School Today

[Retrogames]

Re: School Today

Heartily agree with the parents! At one of my old schools parents fighting at home time or 'slagging off' other people's kids was commonplace. I have also found that the worst kids always have non-attendance at parent's evenings, so they know the score but can't be bothered to sort it out.

Sorry for moaning about marking, but the 'ten minutes per book' thing is what made me quit f/t teaching. The Government surely can't ask usto work more than 24 hours a day!it's just another way to say teachers are statistically underperforming and skirt the real reasons for our failing society imo.

I think most teachers stay in the job as they are tied to the income. You can't get £35k plus twelve weeks of holidays doing anything else. Few of my colleagues could understand why I was giving up work to live on supply wages. As I probably said before, with no mortgage living is actually cheap

Ta everyone, nice debate here, lovely to hear opinions rather than the normal internet arguing eh!

[havasack]

Re: School Today

Yes and no. There is more teaching to the test than in our day but possibly less teaching.

The worst thing about school today is parents, yes our own generation who won't accept their kids can be/are brats, very defensive even towards what staff are saying and want to be their kids friend instead of parent.

[HG]

Re: School Today

One thing that hasn't changed is teachers moaning about marking and preparation, not dig at Retrogamer by the way , just a general observation. All through my school life it was a common complaint and it seems to have continued with each new generation of teacher. Surely teachers know what they're letting themselves in for with their career choice so it shouldn't come as a shock to them.

The job satisfaction must make up for all the moaning or nobody would do it .

[HG]

Re: School Today

Split from https://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/t...-day-s-80s-90s

[Retrogames]

Re: School Today

Hmm yeah coursework, that prob makes things a lot easier combined with google eh! Ive not got too much experience of High Schools but every lesson plan/exam i've seen has stumped me- perhaps its me age

From what i've seen the biggest issue with assessment is that what the kids produce and what we're told to expect from them is so far apart most schools must be fiddling the stats to get through. I've seen the latest Nursery assessments and one of the things they have to observe for a 'nursery pass' ie to prove the kid is working at the expectedlevel of a three year old is the child telling a joke (without any prompts) and then explaining it.... I mean, by their own admission neither my Mrs or my wife can do that lol!

Anyone think the jobs system is going to improve? I think my lad will be better off missing college and starting his own business, round here its likely to stay at minImum wage jobs forever. When I packed in work they had 150 applications for my job, its insane. So glad I paid the mortgage off quickly! I walked into a decent job as a projectionist at 18 after three average a levels, all my mates got decent local jobs. I went into teaching in my mid 20s after selling my business off (i built a company dealing with tv and film rights) for money I couldnt turn down. Cant see that happening now.

[Trickyvee]

Re: School Today

I do feel sorry for teachers these days. I very briefly considered moving into teaching myself recently but soon thought better of it on hearing stories from teachers who are at their wits end with it all.

I have a friend who is a deputy head at a high school and she was also complaining that so many of the people she interviews now are people who have recently moved into teacher training from other professions and she says it is obvious that many of them don't really care about teaching. She seemed quite shocked by this but I think it is true. I know five people from my old profession who went into teacher training basically because our careers were all contract with a short shelf life. They only did it because it was the easiest option for paid training and getting a decent permanent job at the end of it (although that's far from guarenteed now even in teaching). I admit I would have been doing it for the same reasons. People take what they can get and I think this might also be detrimental to teaching in schools these days.

[80sChav]

Re: School Today

Hi Retogames,
I agree with what you say about inspections, but I think School is easy today in more way's than it's ard. There will always be expectations (whatever it is, I-pods, Clothes that Kids want to "fit in" with their peers). This will never change, it will always be the item that changes sadly.

I am no Teacher but I "sure as" think from what i've heard from realtives Kids have it easy today, I mean the Exams are so waterd down as is the Course Work and the nature of the work given/set etc too. This really needs to change I think as the grades are not worth half of those in the 80s/90s. This proves this I think as Children go to College and onto Uni and can not get a Job .... and what for?

Asmy best friend - his Sister (who is about my age) did all this, got a rasonable pass at Uni and is still working for an Electric Company in a Call Centre 5/10 years after graduating, due to this one of the best aatinable jobs on the Market she can get. This to me tells me all that is wrong with this Country Education-wise sadly.

[Retrogames]

School Today

School today is rubbish, and I can say that as a teacher. The first thing is it's too hard. Despite the media constantly printing 'too easy GCSE questions ie those daft ones aka the Who wants to be a Millionaire £100 question ('the rain in Spain falls mainly on the... Plain, Sprain, Insane, or Peter Andre?') but seriously, I got a B in maths in 1990 and have been actively interested in maths since, and when i've covered a High School maths lesson I havent got a clue how to start te work, it's that complex. Thats why I teach Primary, I can count to 10!

The thing i'd hate about school now is the need to have 'stuff' ie iphones, laptops etc or be laughed at. Its not as bad as it was ten years ago when every kid was label conscious and parents were forced to buy £90 trainers and £40 t shirts, but still horrible for the average teen.

I gave up f/t teaching at the end of last year and work 2 or 3 days a week supply now. I packed it in as Primary Education is in a rubbish state and us teachers are getting the blame from the Government. I spent the last five years working 80 hours a week, less in the hols but still a lot, and on every inspection they'd simply go mental about something random and fail the school, our best one was the amount of dust on a window six feet off the ground. They force us to spend time on marking and managment (recommendation is that each book is marked for ten minutes, 4 lessons a day x 30 pupils x 10 mins = 1200 mins a night, twenty hours???) and leave no real time for teaching, I worked out that I probably spent an hour actually teaching each day. We set sky high secondary school expectations but have pupils leaving primaries unable to spell their names.


My lad learns more in half an hour each evening with me than in school all day. I taught him addition over a half term; adding up is easy. The curriculum provides a fortnight every year to learn adding, that's fourteen flamin weeks to learn something that is pretty easy. What a waste of time!


(btw expct splling errors in my posts, its no reflection of my teaching, just of my typing and unwillingness to proofread! )

[80sChav]

Re: School Today

the goverment have a lot to answer for with all this p.c carry on.
in school kids have all the power and if the teacher says something the kids say u can do nothing to us.
teachers cannot even discipline the pupils in there class for fear of what will happen.

i think kids have it easier in the way that in school they are the bosses over the teachers.
i cannot stand all this i know my rights even though im just a kid.
back in my day pupils would never have entertained that idea.

for one thing teachers had the power and on the whole kids never stepped out of line or at least they did it far less.

It is wrong the Kids arein charge over the Teachers i think, Darren but that is easier for them than for the 70s/80s generation but still I believe in respect, and this should'nt happen really as they think they know everything. I would not like to be in today's generation full time but it'd be interesating to be in a time-machine and try it for half an hour etc I think.

Did you get my last PM by the way?

[Sly]

Re: School Today

I can't speak for today, but back circa 1999/2000 I had to do a lot of community service at the school I went to. Community service is mandatory for all education courses between the ages of 16-19 years old in the area I live. The memories it brought back was amazing. They had the same BBC computer still, among with lots of the same toys that I played with 10 years earlier. Sure some stuff was replaced, but in the grand scheme of things it was almost like for like. They even had the rototrim guiltiness that my old teacher used to use. Sadly it seemed out of the people working there now I was the only person that could work that ancient bit of tech. Amazing that a bit of board with a rotary blade on it could confound numerous people that had gone to University.

Anyway, it was more or less the same. They had the same playtimes, the same painting times. The same spatulas all covered in rubber glue and the same smell that filtered through the air from the poster paints. The same picture can look so different through childs eyes, and I think school view through adult eyes is more or less the same.

[Marine Boy]

Re: School Today

I think much of what goes on hasn't changed over the years....... but I do think when I was a child there was very little peer pressure and children seemed to be children for a lot longer.

I agree. I can't really speak for secondary, but as a primary school worker, I don't think there have been any radical changes, other than teachers being a little more understanding now - which is a good thing.

[shilton dipper]

Re: School Today

I think much of what goes on hasn't changed over the years....... but I do think when I was a child there was very little peer pressure and children seemed to be children for a lot longer.

[darren]

Re: School Today

the goverment have a lot to answer for with all this p.c carry on.
in school kids have all the power and if the teacher says something the kids say u can do nothing to us.
teachers cannot even discipline the pupils in there class for fear of what will happen.

i think kids have it easier in the way that in school they are the bosses over the teachers.
i cannot stand all this i know my rights even though im just a kid.
back in my day pupils would never have entertained that idea.

for one thing teachers had the power and on the whole kids never stepped out of line or at least they did it far less.

[80sChav]

Do you think School kids have it more easy today as opposed to the 1970s/1980s? I mean yeah there are more social issues I guess but from whati can gather their friends (care more for them in certain cases sometimes) I think, than in my day - being friends one day, falling out the next).

What I also guess I mean is though that (I think Kids) can say and do whatever now at School and then bring out the "I am right, I know my right's card" and get away with whatever they are in trouble foe. I know my first Secondary school was rough but we could never play that card so deeply. What do other members reckon/think?