenced by it ... right?!?

it's far better to prepare all of your own food

I think that Duncan has summed up the solution in a nutshell! If parents prepared meals using fresh ingredients, and involved their children in the pleasures of cooking, them obesity would reduce significantly. The trouble is that this takes time and effort! It is, after all, so much easier to dash into a supermarket after work and grab 'tasty', attractively packaged, precooked 'meals' to throw into a microwave and, hey presto, dinner is ready! Alternatively, give the kids some cash to go to the 'chippie' for a large packet of deep fried, salt covered, tasty fish and chips (or the like)! Problem solved!! People, unfortunately, are inherently lazy and the more convenience foods that are available, the more they are advertised and therefore 'in', the more people will buy them.

If this culture continues, fewer children will have the experience of real cooking and will therefore be unable to teach it to their children in turn. Although schools can provide some of the skills and knowledge, can they really be expected to adequately cover the range of experience that a child would gain from daily cooking at home?

I fear that obesity is a much bigger problem than simply saying children are overweight, should eat less fatty foods and should do more exercise.

Just a thought .... how many teachers take their children out of school during term time? My children were certainly taken on numerous visits to different parts of the UK and Europe during family holidays, all taken during the normal school breaks. I can't see many headteachers looking too kindly on teaching staff asking for time off to take their children on holiday, educational or not, during term time!

Well Andy, no riot! Oh Ye of little faith!!

I agree with Derek when he says:

I definitely believe that staff sticking together is absolutely vital.

If staff do stick together to develop and sustain a holistic approach to maintaining good order within a school it makes a huge difference. The students know what to expect, they feel secure within a structured environment, and teaching can be the primary activity rather than crowd control. Of course it is never perfect but that is no reason not to keep trying!

If only certain parents could be persuaded to work with schools instead of being so ready to complain and side with their unruly offspring! If they could, this would also make a huge difference to the environment both inside school and within their own home as well. In my experience it is often the parents who complain most loudly and frequently about the treatment meted out to their loutish children who eventually admit that they themselves have little control over them!

I had a lot of rough lads to teach (at a boys' school in Dartford),

David it wouldn't have been Dartford West boys by any chance? It closed down a few years ago following problematic Ofsted inspection and the 'special measures' label. People in Dartford are still lamenting its passing as there is now no single sex boys school left in the area!

As Rownb says:

I actually think its completely fine to take kids out of school provided that the 'holiday' is educational.

I would agree wholeheartedly, but I think you also hit the nail on the head when you say:

I don't think a week lying on the beach in Gran Canaria really constitutes an educational experience, or getting your hair cut for that matter!

Just this last few weeks has seen increasing numbers of children out of our school not for just one week lying on a beach, but 2 - 3 weeks! The additude being 'oh well, school exams are over so they won't be doing much now!' One GCSE student has actually got her holidya booked for the day before the last of her GCSE exams! 'My mum thought they would be finished by then.....' She still plans to go, however!! Good idea don't you think?

When I was a child corporal punishment was accepted as being a normal part of school life, not that I recall many people actually being on the receiving end of it. I can remember that just the threat of being sent to the school office to collect 'the cane and the book' was enough to bring the majority of naughty children to heel! A friend of mine told me that he once 'got the cane', went home and told his parents who then gave him another whacking and told him that he must have deserved it.

Thank goodness that we have moved away from those days of beating children. How uncivilised and hypocritical to hit a child for a misdemeanour and then tell them that violence is wrong within society, punishable by the law! What were they being taught instead? It's OK to hit children - they don't count! Sadly some parents are still teaching their children these 'double standards'.

I too have concerns about the future, as David said:

Sweden is a lot more violent now than it was, though, but my conclusion is that that development started when Sweden de-regulated TV transmissions, allowing on to the screens a vast amount of US TV screen violence.

Screen violence is so commonplace that we, as adults, have become increasingly immune to it. The days when large numbers of people would complain to the 'authorities' about screened items they felt were offensive and unsuitable seem to have gone. We forget, as a society, that children are influenced by such images - they are 'entertainment' but also 'fantasy'. Children act out 'fantasies' with the result that violence is acceptable! I recently heard of a conversation with a teenager who said that it was OK to carry a knife and to stab someone with it, as long as you didn't stab them in the heart. Apparently he believed that stabbing anywhere else was OK because that wasn't going to kill them!

As this thread started as 'government websites' I thought that this one is worth sharing.... 'Parentcentre.gov.uk' is aimed at 'Parents' (read electorate) and is intended to be a wealth of useful information which will arm every parent with the information they need to know about what their child should be entitled to whilst at school. It looks innocuous enough (although probably costing the taxpayer more than would be needed to run an entire third world country for a year) but try using the 'search' - 'reports' is good as is 'parents evenings'. 'Formal meetings with teachers' is quite meaty as well!

These gems have just been sent out to schools in guess what......glossy booklet form! I look forward to the lorryloads that are probably on their way to us ready for distribution to every set of parents via their kiddies. Oh joy!

Have fun! 'parentcentre'

Dear ‘David Miliband’,

In response to your speech regarding the variety of government strategies to support ‘whole school improvement and personalised learning’ (BELFAST, 8TH JANUARY 2004) I would like to make just a few observations.

Firstly, I seem to have read this same stuff only last week – you can’t get the script writers these days can you? Secondly, I understand every word you say – unfortunately when put together the words don’t seem to make a lot of sense. I thought, therefore, that some ‘translation’ into normal speak might be helpful to our readers in this forum.

Building this coherence….. is at the centre of the new relationship with schools; it is fundamental to further advance.

I don’t think so …..The relationship with schools is not new and I suspect that the only sort of advance will be one of increasing mistrust and control. The only way you will get it to advance, David dear, is to let schools get on with the job of teaching children rather than having to jump through yet more quango-produced, highly costly hoops, of little educational value.

The three key aspects to this are: first, an accountability framework, which puts a premium on ensuring effective and ongoing self-evaluation in every school combined with more focussed external inspection, linked closely to the improvement cycle of the school;

I think you actually mean ‘make sure that every school should regularly tear itself apart looking for faults which may or may not be there. When they have done this make sure that they are as fearful as possible of being ‘inspected’ by Ofsted at a moment’s notice, in the knowledge that the ‘new framework’ is untried so no-one actually knows what to expect. When faults are found, as undoubtedly they will be, make sure that they are written down in every conceivable place and discussed ad nauseam, just to make everyone feel part of the blame culture. Above all, hold up a few examples of ‘good practice’ so that everyone else feels totally inadequate, but make sure that you don’t look too closely and find that some of these icons are frantically papering over the cracks in other areas.

...second, a simplified school improvement process, where every school uses robust self evaluation to drive improvement, informed by a single annual conversation with the education system on targets, priorities and support;

Oh that! Roughly translated I believe you mean keep tearing apart everything you ever do in schools but ensure that every bit of measurable data about every child in the school is fed regularly, but remotely, into the DfES’s super dooper, number crunching, fantastically expensive computer system. Then you can have loads of pretty graphs and tables produced, showing whatever you wish (after all statistics are so pliable aren’t they?), and tell everyone who will listen what an amazing job New Labour has done to raise standards. When schools don’t live up to the required standards, make sure there are armies of ‘advisers’ on hand, preferably escapees from teaching, commanding vast fees, who can go in and tell them all how to toe the line! Clever stuff eh?

...

and third, improved data flows, including to parents.

Parents? Do they have a say in all this? Of course! They are the electorate so they must have some sort of carrot to encourage them along. So, feed them vast quantities of the pretty graphs and tables, dish out glossy booklets from time to time, tell them they have a choice about where their offspring are educated, but make sure that most of them go where they are told because there aren’t enough places in the schools they choose. Very neat!

Well, I think that about covers it all for now Davy boy. Do keep us posted of your next cunning plan won’t you?

Checked out the software that we have re science simulations - it doesn't seem to be too pricey if anyone is interested in checking it out. It's supplier is now, apparently, approved as a UK government 'curriculum online' provider. Link is here:

Science simulation software

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else is using it or has seen it.

In another thread on the forum I reported on:

a section in yesterday's TES which stated that the phrase 'personalised learning' is on the lips of every government minister but few seem clear about its meaning.... but despite the lack of clarity the phrase is spreading like a virus, with schools advertising for teachers with experience and understanding of personalised learning'.

... Yet another band wagon? ...New Labour's next 'Big Idea' for trying to persuade voters that they have something really cutting edge to introduce into schools during their next term of office (when they are elected of course!)?

I have just found that David Milliband has made a speech on the subject which apparently makes it all clearer...

David Miliband has given the clearest exposition yet of what the government means by personalising learning. (SHA)

Here are few extracts:

The Five Components of Personalised Learning

First, a personalised offer in education depends on really knowing the strengths and weaknesses of individual students. So the biggest driver for change is assessment for learning and the use of data and dialogue to diagnose every student’s learning needs. 

Is this new??

Second, personalised learning demands that we develop the competence and confidence of each learner through teaching and learning strategies that build on individual needs. This requires strategies that actively engage and stretch all students; that creatively deploy teachers, support staff and new technologies to extend learning opportunities; and that accommodate different paces and styles of learning.

Or this?

Third, curriculum choice engages and respects students. So personalised learning means every student enjoying curriculum choice, a breadth of study and personal relevance, with clear pathways through the system. So in primary schools, it means students gaining high standards in the basics allied to opportunities for enrichment and creativity. In the early secondary years, it means students actively engaged by exciting curricula, problem solving, and class participation. And then at 14-19, it means significant curriculum choice for the learner.

Or even this?

Fourth, personalised learning demands a radical approach to school organisation. It means the starting point for class organisation is always student progress, with opportunities for in-depth, intensive teaching and learning, combined with flexible deployment of support staff. Workforce reform is absolutely key. The real professionalism of teachers can best be developed when they have a range of adults working at their direction to meet diverse student need. It also means guaranteed standards for on-site services, such as catering and social areas. As I was told in Hartlepool two weeks ago, only if we offer the best to pupils will we get the best. And it means a school ethos focussed on student needs, with the whole school team taking time to find out the needs and interests of students; with students listened to and their voice used to drive whole school improvement; and with the leadership team providing a clear focus for the progress and achievement of every child.

What about this?

Fifth, personalised learning means the community, local institutions and social services supporting schools to drive forward progress in the classroom.

And...?

I'm none the wiser really! Aren't we doing these things already? Or am I missing something?

Every week there are fresh pieces of evidence from the scientific world regarding the 'facts' about global warming. There is a lot of contradiction about what is causing it but the fact is that is does seem to be happening.

Only in last week's edition of the New Scientist there was an article suggesting that fresh water will be in shorter supply as climate change gathers pace. One new modelling study from Princeton University suggests that increasing temperatures will dramatically affect the World's great rivers in that some will become more swollen while others will dry up. The net result will be that water will not be available in sufficient quantities where many people across parts of the World currently live. The article later goes on the say that 'some of the findings are controversial' - the UK Met office model predicions are somewhat different!

The only solution, apparently, is to limit our production of greenhouse gases. 'Governments must act!' say the scientific writers. Yes, of course we should do as much as we can to protect the environment in which we live, but do we actually hold all the cards?

I am not convinced I must say. Our collection of evidence is from very recent years when we look at the history of the Earth. Is this a reasonable sample to be basing all our modelling predictions on? We know that the Earth's climate has been a lot warmer than it is now from fossil evidence. We know little about the actual reasons for the changes over time. Why should we be so totally convinced that what is happening now is purely down to the activities of mankind?

My comments are here!

Every week there are fresh pieces of evidence from the scientific world regarding the 'facts' about global warming. There is a lot of contradiction about what is causing it but the fact is that is does seem to be happening.

Only in last week's edition of the New Scientist there was an article suggesting that fresh water will be in shorter supply as climate change gathers pace. One new modelling study from Princeton University suggests that increasing temperatures will dramatically affect the World's great rivers in that some will become more swollen while others will dry up. The net result will be that water will not be available in sufficient quantities where many people across parts of the World currently live. The article later goes on the say that 'some of the findings are controversial' - the UK Met office model predicions are somewhat different!

The only solution, apparently, is to limit our production of greenhouse gases. 'Governments must act!' say the scientific writers. Yes, of course we should do as much as we can to protect the environment in which we live, but do we actually hold all the cards?

I am not convinced I must say. Our collection of evidence is from very recent years when we look at the history of the Earth. Is this a reasonable sample to be basing all our modelling predictions on? We know that the Earth's climate has been a lot warmer than it is now from fossil evidence. We know little about the actual reasons for the changes over time. Why should we be so totally convinced that what is happening now is purely down to the activities of mankind?

We have some software that simulates a limited variety of the usual coursework pieces including resistance, photosynthesis and rates of reaction. We don't tend to use this for whole pieces, rather, as you say Nick, for practice before hand to help with the 'planning and predicting' bits in particular. We have also used it to help provide some data for absentees to work with when they miss all the actual hands on practical sessions.

No moderator has commented on our limited use of simulations to date - perhaps there is so little of it in our submitted sample that it isn't that noticeable.

I don't feel that our software is sufficiently sophisticated to respond to the number variables that a student is likely to introduce into their own work. It is all a bit too 'safe', so results obtained are too perfect. Max is right in saying:

The more choice the students have in setting up the simulation the more likely it is that they can gain high marks.

I do think that it is a potential development area, however, if someone has the time, interest, and scientific and technical expertise!

Anyone out there, maybe?

John, re your comments:

i)

I must say I was both surprised and disturbed by these comments. I think it shows teachers in a very poor light.

I was also surprised and disturbed that you felt it necessary to send each of us who had posted comments in this thread a personal copy of your views! Did you think that we would not bother to read them in the open forum? Did you feel the need to give us each an individual 'telling off'?

ii)

I don’t think it is very polite way to treat people who did join the forum to post messages about the JFK assassination. I have had several emails from these people about this thread. They complain they have been made to feel very unwelcome on this forum.

I don't think this is an issue about politeness. It is simply an observation that several (regular) members have made - the JFK debate seems to have started taken over the Education Forum. I also find it surprising that the complainants have not felt it appropriate to voice their views in the open forum. After your comments I now feel unwelcome for having voiced my opinions on this issue.

iii)

I cannot understand why members would be driven from the forum because others are posting comments about the JFK assassination.

Regular members will not be driven from the forum but I still maintain that new members or prospective members, interested in 'educational' threads, would feel less able to participate if they were seeing mainly JFK topics on the list of 'today's active topics'. Some people may not initially be as confident about navigating around to find other topics currently under discussion.

iv)

It is true that some days that JFK postings dominate the “Today’s Active Topics”. This reflects the current concerns of our members. Like you I would like to see more postings in “Educational Debates” etc. I do what I can by posting on these issues but unfortunately not enough people are willing to get involved in these debates. We cannot force people to post on these subjects.

You may have noticed that I have done my bit to help in this matter but I agree that we cannot force people to participate. We need to be a little more encouraging, however, to involve more people in the education threads. This means publicising the existence of the forum to more teachers across the subject range, not just through the history and politics websites enjoying large numbers of 'hits'.

It is apparently quite acceptable to use simulation software for aspects of GCSE coursework, negating the need to actually do any hands on practical work. This gem has come from an exam board's training session and has therefore, understandably, been taken on board by some teachers. We have some software that can be used in this way and it is quite good to a limited extent.

Has anyone else used such software to conduct coursework exercises? What sort of feedback, if any, has been received from moderators?

I have used the DfES website on numerous occasions but find that it is often very difficult to navigate around. Regularly, on entering a search topic or phrase, you end up being sent round in circles! Some parts, I agree, are useful but others can be a nightmare - certainly not what I would call 'user friendly'. With time so limited during a teaching day this can be more than little frustrating!

I am pleased that some work is being done to improve things - after all, it must cost a fortune in taxpayers money to maintain!

Unfortuantely we don't have much choice in this Mike!

We don't want to be bringing up a generation of people who think they should only have to have "fun"...

Wherever we look the media, the internet and commercial organistions worldwide all promote things in a 'fun' way to try and attract people's attention ... the competition is enormous especially where money, status or fame are involved! We are dead in the water as far as many students are concerned if we don't make some effort to liven up our teaching to make it more interesting/fun. If we wish to educate it means utilising whatever 'tools' we have at our disposal to get the point across - better to do so with interested students than those who repeatedly comment 'this is boring'.

Anyway, one of the reasons we are all posting on this forum is because we enjoy the dialogue/discussion/argument/humour and so on that relieves other aspects of otherwise less interesting tasks... marking?? Aren't we 'having fun' albeit in an adult (mostly) fashion?

Every year we get increasing numbers of parents who take their children out of school during term time to go away on holiday- usually abroad. In a recent survey two in five parents admitted to taking their children on holiday during school terms with 7% of these doing so every year.

Of course it is a fact that holidays are very much cheaper when the schools are in session. Nevertheless it amazes me that parents expect their children to achieve good results despite themselves destroying the continuity of the education processes that are set up to help them do so! Some parents even ask teachers to provide their offspring with work to take with them! Why on earth are they doing this in the first place? Aren't there enough holiday weeks for them in the school year? Or perhaps they just want to spend their fortnight in the sun when the resorts aren't full of children??

The latest madness was a call for the UK government to set up schools abroad so that children (from ethnic backgrounds) on extended visits to their country of origin would be able to continue their education there!

Is this 'holiday' thing purely a British problem?

I thought this point of John's was worth commenting on:

The fact that women produce fewer educational websites than men and contribute less to this forum is mainly due to the fact that their first encounters with computers took place many years ago when sexist attitudes were more prevalent.

Do you mean that the men were free to play with their computers and produce wonderful websites while the little women were busy cooking the tea and washing the clothes? I don't know how far back John is thinking this all happened but I don't think it is that relevant to the lack of educational websites by women!

I first started using computers when the Acorn Electron was around (anyone else have one of those?). It was not exactly 'steam driven' but it wasn't far off with programs having to be loaded on from an ordinary tape recorder!

Not long after that we invested in a highly expensive machine (about £2500!), actually equivalent to a 286, but at the time a state-of-the-art machine. That was 14 years ago! How big was the internet then?? The two biggest users of that machine were my daughter and me. Neither of us has subsequently produced an educational website but neither were we 'chained to the kitchen sink'. We were just not interested in either spending the time to fight with the technical problems, or in putting together pages of dry information that seemed (and still seems) to be the norm for many educatinal websites.

As you may have gathered already, I like to produce 'fun' materials to help my students understanding and learning. That is the appeal of using a hosted and managed template which allows me to upload materials quickly and simply in almost any form I wish. It won't be everyone's idea of 'good stuff' but it's about 'horses for courses'!

Our Year 11 and Year 13 students are still in school! Other local schools have let theirs out to 'go and study'!! Ha!

I am quite gratified that there is (relatively) little complaining from the students. In fact they are even e mailing questions during the evenings and weekend so they must be taking the revision seriously.

Do I work in an education hothouse filled with the intellectual 'cream of the crop'? No, far from it! The 'cream' has all been skimmed off by the local grammar schools and City Technology College (remember those? - another 'brilliant' government scheme!).

I work in a girls, non-selective school. Is this focussed, supported revision a girl thing? Are girls taking notice of the frequently mentioned research showing that they 'out perform boys' and believing that (regardless of inate ability) they can achieve good grades through hard work?

How are the boys doing colleagues?

Hi Matt

I thing you might be interested to read the debate that has been going on regarding the subject of homework - this is the link to the relevant part of the forum.

What is the value of homework?

Your views would be of interest!