I haven't written a blog post for nearly a month. The reason was that I was so utterly depressed by the General Election result that I couldn't think of anything optimistic to write.
I still feel the same actually.I am incredibly concerned about the state of education in our country. I wonder what will happen when all the academies fail to get good results, when they've sacked all the teachers, appointed new young blood that can't hack it and quits within the first few years. Where will all the new teachers come from then?
The army, was that the latest plan? Qualified teachers aren't really necessary. Has it occurred to them that former army officers might not be any better than us in the classroom? I don't have behavioural issues in my class because I can't shout loudly enough, perhaps the army succeed because it can and does administer punishment and consistently. In my first school all the kids got the bus home or walked.They weren't school buses, they were public buses, so if they missed the 3:45 one there was another one soon. We were allowed to keep the students for up to ten minutes at the end of the day. And they all came to their tutors at the end of the day. Feedback was instant.Justice was instant.Very few issues went unresolved at the end of the day. Students didn't necessarily need detentions, unless they had work to catch up on but to know that they had to face consequences, to address the teacher they had tried to escape from was very effective.
This doesn't always happen, even in my school now. I have also heard of schools where students tell the teachers that there is no point threatening detention for missed homework, swearing at another student, sitting there and doing absolutely nothing for an hour as they "don't do detentions" and their "mum will phone the head". And they do. And the heads don't always back up the teachers.
There is nothing magic about army officers or unqualified science specialists. Look at the problems David Starkey had in that Jamie Oliver programme. Teachers are a very special blend when they're good or outstanding. I don't have it yet.at least not all the time. Not at the moment. A few of my colleagues do.
So I'm still grumpy. This is made slightly worse by worrying about a lazy year 12 and 300 exam papers I need to mark if I'm going to get the car fixed to drive to France this summer. Dan wants to leave the country. He did anyway, but the election result certainly hadn't helped. I'm dealing (or not dealing) with the most corrupt governing body of a school I've ever come across who seem to think they can convert to an academy after speaking to some bloke the chair (man) met at the golf course and the worst HR who seem to be advising schools to take no care of their staff whatsoever. But this is a blip. I know life isn't like this.it's been worse and it will get better. Normal service will be resumed.
Friday 29 May 2015
Saturday 2 May 2015
Life Outside of London
Peter Kay has broken the internet with a BBC iplayer programme called "Car Share". It's quite funny. According to the article I was reading today it's about two people sharing lifts to a "Northern" supermarket.
I've been to them, they had them when I was growing up. Safeway? Gateway? Fine Fayre? Were they "Northern". They don't sell the same food. It's mostly internal organs and potatoes. It is virtually impossible to buy balsalmic vinegar and it's exclusively real ale in bottles and no lager.
Or not. In fact they're almost the same all over the UK, I challenge you to get kidnapped, blindfolded and dumped in a Tesco store somewhere and to identify the city you are in without leaving the store.
Would they say if "Car Share" involved Jack Whitehall travelling to a "Southern" supermarket? I don't think so, because "Southern" is just normal isn't it? It's a bit like regional broadcasting. Every region apart from London and the South East. I'm not being deliberately prejudiced against the South. I think the problem lies with London.
I remember on one of my first nights at University meeting 3 friends from Devon who pointed out to me that they never saw any good gigs in Devon. Nothing ever comes down south they said, it all stops in London. It was the first time I had thought about it, I hadn't realised quite far away Devon was from ... anywhere. I still thought Sheffield was in the Midlands. We went on school trips to London and to visit my Uncle. We travelled all round the UK to go to gigs, go on holiday, visit family. When I finally met real people from London however, many of them confessed that they had rarely travelled outside of London except to leave the UK, even to go to University; why would they need to?
On our school trip down to the Harry Potter studios I asked my colleague why the studios were so close to London. I was surprised to see house built right up to the edge of the studios and right to the edge of a dual carriageway. Why would anyone want to live there? They didn't of course, he explained, they build a ring road to avoid the residential areas and then build up to the new boundary. Like when you put a cat in a box and somehow they end up filling all the space. Wouldn't it make more sense to build a studio near East Midlands airport I asked? It's near an airport and the motorway, surely one airport is as good as another for international film stars. Then another film studio would spring up down south he told me and of course he's right.
So what is the government doing to regenerate the North and replace all the industry closed down in the 80s? Build a high speed rail link ... to make it easier to get to London. What if we don't want to go to London? The DVLA was moved to Swansea, but now all my friends seem to have been made redundant by the DVLA. Wouldn't it be a good idea if the new parliament buildings were somewhere near Birmingham? That's the middle-ish. I wonder what would happen to my 4 hour journey up home if the London MPs had to do it every week?
If the Houses of Parliament were somewhere else perhaps other business would follow. The government should be the ones taking the lead, Businesses provide work for the companies, their lawyers, the accountants, the cleaners, the van drivers, the window cleaners, the local Starbucks and sandwich shops.
Radio 4 implied today that politicians could be scared of the North. Shirley Williams suggested that politicians are cosseted within a world of other politically-savvy media people and media-savvy politicians. The special edition of Question Time filmed in Yorkshire was apparently a bit blunt for the politicians. The implication seemed to be that we don't really know how to behave when we meet politicians, that these Northerners got a little bit power-crazed and it somehow went to their heads. We're just not quite civilised enough to be trusted with the grown up stuff.
So that's what I am checking for in my last few days of manifesto-reading. What the plan is to spread the wealth, development and house prices across the nation. Great Britain, the United Kingdom is greater than the sum of its parts and it is certainly bigger than our capital city.
I've been to them, they had them when I was growing up. Safeway? Gateway? Fine Fayre? Were they "Northern". They don't sell the same food. It's mostly internal organs and potatoes. It is virtually impossible to buy balsalmic vinegar and it's exclusively real ale in bottles and no lager.
Or not. In fact they're almost the same all over the UK, I challenge you to get kidnapped, blindfolded and dumped in a Tesco store somewhere and to identify the city you are in without leaving the store.
Would they say if "Car Share" involved Jack Whitehall travelling to a "Southern" supermarket? I don't think so, because "Southern" is just normal isn't it? It's a bit like regional broadcasting. Every region apart from London and the South East. I'm not being deliberately prejudiced against the South. I think the problem lies with London.
I remember on one of my first nights at University meeting 3 friends from Devon who pointed out to me that they never saw any good gigs in Devon. Nothing ever comes down south they said, it all stops in London. It was the first time I had thought about it, I hadn't realised quite far away Devon was from ... anywhere. I still thought Sheffield was in the Midlands. We went on school trips to London and to visit my Uncle. We travelled all round the UK to go to gigs, go on holiday, visit family. When I finally met real people from London however, many of them confessed that they had rarely travelled outside of London except to leave the UK, even to go to University; why would they need to?
On our school trip down to the Harry Potter studios I asked my colleague why the studios were so close to London. I was surprised to see house built right up to the edge of the studios and right to the edge of a dual carriageway. Why would anyone want to live there? They didn't of course, he explained, they build a ring road to avoid the residential areas and then build up to the new boundary. Like when you put a cat in a box and somehow they end up filling all the space. Wouldn't it make more sense to build a studio near East Midlands airport I asked? It's near an airport and the motorway, surely one airport is as good as another for international film stars. Then another film studio would spring up down south he told me and of course he's right.
So what is the government doing to regenerate the North and replace all the industry closed down in the 80s? Build a high speed rail link ... to make it easier to get to London. What if we don't want to go to London? The DVLA was moved to Swansea, but now all my friends seem to have been made redundant by the DVLA. Wouldn't it be a good idea if the new parliament buildings were somewhere near Birmingham? That's the middle-ish. I wonder what would happen to my 4 hour journey up home if the London MPs had to do it every week?
If the Houses of Parliament were somewhere else perhaps other business would follow. The government should be the ones taking the lead, Businesses provide work for the companies, their lawyers, the accountants, the cleaners, the van drivers, the window cleaners, the local Starbucks and sandwich shops.
Radio 4 implied today that politicians could be scared of the North. Shirley Williams suggested that politicians are cosseted within a world of other politically-savvy media people and media-savvy politicians. The special edition of Question Time filmed in Yorkshire was apparently a bit blunt for the politicians. The implication seemed to be that we don't really know how to behave when we meet politicians, that these Northerners got a little bit power-crazed and it somehow went to their heads. We're just not quite civilised enough to be trusted with the grown up stuff.
So that's what I am checking for in my last few days of manifesto-reading. What the plan is to spread the wealth, development and house prices across the nation. Great Britain, the United Kingdom is greater than the sum of its parts and it is certainly bigger than our capital city.
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