Dropped In

It hasn't happened to me for a while, and I know colleagues of mine have been put through it recently, but I had the dreaded "drop-in" from the department's line manager. They picked a good time to drop in on me: Friday, last lesson of the week, with a bottom set in the upper school. Thanks for that.

To be honest, in my years as a teacher I've got used to this sort of thing, although having said that, this was the most menacing I've ever had. As bottom sets go this one is doing pretty well: they are a nice bunch and we get on, which helps. The line manager turned up about half way through, didn't say anything to me and just went around picking up books, presumably checking whether I'd marked them - fortunately I had done that week. Even when I tried to engage with the line manager I was totally ignored, and then 10 minutes later the line manager left. What was quite nice is that one of the students had had a go at the line manager about something that they had chastised them about.

This sort of thing, as I have said, is not uncommon. It stems from Ofsted and makes teachers feel small and insignificant. I'm sure that it's designed to do so. I was having a discussion with a member of senior staff about the origins of Ofsted, they having taught for far longer than I have. Ofsted was initially set up to make sure that standards were reasonably high in the classroom, and if a teacher was struggling, a network of support was utilised in order to help that teacher improve. Nowadays it is quite the opposite - it is not a supportive thing and because Ofsted wields so much power, senior staff in all schools feel that they have to do the same in order to get their staff used to the concept for when it happens for real.

In my 10+ years of teaching I can only remember a couple of positive experiences when it comes to observations and drop-ins. They have become an exercise in character assassination where anything that could be levelled against a teacher is levelled against that teacher, depending on whether they are flavour of the month or not. I tend not to be flavour of the month, I hasten to add.

Lesson observations are so subjective - a very good or very bad lesson stick out like sore thumbs, but those inbetween could be judged so differently by different people. I have fallen victim to this, even when observed by two people, the most senior (and one who likes me least) judgement counts. Don't start tuning up your small violins, it's not meant to be a moan or cry for sympathy at all. A few years ago I would have asked you to break into Vivaldi, but I really don't let it bother me too much anymore. That's not entirely true, I get really wound up and end up arguing with the line manager on a regular basis about judgements, but I have accepted that I will never get any positive comments because I am not an automaton or a kiss-arse.

Ofsted is a device to oppress teachers now and has lost its initial function which was to be a supportive body for schools and teachers. It is something that almost certainly needs to exist or schools could rest on their laurels, but Ofsted has got too powerful due to political rather than educational reasons. Ofsted has become a device that politicians use to justify idiotic policy changes and a desperate bid for votes at the next election. And it's just about to get worse, isn't it Sir Michael?

Academies Aren't Doing As Well As They Claim - Duh!

A report has just been released by "School Improvement Expert", Dr Terry Wrigley claiming that most academies have appeared to raise their results/achievement by essentially cooking the books and relying on vocational qualifications.

A link to the news story is here: Click here!

This a yet another non-story if you are a teacher and therefore have some clue about the education system in the UK. Academies up to this point have been failing schools forced into a change of status to raise standards. The problem being that the same students wander through the million pound doors, and even with the best teachers in the country, these academies are going to struggle to raise standards at the rate that they claim to have done. The children that have come on "leaps and bounds" have just been placed onto courses that require 100% coursework and therefore can essentially be completed by the staff themselves. The only issue that they have is getting these children a C grade at English and Maths, and credit where credit is due, they do a very good job at that.

Now, if you don't know, many vocational courses have been worth 4 GCSE C grades up until recently, when the government decided to "downgrade" these qualifications. You can almost sense the wave of panic going through much of secondary education, but especially academy headteachers who are paid silly money, sitting in masive offices whilst playing Angry Birds on their complimentary ipad2s. As soon as their "true" results appear in August, they will all be making a beeline for the Job Centre in a blind panic.

There are a few positives though:

• Since these qualifications have been "downgraded", employers will be able to make better judgements about who to employ as the playing field has now been levelled. Undeserving children will not feel that they have achieved by putting in zero effort and stillwalking out of school with 10 "GCSE" grades.
• The "fat cat" headteachers deserve pretty much everything they get. The good ones will stay because the results will have genuinely improved; the frauds will be unemployed, as they should be.
• The current government, who have been lauding academy status, will end up with not just egg on their face, but a whole battery farm that will hopefully lead to the sacking of the idiotic Michael Gove. Around 70% of academies will see a massive fall in their results to somewhere near where they should be. One can dream, but I won't be purchasing a "Sorry You're Leaving" card for Michael.

The whole thing only goes to prove that the current regime is purely out for headlines, not for the good of anyone other than themselves.