Ernie Ernie Ernie, on 20 May 2016 - 08:06 AM, said:
Oh I will admit it's a very narrow minded view shared it would seem by a few others. Yes I have done the hills and if it is good,
1 - but kids who can't ski being on the baby slopes, I'm not so sure it's exhilarating.
2 - My view is more narrow minded than you think tbf as all the overseas trips I have been involved with always seems to involve some kind of relationship between teachers involved. Again perhaps it's just the 3 schools I've been involved with.
3 - I'm also very cynical towards inset and training days which always happen to be on a Friday or Monday and usually following a holiday. I live within a few hundred yards of 2 schools snd the car parks are empty after about 12 on said days.
4 - Yes you are right my opinion of teachers is low and I think the standard of teachers nowadays is appalling. It appears from the outside that a lot of young teachers I come into contact with through having children of my own and the through my professional role lack more than basic intelligence and I despair at how they have entered the role.
Sorry for breaking up your paragraph into separate points.
1 - PlannerJ nails it when saying "
an experience that can't be done here"...unless you count the dry slope in Sheffield (is that still going, by the way?)
I also endorse that, given my Mrs is a teacher at a school here in Stockholm. I got to accompany her and a group as an AOTT (adult other than teacher) on her school trip (I had a week off and I'm CRB checked, and all that) to Tärnaby; 900km north of Stockholm, and home of Ingemar Stenmark - google him to find out just how good he was! I'm the novice skier with some of the group on the baby slopes, and let me tell you, that place is stunning! We also got to race snow mobiles, go cross-country ski-ing, go ice fishing, make igloos and camp outside in them, and a hike in the mountains with snow shoes. Exhilarating every day, sir.
2 - Yeah, that's just the 3 schools you've been involved with. Hardly a representation of all schools, is it? And also hardly a representation of schools in any given location. More a reflection of those travelling with the trip...
3 - A bit like the corporate jollies that masquerade as team-building exercises or golf days that are deemed necessary to butter up a potential client?
4 - You can thank your current Prime Minister for that. When he first came to power, he and the coalition cut the education budget by 33%, which put pressure on schools to reduce their own budgets very quickly. Easiest way? Offload long-serving and experienced teachers and replace them with newly-qualified (40% cheaper), allow "cover supervisors" to teach full-time. Also allow non-qualified staff to teach. Think about that - you wouldn't accept arriving at A&E to be met by someone who once administered a plaster and calling themselves a triage nurse, would you? But the equivalent has been allowed to happen in schools...
The trade-off is: those most capable of mentoring the new staff have been put out to pasture, because they're only seen as expensive commodities, not as assets to a school; those with a few years of experience that aren't yet ready for middle management are leaving the profession due to being told their job is now in jeopardy as the results make for dire reading whilst they're in charge, i.e. they're under-performing; nobody wants to come into the profession as they see what is happening and want no part of it. Then you're left with the inexperienced and unqualified - a recipe for disaster...
And there, the seeds for under-funding, to then name as under-performing, to then close and re-open as an Academy, were laid. There's an incredible parallel between this and what's happening with the NHS, right? You say it's failing, you privatise as much as you can by giving contracts to you friends who are party donors, and then saturate the media with how badly run things were before, and we're the saviours all along. That's your government, right there...
20 years ago, there was a shortage in the profession. The previous government offered bursaries to BSc graduates if they wanted to train on the PGCE program for a year. 5 years later, there's a only a shortage in the core subjects of English, Maths and Science. They were offered a 'golden hello' of jumping a point or two on the main pay scale compared to other new entrants to the profession in other subjects. 3 years after that, and there's a short surplus of teachers, which is actually a good thing. Apparently, it's gone downhill rapidly since "Call me Dave" came to power.
What's your solution - or is it just a whine?
DISCLAIMER - teaching is in the family. Father for 26 years, brother for 20 and counting, in-laws still do and a then a few family friends. The views in point 4 belong to my brother - an outstanding practitioner (Ofsted agree with me as well), who still does things the right way and makes decisions for his school based on it moving forward and what's best for his students.
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