I feel like a stranger where I live

[Platypus]

I got a new puppy last week. It's brown all over with little bits of white here and there.



I named it "Bradford"

[SueEllen]

Isn't this exactly how London is even in the white bits... everyone is rude, nobody talks to each other, etc?

Nope.

London has always had a transient population but when lots of small shop keepers were Hindu and Sikh and more importantly actually owned the shops they worked in, they realised if they talked to people:
1. Their English would improve and in turn their children's, and
2. Their customers would come back and buy things especially if they were elderly or had small children.

This last bit was what they relied on when the supermarkets started trading on Sundays.

It was actually common for me as a child to be sent from my local shop by the shop keeper, who was expelled from Uganda, to chase some adult who had forgotten something in his shop.

People from any background generally aren't rude if:
1. You have a child in a push chair and you need help to mind gaps and go up and down stairs - people offer without you needing to ask.
2. You have a obvious disability. In this case you probably want some peace as someone is guaranteed to talk to you if the transport isn't packed. On the plus side when transport staff refuse to help people will get you, and your wheelchair on and off transport.

If you say break your leg or are elderly the only people guaranteed to give you a seat are the healthy elderly or people who are clearly foreign i.e. weren't brought up in the UK.

[northernladuk]

My wife was subjected to an OFSTED inspection last year that expected to be able to measure her class based on the standard of the national curriculum. They had no recourse or advice for the challenges of teaching a class of 34 with 1 english speaker , the rest English as a 2nd language and 4 unable to speak any english at all. 14 languages in 1 infant class.

Apparantly the standard of teaching was only "acceptable"..

I hold very liberal views, but it does annoy me when I see people ignoring common sense for some pie in the sky PC sentiments that actually result in unequal rights and totally uncontrolled invasion in some areas.

I didn't think OFSTED reviews looked at this. I thought the review was on the way the teaching was delivered and the ability to deliver the teaching. I didn't think it got embroiled in issues that affected results like second language. They inspect the way the school is run, not lack of results? You can have a failing school full of English kids but an outstanding school with all 2nd languages?

[d000hg]

Schools measure kids on entry so they have a metric on which to base expected levels of improvement... sometimes these expectations are unrealistic though. Nevermind immigrant-heavy schools, nearly every village school in the NE has to deal with children from deprived backgrounds and all the screwups that entails.

[Scoobos]

I didn't think OFSTED reviews looked at this. I thought the review was on the way the teaching was delivered and the ability to deliver the teaching. I didn't think it got embroiled in issues that affected results like second language. They inspect the way the school is run, not lack of results? You can have a failing school full of English kids but an outstanding school with all 2nd languages?

I wish that to be true. Unfortunately it isn't.

Same for D000hgs comments, though they are true in respect to deprived areas. Kids at infant schools are not assessed on entry and targets are not gained from that. That would be sensible but it doesnt happen.

Kids go straight into class at infant and then the teacher has to stream them from there - the teacher has almost ZERO input in how they will be measured and what their targets will be.

I think a sensible example is that year 1 attained 5% on English last year - so the head decides to concentrate on that for year 1 next year - showing improvement. But year 1 then gets 8 Iraq refugees, so the school doesnt improve and OFSTED then report that there hasnt been a big enough improvement despite being in special measures etc.

Then the school gets acadamised, and selectively intakes, as academies can do that.

OFSTED do not follow a year group, that would make too much sense.

A lot of teachers I know are convinced that this is a government agenda to change as many schools as possible into academies.

For example, last year OFSTED said that the new "satisfactory" was, in fact unsatisfactory, and the gvt then followed up with anyone getting satisfactory or below to be fast tracked to academies.

So we have a position where you have new heads put in "failing" schools, who then set unrealistic targets, in order to expidite the move to academy and then they then become "consultants" to that academy.

All this typed, I'm no teacher and only pick up what I hear at my wife's gatherings

Sorry for the teacher rant, It's close to my heart seeing my wife do 60+ hours a week for less than 28k a year , 6 years into her career

[SueEllen]

I wish that to be true. Unfortunately it isn't.

I've been told plenty of times that OFSTED inspections are political.

If you know the inspectors - which you would do if you have been invited to become one in the past - then generally your lessons will be marked excellent even if you aren't following the National Curriculum to the letter.

If you are a foreign teacher then regardless of how well you teach you are never going to get that score.

[SueEllen]

You can have a failing school full of English kids but an outstanding school with all 2nd languages?

OFSTED inspectors will now class both primary schools as failing.

The school with the English as a first language speakers will be failing because the kids aren't being stretched. Doesn't matter if the kids are of average ability which most kids are.

The school with the majority of English as second language speakers will be failing due to the fact that the children are learning English even if the kids aren't stupid and will end up at 11 at average or above ability.

[Scoobos]

Daring to add to Sue's (much better than my) posts

*I think* that OFSTED are fighting for their life at the moment, having been identified in the first "quango" attack a few years ago.

I do buy into the fact that they are singing more to Gove's tune than that of real education at the moment. Get those academies rolled out and we can't easily roll back, lessening the states responsibility to educate.

[OwlHoot]

... Of course, they are sufficiently upwardly mobile to be able to get out when they want to....

Good point!

[SueEllen]

Daring to add to Sue's (much better than my) posts

Know and have known too many teachers throughout my life - one disadvantage of being female.

*I think* that OFSTED are fighting for their life at the moment, having been identified in the first "quango" attack a few years ago.

I do buy into the fact that they are singing more to Gove's tune than that of real education at the moment. Get those academies rolled out and we can't easily roll back, lessening the states responsibility to educate.

I've noticed in the past few decades that:
1. Every time the Tories are in power they think of and implement some way for state schools to be let loose from state i.e. LEA control mainly by offering money but now using the law as the financial incentives aren't working.
2. Every time Labour are in control they limit the money to these schools and so convince them to go back into state i.e. LEA control.

The Tories are now trying to make the situation permanent by getting private companies to run state education but looking at some of the privatisation messes of both parties ultimately when the private sector fails - which it will with most schools as kids are not perfect - then the state will have to pick up the pieces.