The Michael Gove File

[nagapie]

I wouldn't be too concerned with that.

Many independent schools "make up" for their longer holidays with longer school days and classes on Saturdays.

Also, they're (by and large) not going to be all that interested in former state teachers unless they "fit the profile".

Most state schools have longer days too. The majority of subjects offer after school classes, run detentions and have meetings about 3 out of 5 days. It's a myth that those at state schools leave earlier. Let him make the day longer, but only if he pays us for every hour he works. (Not being totally serious, if he makes the days longer and the holidays shorter, I'm out, teaching's hard enough as it is).

What didn't work about lengthening the days in Mexico? Did they keep them longer?

 

[chilango]

What didn't work about lengthening the days in Mexico? Did they keep them longer?

Kids were knackered, teachers were knackered. Parents taking kids out of school for family holidays.

The last few weeks of each term were a write off.

 

[nagapie]

Kids were knackered, teachers were knackered. Parents taking kids out of school for family holidays.

The last few weeks of each term were a write off.

So did they revert back?

 

[DJ Squelch]

If they shorten school holidays that would mean support staff who only get paid for term only would have to get a pay increase for the extra days worked. I imagine Gove would try to wiggle out of paying them any extra though

 

[chilango]

So did they revert back?

Nope.

Not while I was there anyway.

 

[scifisam]

The Academy some of my daughter's friends go to has much longer holidays and much shorter teaching hours than my daughter's normal school. Last Summer they finished teaching in June, but still only went back in September - after my daughter's school.

This school employs a lot of staff on hourly and weekly rates, including teachers (via agencies as "temp" staff who have been there for years). Any school can hire staff on this basis, but if you have to be open for the actual normal school year, then you have to pay for staff all that time. The academy can dictate their own school year, so they save money by being open less often.

 

[brogdale]

In the abscence of industrial shock-troops of the labour movement, Gove's provocation of the teaching unions seems to cast them as the coalition's miners. Have they already strategically stockpiled a couple of years worth of exam passes around the country? I suppose the next step will be the appointment of some trans-Atlantic neo-liberal 'CEO' for the newly privatised schools?

 

[Balbi]

In the abscence of industrial shock-troops of the labour movement, Gove's provocation of the teaching unions seems to cast them as the coalition's miners. Have they already strategically stockpiled a couple of years worth of exam passes around the country? I suppose the next step will be the appointment of some trans-Atlantic neo-liberal 'CEO' for the newly privatised schools?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/mar/10/free-school-head-no-qualification

Done already. Good luck to her getting an ounce of respect from her staff.

 

[chilango]

They've stockpiled replacement teachers though.

There's a few years backlog of NQTs trying to get jobs, plus schools can often hire unqualified people iln place of teachers now.

I've often thought that this govt would like to try and break the teaching unions like it tried with the NUM.

...Gove would make sense then. A provocation. Trying to goad the NUT Into a showdown.

 

[goldenecitrone]

They've stockpiled replacement teachers though.

There's a few years backlog of NQTs trying to get jobs, plus schools can often hire unqualified people iln place of teachers now.

I've often thought that this govt would like to try and break the teaching unions like it tried with the NUM.

...Gove would make sense then. A provocation. Trying to goad the NUT Into a showdown.

Of course that's what he's trying to do. Smash up and privatise all education like everything else. That's the coalition's raison d'etre.

 

[chilango]

Kids were knackered, teachers were knackered. Parents taking kids out of school for family holidays.

The last few weeks of each term were a write off.

The autumn term lasted from mid-August to a few days before Christmas with no half term. You might get a couple of long weekends if the bank holidays fell nicely. But the whole of December was useless kids and staff dropping like flies and time being filled with made up activities for half empty classes.

 

[chilango]

Of course that's what he's trying to do. Smash up and privatise all education like everything else. That's the coalition's raison d'etre.

Oh I know.

It's that they might actually be trying to actively provoke a big teachers strike that is piquing my curiosity now.

 

[Ceej]

Year 6 kids in school today wrote letters to Gove protesting against changes to the Geography curriculum, limiting the area of study. Lots of stuff about children wanting to know more about their heritage countries etc, but one bright spark wrote: 'Dear Mr Gove, I looked up the definition of 'geography' in the dictionary says it is the study of the culture and landscapes of the countries of the world. Do you know your new curriculum doesn't even meet the dictionary definiton of the word? Maybe your school wasn't as good as mine.'
Good girl.

 

[frogwoman]

I know something I'd like to shorten. If Gove wants to know what it is perhaps he ought to read up on the history of the French revolution.

 

[frogwoman]

I love Robespierre <3 xxx

/dc

 

[DJ Squelch]

http://www.bexhillobserver.net/news...for-the-school-children-and-parents-1-4460654

10/11/2012
BEXHILL High officially became an Academy on Thursday November 1. Executive Principal Mike Conn announced to staff during half-term: “I am pleased to advise you that we have received written confirmation from the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove that we may convert to Academy status and that, from today, we are part of the Prospects Academies Trust.
Bexhill High was judged to be ‘satsifactory’ when Ofsted last visited so it has to enter in a formal partnership with another good educational establishment, in this case Prospects Academies Trust.
The new policy is about spreading good practice from the best schools. Education Secretary Michael Gove says academies will drive up standards by putting more power in the hands of head teachers and cutting bureaucracy, and claims they have been shown to improve twice as fast as other state schools.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-22219016

19 April 2013
Bexhill High School was rated inadequate in an Ofsted report, which said it was failing to give students an acceptable standard of education.
The document said the standard of work was below average in all year groups and in most subjects.
Greg Barker MP said early indications for this year's GCSEs were encouraging.
But the Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle added that there was still "a long way to go".
The school became an academy in November and was formally opened by Education Secretary Michael Gove the following month.

 

[brogdale]

Mr Void hits a rich seam of purple prose in his latest post on Gove's 'workfare schools' plan...

Rarely has there been a better example of one rule for them and another for the rest of us than Michael Gove’s latest plan to slash school holidays.
Gove wants the UK to be more like China and is intent of wringing every last scrap of joy from the lives of anyone who isn’t rich. Now the Summer holidays are in his sights as his fake concern for children masks a desire to cut childcare costs and make it easier for bosses to exploit parents.
The Education Secretary has previously claimed that children suffer a ‘learning loss’ over the Summer holiday. Yet children at private schools, like the one he went to, are barely ever required to turn up.
Eton College closes for the Summer this year at 1pm on Friday 28th June. Students will not return until the 3rd of September. The children are groomed for the gruelling life of being a posh twat by swanning off on holiday for just under an astonishing 10 weeks.
Then come Christmas they’re off again, breaking up on the 10th December and not returning until the 8th January, around twice the length of the holiday those at state schools receive.
Yet Gove wants to turn schools for working class children into Chinese-style education camps, with kids forced to sit in stuffy classrooms for months on end learning strings of pointless facts about dead toffs.
No doubt he hopes this will indoctrinate children for the miserable lives of ever increasing work for ever decreasing money that Gove and his neo-liberal vampires are attempting to inflict on the rest of us. Gove’s new workfare schools show the real direction this Government is travelling.
Both main teaching unions are set to strike over this year over working hours. They should be backed by every decent parent who doesn’t see childhood as merely a holding period before people are turned into profit making stock for the rich.
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/hey-posh-boy-leave-our-kids-alone/

Yep.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Yeah, this latest arse about teachers being expected to work longer hours to "to make life easier" for families seems to me as though what it really means (using Gove's nutjob vernacular) is "using the non-productive sector to make it easier for Wealth Creators to keep their drones at work longer with less bothersome inconvenience from their kids".

But teachers with families? How the fuck is it going to make anything easier for them? My wife already works 7.30-5.00 most days (admittedly as a dept. head she has a fair few meetings to go to but loads of teachers do extra-curricular stuff too) and Sunday, shit, if she does less than 6 hours on a Sunday it's a minor miracle. Add to that the up-til-1-or-2-a.m. of a suddenly-sprung Ofsted visit or lesson observation and I can hardly see where she has time to do any more work without only ever seeing her family during the holidays.

 

[Sweet FA]

But teachers with families? How the fuck is it going to make anything easier for them? My wife already works 7.30-5.00 most days (admittedly as a dept. head she has a fair few meetings to go to but loads of teachers do extra-curricular stuff too) and Sunday, shit, if she does less than 6 hours on a Sunday it's a minor miracle. Add to that the up-til-1-or-2-a.m. of a suddenly-sprung Ofsted visit or lesson observation and I can hardly see where she has time to do any more work without only ever seeing her family during the holidays.

Exactly why I jacked it and went supply. I was working at least 8-5 at school then a couple of hours at home + 1 day at the weekend. Like you say, that's just 'normal'; HMI/Ofsted/LA visits bump everything up to even more lunatic levels.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Exactly why I jacked it and went supply. I was working at least 8-5 at school then a couple of hours at home + 1 day at the weekend. Like you say, that's just 'normal'; HMI/Ofsted/LA visits bump everything up to even more lunatic levels.

Really. How's that working out? Isn't it more stressful going to new places all the time?

 

[Steel Icarus]

Really. How's that working out? Isn't it more stressful going to new places all the time?

Yeah, I've seen what happens to most supplies.

 

[spanglechick]

I used to do supply - if your classroom management is good it's a piece of piss, tbh.

But, when they changed the aw to allow unqualified 'cover supervisors' to take classes, i didn't get work every day.

 

[Sweet FA]

Really. How's that working out? Isn't it more stressful going to new places all the time?

Off the top of my head;


Upsides:

• new place every day
• more actual teaching time
• if it's crap, you're only there for 1 day
• no reams of assessment
• no planning
• no after school clubs
• no pre-school meetings
• no taking work home
• no weekend work

Downsides:

• new place every day
• massive pay cut
• no holiday pay
• no sick pay
• no pension
• no staffroom camaraderie
• no children of your own

In the end, I now get to see my wife and child way more. At one point, my own child came in 32nd after all the children in my class...now she's back at number 1

 

[Sweet FA]

I used to do supply - if your classroom management is good it's a piece of piss, tbh.

But, when they changed the aw to allow unqualified 'cover supervisors' to take classes, i didn't get work every day.

Yup. Though because Gove's such a colossal cunt and the job's getting even more pressurised and stressful, there's even more teacher absence and more supply work.

 

[chilango]

Yeah, this latest arse about teachers being expected to work longer hours to "to make life easier" for families seems to me as though what it really means (using Gove's nutjob vernacular) is "using the non-productive sector to make it easier for Wealth Creators to keep their drones at work longer with less bothersome inconvenience from their kids".

But teachers with families? How the fuck is it going to make anything easier for them? My wife already works 7.30-5.00 most days (admittedly as a dept. head she has a fair few meetings to go to but loads of teachers do extra-curricular stuff too) and Sunday, shit, if she does less than 6 hours on a Sunday it's a minor miracle. Add to that the up-til-1-or-2-a.m. of a suddenly-sprung Ofsted visit or lesson observation and I can hardly see where she has time to do any more work without only ever seeing her family during the holidays.

Yup.

That's why despite loving teaching, and being good at it, I won't be too upset if not getting back into a teaching job leads me into other lines of work.

My other half works 6 days a week teaching and doesn't see our daughter for more than a few minutes in the mornings and half an hour or so in the evenings on a normal work day. It's not fair on either of them.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Yup.

That's why despite loving teaching, and being good at it, I won't be too upset if not getting back into a teaching job leads me into other lines of work.

My other half works 6 days a week teaching and doesn't see our daughter for more than a few minutes in the mornings and half an hour or so in the evenings on a normal work day. It's not fair on either of them.

Aye. I'm doing a degree so I can BECOME a teacher - of maybe 9 & 10 yr olds. The more this bunch of fucks are in charge the less I feel like doing it. But I REALLY want to.

 

[chilango]

Aye. I'm doing a degree so I can BECOME a teacher - of maybe 9 & 10 yr olds. The more this bunch of fucks are in charge the less I feel like doing it. But I REALLY want to.

Teaching can be fantastic.

Shameful that the govt and media have decided to declare war on teachers.

 

[_angel_]

Yeah, this latest arse about teachers being expected to work longer hours to "to make life easier" for families seems to me as though what it really means (using Gove's nutjob vernacular) is "using the non-productive sector to make it easier for Wealth Creators to keep their drones at work longer with less bothersome inconvenience from their kids".

But teachers with families? How the fuck is it going to make anything easier for them? My wife already works 7.30-5.00 most days (admittedly as a dept. head she has a fair few meetings to go to but loads of teachers do extra-curricular stuff too) and Sunday, shit, if she does less than 6 hours on a Sunday it's a minor miracle. Add to that the up-til-1-or-2-a.m. of a suddenly-sprung Ofsted visit or lesson observation and I can hardly see where she has time to do any more work without only ever seeing her family during the holidays.

As if this even occurs to someone like Gove. He probably thinks they get to go home at three o clock every day.

 

[scifisam]

Off the top of my head;


Upsides:

• new place every day
• more actual teaching time
• if it's crap, you're only there for 1 day
• no reams of assessment
• no planning
• no after school clubs
• no pre-school meetings
• no taking work home
• no weekend work

Downsides:

• new place every day
• massive pay cut
• no holiday pay
• no sick pay
• no pension
• no staffroom camaraderie
• no children of your own

In the end, I now get to see my wife and child way more. At one point, my own child came in 32nd after all the children in my class...now she's back at number 1

I did the same for the same reason. The work itself was actually fine - way less difficult than I expected in terms of classroom management. I'd be doing it again now if it weren't for my health.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Aye. I'm doing a degree so I can BECOME a teacher - of maybe 9 & 10 yr olds. The more this bunch of fucks are in charge the less I feel like doing it. But I REALLY want to.

Hopefully, by the time you are qualified, the coalition will have been comprehensively (oh, yes) booted out of office.