Thursday - March 27, 2008

THE LUNATICS NOW RUNNING THE ASYLUM !  A MOONBAT CERTIFIED AWARD.

Schools to be forced to keep quota of problem pupilsNicola Woolcock

Successful schools will be forced to take a share of disruptive pupils to prevent them from monopolising the best-behaved children, the Government announced yesterday.

Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said that schools which excluded pupils would have to accept the same number that had been expelled by another school. This “one out, one in” policy would prevent oversubscribed schools from dumping badly behaved children on to their less successful neighbours.

http://tinyurl.com/2fmywn

Pupils aged 10 monitor teachers’ skills

By Julie Henry, Education Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:31am GMT 24/03/2008

Pupils as young as 10 are sitting on interview panels and rating teachers on their lessons as part of Government plans to give them a “voice” in schools.

Teachers have complained of “the lunatics taking over the asylum” as children in thousands of primary and secondary schools have been drafted in to interview new staff.

Teachers’ lessons are also being rated by specially trained pupils who monitor teaching quality. The children are encouraged to give feedback on the classes.

Unions will this week condemn the trend as a “dangerous” attack on the status of the profession.

“The balance of power is bound to be altered if pupils are allowed to go around judging staff,” said Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.

“It is an abuse of the concept of ‘student voice’ and will undermine the relationship between pupils and teachers. Staff are coming to us who have had 15-year-olds sitting at the back of the class and told them afterwards that the ‘pace of the lesson was not quick enough’.”

One case reported to the NASUWT involved a teacher who was offered a post after being interviewed by a panel which included a pupil. Some weeks later, when she reprimanded the child in class, he said: “Don’t forget I interviewed you. You got the job because of me.”

Schools Council UK, an independent charity which promotes children’s participation in school decision-making, estimates that 40 per cent of secondary and primary schools involve children in part of the interview process.

It is common for candidates to teach a lesson and for pupils to give feedback to the headteacher. In some schools pupils actually sit in on the interview, while in others prospective teachers will be questioned separately by pupils.

About one in 20 schools allows pupils to rate lessons but the trend is growing.

At George Mitchell School, in Leyton, east London, a group of pupils has been appointed as “consultants” who observe teachers at work, attend departmental meetings and advise on classroom seating and displays.

Children observe lessons in pairs every few weeks, producing lists of teachers’ strengths and weaknesses.

Giving pupils a greater say in how schools are run is part of the Government’s Every Child Matters agenda.

Ofsted inspectors expect all schools to have some form of student council and schools must consult pupils on issues such as behaviour policies. Advocates argue that involving children in decision-making will improve their behaviour and motivation.

Jessica Gold, the chief executive of Schools Council UK, which has trained pupils in a number of schools to observe lessons, defended the trend.

“Teachers value the feedback they get from pupils,” she said. “It is not about inspection-style observations, it is very much a co-operative process. It allows pupils to take a more mature perspective of the lesson.

“Teachers can sit down with pupils and say, ‘How am I responding to gender, do I give you enough time to answer?’ and this can inform how they teach.”

However, a recent discussion on a teachers’ forum revealed that many are far from enthusiastic. One said: “Children need to know who the authority figures are, for their own good, not have the boundaries blurred further.”

http://tinyurl.com/2enccx

Posted by Drew458     on 03/27/2008 at 04:11 PM   
Filed Under: • Education • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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