[Closed] Where is the "teachers are shite/GCSEs are easy" thread?

no your making stuff up

No schools last year got less than 5 %
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12168122

The school I was at got about 12% as I recall.

I heard, some A-level students who had just got there results, were all doing Media Studies, Music and Drama, and Art

The difference between different subjects is shocking, Biology is statistically the hardest A level. I have been thinking of trying to start Env Sci as an A-level as its much easier. Thing is Uni's know this and base their offers on what your doing. You wont get into a good uni with A* in Film studies, Sociology and Env Sci, but you would with B's or C's in English, maths, Sciences, History etc.

Obviously you have never heard of time Mr Pedantic. It's that abstract thing that sort of syncs with the appearance of the sun and the moon.

Before last year, certainly within the last 4 years, there were schools achieving less than 10% 5A* to C. One in Reading comes to mind, now an Academy. So you must be making stuff up when you say you were at the worst perfoming school in the UK. Unless you meant for the period you worked there. That time thing again. And there are loads around the 20-35% mark, which takes them into special measures. If there weren't any last year scoring that low, then that's likely because of the inflated (perhaps) worth of BTEC's and such. Though that will likely change.

Yes you are pedantic.

Unless they kill someone or assault a senior member of staff that is.

Generally they are given a hug when that happens and the teacher is blamed for it

A regular rank and file teacher sure, that would happen. A regular teacher will also be arrested at their home (any time of day or night) have their fingerprints and DNA taken if they are subject to a malicious false allegation by a student. This happens.

A senior member of staff like a head or deputy head will enjoy greater protection.

Results around the 30 - 35% mark do not put schools into special measures - this is a category that can result from a very poor OFSTED inspection.

The schools that fall below the so-called 'floor targets' are called National Challenge schools.

Just to be pedantic...

And if you end up on National Challenge, Special Measures almost ALWAYS follows.. so yes, you are being pedantic. Still, you are in the right profession for pedanticism. Only a matter of time before you start wearing huge knickers, laugh like a Tory, and read Enid Blyton books.

And if you end up on National Challenge, Special Measures almost ALWAYS follows

VCC, what on earth are you talking about? Do you know my profession? And what profession ends up as you describe? I genuinely don't understand your post...

And you're wrong about special measures anyway. Oh, and it's pedantry, not 'pedanticism.'

A senior member of staff like a head or deputy head will enjoy greater protection.

Student will be exculed for a few days and then the teacher will be blamed.

So you must be making stuff up when you say you were at the worst perfoming school in the UK. Unless you meant for the period you worked there

bingo,named after that bloke who owns the local football club.

Yes you are pedantic.

no you were just wrong in what you said

And there are loads around the 20-35% mark

which is at least 100% higher than what you were talking about, its not pedantry its a huge difference.

Anyone know what proportion of kids still do 9+ gcse's and 3 or 4 full fat A-levels? And whether the stats include people retaking just one or 2 subjects and not doing a lot else that year? I am sure if i had done fewer i could have got 'better' grades!

At work (children's mental health) I have encountered many cases where pupils felt pressurised to drop gcse's following illness/hospitalisation, sometimes for their own benefit by having something realistic to focus on rather than being swamped with stuff they couldn't possibly have had time to learn, but our own hospital school would frequently 'wonder out loud' what the failing child was going to do for the schools stats. 😕

Anyone know what proportion of kids still do 9+ gcse's

No idea, bu the way CVA is worked out seems to encourage people to get kids to do as many as possible, I believe I did 7 back in the day, now almost everyone seems to do at least 8 or 9.

I didn't realise I was so strange. 😕 I'm doing 10 GCSEs, Maths, English lang, English lit, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, German, Geography, History and DT. I'm expected to get mostly A*s. Then, at A level, I'll be doing 5 of them, definitely including Maths and Physics as I hope to end up with a job as an engineer. 😀

VCC, what on earth are you talking about? Do you know my profession? And what profession ends up as you describe? I genuinely don't understand your post...

And you're wrong about special measures anyway. Oh, and it's pedantry, not 'pedanticism.'

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pedanticism

Give me strength. Silly billy.

Scottish school system = Slightly f*cked up

English school system = Totally f*cked up

This is well worth a watch.

Ken Robinson is indeed well worth a watch but I'm always left thinking that he's good at telling us what's wrong but not how to fix it.

Perhaps his books are better on that front than a 10 minute talk.

Those RSA animate things are awesome.

That video is excellent but silly at times and misses the mark. Within the first few seconds it launches into nonsense about the economy not being predictable or indeed controllable... tell that to Goldman Sachs.

I should have said the video is 10 mins of an hour long talk.

Within the first few seconds it launches into nonsense about the economy not being predictable or indeed controllable...

Thats just a bit of rhetoric to get him started.

His point about schools being made in the image of universities is an apposite one.

No idea, bu the way CVA is worked out seems to encourage people to get kids to do as many as possible,

Can't remember how it is worked out overall, but different students have higher or lower cva's depending on their race, socio-economic class, postcode, fsm and other factors.

You don't want a chinese or polish female in your class of numpties, because if she fails you will get hammered. HOwever if you have a black, male, on fsm, with unemployed parents, you are onto a winner if you can get him to pass or get higher marks.

getonyourbike - good luck young man, can I recommend control systems engineering as something with a nice blend of the practical and cerebral?

oliverd1981 - Member

getonyourbike - good luck young man, can I recommend control systems engineering as something with a nice blend of the practical and cerebral?

Cheers, Oliver. I might even have to work the next 2 years rather than just cruising. 🙁 🙂

Can't remember how it is worked out overall, but different students have higher or lower cva's depending on their race, socio-economic class, postcode, fsm and other factors.

You don't want a chinese or polish female in your class of numpties, because if she fails you will get hammered. HOwever if you have a black, male, on fsm, with unemployed parents, you are onto a winner if you can get him to pass or get higher marks.

I've been teaching for 6 years. Polish females have consistently been some of my best behaved and highest scoring students, and when you consider how they rarely make up more than 5% of my student population, they score higher disproportionately. Polish boys have more or less the same attitude to learning as British boys IME. That's not to say bad on the whole. Just normal, average, neither better or worse IME.

With students I don't look at their home environment, they are either scoring or not scoring. There always has to be E and Fails, to make the A to D's have more value, and there will always be students who despite your best efforts score the latter. In good schools you meet less, and in the so-called 'bad' schools you meet more who will achieve. Of course nearby Grammar and private independent schools and socio-economic environment and 'catchment area' explains all this.

I have always found having eal kids, you couldn't speak English at primary school but have since learnt in your gcse classes best. They have really low target grades.great for your value added.worst is a set of triple sciences kids with a* targets. No chance of a positive value added with them.

I can tell you that catchment area plays a large part in social division and is almost entirely responsible for that all important metric - the percentage of students who score A* to C in five of their GCSE's.

In poor areas less score this. In richer areas more score this. In towns with great social divides with grammar and/or independent private schools the state schools disproportionately service the poor. For all sorts of reasons this group face significant hurdles. Financial stability equals emotional stability as well as a nicer home. This in turn equals a higher 5 A* to C.