[3Ddunk]

Nothing has changed i left school in 1989 with no qualifications, straight into a dead end job. After the last 10 years of funding myself through college (cost a few thousand) surprise surprise i did a test for dyslexia and yes i have dyslexia wonderful. School what a waste of time got HND now and a good job.

[3Ddunk]

my greatest respect goes to those in education at the coal face, but those running it need to be shot.

It all about % and numbers not education.
At college every year they got rid of a teacher in the engineering department unbelievable.
You should have seen the chimps they where training to be mechanics in the last couple of years.

[warrenpenalver]

the countrys going down the pan it seems.

Im glad ive got some qualifications. even with them im finding it hard to get a job so well done dunk for fighting your way up the ladder!!

I was at the local job centre today and observed the brand new mercedes and jag parked up right outside! Maybe us sensible people have got it wrong

[3Ddunk]

Thanks Warren.
It used to be shop floor learn the trade and work up from that, now its school, college, uni, expert?

The bloke across the road from us, in shelter housing has a nice new A class merc, why do i work, never clamed a thing in my live. (rant mode on)

[eldoodarino]

[warrenpenalver]

the benefits system is a bit of a joke. The dishonest people know all the rules to play to get the maximum yet the vulnerable and those who need it most are often fobbed off with lies and burocracy. Pretty appalling that a government organisation directly lies to people about thier entitlement especially vulnerable people who know no better.

The system is set up wrong. for example my girlfriend would need to earn £23k before tax to make it financially worth being off benefits and working when her child is old enough for school. So for her whats the point?? There teens that become mums just for that reason that its better than working.

The systems not set up to give people an incentive to work or be a family group. for example my girlfriend is better off financially not living with me. Ive got enough money pension wise to just about cover mortgage and basic bills with food etc from the job i plan to get and she has enough to live on from her benefits yet living together she would loose almost all her benfits and would be approx 800 a month cash in her pocket worse off!!! so no incentive there for living as a couple and saving money!!!!

[BenF]

there is so much more to teaching than getting pupils through exams - the system of assessment at 7, 11, 14 and 16 constrains teachers to focussing on the assessments

ok, the one of the aims might be to ensure some conformity of strandards, but to quote a professor of education I knew, we are in danger of spending so long weighing the pig that we don't have enough time to fatten him

I teach in a secondary school where we do not have to make our pupils take the SATs at Key Stage 3 (age 14); this year we did not enter them

given the problems (I heard that some of the markers of these exams this year are teenagers, though I do not know if it is true) I am pleased we didn't

[mikey2cv]

ok, the one of the aims might be to ensure some conformity of strandards,

Anyone else and I'd let it go, but really, is this the worst sentence you've ever written, Ben?

[BenF]

oops - well spotted Mike!

I do dish it out so have to be prepared to take it as well

its a fair cop, I'll come quietly...

[mikey2cv]

And you can be sure I checked my post very carefully!

[BenF]

or Because

mind you, there are several conventions of grammar that seem to have gone out of the window!

(Also at the start of a sentence is also unacceptable btw)

[BenF]

nothing I am afraid, Matt - I am a Chemistry teacher who happens to have had a fairly good grounding in grammar (useful when writing books and articles for publication, and probably why I have had little jobs editing books and working for exam boards scrutinising exam papers before they are printed)

[LisaDJ]

I've been a sats marker this year (science) and I've heard that it has been a complete fiasco. I personally didn't have many problems (one computer glitch that I had to call the helpline for and they sorted me out), and I got my papers marked on time just!! But that was my own fault for not working hard enough over half term.

It was a new company that did it this year as the last company promised to start online marking and didn't, so they lost the contract. The company that took over (ETS) are American

1. Last year I got notified of my marking meeting months in advance. This year I got about a week's notice.
2. Last year I was assigned my schools months in advance, this year we got assigned schools after completing an online standardisation exercise, which we couldn't do until after the meeting (10th May I think - so AFTER the sats exams had been sat)
3. Last year papers were sent straight from schools to markers, this year they got sent to ETS HQ and then from ETS to markers.


Some people had passed standardisation and hadn't been allocated a school, and didn't get their papers until well into half term. Some of them were also markers for A-level exams which were coming in shortly afterwards so they knew they had to get the SATs done.

I heard that about a million english papers didn't get marked so they opened up marking centres where they employed markers for 8 hours a day to mark papers. I also heard that English papers weren't marked by English specialist, and sometimes not even English SPEAKERS!!!

Our school had loads of problems with the English papers & they are asking for a remark, we got our science papers back about 2 weeks ago and I really wanted to tell my kids how they have done cos some of them have done really well, but we weren't allowed to

This post has been edited by LisaDJ: 20 July 2008 - 01:07 PM

[BenF]

I know that the system is a little different for the exam board work I did this year Lisa, but the problems are sometimes caused by schools as well:

I am a team leader and have been trying to advise my team how to get schools to send them the material to work on

This weekend I have been trying to sort out why a report was not written for a school - turns out that the school did not send any work in the first place!

Incompetence exists at all levels...