Comments on: The Anonymous Questionnaire: Part 2 http://oldandrew.edublogs.org/2006/11/21/the-anonymous-questionnaire-part-2/ A Blog About Teaching in Tough Schools in the UK Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:02:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: lilyofthefield http://oldandrew.edublogs.org/2006/11/21/the-anonymous-questionnaire-part-2/#comment-365 lilyofthefield Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:59:59 +0000 http://oldandrew.edublogs.org/2006/11/21/the-anonymous-questionnaire-part-2/#comment-365 I've missed out a sentence there. Even I think faster than I type. Between "...permanent one" and "s/he has to have committed" I meant to put "I'm not sure that consistently failing to hand in homework and a bit of lip should end up being punished the same way as a one-off serious offence. In most cases of p.e., " I’ve missed out a sentence there. Even I think faster than I type.

Between “…permanent one” and “s/he has to have committed” I meant to put “I’m not sure that consistently failing to hand in homework and a bit of lip should end up being punished the same way as a one-off serious offence. In most cases of p.e., “

]]> By: lilyofthefield http://oldandrew.edublogs.org/2006/11/21/the-anonymous-questionnaire-part-2/#comment-364 lilyofthefield Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:43:00 +0000 http://oldandrew.edublogs.org/2006/11/21/the-anonymous-questionnaire-part-2/#comment-364 "....asked for the removal of those students that stopped them working." Where to is the problem. I'm not sure it isn't the same process by which the parents of truculent, idle and sometimes aggressive teenagers fail to throw them out of the house - fear of the consequences for the child, not themselves. I grant that 90% of it is just SMT incompetence, lack of time and a mentality that says "It's your problem; deal with it yourself and don't keep running to me every time you lose control of a class", but schools do not like excluding kids. Many schools have a nominal policy by which a series of temporary exclusions for relatively minor things - though things that do impact on teaching and learning - eventually have to amount to a permanent one. S/he has to have committed so extreme an offence to be kicked out nowadays that new schools treat them with deserved suspicion from the start. S/he has a whole new cohort to corrupt. Or s/he remains plugged into a Playstation at home with the services of a tutor who rarely finds the pupil "at home". I don't know what the educational outlook is for permanently excluded pupils (MA coming up) but I'm pretty sure it's not good. That's not to say that decking a teacher, knifing a classmate and arson don't merit prison, much less exclusion; but it is a serious move. Althpough I;d like to see a whole separate institution where the persistently troublesome can be promptly despatched, I'm sure you remember, as I do, the stigma of being a Borstal boy, or the alumnus of an Approved School. “….asked for the removal of those students that stopped them working.” Where to is the problem.
I’m not sure it isn’t the same process by which the parents of truculent, idle and sometimes aggressive teenagers fail to throw them out of the house - fear of the consequences for the child, not themselves.

I grant that 90% of it is just SMT incompetence, lack of time and a mentality that says “It’s your problem; deal with it yourself and don’t keep running to me every time you lose control of a class”, but schools do not like excluding kids. Many schools have a nominal policy by which a series of temporary exclusions for relatively minor things - though things that do impact on teaching and learning - eventually have to amount to a permanent one. S/he has to have committed so extreme an offence to be kicked out nowadays that new schools treat them with deserved suspicion from the start. S/he has a whole new cohort to corrupt. Or s/he remains plugged into a Playstation at home with the services of a tutor who rarely finds the pupil “at home”.

I don’t know what the educational outlook is for permanently excluded pupils (MA coming up) but I’m pretty sure it’s not good. That’s not to say that decking a teacher, knifing a classmate and arson don’t merit prison, much less exclusion; but it is a serious move. Althpough I;d like to see a whole separate institution where the persistently troublesome can be promptly despatched, I’m sure you remember, as I do, the stigma of being a Borstal boy, or the alumnus of an Approved School.

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