Completely misguided government edict #1674656563365677

[vetran]

I think part of the problem is that a lot of these 'less skilled' jobs are seen as menial and pay very lttile, hence people who might be ideally suited to them are disuaded from persuing them in favour of meaningless degrees.

Indeed, intelligent people look at low pay and think I'll try harder at education. Unfortunately most of the menial jobs have hundreds of applicants many highly qualified. Can't imagine where all these highly qualified people willing to work for minimum wage come from when our unemployed sit at home drawing dole.

[eek]

On of the causes of poverty is lack of education, which is brought about by having poor (in many senses of the word) parents. Therefore this extra money is addressing a cause, in the long term. It is clearly not a universal panacea, but it might well help. I think it's a good idea.

So we need to reduce the number of kids who qualify

True. But I doubt it will be measured.

Oh trust me it is. And the original article is very much stating what the consequences of not meeting the criteria are.

[sasguru]

We will find out when your kids do their GCSE's

Oh the irony

[TheFaQQer]

Genetics comes into play here - clever parents have better paid jobs. They also are more likely to have naturally clever kids. Where you have got bright kids with a crappy homelife, I agree that it's worth going the extra mile to give those kids the best possible chance. But I think many schools already do that.

Many do, and under the current Gove / Wilshaw regime, that is completely ignored.

This government scrapped the concept of recording contextual value-add, which factors in the circumstances of the child. So now Laws is saying that schools aren't doing enough, but at the same time scrapping the measurement which shows exactly how much schools are actually doing.

[TheFaQQer]

But I doubt it will be measured.

You couldn't be more wrong.

Every school has to have a clearly published policy on what they are spending the pupil premium money on. They need to publish data about how that money was spent (whilst making it anonymous), and that information is available on the Ofsted website. Schools also need to record the progress of children which are on free school meals, which is normally referenced in the Ofsted reports, and I think it is on the Ofsted dashboard as well.

[sasguru]

Bottom line is parents need to get involved more.
Just as my dad taught me to read before I was 4, so I'm getting my lad to learn.
He's 3 and a half and can already read basic words phonetically.
I've also taught him the value of books, so once he learns to read, he can teach himself.
You can't rely on the state, you've got to teach your kids yourself, encourage them to be self-reliant in their learning.

[d000hg]

But the point is that extra education is treating the symptom, not the cause. Poorer kids have poorer life chances, do less well at school, suffer poorer health over their lifetimes, are more likely to have mental health problems and a dozen other things, because they are poor. There is a ton of evidence that parentel socio economic status and not genetics is the primary factor.

Which is the whole point of schools doing things like breakfast club and free lunches... simply getting fed properly is a big difference. Also, the school is where they spend most of their waking hours and where they do most of their development, especially learning how to interact with other people... so in a very real sense school is about teaching the younger kids how to "be people" just as much as the parents are.

[d000hg]

Bottom line is parents need to get involved more.
Just as my dad taught me to read before I was 4, so I'm getting my lad to learn.
He's 3 and a half and can already read basic words phonetically.
I've also taught him the value of books, so once he learns to read, he can teach himself.
You can't rely on the state, you've got to teach your kids yourself, encourage them to be self-reliant in their learning.

Very true. But if you are thick yourself, the state should help rather than let you make a mess of it and perpetuate the cycle.

[sasguru]

But if you are thick yourself, the state should help ....

Is it helping you?

[d000hg]

Is it helping you?

I don't have kids and my parents aren't thick so your insult makes no sense regardless how thick I am

Got a serious reply?