With the news of the bankers breaking all around us it is hard to take in how our society is. But we have always known, haven’t we? You walk a hundred yards down any street and you will hear the common people of this land, voice the common and pragmatic approach. They know when they are being hoodwinked, it has always been that way, and bullies have always enjoyed power and find it hard to say that they are wrong.
The government has sent the stealth bombs of deceit that has been falling down on our schools. Bombs veiled in a parents wish to do the right thing for their children and their teachers. The devastation is hard to see – a hidden crater in our education system, covered loosely by twigs of statistics.
As far as I can see, there are three phases to these cluster bombs. The first cluster has done their job well. They have fragmented the teachers, parents and information, dividing us in order to conquer us. One by one our schools have fallen. Stowmarket Middle school the latest to close, no announcements made. Now so close to the end of the academic year what can anyone do? Bactons fate is sealed. No information has been given out willingly, no plans have been shown, no structure put into place just teachers fighting for a jobs, funding and salaries.
Second, take all the best students and put them in a few schools. Bacton, will be taken over by a free school, so adding to this phase. Does it make sense – picking the best pupils and putting them altogether? What happens to the rest? The council try to show us how the middle schools have been failing, but are they?
These schools have done their best with the majority of lower achieving or troubled students. How is it going to improve, certainly not by taking space from our primary schools to make room for the extra classes and overloading our high schools!
Bacton primary school set aside a room for those children with social issues. They had a safe place to learn about empathy – something that is hard for some children with learning difficulties. This protects the class from disruptive behaviour allowing the teacher to get on with teaching, this along with half of the new library will be taken away to allow another classroom. A playground and the swimming pool will have to go too. Soon primary schools with 200 or less pupils will close and what will happen then to the primary schools that are left?
All through these so-called discussions, meetings hurriedly arranged so parents find it hard to attend let alone gather information together. The Plans and changes are always conducted with the middle schools left out in the cold? Divide and they have conquered us. They have veiled our concerns to hide the ticking bombs and made us parents hold them in silence.
The third and final phase is the sixth form, now what will happen to them? No one has been told – a shrug implies they will stay as they are but how can they with an extra 200 pupils on site.
What is their ultimate game plan to improve education? Surely, the two-tire system will give greater consistency. Well very little true information and a lot of misinformation has been given so it is hard to guess. Maybe a few top schools in the area that make it all look good are the best we can hope for. And the rest? Well the other schools will have to do what they can.
In the reforms that endlessly go around in circles of harping back on the past. It seems to me a few things get forgotten – educating teachers to teach is vital but rarely mentioned. Children are not robots and with more children with learning difficulties this seems to me this should be the priority.
Parent teacher Associations should take pride in providing fun equipment for their children. Supported by the governors the teachers would feel valued. Valued teachers teach well.
The reality is not everyone can teach. We should all be able to understand that children are difficult. A quiet child is hard to engage just as much as an enthusiastic disruptive one but blame seems to take over and this is an error society can not afford.
A good standard of teachers – supported by parents, facilities and Heads
= Engaged and happy students secured with understanding
of what is expected of them behaviour and exams
gives good education
It is not hard to work that out!
This is a letter that I have sent in the vein hope it will be read before a meeting that I have just heard about takes place. In reality I'm not sure how much difference it will make but I thought we lived in a democracy, the way this has been handled I don't think we do.
The impact of restructure is a mighty one and at the moment we just seem to keep going through endless circles of change for the better? I think not. Why restructure when you can think wisely and tinker, to get things right.
My name is Tina Rodwell I was educated in a two-tier system in Cambridgeshire, and I’m dyslexic. I was in the lowest classes at school; my teachers and I were exasperated with the situation. They thought I could do better and saw intelligence and blamed lack of effort on my part for my exam results. I just thought I was thick because I could not learn the way they wanted me too.
My husband’s education, caught up in the struggle of putting the three-tier system in place was unsettled. Parents at that time, being told it was a good system. I firmly believe with the right support it could be. If children going up to the middle school were “buddied up” with their pier group of the previous year and again when they first go through the high school, transition would not be a problem. That way there would be no six weeks of worry over the holidays to what would be expected of them or what to expect. I believe this is what the pyramid system was all about and was persuaded of its merits.
My daughter went through a year of turmoil when teachers left because they thought Bacton was going to close.
My eldest son at Stowupland has had drop out teachers with constant replacement teachers. The biggest issue with schools no matter where you live or system you use, is keeping good teachers. I would guess that the conflict between school in fighting – caused by the uncertainty and their hands bound by the job they do, must be unbearable. Overall they are – people that want and need to teach.
All three of my children are dyslexic and have dyspraxia tendencies and a thing called Irlen syndrome. It does not matter to me what you call it but I do understand that we all learn in different ways – people and therefore children are not pre-programmable items. We live in a diverse society yet we still put constraints on it. This is used as a very valuable commodity by government when putting forward fluid statistics to support their ideas, after all it sounds good.
My eldest son wants to be a doctor and would, I think make a good one, but with his disabilities being misunderstood, and lack of consistency of teachers this is unlikely to happen.
The impact of rhetoric of government makes it all sound so plausible but expects us (the bound and gagged public) to walk a walk we instinctively know has no foundation and does not work.
Teachers are not allowed to express themselves, neither are the governors of our schools and trying to get a polite and courteous reply to a simple question has so far been beyond the council.
On Tuesday 26th 0212 a meeting is to be held in Stowupland high school where no independent parent representative will be asked to attend and they will only discuss one proposal, my question is why?
This has been going on for six years and my children have suffered. Yet I was told to be quiet in one of the first meetings held, as this would not concern me, my son at the time was too young so this would not effect him. My family has been and will continue to be badly affected, with the coercion during this process unforgivable.
My daughter will be at high school taking her A levels when the restructure takes place. She will not know what school or teachers she will have through her A levels. How is this going to work for her and her teachers?
My youngest will be forced to stay in a Victorian school with substandard facilities with two extra year groups. He will no longer have subject specific teachers going into his sixth year of education. Let me just clarify that. He will have one teacher that will teach all subjects with no subject specific equipment. He will have to wait until he is 11 going in 12 before he will be able to get to school safely (I kid not have you seen the primary schools in these areas) there will be no question of walking our children to school and no proper exercise at school.
He wont have a dining hall he can comfortably eat in, don’t get me started on toilets, a football pitch, tennis court so sport will be out.
Maths teacher and the equipment that they need in these computer frenzied times. No support for English, not to mention the Sciences, but it is the teachers I morn the loss of, without the teachers what is the education system and that is what this proposal will take away form Angus.
My Question is for what or whose benefit are we changing the system?
Even after two more meetings have taken place, I still have no reply.
