We have been looking for a science teacher for over a year now, cant get one and my school is a “nice” comp.
You could argue its lack of leadership but when its a national problem it suggests to me that other factors are involved too.

Several major problems here…

1. There’s very little (realistic) prospect for talent to transfer into teaching. As a practicing professional scientist, engineer & manager, I have looked into teaching on several occasions. Any mature entrant starts with the green new graduates with little opportunity to regain lost (salary) ground on the basis of your previous non-teaching experience.

2. Unlike other professions, there’s no effective “market” for teachers, based on ability and experience. The market is based on “cheapness” – i.e. an NQT at the bottom of the pay scale is quite employable, whereas an experienced teacher is effectively stifled in their career mobility by this “inverse market”.

3. Head teachers are often dreadful, dreadful managers. All of the negative aspects of public sector management philosophy, but without the oversight.

100% agree

Education success is driven mainly by parents (experience, motivation and interest) and pupils. They should be given opportunity and choice not be deprived of it. Whether they choose to take the opportunity is up to them.[/quote]

But there’s the rub – that opportunity should be accessible to all… In a functioning comprehensive system, it would be available, whereas in a functioning grammar / secondary system it would not be.

+1 for Edge of Darkness

House of Cards – the original BBC series

Grammar schools don’t reject kids because they are poor.

Yes, they absolutely do…

It’s another unintentional / indirect bias thing… As per the R4 report today, in areas like Kent where there are still grammar schools, there is a thriving industry in tutoring for the 11+ exam.

Paid for tutoring inevitably leads to a bias towards those families in a position to spend that money on their primary age offspring. Whether middle class families could / should be allowed to invest in their kids future is a different debate, but let’s not pretend that it doesn’t encourage selection by wealth as well as / instead of selection by ability

I see that as actually quite encouraging. As I said in my first post some folks flourish later. One of the (huge) disadvantages of the 11+ testing is kids getting locked out of the grammar system because they were unable to prove their academic credentials at such a young age. To hear stories of those that missed out first time around getting a second chance at A level is really positive. That those that have not taken full advantage of their place academically don’t necessarily get to keep their place because of some test sat 5 years previously is also no bad thing. Has the school failed them – maybe, hard to tell without knowing the individual stories.

Yes, that is encouraging for those that don’t get in at 11, but it is also telling about those that do…

When I joined the sixth form (too long ago to be directly relevant, but the concept, and stats? still apply), DHSB were taking 11 year olds with 120-140+ IQs. Half a dozen or so were getting 9 As at GCE level. BUT, the bulk were getting the same 7-8 A-C grades that the top set from my comp were getting.

The difference, the brightest at my comp were probably IQ 100-110 or so. Rather than being the failing comp vs the shiny grammar, our top set were arguably out-performing (or at least squalling) much brighter pupils that went through the grammar system.

So my central question remains, if the grammars are taking the very, very best, why aren’t they getting even better grades than they are?

Just checked the GCSE results of the one I went to (all boys, girls school down the road, mixed 6th form)
At least 5 A*-C grades – not dropped below 99.6% in the last 5 years.
Percentage of grades that were A* or A – not dropped below 80% in the last 5 years.
They seem to be doing OK by their charges on that score at least.
Also sent a minimum of 6 students (Max 10) to Oxbridge each year too out of a year group circa 115- again, if you value those things.

As I said, so very disappointing…

You can’t compare 1 No. grammar school to 1 No. comprehensive…

You have to compare the grammar school against the entire area / region that it creams off the best kids from.
I went to a grammar in Plymouth, one of the few authorities that have maintained grammar schools. DHSB always used to get the best results in the West Country, and pretty much still does.

BUT, they are getting the best results by taking the best 5-10% of pupils from the entire city of Plymouth (and beyond).
Do those pupils get higher or lower grades than they would have achieved anyway, irrespective of educational establishment?

The remaining schools fall somewhat short of DHSB, but they do so without the top decile of pupils. DHSB takes the very best and provides them with good to excellent grades. The remaining schools take the poor – average – good students and turns them out with poor, average or good grades…

The proof? At sixth form (where I transferred to DHSB) a significant proportion of the DHSB intake is from “those other schools”, whose students have achieved excellent GCSE grades. A proportion of the “brightest and best” DHSB 11+ intake are “let go”, their grades not good enough to get in to their own sixth form – i.e. let down. The brightest students NOT GETTING the best grades that they personally might have been capable of.

I went to both and don’t understand why grammar school results are so, so poor.

For those that still exist, they must surely be letting down the brightest and best of each generation…?

Bizarre series of posts 😯

My read of it was that the police were called because of the verbally abusive (threatening) behaviour towards a female rider…

Regarding “asking” for bottles to be filled, I’d assume that would be plain good manners. I’d be pretty p!ssed off if someone just walked in and started filling up water bottles without the decency to ask first!

And as for rider preparedness, I’ve never done a mtb or road enduro / sportive without bottle filling points. It’s just not feasible to carry your own (and camelbaks are pretty uncomfortable to wear on a stretched road bike type riding position)

Tellyland / media land = the upper middle classes looking after their own..,?

Is “Jock” a racist term?

Well, for a chuckle, just find the alternative on arrsepedia (under “jockanese”) 😯

Brace yourself, my dear

Be fair.
England, Wales and Australia are all pretty decent outfits, and one of them had to go out.
As a Scot, I wouldn’t have fancied my chances in that group (and we may yet join the Englanders with our team watching the second round from the bar).
Well done Wales & Australia, commiserations England. I think Jonny Wilkinson put it well – England are building a good team, it’s just not there yet; possibly not the time to rip it all up and start again.

Very fairly put – problem is, the arrogance of the fans & commentators put everyone else’s back up…

Like I said at half time… 20 innit

England lucky not to be 20+ down…?

Torbernite crystals….

(Nah. Not really)

Actually, those Su34s look quite tasty.

Dare say the west will be closely monitoring how they perform in combat

BUT, the question is…

… Could we ‘ave them 😈

Not where I thought this thread was going…. 😯

sushi FTW

Was closer 😈

Cocker?

gree about excess packaging but pretty sure people will not accept the possibility of squashed shopping. Makes transport more tricky too I suppose, but packaging is a terrible waste of resources.

Would have agreed wholeheartedly 18 months ago, but some recent work with a food packaging company has been a real eye opener…

Food packaging is primarily designed to keep the food safe – damage, chemical, bacterial contamination etc. In a litigious environment it protects food companies against genuine claims as well as deliberate tampering and fraudulent claims.

seems these companies are also totally committed to recycling and waste reduction

I’ll be on the train during tomorrow’s match…

… If the signal is as poor as tonight I’ll be off down the market to buy a dozen carrier pigeons 👿

When I come to England now I’m slightly horrified to see how they automatically hand out bags like nobody’s business

This

Placcy bag law should have come in ages ago – as in Wales, where it has made a huge difference to shoppers habits

I very much fancy a Venture Kayaks Easky 15 for what you are describing…

Mrs rkk01 hasn’t yet accepted that n=n+1 might apply, and I wouldn’t want to get rid of the Dagger Axiom

ETA – wouldn’t fancy hauling a loaded boat out at lots of locks 🙁

Ta…!
It was the Ponty to Radyr weir section we were paddling – quite entertaining for a family afternoon out

Ohh, and they spit flame from the twin tailpipes on an enthusiastic downshift – esp 4th to 3rd 😆

We had one for 3 years – brilliant fun. Huge grin every time you fired it up 🙂

Reliability – no horror stories, really:

– they eat tyres. Not just fronts either.
Mrs rkk01 managed to get 10k miles out of a set of Pzeros, once 😉
7000-8000 was more typical 🙄

– They eat discs too…

– and the intercoolers are buried in the deep chin spoiler. Mrs rkk01 clipped a kerb and needed a new RHS intercooler, having lost 50% boost though shearing off the turbo hose connection spigot.

Would defo have another one

Interesting. I know there is (has been historically) a lot of conflict on rivers.

Putting river specific access agreements to one side, is there any general rule re kayak seasons and fishing seasons? I do try to be considerate to anglers, but have been challenged in some odd locations, eg, River Taff in Cardiff…

Walker questioned whether I had right of navigation. I was polite, but privately considering rights of paddle access along the alimentary canal 😈

I’m on 8.2 at the mo. Would need to create a lot of space to upgrade…

Teenage rkk01 jnr is currently doing well with his science GCSEs…

“Logic” (tradition? Inability to think outside the box?) suggests that he persevere with the A level to degree science route that I have followed.

But I interview loads of new science graduates… Govt policy of the last 10 years means we are educating more than we can employ – or at least, more than we can offer the sort of challenging and financially rewarding careers that they are led to believe in 🙁

So rkk01 jnr is also quite talented in the performing arts. No idea if he is good enough to make a career out of it, but my view of employment in the science and engineering sector makes me think he could give it a go and always come back to his academic subjects at a later date

Carreg Cennen

Sorry, what is this “baguette sandwich”???

Baguette + Camembert (or similar) + small knife + torn chunks of bread

The world is round…

No, it’s not…

It’s an oblate spheroid 😉

Anyway, if anyone wants to unpack this, then “Inequality and the 1%” by Danny Dorling has a chapter on education – including the adverse impact private education has on state education and the opportunities of those educated in the state sector…

inequality and the 1%

So what’s on the V5 for all these vans?

So, what should a T5 Kombi be registered as? Always as a light goods?

Used the original BBC Micro to learn programming at poly. Ended up writing a programme to take data off the department’s XRF machine

Couldn’t do it now mind, although I still try to use the logic steps in my everyday work

Thanks – I can live with that…

Figured that the 180 might be a bit thirsty (and unecessary)

So – anyone got the 140PS motor?

Found a nice Kombi Highline 140… Similar power to my current estate car, any good in the Transporter? Official figures suggest it’s “reasonable” on fuel

Moving on….,

Had a drive in one at the w/e. Drove very well, but was the 2.0 180 bi-turbo 80

So, plenty more to argue about:-

– which motor?
– which colour?

I’d guess the 140PS is a good compromise between go and efficiency? Suspect I might get fed up putting diesel in the 180

On colours, I see a lot of white and silver conversions, but far less of the other colours. Quite like the look of the bright orange or the “blackberry”

No one posted The Cruel Sea…?

Band of Brothers is excellent, but the full Das Boot mini series probably still pips it