Author Topic: Schools and education  (Read 32905 times)

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Offline born2run

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #60 on: December 09, 2016, 11:27:15 am »
Like something out of great expectations if you ask me. What we need to do is build from the bottom up and have a good even playing field not cherry pick the brightest and leave the rest to rot with sub par education.

Offline Ian

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #61 on: December 09, 2016, 01:38:46 pm »
But that's exactly the problem. Children don't start out equal, they don't start at school with equal knowledge or ability, they don't have equality of background and yet the UK state education system treats them as though they were. The least able need special attention but so do the most able. The theory of this is called Differentiation, but it simply doesn't work. We actually have something of a crisis in education - not just with the overall rankings, which are depressing in themselves - but with the entire system. For 20 years plus we've been failing boys. And that's unacceptable.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.


Offline SteveH

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #62 on: January 31, 2017, 11:14:10 am »
When I first heard about the new apprenticeship scheme, I thought this is exactly what we need, getting the young trained for the futue, now a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies is making me think it is just a figure juggling government exercise....shame.

The government's target to rapidly increase the number of apprentices risks being "poor value for money", says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The think tank warns that it could devalue the "brand" of apprenticeships by turning it into "just another term for training".

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-38798305

Offline DaveR

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #63 on: June 21, 2017, 09:36:17 am »
Interesting article in The Guardian about education in Wales. Perhaps we should have a Referendum to decide the issue?

‘We’re told we’re anti-Welsh bigots and fascists’ – the storm over Welsh-only schools
With a third of schools in Wales no longer teaching in English, debate rages over the ethics of using the classroom to bolster a minority language

Louise Tickle and Steven Morris
Tuesday 20 June 2017 07.10 BST Last modified on Tuesday 20 June 2017 18.51 BST


“We’ve been told we are anti-Welsh bigots and even fascists,” says Alice Morgan in her soft Welsh accent. The comments she is talking about began when she and other parents raised objections to a plan to turn their primary school in the village of Llangennech into one that teaches only in Welsh. They are worried that some children used to being taught in English won’t cope.

Feelings are running high. On one side are those who want to increase the number of Welsh speakers in the country. On the other are campaigners who say the evidence shows this method is futile and that children’s education is being sacrificed for politics.

One mother said she was now too frightened to walk down to the Co-op in the village to buy a loaf of bread. “It’s got that bad. Perhaps I’m being paranoid but I’m really scared at the moment. I’m not sure it’s good for the reputation of the Welsh language.”

While a Labour councillor described the move as a form of segregation or apartheid, some supporters of it have said that those who didn’t want to live in a Welsh-speaking village could always move out. The decision, voted through in January by Carmarthenshire council, will mean Llangennech school will join 479 others – just under a third (31.9%) of all schools in Wales – that teach exclusively in Welsh.

The change will come into operation for reception pupils in September and has delighted those who believe it will help revive the declining fortunes of the Welsh language. But opponents say it could damage the education of children whose first language is English and will force some parents to send their children outside the village or county for their education.

Morgan – who asked that her real name not be used to protect her family – has three primary-age children. Until now, villagers have had a choice about whether their children go into the Welsh or the English stream in school. Her eldest son started at Llangennech in the Welsh stream, but had difficulties. “He struggled tremendously for two years,” she says. “He was depressed and unhappy, vomiting before school, and he fell behind. Although we speak Welsh at home I think it was the fact that no English was used whatsoever that made him feel overwhelmed.” Things improved when he was able to move into the English stream. “He was a changed little boy.”

Her second son has special needs and a pre-school assessment judged that he would find it hard to learn more than one language, so he began in the English stream from the off. She is concerned for children like him in the future.

After an unpleasant meeting involving campaigners, councillors and those in charge of running the school, Morgan decided to remove her children to another primary where they can be educated in English. The eldest two have lost their friends and the new school is three miles from their home. But she now feels more optimistic about their future. “We’ve found a new school that is absolutely wonderful, and my kids are valued for who they are.”

Another local parent, Michaela Beddows, says: “We have English and Welsh both as official languages in Wales. I think all parents should have a choice.” Morgan agrees. “It’s become a political football. They’re not taking account of the impact on children.”

Carmarthenshire council did not want any officer or councillor to be interviewed on the subject. The headteacher and chair of governors of Llangennech primary did not want to talk about it either.

There is debate among educationists as to whether the “immersion” method of language teaching is effective or the opposite: for some children, being plunged into a classroom where they are unable to communicate or comprehend can be a terrifying, isolating and miserable experience.

According to Save the Children, which works in multilingual contexts across the world, “adults often have powerful reasons for choosing a school language that children do not know. Nevertheless, it has been shown that if the school language is different from the language children use at home, this is a major cause of educational failure.”

Despite efforts to bolster the Welsh language over the past two decades, its use is in decline. The 2011 census found that the number of Welsh speakers had fallen from 21% of the population to 19% over the previous 10 years. In Carmarthenshire, the drop was steeper – from 50% to 44%. The Welsh government is trying to double the number of Welsh speakers to a million by 2050. In Carmarthenshire, led by Plaid Cymru, it is the council’s intention “to move every primary and secondary school along the language continuum” – meaning that schools will teach only in Welsh.

This is the already the situation in Gwynedd, a county where around 65% of people have Welsh as their mother tongue: here the only education on offer is in Welsh. But in Carmarthenshire, just 44% of the population speaks Welsh as a first language.

At Cardiff University’s research unit on language, policy and planning, Professor Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost says that most educational research “demonstrates convincingly that mother-tongue education is a good thing; finding arguments contrary to that is quite difficult”.

While he points to a study indicating that benefits accrue from being bilingual, Mac Giolla Chríost says that if all primary education were in Welsh, as proposed by Carmarthenshire council, “that would be very difficult to sustain”.

And the plan may not even work to spread the language in the long run. He says that where governments around the world have tried to reinvigorate minority languages, “the evidence is rather brutal, in that while it is possible to use the education system to teach a minority language, and while [children] are in the system they will use it, very often those speakers don’t turn into users of the language once they leave”.

Ceri Owen, of the group Parents for Welsh Medium Education, says Carmarthenshire council’s decision is about levelling the playing field. “A lot of Welsh families are being denied education through the medium of Welsh,” she says. Parents who want their children educated in English “won’t be denied the English language. They will be able to travel [to schools that offer it].”

And that is what Morgan has felt forced to do. “Our children feel they are no longer welcome. They’ve been ostracised from their peers. Their community is divided on the basis of language and they are now treated like second-class citizens. My neighbour actually said she wanted our children out of the school. The village is damaged.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/20/storm-welsh-only-schools-minority-language

Offline Ian

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #64 on: June 21, 2017, 10:27:20 am »
This is the most emotively-charged issue in Wales and I do think it's despicable that children are being used as the battleground.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #65 on: June 21, 2017, 11:12:47 am »
Guardian faces backlash in Welsh language row
An article on the newspaper's website claims that children in Wales are at a disadvantage.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/guardian-welsh-language-row-schools-13213847

There are 16 comments below the article if you cannot see them let me know, and I will copy/paste them.

Offline Giggly girl

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #66 on: June 21, 2017, 12:52:09 pm »
Why do you think we cannot get the medical professionals  into Wales to care for us.  Imagine the conversation between partners.  Partner 1. "Honey there is a great job in Wales would be a great place to raise the children what do you think" .  Spouse 2 Well lets check out the education online.   After a lot of googling one or both partners come to the conclusion that because of education issues tis not the place to live and raise a family. 

Offline Quiggs

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #67 on: June 21, 2017, 03:48:52 pm »
My Grandsons were educated in Welsh, but since leaving secondary school have not used Welsh and both have moved to England for work.   &shake&
Dictum Meum Pactum

Offline spotty dog

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #68 on: June 21, 2017, 04:05:42 pm »
It's nothing more than social engineering by the LEA, and yes in can be construed as apartheid

Offline born2run

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #69 on: June 21, 2017, 05:25:23 pm »
What a lot of rubbish. Everyone who works here from almost every country in the world learns English as a second language and they are no worse off. You think Billy Smith who was taught in English is better than the top Indian surgeons who are here? So why is it any different for anyone having Welsh as their first language and English as their second? What am I missing?

Offline Hugo

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #70 on: June 21, 2017, 10:49:07 pm »
I agree too, what a load of utter rubbish.    I worked with many people who spoke Welsh as their first language but they also had to obtain a qualification in the English language to get the job so therefore they had the ability to use either language when dealing with the general public.     Surely the ability to speak two or more languages must be an asset and not a drawback
The manager of the department I worked at was a monoglot English speaker from over the border and he told a colleague of mine during a job appraisal interview that my Welsh speaking friend was at a disadvantage when he spoke in English as he had to think a bit before he could actually speak in English.
What a complete and stupid remark to make and I just wish that I'd have been made aware of the ignorant remark at the time.

Offline DaveR

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #71 on: June 22, 2017, 09:30:14 am »
What a lot of rubbish. Everyone who works here from almost every country in the world learns English as a second language and they are no worse off. You think Billy Smith who was taught in English is better than the top Indian surgeons who are here? So why is it any different for anyone having Welsh as their first language and English as their second? What am I missing?
You're missing the bit where people in those other countries all speak their own language first and learn English as a second language, due to its dominant international role. In Wales, that is obviously not the case, as just 19% of the population speak Welsh, according to the last census*. That obviously leaves 81% who speak English. Therefore, it seems logical that children should be educated in English first, and then learn Welsh as a mandatory second language?

* - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language

Offline SteveH

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #72 on: April 02, 2018, 12:23:33 pm »
We appear to be going backwards.

Child poverty: Pale and hungry pupils 'fill pockets with school food'

Malnourished pupils with grey skin are "filling their pockets" with food from school canteens in poor areas due to poverty.
The heads, from various parts of England and Wales, described differences in the appearance of some pupils.
One head said: "My children have grey skin, poor teeth, poor hair; they are thinner."

The government said measures were in place to tackle poverty.

Lynn, a head teacher from a former industrial town in Cumbria, who did not want to give her full name, was one of a number of head teachers speaking to reporters at the National Education Union conference in Brighton.

They were highlighting the issues faced by an increasing number of children growing up in poverty, and how their experiences affect their education.
Lynn said that hunger was particularly apparent after the weekend.
She said: "Children are filling their pockets with food. In some establishments that would be called stealing. We call it survival."

She said her school supplied some pupils with clean uniforms, and that they often came back in the same clothes, grubby, after the weekend.
The school has a food bank which gives out food parcels and a supply of clothes, shoes and coats for those without.
Lynn said: "We have washing machines and we are washing the children's clothes while they do PE.
"We wouldn't have it that these children are stigmatised because their clothes are dirty."
"My families are proud. Some of these parents are working two or three jobs and can't access the benefits system.

More....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43611527


Offline SteveH

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Re: Schools and education apprenticeships
« Reply #73 on: April 13, 2018, 03:29:28 pm »
This situation needs better controls in place, once again it's the big (low wage) companies finding and using the loopholes in the system.  $angry$

Firms relabelling low-skilled jobs as apprenticeships, says report.
Fast food giants, coffee shops and retailers are relabelling low-skilled jobs as apprenticeships and gaining subsidies for training, a report says.

The study by centre-right think tank Reform says many firms have rebranded existing roles after being obliged to contribute cash to on-the-job training.
It adds that 40% of government-approved apprenticeship standards do not meet a traditional definition of them.
The government says "quality" is at the heart of its apprenticeship reforms.

As part of the changes, it introduced an apprenticeship levy on organisations paying more than £3m in salaries a year.
They have to pay 0.5% of their wages total into a "digital account" held by HMRC.
They then "spend" these contributions on apprenticeship training delivered by registered providers. They can also get back up to 90% of the cost of training.

'Low-wage roles'
But they are also entitled to pay apprentices lower than the standard minimum wage. The minimum rates range from £3.70 an hour for anyone in their first year of an apprenticeship to £7.38

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43739963

Offline SteveH

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Re: Schools and education
« Reply #74 on: January 31, 2020, 04:05:31 pm »
This is the headline from Oct. 2019.... £11.5m super school too small for pupil numbers just two years after opening
Critics said they had warned the council the school was not going to be big enough to cope with growing local population.

Ysgol Awel y Mynydd, in Llandudno Junction, was opened in September 2017, with a capacity for 420 pupils.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/115m-super-school-small-pupil-17058132

Todays story ..... Ysgol Awel y Mynydd in the red category,  "The Welsh Government has released its annual colour coded system that categorises schools across the country into one of four categories - green, yellow, amber, and red.
Red is the lowest rating in this system and is reserved for schools that require up to 25 days of support.

If a school is coded red it means they are the schools in need of the greatest support, and will get an immediate, tailored package of intervention."                                                              ref DP