Education, education, education.....

[Workingman]

.... meddling: again.

This time it is from the chairman of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon. He wants to scrap 'pointless' GCSEs. He then wants A-levels to be replaced by a mix of academic and vocational subjects.

Despite being born into privilege, being privately educated (Highgate School) and never having had a proper job, least of all one in education, he has a point.

His proposals would take education back to a time when it was a mix of academic and vocational subjects designed to educate pupils and also to prepare them for the world of work, rather than schooling being an end in itself. However, in doing so he has avoided the old and entrenched arguments of grammars v secondaries. The comprehensive school system would remain. It will be interesting to see how his proposals progress.

[manxie]

You have to admit Workingman that some areas , well a lot of areas need meddling with at present.

I agree with his aims re education, for too long we have been churning out kids who are clever enough to pass exams BUT.

It is at the expense of often basic common sense, there is little point in having half the younger workforce having a degree in whatever if there are not the jobs for them to take up.

I think that in recent years we have failed the kids at school ok some do well and get good qualifications and good jobs but the other half? 2/3rds? who are not very academic but have latent skills in other directions.

I like you I guess did woodwork/metalwork etc, the girls did typing and cookery etc these maybe lacked the accumen to go on to A levels or university but could leave school with some skills to enable them to get work. Not todays school leavers sadly some leave without the basic english and maths skills some even cannot talk properly???

Where does the blame lie? sometimes it is society , lack of respect I think the biggest culprit lately. Discipline another thing that is lacking today is a factor.

Maybe at last someone will listen to Mr Halfon and restructure the school system so all the kids leaving can expect to go out and get a job and contribute.

So many today leave school with no prospect of getting a job, or some might get zero hours contracts (slave labour) for companies wanting to cut all expenses legally possible to make bigger profits for their shareholders.

We, the government needs to step up and start afresh so the schools can see each pupil leave with a skill of some kind to get them into work, not lying about the house or streets with nothing to do, just look at the unemployment figures these days many in their mid 20s have never had a "proper" job, it is little wonder so many expect to be given everything instead of working for it like we did. I only claimed dole once in my life and that was as instructed by the demob officer when I left the army I only got 3 days pay as I started a job a week later. Today there are so many who feel they are owed benefits, I always thought you got benefits after you had contributed to them and the benefit system was for unexpected hard times that might occur.

It isn't just education though is it to be honest the whole system needs a shakeup and revision of the needs of todays society.

Manxie xx

[Workingman]

Manxie, I think that you have hit many nails on the head.

I got quite depressed when my two were at school doing 10 or 11 'subjects' and seeing that X passed Y of them at A or A*. Their education was broad, that's true, but it had no depth. IMHO subjects were skimmed with only an outline of them taken in. Unfortunately, as a teacher, I was complicit in that education style. Shame on me.

When I was at school we did a mix of O-levels and CSEs - seven subjects. Entering the third year (yr 9) we were encouraged to choose a mix of academic and / or vocational subjects for our exams, but we did other subjects to keep our education as broad as possible.

Maths, English Language and one of the sciences were compulsory, the rest were a free choice as far as was possible. I chose Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry, Tech drawing, History and Geography for exams, but also did music, metalwork, and RE as general education.

English language was a real pain. Spelling. punctuation and grammar were always marked, and that went for all subjects, but for English we did other things. We did hardcore comprehension so that we could be confident that we understood what we were being told. We analysed texts to the nth degree in order to filter facts from opinions and the dross from what was relevant to the subject at hand. We read books such as Lord of the Flies and 1984 and then had to write an evaluation of them with justifications to back up our opinions. It was tedious stuff, but no 'fake news' got past our "eagle eyes".

Ah, the good old days, eh?

[TheOstrich]

It's a contentious view, I know, but I don't think the modern-day, overarching policy of "inclusion" helps. Special needs kids suffer, can't cope, some become disruptive and then that affects all the other kids in the class.

Exclusion is not the answer. The return of special schools probably is …..

[Kaz]

Special schools saved my Harry, I am convinced of that. The extra attention and tiny classes helped him to reach his full potential. He would have been lost in mainstream. Now he's holding down a job, out in the real world

We do need much more vocational education and trading in this country - at the moment we try to fit all children into the same (academic) mould, and so much potential in practical subjects is never realised.

[Workingman]

Many years ago "Special Needs" (SN) provision in mainstream schools was a priority. It was an educational flagship protocol with many positives for ever so many SN pupils, but it also had its downsides.

In the early days the assessment process was open and able to be challenged, which was a good thing. However, the numbers moving up to mainstream schools meant that special schools became under subscribed and many closed or merged. That opened the doors to more aggressive assessments and appeals were almost impossible to start, fight and win. A friend's son has Aspergers and she had to fight tooth and nail to keep him in special school. She was a teacher and it almost ended her career.

What we now have is a process hijacked by virtue signallers and and 'inclusion' ideologues who will hear nothing negative about SN pupils in mainstream classes. They care nothing for the welfare of the SN pupils nor for the performance of the classes they attend. All they care about is the mantra that SN pupils in mainstream schools is a good thing, a very good thing. Try to get in a conversation with them about it and you will be shouted down and possibly reported.

[Kaz]

Oh, I know!

[Workingman]

(((Kaz and Harry))) xxx

[JoM]

Frank, when it came for Tom to choose his options he was put into the group which had to do the English Baccalaureate. He didn't want to. It meant that a language was compulsory for a start and he didn't want to do a language and I argued and argued with the school about this, both at the options meeting and in a private meeting that I requested, but the school wouldn't back down.

He had to do it.

The school's reasoning was that Russell Group universities would look favourably on students who held the EBacc. He had no plans to go to a RG university but still, that fell on very deaf ears so he spent two years doing a subject which he had absolutely no interest in.

Joe didn't fall into that group and his year did a 'pre-options' options year in their third year, which they chose in their second year (Year 8). Testing out their chosen subjects for a year before committing to them for GCSE. One of the subjects he choose was engineering but when it came time to choose options properly they didn't offer it as they didn't know if they'd have a teacher for the following two years. DT, what we know as woodwork and metalwork, was an alternative but again there was no guarantee that there'd be a teacher and it wasn't until the very end of the Summer term of the third year (Year 9) that the subject was given the go ahead.

[Workingman]

Jo, when I first went into teaching the subjects were sorted into four main groups.

Traditional academic: English (lang and lit) Maths and the Sciences (physics, chemistry and biology).

Humanities: History, Geography, RE, Social / General studies, Foreign languages (French, Spanish and German) and PE.

The Arts: Art (sculpture, paint etc), Drama, Music and Dance.

Practical: Home Economics, Metalwork and Woodwork, Tech Drawing, Cookery and Textiles.

The menu of subjects, or variations of it, was reasonable to manage and available in all schools. That has all gone.

We now have academies of different sorts all majoring in different subject areas, and the range of subjects is now approaching something like 65.The system is a minefield for pupils (and their parents) moving up from primary school. What might seem like a good choice at age 11 could be a disaster zone by age 14 as young people all develop differently.

The problem is that governments choose advisors from an echo chamber. For that reason alone I am glad that Halfon has spoken out. It is late in the day, but better late than never.