Tidy them up

Cameron in “smarten up” call to school children

O.K. so it’s not a spanking brand new fresh idea that nobody has dared to think about before, more a reminder of how things ought to be done, however David Cameron’s sentiments on school uniform policy are essentially right.

A uniform policy is a sensible idea for most schools to operate, it introduces a basic set of rules for everyone to follow, an essential start in understanding discipline and conformity, and uniformity blurs the distinction between the haves and the have nots.

A shirt tucked in, and tie with a uniform width properly adjusted to the neck should not be beyond the achievement of most children and parents. Yet it is so common to see children in this borough (and countless others) with shirt tails flapping in the breeze below blazers, ties with knots the width of yacht sails and the length of a matchbox dangling four inches below an open collar, and expensive trainers that have seen better days treading upon overlength trousers. It suggests a very casual attitude and does not portray the pride with which schools would wish to be associated.

It may be an old fashioned idea to smarten up, and my comments will no doubt upset a few, but suitably turned out students (like those pictured) look as though they mean business and are ready to go about learning in an earnest way.

So why knock it?

New Executive Director for South Tyneside Council

Replacement for Kim Bromley-Derry

I understand from various customers that South Tyneside District Council is to offer the job of Executive Director or Children and Young People to Helen Watson who is currently Deputy Director Children and Families at North Tyneside Council. It is not know as yet if she has accepted the offer or whether she has experience in massive reformation of primary school structures.

She faces a challenging start to her new office and I wish her well.

18.00 Update

North Tyneside Conservative councillor Hugh Jackson says:

“I am, and always have been, impressed by Helen Watson whenever I
have had any dealings with her. To be honest, I rather hope that she does
not get the job, because I’d be sorry to lose talent!”

Looks like we may be on to a good ‘un!

Reading hardly improved since 1950’s

Durham University slams £500m. waste

Researchers at Durham University claim that reading standards in our schools have barely improved since the 1950’s and that “£500 million was spent on the National Literacy Strategy with almost no impact on reading levels.” The apparently dramatic rise in primary school test results “exaggerated the changes in pupils’ attainment levels and were seriously misleading”.

Oddly, I thought that back in the days of long rows of desks, teacher in front, learning parrot fashion, we tended to do better, even if it wasn’t ‘fun’ at the time. So any improvement at all since then must be seen as a major plus!

Whether it was worth the £500m. is quite a different subjective matter!

Save Xmas!

A timely intervention?

Those nice people in Gordon Brown’s government ever thoughtful of the heartache and misery caused by the collapse of the Farepak Hamper Company last year launched a campaign back in June with a leaflet giving guidance and advice on saving for Christmas, detailing the best ways for us to look after our money.

What? You weren’t aware?

Good, that is why they chose yesterday to issue a press release to tell us all about it. The Office of Fair Trading must not have known that many of us have already started or half finished our Christmas shopping, and those of us who have the need for savings schemes probably started in January or Febrauary.

Was this some kind of Hallow’een trick or treat?

A postcard from Brighton

Busman’s holiday by plane?

The first postcard has arrived at the Corner Shop following yesterday’s appeal, this from Mr. Ahmed Khan, suggesting that the Busman’s Holiday had arrived in Brighton for an important week at the beach a conference. Mr. Khan suggests that Cllr. Foreman is enjoying the company of Amanda Skelton (figuratively speaking) although it is not sure what the business of the conference is. However, in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint and do their bit to help South Tyneside achieve it’s carbon emission targets the company decided to leave old Blakey’s bus back in the depot after it was discovered there was no catalytic converter fitted to the exhaust. Naturally, they flew instead.

While Cllr. Foreman was there, I wonder if he discovered that Mr. Brown’s government is planning to attack prudent schools who spend their money wisely and save some for a rainy day? Those clever schools will see their money stolen by the government and given away to schools who know how to waste it best!

Not what we’d want to see in all of the bright new schools Jimmy is planning to build in the borough is it?

Any further sightings of the Blakey Bus, (or other councillors enjoying our largesse) would be much appreciated, we like a nice sea view when the weather is so dreary here!

Where in the world…………

……..is Councillor Jimmy Foreman?

The former bus driving South Tyneside councillor is conspicuous by his absence, his fives and threes team is not performing to their usual standard without him! Just where in the world do you think that Cllr. Foreman has gone? Has he taken a busman’s holiday or is he away on a fact finding mission at our expense?

One might have thought with a recent report telling us that nearly half of  school children are struggling with the three R’s and Ofsted only highlighting three of our schools as “outstanding” that he’d be in his post looking after his brief.

If you know where Jimmy is, why don’t you drop us a (very exotic) postcard into the Corner Shop? 

Ofsted report 2006/2007

Outstanding schools in South Tyneside

We ought to congratulate Biddick Hall junior School, Harton Technology College, and St. Oswalds Curch of England Aided Primary School for being judged “outstanding” in the latest inspections from Ofsted.

If they provide some sort of beacon to other schools in the borough it might encourage them to compete and try and at least double the number of “outstanding” schools next year.

Well done everybody, teachers, staff, pupils, and parents!

Education, edukashun, educassion

It’s all “Mickey Mouse” isn’t it? - Tax Payer’s Alliance

Of course they are right, and rightly The Tax Payer’s Alliance is receiving much media coverage today, as they highlight Blair’s legacy of moving more and more of our children into universities chasing after “Mikey Mouse” degrees with their increasingly valueless A Level results.

If today’s recipients of A grades at A Level were pushed into Dr. Who’s Tardis and transported back to 1980 they wouldn’t stand a chance of gaining entry to an esteemed university, but we are all very much aware these days that this was a calculated move to prevent millions of youngsters inflating the unemployment figures for three years. On graduating with their degrees in horse psychology, therapeutic bodywork (Greenwich), lifestyle management (Leeds Metropolitan), visitor attractions (Blackpool College) and science-fiction and culture (Glamorgan), they then come to the employment market to be interviewed by people in South Shields such as myself only to be found out! They still cannot legibly write, spell, do simple arithmetic, or tell us which year World War ll ended in. If they could wire a three pin plug, or know how to turn the water and gas off in an emergency it would be a good starting point.

I’m sorry but many of those chasing after non-degrees would be better off looking for work, where at least they could spend their time learning more applicable and useful skills, perhaps it’s time that employers started offering apprenticeships in these new employment opportunity areas rather than allowing our universities to carry on wasting so much money on courses with “dubious academic merit”.

Say a big thank you to Tony Blair.

How well do you know South Shields?

That’s a question for the journalists, by the way.

The Shields Gazette this evening asks us how well do we know our borough?

One of the questions posed in the article, next to a picture of the Roman Fort’s reconstructed West gate, was;

What is the Roman name for South Shields?

A. Caer Urfa

B. Segedunum

C. Pons Aelius

All of which are incorrect, of course. The Roman name for South Shields is Arbeia

Have I ever spoke about lazy journalists who do the research after the copy has been filed?

We need rescuing from the A-Level charade

Former schools inspector Chris Woodhead attacks exam system

I had restrained myself from once again commenting on the lamentable rise in the A level success rates this year, they inexorably continue to show remarkable success from teachers and students and continue to prove to be a fairly useless yardstick for universities and prospective employers. They are becoming meaningless as more and more students attain the A grade, this year 25% of them did so, how on earth can higher education establishments choose the very best when the trend is for everyone to succeed?

The former Chief Inspector for Schools, Chris Woodhead comes to the same conclusions in article in today’s Sunday Times;

” The pass rate has improved each year for 25 years. This year 3% of candidates failed; 25% achieved an A grade. Top universities are now setting their own admissions tests. They have no alternative. Every candidate has three or four A grades so A-level results are useless. They are suspect, too, for research conducted over a number of years by Robert Coe of the University of Durham suggests that candidates of similar intellectual ability achieve higher grades today than they would have done in the past. A candidate who gained an A grade today, for example, would have been awarded a B in 1996 and a C in 1988.”

” Ministers and their officials have a standard defence against the accusation that the A-level examination has become easier. They argue that because the examination has changed so radically in terms of syllabuses and the nature of the assessment, it is impossible to make meaningful comparisons. This is nonsense. The whole point is that the examination has been changed. It is the nature of these changes that explains the loss of intellectual rigour.”

We have passed the stage where someone needs to take this bull by the horns and many universities are now conducting their own entrance examinations to help them determine just who are the brightest pupils. There should be no need for this, the A level examination should be able to tell them who the top achievers are.

Woodhead proposes turning the clocks back and rescuing the examination system from politicians who like nothing better than to crow about improved results for electoral advantage;

” What is to be done? The first and most fundamental need is to rescue public examinations from politicians, irrespective of party, who inevitably succumb to the temptation to dumb down examinations to secure apparent improvements in standards and therefore, hopefully, electoral advantage. Top universities should be invited to collaborate with the highest achieving state and independent schools to create a new A-level system with sufficient intellectual rigour to challenge and identify the most able. This new examination should be independent of ministers and their officials. It will be an examination that can be failed, and many will fail. In other words, a real examination.”

Examinations which produce a failure rate of only 3% are a farce and a charade, the growing trend to produce a broader band of A rate passes makes a complete mockery of education, we need to return to real challenges which value real success and help prospective employers and universities choose the best possible candidates. Otherwise we will continue to find graduates applying for jobs who are not equipped with the most basic skills (yes I have dealt with applications from those who cannot even spell or string a few words together to form a comprehensible sentence.)

“It seems very clear that even in the Upper Sixth, these youngsters have not mastered basic spelling and punctuation or the ability to express themselves clearly,” said Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education.”

From a report in The Sunday Telegraph.