Interesting research project underway

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mystery
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Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Interesting research project underway

Post by mystery »

:lol: Now that would also be lesson plan to delight ofsted. But even if they didn't, it's not dissimilar to the free online literacy lesson plans which I saw on a website very popular with vast numbers of schools (still the name escapes me) - below average group write a phrase about your family, middle group write a verse about your family, top group write a poem about your family. Then middle and bottom group goes home to cry because they weren't allowed to write a poem and the top group did (I do know kids this has happened to and similar).

The problem is quite knotty. Whenever a new curriculum etc comes out, advisers arm themselves up with their version of what it means and "sell" (somtimes literally) this to schools who then think they have to do it that way.

Was there anything in the new national curriculum or set out in OFSTED inspection guidance that this particular element of craziness had to be done by schools - or indeed that the lesson you describe with motor cars had to be done the way it was done in that particular school Amber?

At a personal level, I encountered an interpretation problem with the most recent national curriculum. Our school truly believed there was a very strict list of what you were allowed to do in maths in each particular year group of primary school and a particular way of determining who was allowed to stray slightly from that list. Only children on Mrs X's list of exceptionally gifted children were allowed to have the faintest sniff of anything that wasn't on this. No matter how hard I read all the national curriculum documents I could not find this particular stricture worded in the way the school was interpreting it. But the class teacher was not allowed to stray.

They did seem to chill out a bit about it for the following year groups but it was vexing at the time.

And other examples of the crazy differentiation thing vexed us time and again lower down the school with, for example, offspring only allowed to use two digit numbers and addition in year 2, no bigger numbers or subtraction, being told year 2 offspring would have to re-read one of those ridiculously boring colour banded set of books they'd read two years previously because they had not satisfactorily explained out loud the meaning of the word "employment" etc etc. It all sounds petty, but day after day it's confidence sapping for some children and overly-ego boosting for others.

Do you think we were maybe just unlucky Amber with these extreme examples? I think there are plenty of teachers, and parents, on here who have not experienced this?
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Interesting research project underway

Post by Amber »

mystery wrote:Do you think we were maybe just unlucky Amber with these extreme examples? I think there are plenty of teachers, and parents, on here who have not experienced this?
Mystery, I am not an expert! I am also not really the person to ask as I was so relaxed about what my children did at primary school that I would probably have been taken for not caring. I didn't allow them to do homework, went into school to ask that my youngest be spared level 6 SATs and refused to let them do any SATs practice at home as well. I took the view that primary school was about gaining the skills to access the secondary school curriculum and having some fun and carefree time and that being in this or that group or doing this or that poem or bit of Maths would not matter one jot in the long run. I took them out of school for a whole year to cool things down as well. They did the bare minimum. Their results in high stakes exams later prove that I was right to be relaxed. And they all had to develop their own work ethic which I think stood them in good stead - they joke now about being the only ones not allowed to do worksheets.
mystery wrote:Whenever a new curriculum etc comes out, advisers arm themselves up with their version of what it means and "sell" (somtimes literally) this to schools who then think they have to do it that way.
That is so true and sadly becoming more the case with the withdrawal of local teachers' centres and LA advisors - nowadays it is consultants who 'interpret' (aka market) new initiatives for schools. In fact a couple of my colleagues and I are quite seriously thinking of jumping into that market ourselves at is it so lucrative and many of the people selling reforms are far less qualified to do so than we are.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Interesting research project underway

Post by mystery »

Amber wrote:
mystery wrote:Do you think we were maybe just unlucky Amber with these extreme examples? I think there are plenty of teachers, and parents, on here who have not experienced this?
Mystery, I am not an expert! I am also not really the person to ask as I was so relaxed about what my children did at primary school that I would probably have been taken for not caring. I didn't allow them to do homework, went into school to ask that my youngest be spared level 6 SATs and refused to let them do any SATs practice at home as well. I took the view that primary school was about gaining the skills to access the secondary school curriculum and having some fun and carefree time and that being in this or that group or doing this or that poem or bit of Maths would not matter one jot in the long run. I took them out of school for a whole year to cool things down as well. They did the bare minimum. Their results in high stakes exams later prove that I was right to be relaxed. And they all had to develop their own work ethic which I think stood them in good stead - they joke now about being the only ones not allowed to do worksheets.
mystery wrote:Whenever a new curriculum etc comes out, advisers arm themselves up with their version of what it means and "sell" (somtimes literally) this to schools who then think they have to do it that way.
That is so true and sadly becoming more the case with the withdrawal of local teachers' centres and LA advisors - nowadays it is consultants who 'interpret' (aka market) new initiatives for schools. In fact a couple of my colleagues and I are quite seriously thinking of jumping into that market ourselves at is it so lucrative and many of the people selling reforms are far less qualified to do so than we are.
Yes - skipping a lot of primary school is a good idea. I know people who home educate / withdraw from school whaever you like to call it, at the opposite end of the spectrum, because they don't want children with EBD and / or global developmental delay etc etc to feel the stress than can arise from being so different from the others. But, not everyone can do this. And children do really get bothered by that type of differentiation - not being allowed to do things that others in the class are doing is quite soul destroying. It wouldn't happen when home schooled or on a year out travelling. There's few parents going to say you need to read all those books again or you're not allowed to use big numbers or try to take away. Children tend to take school teachers quite seriously so they assume that they're really not capable in this kind of situation or just feel the whole thing is unfair. Both of which are stressful things for a young child.

Anyhow, it will be an interesting piece of research - so long as the groupings, differentation etc they are looking at do happen in a lot of primary schools!

The advisory role sounds good too. Are you going to do special offers on sessions on how to safely fail to implement government policy where it is poor?
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Interesting research project underway

Post by Amber »

mystery wrote:The advisory role sounds good too. Are you going to do special offers on sessions on how to safely fail to implement government policy where it is poor?
Haha yes! At the moment we are all bound by other contracts/conditions but are a multinational bunch with a lot of expertise. Just working out how best to play it...there is no money in academia but there may be in selling knowledge!
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