To tute, or not to tute, that is the question

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23973213

Parents naturally want to do their best for their children", said Sir Peter.

But he added:"Providing private tuition for them puts those children whose parents can't afford it at a disadvantage.

There's no doubt that tutoring isn't cheap. It's costlier in the South East than some areas, but cheaper on the whole than London? Why does it cost so much? Well it is a job and to be able to afford to make even a modest living one has to take into consideration the cost of resources (manipulatives, books, stationery) and the fact that you do little business during holidays, among other things. My salary has dropped massively since leaving teaching but for me that is more than compensated for by job satisfaction. 

That said, fairness has always been vitally important to me. I have mentioned in previous posts that we will offer tuition at reduced rates for families on benefits and shared sessions are another way of reducing costs. We now have morning sessions available for parents who just need a bit of familiarisation with the new curriculum and current methods. These sessions can be booked via the website or on facebook. 

We have also provided advice sessions for parents who can't afford tuition but want some ideas to help them extend their children's learning and to ready them for SATs/Kent test.

So please contact us if we can help in any way. We want to help bridge those divides.

47%

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Ok, that's 100 dots.
100%. 
47& are blue, 53% are orange. 
Those 47 dots represent the 47% of our 11 year-olds who, according to the BBC news website( Link ) have failed to meet a new tough standard in reading, writing and mathematics.

That's a lot of dots that have not attained the label 'Expected'. They are 'Emerging' dots (no mention of 'Exceeding' dots in the article - not sure what that tells us). In fairness, some of those dots would have been 'Expected ' in some subjects but the Government requires they are 'Expected' in each of the key areas: maths, reading, spag (spelling, punctuation and grammar) and teacher-assessed writing.

Now I'm not an  expert (though that should be OK since apparently we are all fed up with experts, says Mr Curriculum Designer Man) but my reading of 47% 'Unexpected' tells me one thing.  The 'Expectations' were way out.

Those of us who have taught the new curriculum knew that.
Those who administered the tests confirmed that they were, indeed, more delusional than inspirational.
Those who comforted distressed children, waited to see just how bad it was.

It's bad.
The Education Secretary said she didn't know what the results would look like. Well, she jolly well should have known because those of us with children, or working with children, could have given her a jolly good idea. Now is the time to look at what children really need to learn and how they need to learn it. I agree with Nicky Morgan that a direct comparison is not  reflective of schools' achievements. It's a reflection of the suitability of the curriculum, and so I thought I'd give you a direct comparison so you could decide for yourselves.

Last year the dots would have looked like this:

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Education Secretary's comments on SATS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36703784


Read the article if you fancy but essentially Nicky Morgan has said 'Don't panic Mr Mainwaring!'

The tests have been made tougher and Mrs Morgan says lower results should not be interpreted as a decline in performance by pupils.

"They simply cannot be compared directly," says Mrs Morgan.

She's right, the results can't be compared with what has gone before. The new Curriculum is way harder than the previous version and includes much which is really hard to rationalise as age-appropriate.

 If only I were Education Secretary, I would wish to see the subjunctive removed,for example. Immediately, I would demand clarity about fronted adverbials and why fronted adjectival phrases were less important.  The rule book would be changed regarding the active and passive voices. 

See what I did there? If you did, well done, have a house points and then translate it into 'sensible speak'. If not don't worry, linguists disagree about many of the things your children are being taught as absolute fact and it's quit clear that deploying certain techniques just sounds clunky and unpleasant.

I could get into the maths curriculum and algebra for 10 year-olds but I don't want to bore you too much.

Bottom line is, if your child took SATs this year, you will almost certainly have no idea how s/he performed compared to an older sibling or friend. Mrs Morgan hasn't been able to come up with any sensible way to explain it to you, so you are going to have to rely on that good old favourite - your child's teacher. The teacher won't be able to answer some of your questions, after all if the Ultimate Boss is on the BBC news saying   "I don't know what the results will look like yet", you can't expect poor old 'Sir' to be any more in the know. But that teacher will know something (the most important something of all) Mrs Morgan doesn't know...your child.  The teacher will know how hard s/he tried, how effectively s/he worked, what type of learner s/he is and what progress s/he has made. 


As for Mrs Morgan's suggestion  that you should  "see the results as what they are - a reflection of how well children this year have performed against a new curriculum"   the reality is the results will reveal way more about the effectiveness of the curriculum itself. Is it fit for purpose? Personally, I am looking forward to the national data being published (yes I am that sad person who finds data fascinating- but only when it is used as a tool to refine best practice) and hearing what comes next. 

In the meantime, your children are the first to have had to deal with this and the deserve a great big round of applause for doing so.

Well done year 6; I salute you!