davieG Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 BBC The school leaving age should be cut to 14, a former chief inspector of schools in England has said. Sir Chris Woodhead told the Times that this would give less academic students a better chance of learning a trade. He said it was a "recipe for disaster" to force teenagers to study English and maths right up to the age of 18. Sir Chris said it was a mistake to make vocational education "quasi-academic" and added that the government had a "Utopian" view of school standards. He said: "If a child at 14 has mastered basic literacy and numeracy, I would be very happy for that child to leave school and go into a combination of apprenticeship and further education training and a practical, hands-on, craft-based training that takes them through into a job." 'Hope over reality'Sir Chris added: "Does anybody seriously think these kids who are truanting at 13, 14 are going to stay in school in a purposeful, meaningful way through to 18. "It just seems to me the triumph of ideological hope over reality."
davieG Posted 3 October 2011 Author Posted 3 October 2011 The bloke has a point. Provided the money saved was used to sponsor 'proper' apprenticeships for small/medium sized businesses
Phube Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Let the stoopids leave early and let the clever ones carry on without being dragged down! I like it!
Fox92 Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Let the stoopids leave early and let the clever ones carry on without being dragged down! I like it! Exactly.
Daggers Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Let the stoopids leave early and let the clever ones carry on without being dragged down! I like it! Then it should start at 11
Bryn Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Jettisoning them from school entirely is a mistake. Allow them to seek part time apprenticeships at GCSE level by all means, but they should present themselves at the school a couple of times a week and keep up some English and Maths training. Cut them loose and they'll vanish into the ether and become tomorrow's criminals.
Saxondale Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Regardless of leaving age, we definitely need to get more kids into apprenticeships. We also need to bring back the polys in their old form to provide higher level vocational training - as opposed to the now ruined higher education system. We're producing hundreds of thousands of unemployable graduates at present and it needs to slow down.
Reynard Bleu Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Firstly, we need considerable industrial growth, many more jobs and many more apprenticeship schemes. Without these there is no where for the kids to go. This may work for some kids, but some are lost forever by 14.
Matt Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Jesus, i've been saying this for years, would have done me a whole lot of good, I could be 3 or 4 years better off in my career (Yes, believe it or not you can have a career [A good, well paid career] without having to go to uni) by now rather than wasting those years knowing full well what I wanted to do and not doing what I wanted be forced to stay at school. Got nothing against going to Uni, aslong as you know its what you want to do and use what you learn, instead of going to uni just to toss a few extra years off so you don't work, to me it seemed school's brainwashed kids into 'You must go Uni or your life will be a failure and you will never get a well paid job' and from what I can see it's got worse since I left school 8 years ago, finally people are coming round to realising people don't need to go to uni, its not the sole blame but it has/does cause a hell of a lot of debt, and it is only going to get worse because of tuition fees however the people that have just gone to uni to toss a few years off have ruined that for the people who are going to uni for the right reason. The person i'm always on about who went to uni, completed the course realised its not what she wanted to do, went back to uni to do something completly different, didn't like it, quit, she went back again...She's failed, she's now 27, not worked a day in her life, and i've asked her what she is doing next...'Ah might go travelling for a year'. Tell you what I don't know where she gets her money from...She's got debt for the rest of her life as far as I can gather, her own fault.
ajthefox Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 BBC The school leaving age should be cut to 14, a former chief inspector of schools in England has said. Sir Chris Woodhead told the Times that this would give less academic students a better chance of learning a trade. He said it was a "recipe for disaster" to force teenagers to study English and maths right up to the age of 18. Sir Chris said it was a mistake to make vocational education "quasi-academic" and added that the government had a "Utopian" view of school standards. He said: "If a child at 14 has mastered basic literacy and numeracy, I would be very happy for that child to leave school and go into a combination of apprenticeship and further education training and a practical, hands-on, craft-based training that takes them through into a job." 'Hope over reality'Sir Chris added: "Does anybody seriously think these kids who are truanting at 13, 14 are going to stay in school in a purposeful, meaningful way through to 18. "It just seems to me the triumph of ideological hope over reality." This guy maybe has a point but it seems he thinks that the current age of leaving school is 18, so I'm not going to take much notice of him and I don't think anyone else should.
DANGEROUS TIGER Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 I am not sure about this, so I will say no more.
Matt Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 This guy maybe has a point but it seems he thinks that the current age of leaving school is 18, so I'm not going to take much notice of him and I don't think anyone else should. I can't say i've really took too much notice, but I have heard in the past the leaving age was being raised to 18, just done a quick search and there were news articles from a year or 2 ago saying it would come into force in 2013, so perhaps that is what he was refering too. As I said I don't know if it has been announced or not to come into force, I stopped worrying about school about the time that this bloke says certain pupils should be able to leave. All I will say is I reckon there is more chance of the leaving age being raised rather than lowered, which is a big shame for the non-academic kids.
davieG Posted 3 October 2011 Author Posted 3 October 2011 This guy maybe has a point but it seems he thinks that the current age of leaving school is 18, so I'm not going to take much notice of him and I don't think anyone else should. I'm not sure if it's part of the Tories plans but it was planned to be introduced by Labour - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6254833.stm so maybe he's just getting his opinion in before someone gets serious about it again
Daggers Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 There again, considering how shit this forum becomes in the evenings, weekends and during holidays maybe it'd be best to make secondary schools 24hr a day and keep them there until they are 25.
Trav Le Bleu Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 There again, considering how shit this forum becomes in the evenings, weekends and during holidays maybe it'd be best to make secondary schools 24hr a day and keep them there until they are 25. You're just trying to drum up extra work.
Haydos Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 What AJ said. School leaving age is 16 so I'm not sure he really has the right to comment on it. Besides, the amount of people 18 plus that can't spell and are generally thick as mud anyway is way too high at the moment. God knows what it would be like if they left school at 14 (I realise you learn the fundamentals before this but still). PS. I highly doubt they'd actually start voluntarily learning a trade at that age anyway, sending them off to college at 14 would be better IMO.
davieG Posted 3 October 2011 Author Posted 3 October 2011 What AJ said. School leaving age is 16 so I'm not sure he really has the right to comment on it. Besides, the amount of people 18 plus that can't spell and are generally thick as mud anyway is way too high at the moment. God knows what it would be like if they left school at 14 (I realise you learn the fundamentals before this but still). PS. I highly doubt they'd actually start voluntarily learning a trade at that age anyway, sending them off to college at 14 would be better IMO. An apprenticeship includes college and work, when you're doing basic engineering I believe you will perform better academically if you're receiving practical learning at the same time leastwise that's what I did and that's what I've been doing when training apprentices for 20 years or so. Provided the work based experience includes much more than sweeping the floors, photo copying or just being a gofor, not that a little of that is bad.
acooling08 Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 This will just result in a lot of 14 year olds sitting at home all day. No one that young should be forced into work in this day and age.
vandamman Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 I don't agree with this guy at all. Many colleges now offer practical alternatives to GCSE i.e. one day a week at Stevensons to do engineering. I cant see many companies taking this idea up for example there is no way a 14 year should or will be allowed on a building site. Next wacky idea please.
Yojoe36 Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 It depends. Define "Basic Literacy and numeracy skills" Does that mean your predicated grades at GCSE are A-C or D-G? I mean. I got Bs and Cs, but my predicated grades were Cs and Ds
Guest Bilo Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Quite possibly the thickest idea I've heard from anyone in education.
Magictv Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Don't think this is a great plan myself... There again, considering how shit this forum becomes in the evenings, weekends and during holidays maybe it'd be best to make secondary schools 24hr a day and keep them there until they are 25. wtf is your sig about?
Guest MattP Posted 3 October 2011 Posted 3 October 2011 Can't agree with this. Most 14-18 year olds I come across now are illiterate morons, the last thing they need is less education.
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