Cleggie Flexes His Muscles At Last

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24599458

Cleggie seems to be acting like the little boy in the crowd, in the story of the Kings New Clothes. Too little and too late perhaps but welcome anyway.

[naomi24]

Mikey, did you read the last paragraph of my post at 10.21?

[mikey4444]

jno...I remember the news item in question. Why on earth did the Governors appoint this woman in the first place, when there must be loads of other candidates for the job, who had the proper training and qualifications ? She was clearly completely out of her depth from day one.

At the risk of repeating myself, I just don't understand it !

[TWR]

He must be seeing the writing on the wall! this may be the end of the Lib's for backing this arrogant out of touch self centered leech of a PM.

[emmie]

Naomi, aside from yourself, sorry. he was all for it, then not really. oh well never mind. I think free schools are good if they are run, managed by teaching professionals, big problem in case no one noticed is that teaching profession is not one that many of our young people seem to aspire to, and even if they do, what kind of school will they wish to teach in, state run, free school,. pay, conditions seem to be most of what the teachers have been striking over recently, they hate Gove, well so what, some of what he says makes perfect sense to me, large scale change is always going to be problematic. Free schools will work if you get the right people, and the same applies to all schools, it's why privately educated children get a better start in life, sorry to say it, because they attract good teachers, and if they aren't up to scratch the school will rightly bounce them out the door, can the same be said for our state school system.

[jno]

better a politician who says hang on, this isn't working, than one who ploughs on to the bitter end regardless on ideological grounds

[emmie]

one of our boroughs schools had a head in charge who was guilty of many things, not least using public money for personal reasons, holidays, expenses, and so forth, this is a state school, not a free school, are you saying that teachers in state schools sometimes don't use it as their personal fiefdom, and of course how much control is there truly under state funded schools, some have failed the children so badly, yet were allowed to continue on doing so until finally someone had to blow the whistle, and schools like the NHS hates whistleblowers.

[emmie]

and one who knows that he is disliked and even hated in many quarters, not least his own party, weak man with weak ideas, said before rather the tories lost last time out, than shackle themselves with the lib dems.

[youngmafbog]

Mickey, I have told you before. I had 'unqualified' teachers amongst the staff that taught me. They taught in the subjects they had done in real life and so were able to teach us tricks of the trade and put a real slant on it so you could see how it is used.

I got my best grades from them, so you continually discounting them is sheer rubbish.

I do agree with clegg on the curriculum bit though.

[mikey4444]

Of course I did naomi. I read everything you post with great interest !

You haven't given much details but I suspect that this teacher may be have a background in maths or science, and is teaching older children. The problem with the Al-Madinah Free School is that primary-age kids were being taught be people that had no teacher-training whatsoever, led by a chaotic management, a very different kettle of fish to what you are alluding to, unless I am mistaken.

Many, many years ago, when I was an apprentice with BT, we had lecturers at College, teaching us for our City and Guilds exams. Some of these were adult Telephone Engineers, who made a very good job of it. But we were in our late teens/early twenties, not 5 years old.

It seems to me that the parents of these kids need to look at their own motives for sending their kids to school, to be taught by unqualified people. It would seem to me that they decided that it was more important for their kids to go to a "Free" school, than to be taught properly. Nobody forced them to send their kids there.

[emmie]

all children should have the basics, once it would have been called the three R's. now who knows, however we didn't come out of school illiterate, which is what many prospective British company bosses have been saying for years, the candidates who apply for jobs are often poor at spelling, language, literature, as to maths enough said. These children have gone through state education, with so called qualified teachers? if they have been so good at their jobs, why have so many children come out of many years of state eduction with less skills than many of their European counterparts. Doesn't make sense i am afraid, criticise the free schools if you like, but i can't see that secondary modern, state run schools have in the past fared well at all.

[emmie]

perhaps they thought better a free school than no education at all -
isn't there a shortage of placements in junior schools, and that will get worse sooner than later as the baby boomers, those especially in the cities will need their children educated.

[jno]

often poor at spelling, language, literature, as to maths enough said

Depends what you mean by "often". Do you have any statistics at all, or just stories you've seen in the tabloids? Any comparisons with educational success rates in the past?

[emmie]

no i made it all up just for you jno


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23931974

[jno]

baby boomers' kids have all been educated already. Depending how you define them (1945-55 is about the range), boomers themselves are starting to pick up their pensions.

[jno]

emmie, what's that link got to do with the quality of education?

[emmie]

those who have babies now, the many i see pushing prams in the capital,
their children will need places, won't they?
as the BBC link i provided says there could well be a shortage, not that that is news, parents have been saying this for some time, and the more people that pour into the capital to live, work, their children will need schools.

[emmie]

shortage of places, which is what i said earlier.

[weecalf]

Cleggie thought it was the last of the summer whine

[emmie]

and that has gone on far too long.

[Gromit]

// While I understand why the Tories would want to remove schools from local authority control, I just can't understand why they allowed them to employ unqualified people instead of teachers ? //

Unqualified teachers are cheap teachers. You don't have to pay them the going rate. The driving force behind free schools is to save money on the Education budget. If you set these schools up on a shoestring, employ third rate staff and expect the parents to muck in for nothing, central Government will save a fortune.