Letting our Children down!

[davieG]

An absolute disgrace and not just the current Labour Administration it's been going on for years. If there's one thing our local politicians must get right it's children's education; they cannot, except in rare circumstances go back and do it again, it's a one off chance.

That's not to excuse parent's their responsibilities but the poor showings seem too widespread for the council to avoid taking the brunt of the criticism.

The Government has warned Leicester's education chiefs that it might take away their control and run the city's schools itself.

Schools secretary Ed Balls says he is worried exam results are too low and has ordered the former chief inspector of schools to launch an inquiry.

Mr Balls said improvement was too slow at the four Leicester schools where fewer than 30% of pupils achieved five GCSEs of at least grade C, including English and maths, last year.

He said if this summer's GCSE results, and the inquiry's conclusions, showed there were "serious weaknesses", the Government could take education at all schools out of Leicester City Council's hands.

Responding to Mr Balls' comments, Councillor Vi Dempster, the city council's cabinet member for education, said improvement since the official warning had been "very good" and difficulties were "best tackled locally".

Mr Balls said Sir Mike Tomlinson, former chief inspector of schools, will investigate Leicester's so-called National Challenge schools – those with the lowest results.

He said: "The schools minister and I are concerned about the rate of progress in Leicester.

"I am asking Sir Mike Tomlinson, the chair of our National Challenge expert advisers, to provide us with a progress report in September.

"On the basis of his report and this summer's results, we will consider whether further action is needed.

"If this year's exam results reveal serious weaknesses, I will do whatever it takes to secure the progress of children and young people."

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said that would include "statutory intervention if necessary."

Such a move would be a massive disappointment for the city council, which launched an £8.2m action plan in response to the official warning last year.

Leicester originally had five schools where fewer than 30% achieved the GCSE benchmark when the National Challenge scheme was announced in 2007.

Since then Babington College, in Beaumont Leys, saw its proportion of students gaining the required results rise from 20% in 2007 to 22% last summer; Fullhurst College, in Braunstone, from 18% to 22%; New College, in New Parks, from 14% to 19%; and Riverside, in Rowley Fields, decrease from 23% to 22%.

Hamilton College is no longer a National Challenge school after it increased from 23% to 32%.

A city council spokeswoman told the Leicester Mercury that Coun Dempster was unavailable for comment yesterday but issued a statement on her behalf.

It said: "Our first priority is to ensure the children and young people of Leicester get the best possible education, and we have made great progress in raising standards across the city since our National Challenge schools were identified.

"We also know that some of our schools face extremely challenging circumstances.

"While our progress over the last couple of years has been very good, if we can increase the rate of improvement through high-quality advice, we welcome that."

The announcement comes 12 months after ministers issued an official warning to the city council's children's services department because of low school achievement and high teenage pregnancy rates.

[General Smuts]

Ed Balls.

[Zingari]

sounds like they've got pretty good at shaggin'

[Bellend Sebastian]

Those schools can't help having catchment areas dominated by retards.

I should know, I live there

[Zingari]

Ed Balls.

our new target man

[Dr The Singh]

Those schools can't help having catchment areas dominated by retards.

I should know, I live there

Agreed, 3 of those schools are near me and in my childrens catchment area, I actually went Fullhurst, and yes, those schools are generally shite!! So, it means for me to send my kids to a 'decent' school I have to apply to a school outside the catchment area, having done so with my kids infant school, the chances of success extremely slim.

So what happens, I have to either move or get lucky. From a community perspective, those properties surrounding those schools will devalue, and be 'cheap', those on low incomes will be living there, hence creating a circle of low achievers and will create a wealth\class divide with those better schools and there surrounding areas!!

[Simi]

our new target man

[Daggers]

An absolute disgrace and not just the current Labour Administration it's been going on for years. If there's one thing our local politicians must get right it's children's education; they cannot, except in rare circumstances go back and do it again, it's a one off chance.

That's not to excuse parent's thier responsibilities but the poor showings seem too widespread for the council to avoid taking the brunt of the criticism.

How was your education?

Just because a school "only" gets 30% A-C pass-rates doesn't mean it's a bad school, it doesn't mean the quality of the education is crap. There are some spectacular schools with rates as low as that - and they have performed miracles to achieve those results with the intake they have.

Ed Balls has set out one of the Government's tactics to aim for re-election: to bash those working in education. Everyone thinks they know something about it purely because they once went to school, and everyone loves bitching about teachers and their holidays, so Balls probably has made a decent play here.

Doesn't detract from the fact that Ed Balls is talking shit and is/was/will be forever more a cunt of mammoth proportions.

[davieG]

How was your education?

Just because a school "only" gets 30% A-C pass-rates doesn't mean it's a bad school, it doesn't mean the quality of the education is crap. There are some spectacular schools with rates as low as that - and they have performed miracles to achieve those results with the intake they have.

Ed Balls has set out one of the Government's tactics to aim for re-election: to bash those working in education. Everyone thinks they know something about it purely because they once went to school, and everyone loves bitching about teachers and their holidays, so Balls probably has made a decent play here.

Doesn't detract from the fact that Ed Balls is talking shit and is/was/will be forever more a **** of mammoth proportions.

Well I did fail my GCE English.

I don't disagree with anything you or the others have said, I'm not even a great believer in exams being the major/sole measure of someone's ability/intelligence but that is what the vast majority of further education and business organisations use to recruit school leavers, I role I had until recently.

Without these qualifications they face an uphill struggle, so like it or not they need them, blimey you'll need 5 GCSEs to take a shit before long.

I don't blame the teachers I blame Central & Local Government for their continual interference, of curricula, structures, school mergers etc. in fact the total instability of all things educational.

[Ultra]

As Davie G notes, the issue of low educational attainment in the city has persisted for some time, and other parties have been no more successful than Labour in resolving this.

Part of the problem is that many of the brighter children go to schools outside the city, thus inflating the county exam results and depressing the city ones.

There is a certain irony involved in this government lambasting anyone about underachievement, especially after recent events which left Leicester as one of the few education authorities still in Labour hands.

But what has really annoyed Mr Bollox is the reluctance of the council to consider handing over certain schools to be run by private consortia as academies.

Staff and parents, not to mention councillors, would have strongly resisted any such move, and there is no guarantee that privatisation would have raised overall standards anyway.

It looks, though, as if it could be the long-term option - especially if, as seems probable, a Cameron government comes to power next year.

As in so many other areas, the policy differences between the Tories and the careerist wing of the Labour Party appear miniscule.

[Guest]

How was your education?

Just because a school "only" gets 30% A-C pass-rates doesn't mean it's a bad school, it doesn't mean the quality of the education is crap. There are some spectacular schools with rates as low as that - and they have performed miracles to achieve those results with the intake they have.

Ed Balls has set out one of the Government's tactics to aim for re-election: to bash those working in education. Everyone thinks they know something about it purely because they once went to school, and everyone loves bitching about teachers and their holidays, so Balls probably has made a decent play here.

Doesn't detract from the fact that Ed Balls is talking shit and is/was/will be forever more a **** of mammoth proportions.

I was thinking that. I really don't see why schools should be measured on exam results, but hey ho.....

[davieG]

I was thinking that. I really don't see why schools should be measured on exam results, but hey ho.....

Because they provide the first foot in the door to a half decent job. No qualifications, no experience, no interview.

That's how prospective employers judge prospective employees.

[Dr The Singh]

How was your education?

Just because a school "only" gets 30% A-C pass-rates doesn't mean it's a bad school, it doesn't mean the quality of the education is crap. There are some spectacular schools with rates as low as that - and they have performed miracles to achieve those results with the intake they have.

Ed Balls has set out one of the Government's tactics to aim for re-election: to bash those working in education. Everyone thinks they know something about it purely because they once went to school, and everyone loves bitching about teachers and their holidays, so Balls probably has made a decent play here.

Doesn't detract from the fact that Ed Balls is talking shit and is/was/will be forever more a cunt of mammoth proportions.

I can't comment on all schools, but 2 of those mentioned, FUllhurst and Riverside, were once very good schools, my sister went to riverside and the rest myself and brothers went Fullhurst. My nephews study at both of those schools and they all say.....'the schools are really shit, there's no discipline, kids just run the place, the teachers try but the kids don't let them teach, school has shit facilities, I would never send my kids to my school'

The gist I get, the schools have an issue with discipline, the teachers seem to be hindered, and hence demoralised, there's no teacher pupil interaction inactivities, ie footy club, cricket club etc!!! I think there was someone on this forum whose partner taught at Riverside???

It's fair to say most of my nephews didn't get good GCSE result

[Guest]

Because they provide the first foot in the door to a half decent job. No qualifications, no experience, no interview.

That's how prospective employers judge prospective employees.

Exam results are a way of positioning people in the grander scheme of things. There are going to be those who do very well, and there are those who are not going to do very well. This is the way it is, and punishing schools for having more unacademic kids than the school down the road is wrong. How long before schools start to reject children who will not contribute to a good overall score for the school? Schools should be measured on what they do for the kids overall, isn't there a way of looking at what stage they were at when they started, and where they were when they finished? That would be fairer than comparing kids to a standard that they may not be able to achieve without dumbing down the system further.

[Webbo]

Apart from exams how else are parents meant to judge how well a school is doing or an employer how well an applicant would succeed in his job.

You could have teacher assessment but a teacher is not going to write in a report 'I made a crap job of teaching this pupil'. Plus an exam result is totally unbiased and not dependant on whether the pupil is liked/disliked by the teacher.

[Daggers]

Apart from exams how else are parents meant to judge how well a school is doing

Reading the most recent Ofsted report?

I know we've become a soundbite nation, but surely this isn't too onerous if you are making a major decision? Surely you are able to look beyond superficial stats?

In my experience, parents know shit about education and should focus on helping their kids at home to make good decisions. The problems in education today result from half-wits and cockends all trying to throw their ten-penneth in rather than leaving it to professionals.

No one goes into an operating theatre and starts on at the surgeon about how she/he should be performing the operation. I don't start demanding stats detailing the historical success or otherwise of the pilot flying my plane to Alicante.

As I say, just because ****heads went to school they seem to think they have a font of knowledge about it.

Bottom line - is your kid happy? Then the school is doing OK. Are your friends' older kids happy at their school? Then you've just found the answer to your quest for the next school.

So many kids suffer from meltdowns and are stunted in their social development because of pushy little ****ers trying to ramp their kids up to the top level grades. They're as bad as the cunts who neglect their kids - it's all child abuse.

[Ultra]

How long before schools start to reject children who will not contribute to a good overall score for the school?

I think you'll find it's already happening.

Why else do academies determine their own admissions policy?

[Tilley]

I actually went Fullhurst, and yes, those schools are generally shite.

I could write a long essay stating how Fullhurst has improved dramatically since moving into it's new building, especially in the last 3 months or so, but I won't bore you with it.

Unfortunately our GCSE grades won't be up to standard this year, due to the bad management of the place and shit teaching since the school leavers joined 5 years ago. I will stick my neck out and say the GCSE grades for the next school year will be shit too because it'll be hard to turn around the fortunes of the current year 10s in a year after 4 years of inept teaching.

There has been ALOT of new appointments in the school and alot of outside agencies have been brought in and trust me, it's working. The feel around the place is 10x better than it was 3/4 months ago since the two new headteachers joined.

It'll take a while, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Webbo]

Reading the most recent Ofsted report?

Before my eldest started school I made an appointment to visit the school, ask questions and look the around. The headmaster was a great bloke, really impressive and I was glad to send my kids there. After the first year the headmaster was given a large pay rise and sent to a struggling school. The dried up old spinster who replaced him is the most useless cow I've ever met.

Around 3/4 years ago the school failed it's Ofsted report and was put in special measures. I went to the meeting and when anyone asked any questions the headmistress gave 20 minute replies full of educationalese that made no sense to anyone. The plan to rectify the situation appeared to me to be (apart from about 2 early retirements) to give everyone a promotion.

The school's gone from failing to only just adequate. The headmistress still has her job. Any teacher that appears any good at their job moves as soon as they can.

I could of moved my kids to another school but the other school in Syston doesn't fill me with any confidence either. Thank god my youngest is leaving that school this year.

[Ultra]

I could write a long essay stating how Fullhurst has improved dramatically since moving into it's new building, especially in the last 3 months or so, but I won't bore you with it.

Unfortunately our GCSE grades won't be up to standard this year, due to the bad management of the place and shit teaching since the school leavers joined 5 years ago. I will stick my neck out and say the GCSE grades for the next school year will be shit too because it'll be hard to turn around the fortunes of the current year 10s in a year after 4 years of inept teaching.

There has been ALOT of new appointments in the school and alot of outside agencies have been brought in and trust me, it's working. The feel around the place is 10x better than it was 3/4 months ago since the two new headteachers joined.

It'll take a while, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Looks like there's still some work to be done...

I'm glad to hear things are improving at Fullhurst, thanks to the council's intervention, but time is not on our side.

[Tilley]

Looks like there's still some work to be done...

I'm glad to hear things are improving at Fullhurst, thanks to the council's intervention, but time is not on our side.

Yes, of course there is alot of work still to be done. What do you expect? A 100% A-C pass rate overnight? This isn't going to happen.

The worrying thing is, if you read the SEN register for the new intake, it's the worst it has been for a long, long time. However, with new principles, directors of subjects, support staff, after school tutors and student support, the foundations are now there to keep improving.

I know the ins and outs of why, what, where, how etc but I don't think it should be spread on an internet forum.

I expect Fullhurst to be bad mouthed, it has an AWFUL reputation & rightly so for what it was like, but things are improving, trust me. I obviously know zero about the other schools mentioned but I'd like to think that they are heading in the right direction aswell.

[Daggers]

Before my eldest started school I made an appointment to visit the school, ask questions and look the around. The headmaster was a great bloke, really impressive and I was glad to send my kids there. After the first year the headmaster was given a large pay rise and sent to a struggling school. The dried up old spinster who replaced him is the most useless cow I've ever met.

Around 3/4 years ago the school failed it's Ofsted report and was put in special measures. I went to the meeting and when anyone asked any questions the headmistress gave 20 minute replies full of educationalese that made no sense to anyone. The plan to rectify the situation appeared to me to be (apart from about 2 early retirements) to give everyone a promotion.

The school's gone from failing to only just adequate. The headmistress still has her job. Any teacher that appears any good at their job moves as soon as they can.

I could of moved my kids to another school but the other school in Syston doesn't fill me with any confidence either. Thank god my youngest is leaving that school this year.

Not sure I get your point here because I don't see how this situation was averted by publishing league tables of exam results? Seems to me you've answered your own question in the negative - naming and shaming doesn't work. It never has, never will.

The school with the bad rep loses out on middle class parents, who send Timmy off to Decent Comprehensive and contribute stacks in the form of sitting on the Governors and the PTA. The results go into a terminal decline and then unsubstanciated rumours will start about bullying or drugs on site.

The school you cite lost it's Head, not the staff who were doing an admiral job...and presumably continued to do so.

I don't get your point about the recovery of the school either - because it seems as though the promoting of staff did the trick; the last Ofsted gave them 'acceptable'.

What's wrong with 'acceptable'?

Not everyone in life can be Brendan Foster. I think we forget this too readily when assessing things.

If being 'good enough' isn't good enough then you could always go private and guarantee 'outstanding'.

[Webbo]

Not sure I get your point here because I don't see how this situation was averted by publishing league tables of exam results? Seems to me you've answered your own question in the negative - naming and shaming doesn't work. It never has, never will.

Apparently it did work because it went from failing to barely adequate. If it wasn't for the Ofsted report the school would have carried on failing and telling us what a briliant job it was doing.It's not as if it's a particulary rough area, there is a good mix of income groups in the catchment area.

The school with the bad rep loses out on middle class parents, who send Timmy off to Decent Comprehensive and contribute stacks in the form of sitting on the Governors and the PTA. The results go into a terminal decline and then unsubstanciated rumours will start about bullying or drugs on site.

Your kids are only kids for a short period of time, it's not as if you can rerun their school years until the school sorts itself out. I don't blame any parent with the money and the know how getting the best for their kids.

The school you cite lost it's Head, not the staff who were doing an admiral job...and presumably continued to do so.

If being 'good enough' isn't good enough then you could always go private and guarantee 'outstanding'.

The rapid decline in the school's performance would suggest otherwise. As I said earlier there is now a high turnover of staff which would indicate a lack of leadership.

My 2 youngest girls have special educational needs. Since my middle child has moved up to Roundhill she gone from well below average in reading to above average.

My youngest who has severe dyslexia (it does exist believe me) was statemented. Despite the extra funding provided to the the school the headmistress didn't provide any of the extra help that the authorities demanded and refused to see us to discuss the matter. It was only after we contacted an outside agency who fought our corner that the school provided it's obligations.

If being 'good enough' isn't good enough then you could always go private and guarantee 'outstanding'.

If I could afford it I would believe me.

[Dr The Singh]

I could write a long essay stating how Fullhurst has improved dramatically since moving into it's new building, especially in the last 3 months or so, but I won't bore you with it.

Unfortunately our GCSE grades won't be up to standard this year, due to the bad management of the place and shit teaching since the school leavers joined 5 years ago. I will stick my neck out and say the GCSE grades for the next school year will be shit too because it'll be hard to turn around the fortunes of the current year 10s in a year after 4 years of inept teaching.

There has been ALOT of new appointments in the school and alot of outside agencies have been brought in and trust me, it's working. The feel around the place is 10x better than it was 3/4 months ago since the two new headteachers joined.

It'll take a while, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Glad to hear that things are improving, I would love to remain in my area and not have to move to get my kids into a 'better' school!!!

[Father Ted]

the four Leicester schools where fewer than 30% of pupils achieved five GCSEs of at least grade C, including English and maths, last year.

That is absolutely disgusting. How can anybody be that stupid!