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Level schools playing field
• TEACHING to the tests and for certification is an impoverished view of education, with schools having to play the game of improving results by hitting government set targets (Making the grade, Letters September 11).
It is the right of parents to challenge and have a dialogue with their schools and the implementation of government policy. To dismiss this right of debate as being ‘political’ or ‘critical’ is churlish. Questioning is necessary in acquiring an education.
Only the academy is privy to the data underlying its results, something its “new freedom” can keep secret.
More students at Pimlico Academy now have the five A*-C GCSE grades needed to progress to the next level, and are to be congratulated; but it is arguable whether those with half a GCSE in maths and/or English, are equipped to do so.
Too much “intervention” may well hamper the development of the self-motivated learning needed for further education.
It is therefore imperative that parents know how results are being improved, and to be included in the school’s strategy, not held at arms length.
Maybe the academy’s “new freedoms” would be better spent engaging children and parents in debate, educating to enlighten, being inclusive and accountable, and challenging the tick-box culture so dominant in education today.
Maybe the government’s energy would be better spent ensuring that all schools can operate on a level playing field, so that education does not become a lottery.
Georgina Schueller
Address supplied
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Your comments:
ARE under18,s failed by schools? letters dated 18th September.Do we have our priorities wrong here? why are children being excluded in the first place?Are the lessons too boring?Are the teachers failing to provide an exciting or a stimulating environment in the classroom? Am I missing something here ,but surelythe emphasis should be on the responsibility of pupils to engage in a learning activity,not expect to be entertained! It is surely the responsibility of the parents also to encourage their offspring to adopt an appropriate mentality and attitude which is conducive to education,not to expect everything to be served up free on a plate!Behavioural difficulties,children under 11 years of age? Is there any discipline,if that,s not too uncool a word,for some,being inculcated,either at home,or in these aforementioned failing schools? Surely the emphasis should be on dealing with this unruly behaviour,not funding an expensive army of support staff,educational "experts",policy advisors et al! Some attention should be devoted to the endemic problem of truancy as I witness daily a small army of schoolchilldren who clearly ought to be in school but wander the streets.Simply throwing cash at this problem does not solve anything,it merely exacerbates it.No doubt the reason for kids being excluded from school lies in the inadequacy of the means or the willpower to deal with the pupils bad behaviour.In my school days,a policy of excluding children for misdemeanours such asfighting,would have "attracted" many applicants for exclusion!Behavioural specialists!whatever happened to parental control? do the parents themselves have any power over theur own children? a moot point.Also,one ponders the cost of all of this to the public purse.Years ago,pupil exclusion was unheard of,any ill -discipline was swiftly and summarily,sorry all you do-gooders, dealt with by the teachers who really were in charge of the classroom then,unlike today,sadly.I remember well,too,classes of upwards of 40pupils in our class,handled by one lone teacher,unaided by teaching assistants! What a shambles now reigns!
I Walker Dalgarno Gdns W10 |
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