Learning is delightful and delicious …

I’ll be watching the first in the new series of Channel 4’s Dispatches on Monday -Britain’s Challenging Children.

It’s focused mainly on Primary schools and the increasing numbers of very young children who are behaving in a violent and disruptive manner – and the ways that five particular schools are dealing with it.

Through early intervention methods such as parental outreach, target-setting for badly behaved children and ‘nurture groups’, these schools go beyond punitive measures, to address why children are acting out – helping the individual child to get back on track, and the rest of the class to get on with their work.

(from Channel4.com)

Here’s hoping that successful programs like this can be put into place all over the country and be extended to Secondary schools where the problem is far more serious. Of course, dealing with problems when the kids are younger should eventually filter through to the secondaries, but something needs doing NOW in order to halt the decline in standards we’re seeing in a large number of schools.

But I know it won’t happen. Even if the economy weren’t in such a mess, there’s no way there would be enough money to roll out schemes like this; but that is what’s needed. It might mean, that in some schools there are fewer subject teachers – but honestly, what’s the point of trying to teach French to kids who can barely read and write in their own language? They’d be better off learning things that could actually prove useful to them later in life; whether it be extra maths tuition, lessons on how to improve behaviour, how to fix a fuse, whatever – but it all costs money. The sorts of schools I work at already have units that are there to provide what we used to call “remedial” lessons and they provide other services for pupils whose behaviour is especially challenging as well. But it’s not enough. I’ve said this before, but it’s about time we abandoned this “one size fits all” attitude to education and accepted that not all children are academic – and that there’s just as much value in knowing how to fix a broken toilet as there is in knowing the value of pi.
Streaming by ability only benefits the more able children – those who are genuinely having trouble with a subject, or who have a learning difficulty end up in the same class as the disruptive pupils, which benefits nobody. The children who have the most difficulty end up learning the least, which is grossly unfair.
So a different type of streaming would seem to be in order. Stream by ability, by all means – but separate out the academically weak from the behaviourally challenging as well. Give the less able kids a chance of learning something of use, and put the disruptive kids into smaller groups and try to get them doing something they’re actually interested in.

I know that there are some pupils who are never going to do anything at school. They don’t want to learn, they don’t want to be there at all, and nothing we do is ever going to change that. But I do think that this is a small minority.

Sadly though, I can’t see anyone in the current – or really in a future – administration having the balls (!) to follow through on ideas such as these. It’s too costly, and would require the DfES to actually, you know DO something.

Oh well. A girl’s gotta dream…

But in any case – as this’ll be my last post for 2008 – I’d like to wish everyone out there a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

I’ve found it hard enough to get jobs since I qualified as it is.

So you’d think that the fact that the government wants schoolchildren to sing more would be good news for the likes of me, wouldn’t you?

Um. No.
Rather than employ qualified professionals, they think they can manage to do this by employing what they call singing ambassadors (aka, caretakers, dinner ladies and Uncle Tom Cobley and all) who can get the kids singing in the playground, or on the way to school.

In what other profession would a suggestion like this be taken even half-way seriously? And proposals like this, if adopted will only serve to make my job (and that of other music teachers) even more difficult. As it is, we struggle daily to counter the misconception by large numbers of pupils and parents (and, it has to be said, some other members of staff) that music is a doss; and if the dinner lady* is teaching singing, then it can’t be that hard, can it?

(*I’m sure there are dinner-ladies throughout the land who have lovely voices – but you get my point).

If you want kids to learn how to sing, and possibly some of the rudiments of music, then for goodness sake, employ a music teacher. After all, would you be happy for the caretaker to teach English or Maths?

Hm. Thought not.

Catching up with some of the news stories that appeared just before Christmas and here are a couple that I immediately filed under “Stating the bleedin’ obvious”- being read to and taught the alphabet means a promising start for children and Bad Parents Widen Abiliy Gap

Someone has to commission studies to tell people stuff that most teachers could tell them for free?

And there’s this, one of several articles last week which appeared, confirming that boys from white, working class (a term I’d dispute in this context) communities are the worst performing group at school, with only one in six achieveing five good GCSEs.

I teach a number of boys that fall into this category – and heartily agree with the suggestion by the ATL that schools need to be able to vary their curriculum locally in order to help raise achievement among this group. What is the point of trying to teach these kids French, for example, when a number of them can barely read and write English? The same could be said of Music – they’re not usually interested in whatever I have to offer, they have no respect for the equipment which is provided – so wouldn’t the time they’re spending with me be better spent doing something else which might actually prove useful to them later on? Whether it be extra literacy or maths, laying bricks or fixing cars; I think we have to find a way to accommodate those kids who are never going to achieve academically – because they don’t see the point in it – by educating them differently. This would enable them to learn, would give them a sense of achievement and self-esteem – and would also prevent them disrupting the education of others.

Here’s yet another example of PC gone mad – the GTC in England is publishing a set of draft proposals which will instruct teachers that they have to behave as “role models” both in and out of school.

Woah. What? They want to dictate what we’re able to do in our private lives?

Now of course – you break the law, you should be dealt with accordingly. I, personally, don’t drink to excess or take drugs, and I wouldn’t like to think of one of my kids being taught by someone who did. BUT if something someone does in their private life has NO IMPACT on their professional life, then it’s no-one’s damn business but their own, IMO.

And as usual, the people who come up with this sort of crap have forgotten that teachers are PEOPLE, too! – and as such, we’re as capable of errors of judgement as the next person.

But if the GMC and the Bar and all the other professional organisations are going to impose similar codes on members of the professions they regulate, then I guess I couldn’t object to teachers being subject to the same regulations.

And finally – Police were called in to more than 7000 cases of school violence last year according to The Guardian. Well, that’s something for me to read while I wait for the call from Suffolk police about the assault on a pupil (by another pupil) I witnessed just before the end of term.

Make a Smilebox greeting

With thanks to Linz for the penguin pic!

Text message and street slang are being found more and more in pupils’ work.
Not exactly news.

According to the article, Many [teachers] said children now failed to tell the difference between standard English and colloqualisms.

That’s the big difference between now and thirty years ago. Although I use colloquialisms and slang with the best of ‘em, I do at least know how to speak and write properly. Most of these kids don’t, and there’s the rub.

I remember when I was working in the record business (so I’m talking almost ten years ago now) – I sometimes received letters from teenagers seeking work experience placements. And honestly, if they hadn’t been so… tragic, the letters would have been funny. Here were youngsters trying to express themselves formally, with no clue as to how to do so. Capital letters in the middles of sentences, incorrect punctuation, bad spelling and no command of the language whatsoever. What chances have these kids got?

I have to say that I’m just a little peeved at the suggestion – although slight, I admit – that teachers are at fault because they find the text-speak hard to understand. But why the hell should we have to understand it? If I had my way, I wouldn’t even attempt it; I’d give the pupil the work back and tell them to do it properly!

I’d almost be tempted to respond to the inevitable – “Dat’s soooo gay” with – “I’m so glad you’re happy about it, ” except that it’d woosh right over their head.

Language may be a living thing that evolves – but I was under the impression that evolving somehow meant progressing, not regressing. We’ll be back to drawing pictograms next.

Oh.

Wait.

Or rather, is it giving them the idea that the creative subjects are worthless?

I teach music – and find that there tend to be two basic attitudes towards the subject, especially the practical work.

1. It’s a doss, so why should I have to write things down or bother to do any work?
2. It’s too hard (this when the pupil hasn’t even tried to undertake the task they’ve been set)

I started making my year 9 assessments today. We’ve been studying songwriting, with each lesson of the unit devoted to a particular aspect – writing lyrics, writing a melody, harmony etc, and for the last couple of lessons, pupils have – or should have been – bringing everything together and rehearsing for today’s assessment. Even in the top set, the results were disappointing to say the least.

All I’ve heard since the start of this half term is “Miss, do I ’ave ter sing it?” Or, “I ain’t singin’.” Or, “I int doin’ it.” When I’ve pointed out that “well, if you don’t do the assessment, I can’t give you a level”, the usual response is a shrug and “don’t care.”

Now, I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be an emphasis on teaching kids to read, write and add up. Far from it. (I covered a bottom set year 8 maths lesson today, and there were kids in there who needed to use their fingers to add up). But I’ve had kids say to me that “my mum only cares about maffs and innglish – she don’t care about nuffin else”, when I’ve told them that I’m going to be writing home about their behaviour or lack of homework or whatever.

So is the pressure that’s come via SATs giving pupils the impression that those are the only important subjects? I regularly get the same questions in French as well – “wot do we ‘ave ter do this for? I ain’t gonna live in France” – and others along similar lines. Of course, there are some kids who see NO value in ANY subject whatsoever, but I’m not really talking about the hardened criminals here.

And also – is this just me being a moany old bat, or do the majority of these kids lack any imagination or creative ability? Don’t get me wrong – a few of the kids today tried hard, and I’ve had some very good work from pupils in the past – but that’s the exception rather than the norm.

Why are the creative subjects the “poor relation”, when really, they’re be the subjects where pupils learn to think for themselves.

*pauses for laughs*

Yeah, yeah, I know. Where does it say these days that we’re supposed to teach pupils to think for themselves? Current doctrine may say that “it’s not what you learn but how you apply it”, yet I come across very few kids who are able to translate something they’ve learned into a different situation.

But back to my rant – sport is being pushed even more these days as schools do their bit to promote healthy lifestyles and fight obesity in children. But what about mental obesity? Shouldn’t we be fighting that, too?
I was finishing some tests with a class of relatively bright year 7s last week. A couple of them had finished a few minutes early, so I said that if they had a book with them, they should read that. You should have seen the looks I got. Sneers and “read?? no fanks, miss” *snigger*. If we don’t attempt to fight this mental paucity, we’ll soon become a nation of people who can run really fast, but can’t remember what we’re running away from! Or if we can remember what it is, won’t be able to understand why!

All of which, I suppose, is my way of suggesting that creativite subjects should be valued for the skills that they can help to develop (lateral thinking, teamwork, general confidence, etc) rather than seen as easy options.

Because believe me, a (decent) degree in music is NOT an easy option.

The end of another… well, I was going to say long week, but to be honest, none of them seem that long, these days.

And it’s two weeks until the end of term – thank God.

It’s funny, but every teacher I’ve spoken to, either in person at school, or via various fora and blogs has said the same thing – that for the last week or so, the kids have been ‘orrible. I can only attribute this to the fact that we’re all tired. It’s been a long term; staff will have done 15 weeks (of actual teaching) and the kids will have been in school for marginally less time, and we’re all knackered.

This is always the case in the autumn term though – it’s the longest term of the year and the one with the fewest number of holidays. Well, other than half-term, NO holidays.

But although it’s December, and the kids – my own and those at school – are starting to talk about Christmas, it just hasn’t sunk in that it’s only about 3 weeks away now. I’m probably so focussed in just making it to the end of term in one piece that it’s all passing me by.

Does anyone else feel like this? Despite the fact that decorations are going up (well, okay, they’ve been in the shops since the end of August!!) and Christmas events abound, do you find that you never really have a nice “run up” to Christmas, and rather, that it sort of leaps out on you from behind a large fir tree?

A quick update to this post about the threat I received last week.

The head and head of year assure me that they’re taking the matter very seriously. The boys have been removed from my lesson… until Christmas, given “a detention” and their parents have been called in. By the time the parents are actually seen, it will be about two weeks since the original incident took place.

I can’t help feeling that this delay is giving the impression that the school is taking this anything but seriously. The boys are still in school, one set of parents has already cancelled and re-scheduled their appointment – and to be honest, these boys are now year 8, they were like this in year 7, parents have been in on numerous occasions and it’s had no effect – so why should this time be any different?

I’ve spoken to the NASUWT – and basically, unless I want to make an official complaint, there’s nothing more I can do.

I’m not out for vengeance – I just think these boys need a good, swift, hard kick up the backside; something that might just make them think a bit. I don’t know “the law”, but if I’d been the head and what happened to me happened to one of my staff, I’d have sent the kids home, insisted their parents came in the next day, or the boys would be on a fixed term exclusion until the parents did drag themselves in.

But letting it go for 2 weeks? What sort of message is that sending to the boys (and parents) and any other kids who fancy having a go at a teacher?

I suppose this is why so many kids get away with this sort of thing. For a teacher to do anything about it, we have to make an official complaint against the school, probably creating ill-feeling and resentment in the process. And for what? I doubt the boys would be permanently excluded, and all I’d have done (probably) would be to get myself labelled a troublemaker.

And the thing is – it’s really not worth it. There are more important things in life that these two little turds, and why should I waste my precious time on them? The one thing I am going to do though, is strongly suggest that they’re not allowed back in my class at all. That’ll be enough for me – not to have to put up with them disrupting my class week after week.