This news story was floating about on social media today, a story about a middle school that held a "mufti day" only for those who had reached their accelerated reading targets. Click here to see the full story from the Telegraph.
This got me thinking about the expectations of students about to sit their GCSEs and A Levels. The Easter holidays have just begun but many secondary teachers will spend some time in school delivering revision sessions, or in the case of many of their charges, "desperation" classes for those who didn't listen in class first/second/third time around and can't be bothered or don't have the discipline to revise independently.
I had a conversation with a colleague the other day who described this telephone conversation with a parent about their underachieving child in an option subject (names have obviously been changed):
Teacher: I was just ringing to say that Alice is currently on about a C grade but is very capable of getting an A grade if she puts in a bit of effort and knuckles down for the remaining 5 weeks or so at school.
Ms Smith: "Knuckling down" isn't really Alice's I'm afraidt.
Teacher: It really wouldn't be that arduous, in fact I can tell her specifically what she needs to improve upon.
Ms Smith: I really can't see her doing it, but it's great that she's capable of getting the A grade. Is there any way she could get the A grade without putting in the work?
Teacher: Not really I'm afraid, but I was thinking that if you had a quick word that might give her some encouragement.
Ms Smith: It won't work so I probably won't, but I look forward to her A grade in August.
Teacher: *Sigh*
I'm not embellishing this conversation; it actually happened. It's not untypical in the school I work in either. Something for nothing is almost expected. The entire culture of holiday and after-school revision sessions is a toxic one that encourages this "something for nothing" attitude; one no longer has to bother to listen in lessons as you will get numerous other opportunities to be taught what you've missed. After all, teachers have to do all they can to get their classes through 4 levels of progress or whatever ministers and their quangos decide is acceptable nowadays. Ofsted's and the DfE's obsession with data/exam results is the root cause.
And who can blame the students exclusively? At home students receive rewards for nothing. An obvious example immediately springs to mind: a student who has had to leave one school due to his behaviour and is lucky to still be at his current one received but a brand new vehicle for his birthday, despite being woefully below target in every subject on his timetable. So what chance have we, as a school, got? None is the short answer.
Deadlines are not deadlines and students know that if they wait long enough a teacher will essentially be forced to write coursework for them, having been pressurised by a nervous SLT who fear a visitation if the following summer's results are below par. No wonder employers think that schools don't produce young people ready for the workplace (as this story from January 2014 highlights). I'd have to agree that they don't, but aren't allowed to, despite what ministers say.
So when a headteacher tries to highlight the fact that if you work hard you get rewarded, like the workplace, loads of people moan and pick out that those who miss out, for whatever reason, have their self-esteem damaged. You can't win.
How will those children, future members of the workforce no less, how will their self-esteem be when they can't get a job that feeds their excessive lifestyle that they see in the media because they didn't work hard? Where do you draw the line? They have to learn the lesson at some point.
Teaching's Pod: thoughts on education from an educator
Showing posts with label Revision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revision. Show all posts
Monday, 7 April 2014
Sunday, 6 January 2013
Coping With School
There's been a bit in the press recently about young people coping with life after school - click here.
I have said for a long time now that schools in England, at least the ones I've had experience in, do not prepare young people for the big, wide world. I'm sure that there are some that do, in fact the school I went to had a pretty good go, but the majority fall way short of the mark. It's not their fault I hasten to add, it's the system that's at fault.
In a sense you can't blame children, parents or staff either, but politicians must take the blame for the current situation. Schools in England have become exam factories, with every judgement based on results. This sounds fair enough you'd think, but a school's, and therefore its staff's existence is purely dependent upon the results they churn out over the academic year. So can you blame staff for literally spoon-feeding its charges? This is the reason young people struggle with the outside world, because as older generations will tell you, you get out what you put in, unless you are in education. Employers are constantly moaning that many young people they employ almost literally know nothing of use, and they mistrust exam results as a consequence. Gove's policy of changing the GCSE to the EBacc will not address this in any way, shape or form as schools and their staff will still be based upon their results.
There will be no discernible change until young people in schools and colleges are "allowed" to get what they deserve. The problem is that in order to "allow" young people to get what they deserve, all schools will have to buy into the idea and not spoon-feed their cohort, which will never happen unfortunately because anyone in education will tell you that as soon as you stop spoon-feeding, results will take a hit for a year or two until the young people, and just as importantly, their parents learn that they have to make an effort.
I have a couple of Year 11 classes who have exams in January and I've been telling them to do some past papers that we've put on our website and bring them to me when they get stuck. How many have actually done this out of around 40 students? None. And my classes are not unusual as out of around 150 students who are taking exams in a couple of weeks, the total number seeking the help offered is under 10. We still get students asking what they should do to revise despite letters being sent home as well as texts and emails. And many of the parents are just as bad if I'm honest as they flatly ignore the messages sent home.
The trouble is that our students all know that they will get to college with whatever results they end up with, because "bums on seats" is the key phrase - their funding from government relies on numbers, so again you can't really blame them, The young people therefore find it almost impossible to fail, which is why when they start work and get both barrels from their employer for not doing their job, they crumble because it's probably the first time it's ever happened.
Due to the pressure on results, staff in schools also struggle to cope with the pressures placed upon them, especially when you consider that they are essentially having to do the work they are setting as well as teaching it. As the years have gone by my term time sleep patterns have changed hugely. I now get around 4 hours sleep per night during term as my brain races over how to deliver certain topics to certain classes/students in order to encourage them to think for themselves. This is now creeping into my holidays, which frankly can't be healthy for anyone, me, my family, the students I teach or my colleagues.
Not that any of this seems to bother Michael Gove or his old mucker Sir Michael Wilshaw. Their rhetoric seems to be "put up, shut up or we'll get rid of you". Now that's fair enough but replace me with someone as good or better. Good luck with that...
I have said for a long time now that schools in England, at least the ones I've had experience in, do not prepare young people for the big, wide world. I'm sure that there are some that do, in fact the school I went to had a pretty good go, but the majority fall way short of the mark. It's not their fault I hasten to add, it's the system that's at fault.
In a sense you can't blame children, parents or staff either, but politicians must take the blame for the current situation. Schools in England have become exam factories, with every judgement based on results. This sounds fair enough you'd think, but a school's, and therefore its staff's existence is purely dependent upon the results they churn out over the academic year. So can you blame staff for literally spoon-feeding its charges? This is the reason young people struggle with the outside world, because as older generations will tell you, you get out what you put in, unless you are in education. Employers are constantly moaning that many young people they employ almost literally know nothing of use, and they mistrust exam results as a consequence. Gove's policy of changing the GCSE to the EBacc will not address this in any way, shape or form as schools and their staff will still be based upon their results.
There will be no discernible change until young people in schools and colleges are "allowed" to get what they deserve. The problem is that in order to "allow" young people to get what they deserve, all schools will have to buy into the idea and not spoon-feed their cohort, which will never happen unfortunately because anyone in education will tell you that as soon as you stop spoon-feeding, results will take a hit for a year or two until the young people, and just as importantly, their parents learn that they have to make an effort.
I have a couple of Year 11 classes who have exams in January and I've been telling them to do some past papers that we've put on our website and bring them to me when they get stuck. How many have actually done this out of around 40 students? None. And my classes are not unusual as out of around 150 students who are taking exams in a couple of weeks, the total number seeking the help offered is under 10. We still get students asking what they should do to revise despite letters being sent home as well as texts and emails. And many of the parents are just as bad if I'm honest as they flatly ignore the messages sent home.
The trouble is that our students all know that they will get to college with whatever results they end up with, because "bums on seats" is the key phrase - their funding from government relies on numbers, so again you can't really blame them, The young people therefore find it almost impossible to fail, which is why when they start work and get both barrels from their employer for not doing their job, they crumble because it's probably the first time it's ever happened.
Due to the pressure on results, staff in schools also struggle to cope with the pressures placed upon them, especially when you consider that they are essentially having to do the work they are setting as well as teaching it. As the years have gone by my term time sleep patterns have changed hugely. I now get around 4 hours sleep per night during term as my brain races over how to deliver certain topics to certain classes/students in order to encourage them to think for themselves. This is now creeping into my holidays, which frankly can't be healthy for anyone, me, my family, the students I teach or my colleagues.
Not that any of this seems to bother Michael Gove or his old mucker Sir Michael Wilshaw. Their rhetoric seems to be "put up, shut up or we'll get rid of you". Now that's fair enough but replace me with someone as good or better. Good luck with that...
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Mock Exams
It's that time of the year when the students in the exam years take some mock exams. In my department's case that means years 10 and 11. There's the usual mixture of fairly disappointing and extremely disappointing results, with a smattering of decent grades thrown in for good measure. The poor results are mainly due to the fact that very few actually revised for the exams and some didn't even turn up on time or with the correct equipment, namely a calculator.
All those years ago when I first started my career in teaching the poor results used to get me down, and I'd wonder if I was doing something wrong or hadn't covered the syllabus properly. I have since come to realise, and the good results are extremely reassuring, that perhaps it's mainly the children and their inherent idleness that is to blame in the main. There could always be improvements made in the way I deliver certain topics but ultimately if a child makes no effort at all, I'm not entirely sure what else I can do.
Ofsted, and therefore the leaders of a school will immediately blame the teacher but unless that teacher pops round to every child's house and sits with them while they revise, then packs their bag ready for the exam in the morning, sets their alarm clock and knocks on the door in the morning to insure that they arrive on time, I don't really see that the teacher can do much more than deliver the syllabus to the best of their ability. If an entire class gets no marks in a certain topic then by all means blame the person at the board, but more often than not every question is answered correctly by someone in the class, inferring that the whole class had been taught the stuff sufficiently.
It's funny to see the reaction of some to their result. Most are genuinely embarrassed by their poor result (those who did well are genuinely pleased), but it will only make a difference for a lesson or two before they revert to type. I had a class today who had generally done appallingly (no real surprise, I hasten to add) and two nice girls in particular did really badly. They spend much of their time in lessons discussing who the best looking celebrity is, whether that bloke walking down the road is "fit" or daydreaming. Our conversation today went something like this:
Me: Why haven't you done any of this activity? It's the sort of stuff that will be in the exam.
Them: We don't get it.
Me: Have you asked for help? No you haven't, because you've been too busy staring out of the window trying to catch a glimpse of a boy.
Them: But we're teenagers and that's what teenagers do.
Me: You can do that in your own time, but in maths I'd like you to do some maths. Are you surprised that you didn't do very well in the mock?
Them: Yeah, but that was a mock; I'll actually try in the real thing.
I just looked exasperated at this point and went to help someone who was making an effort instead, thus avoiding the temptation to (attempt to) shout some sense into them. The reality is that they will try to cram some revision in to the evening before the exam, none of which will stick, and they'll do just as badly in the real thing. The fact that they have done precious little so far this year will also mean that they are literally starting from square one as they have done little or no class or home work. "Split them up" you may say, but then they just distract others who might want to do some work - a quandary, I'm sure you'd agree.
As time has passed during my teaching career I have come to accept this, but I will still be blamed for leading the horse to water and not forcing it's head under. The students will see no consequences as they will get opportunities to resit the qualification, and even if they mess that up they will get into college because that particular establishment needs their bum on a seat in order to get the necessary funding to remain open.
Once again the educational system in this country has embedded in young people the attitude that they will get what they want by doing as little as possible because the consequence that once was, the lack of an offer of a place from a college or university, is no longer there. They will get in whatever because those places need bodies.
The quick fix culture of modern society is also a major factor with last minute cramming preferred to working solidly throughout a course (X Factor Culture I like to call it, whereas instead of touring the country building up a fanbase and large back catalogue, singers just have to win a TV show). It is now an accepted form of "learning" as I discovered at my last parents evening, when an underachieving child's parents sat down at my table, with the conversation going something like this (we shall call the child "Dave"):
Me: Dave is doing little in class and no homework. The homework is set to practise the skills he will use in his exam, so I suggest he actually does a bit more to reinforce what I have taught him in class.
Parent: Just before the exam I'll make sure he does some homework, and we always cram the night before an exam.
Me: I'm not sure that's the way forward if I'm honest, and Dave's grades in previous units would also suggest this.
Parent: I'll make sure he does some work in the week leading up to the exam then.
Me: Right - great.
Dave's mock exam was one of the "very disappointing" ones, but it was only a mock after all. He'll be fine in the real thing.
He won't - I'll get told off. Can't wait.
All those years ago when I first started my career in teaching the poor results used to get me down, and I'd wonder if I was doing something wrong or hadn't covered the syllabus properly. I have since come to realise, and the good results are extremely reassuring, that perhaps it's mainly the children and their inherent idleness that is to blame in the main. There could always be improvements made in the way I deliver certain topics but ultimately if a child makes no effort at all, I'm not entirely sure what else I can do.
Ofsted, and therefore the leaders of a school will immediately blame the teacher but unless that teacher pops round to every child's house and sits with them while they revise, then packs their bag ready for the exam in the morning, sets their alarm clock and knocks on the door in the morning to insure that they arrive on time, I don't really see that the teacher can do much more than deliver the syllabus to the best of their ability. If an entire class gets no marks in a certain topic then by all means blame the person at the board, but more often than not every question is answered correctly by someone in the class, inferring that the whole class had been taught the stuff sufficiently.
It's funny to see the reaction of some to their result. Most are genuinely embarrassed by their poor result (those who did well are genuinely pleased), but it will only make a difference for a lesson or two before they revert to type. I had a class today who had generally done appallingly (no real surprise, I hasten to add) and two nice girls in particular did really badly. They spend much of their time in lessons discussing who the best looking celebrity is, whether that bloke walking down the road is "fit" or daydreaming. Our conversation today went something like this:
Me: Why haven't you done any of this activity? It's the sort of stuff that will be in the exam.
Them: We don't get it.
Me: Have you asked for help? No you haven't, because you've been too busy staring out of the window trying to catch a glimpse of a boy.
Them: But we're teenagers and that's what teenagers do.
Me: You can do that in your own time, but in maths I'd like you to do some maths. Are you surprised that you didn't do very well in the mock?
Them: Yeah, but that was a mock; I'll actually try in the real thing.
I just looked exasperated at this point and went to help someone who was making an effort instead, thus avoiding the temptation to (attempt to) shout some sense into them. The reality is that they will try to cram some revision in to the evening before the exam, none of which will stick, and they'll do just as badly in the real thing. The fact that they have done precious little so far this year will also mean that they are literally starting from square one as they have done little or no class or home work. "Split them up" you may say, but then they just distract others who might want to do some work - a quandary, I'm sure you'd agree.
As time has passed during my teaching career I have come to accept this, but I will still be blamed for leading the horse to water and not forcing it's head under. The students will see no consequences as they will get opportunities to resit the qualification, and even if they mess that up they will get into college because that particular establishment needs their bum on a seat in order to get the necessary funding to remain open.
Once again the educational system in this country has embedded in young people the attitude that they will get what they want by doing as little as possible because the consequence that once was, the lack of an offer of a place from a college or university, is no longer there. They will get in whatever because those places need bodies.
The quick fix culture of modern society is also a major factor with last minute cramming preferred to working solidly throughout a course (X Factor Culture I like to call it, whereas instead of touring the country building up a fanbase and large back catalogue, singers just have to win a TV show). It is now an accepted form of "learning" as I discovered at my last parents evening, when an underachieving child's parents sat down at my table, with the conversation going something like this (we shall call the child "Dave"):
Me: Dave is doing little in class and no homework. The homework is set to practise the skills he will use in his exam, so I suggest he actually does a bit more to reinforce what I have taught him in class.
Parent: Just before the exam I'll make sure he does some homework, and we always cram the night before an exam.
Me: I'm not sure that's the way forward if I'm honest, and Dave's grades in previous units would also suggest this.
Parent: I'll make sure he does some work in the week leading up to the exam then.
Me: Right - great.
Dave's mock exam was one of the "very disappointing" ones, but it was only a mock after all. He'll be fine in the real thing.
He won't - I'll get told off. Can't wait.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Holiday Revision
As a teacher you are constantly banging on about the importance of steady revision over the holiday period to your charges. Most, as we all know, will ignore your advice and try and cram in a little revision on the morning of the exam. Waste of time - you might as well do yourself a fry up instead.
Then there's the revision sessions put on by the schools. It is an expectation that teachers will stay after school on one day per week and do an extra lesson - unpaid. You obviously not obliged, but it is severely frowned upon if you don't do it. I don't mind being frowned upon, but plenty do.
There's also the revision sessions put on during the holidays - Easter and Summer Half Term. These do tend to be paid as they are during holiday time, and I tend to do those as I'm being paid for my time. And let's face it, you don't get much (if anything) for free nowadays.
The way we tend to run our revision sessions is to "invite" a select band of students along - they are the ones who have target grades that are now well beyond them due to their inability to actually try in class. Letters are sent home and reply slips grudgingly brought back in by disgruntles students whose delusional parents still believe that little Johnny is going to be a top draw lawyer, or a Premier League footballer needing an education to fall back on in case he gets a career threatening injury.
Inevitably the sessions are pretty pointless, with the students just there because they know that their games console will be confiscated if they not. They have also come to the realisation that even a pass is probably beyond them, let alone their target grade of A* (which the majority seem to have now). I had one member of my class try to persuade me to move them from higher tier (which they were perfectly capable of doing) to foundation tier, where the highest they can get is a C grade. This is less than a week before the exam. I refused for the following reasons:
"We have to do these sessions because it ticks another box, and when they all fail and try to blame us, we can just say that we offered these revision sessions." Sad, but true and wisely said.
Then there's the revision sessions put on by the schools. It is an expectation that teachers will stay after school on one day per week and do an extra lesson - unpaid. You obviously not obliged, but it is severely frowned upon if you don't do it. I don't mind being frowned upon, but plenty do.
There's also the revision sessions put on during the holidays - Easter and Summer Half Term. These do tend to be paid as they are during holiday time, and I tend to do those as I'm being paid for my time. And let's face it, you don't get much (if anything) for free nowadays.
The way we tend to run our revision sessions is to "invite" a select band of students along - they are the ones who have target grades that are now well beyond them due to their inability to actually try in class. Letters are sent home and reply slips grudgingly brought back in by disgruntles students whose delusional parents still believe that little Johnny is going to be a top draw lawyer, or a Premier League footballer needing an education to fall back on in case he gets a career threatening injury.
Inevitably the sessions are pretty pointless, with the students just there because they know that their games console will be confiscated if they not. They have also come to the realisation that even a pass is probably beyond them, let alone their target grade of A* (which the majority seem to have now). I had one member of my class try to persuade me to move them from higher tier (which they were perfectly capable of doing) to foundation tier, where the highest they can get is a C grade. This is less than a week before the exam. I refused for the following reasons:
- It costs the school an extra £25 that it can't really afford, not that that's a major issue.
- Ultimately they have been idle, and when offered help refused it with the comment "My mum's tutoring me". They even went on holiday over the last revision session they were invited to attend.
- They did in class (i.e. with help) a foundation paper and totally messed it up by making silly mistakes due to not concentrating. Since you need to get around 70% to 80% for a C on the foundation paper, that doesn't leave much scope for silly mistakes. The higher tier will allow them to make silly mistakes because you can get a C grade with around 35% (yes, you did read that correctly).
- Why should I rush around making a massive effort to change their tier of entry when they have made absolutely no effort whatsoever in 2 years? Get used to reaping what you sow pal!
"We have to do these sessions because it ticks another box, and when they all fail and try to blame us, we can just say that we offered these revision sessions." Sad, but true and wisely said.
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