Sunday 28 December 2014

She doesn't know what she is talking about!!! ;-)



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2888297/Headteachers-chief-says-school-tutoring-child-abuse-youngsters-allowed-play-friends-instead-forced-extra-learning.html


Absolutely disgraceful comments (which I've heard that she has now withdrawn). 

Firstly, she should've engaged her brain.
Secondly, I challenge this silly woman to come and see what I do. I have a skill, which would be wasted if I didn't teach. It means that I've taught hundreds of children to read, write, spell..but more importantly, I have built their self esteem, which enables them to go forward in their lives with greater confidence. Every child who comes to me, comes in with a smile and leaves me with a smile. We are talking about one hour a week of good, quality teaching,in a lively and stimulating environment. This woman needs to wise up, get out and take look at the bigger picture of private tutoring. It's far more positive than negative. I'm sick and tired of narrow minded people, casting judgement on private tutors; labelling them all with the same 'money making' tag and then using the, 'It's not fair as not everyone can afford it' excuse. I'm standing up for all hard working private tutors who make a massive difference to many children's lives...and it's about time someone stood up and said it!



Friday 14 November 2014

Learning by accident! Oh no!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11231351/Schools-should-scrap-dedicated-English-lessons.html






Talk about waking up to something that really makes my blood boil!
 I have never heard anything so stupid in all my life !! 

There are already too many teachers who think that children can just 'catch' learning to read...caught not taught...now some 'fool' is suggesting this.

I thought we'd left these trendy ideas behind us. There's only one way and that's to teach the subject properly. 

There some idiots around! ;-)

Sunday 5 October 2014

Exam factory schools...let's throw a test at it!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/authors-teachers-and-parents-launch-revolt-over-exam-factory-schools-9773880.html


Whichever government is in power, the story is always the same…LET’S THROW A TEST AT IT!

The powers that be ALWAYS evade the real problem. They have done for years and years.

If as much energy was put into ‘how to teach the basics’ FROM THE START, then things would be a whole lot different in our education system.

I saw a child this week who can’t read very well, can’t write very well and can’t spell.  I gave up my own time because her mum is so worried about her and quite rightly so. An eleven year old who is struggling…and why? I’ll tell you why. It’s all to do with the phrase ‘caught not taught’.  She has ‘caught’ certain things and hasn’t been 'taught'…simple as that.  That’s because too much emphasis is put upon testing what they know…which is the most stupid thing, if you think about it…if they haven’t been taught it then how the heck can they be tested? Children like her only ‘catch’ part of what they should know…and it is all to do with good teaching…or lack of it. Children like her will be entering secondary school, next year and then what happens then? It’s not easy teaching an eleven year old to read when she has only got a reading age of 7 or 8 ; finding the appropriate books and materials is a big problem and I wonder how many schools have the right resources, let alone plenty of them.

I see it all the time:  huge classes (this doesn’t help matters); too many schools, where reading IS NOT a priority (OF COURSE IT SHOULD BE!); too many schools, where books are not sent home (I have more books in my study than many schools own!) ; too many schools, where children are lucky if they read once a week to a teacher, if that! (DISGRACEFUL!); too many schools where a spelling programme is non existent (HOW THE HECK ARE CHILDREN MEANT TO LEARN?); too many schools where handwriting isn’t taught properly…my goodness, the children I see are not even shown to sit PROPERLY at a table, let alone hold their pencil CORRECTLY. Good practice…it’s non-existent, in some places.

I’m not saying that all schools are like this and, yes, there are some excellent schools and many superb teachers out there… but there are also many classrooms where good practice is, very sadly, lacking.

And what the heck does an Education Secretary know about teaching the basics?!
Nothing. Whether he/she is Conservative or Labour or from the flaming moon…(well they might as well be! ) They know nothing. So….what do they do?

They chuck a test at it, convinced that it will do the trick and raise standards!!
It’s not good, it’s not clever and it’s very, very worrying indeed. Children shouldn’t be meeting exams until GCSE level. Any other tests undertaken in the primary school, should be reading and spelling assessments, which take up little time, in order to identify problems.

The worst thing is that all of this is not rocket science; the remedy would be a simple one, if only someone would adopt some common sense and consult people who really do know. Until that time, we will never achieve our ‘rounded and grounded’ education system…whichever party is in govt!

;-)



Sunday 11 May 2014

Cancellations!






Now and again,in spite of making my tuition terms and conditions very clear, the subject of ‘cancelling lessons’ crops up. 


When I first started my tuition business, I was very new to running my own business and this was a very steep learning curve. People would frequently cancel lessons with little or no notice and little regard for me, thus leaving me very much out of pocket. Many months of angst and grief followed as I tried to come to terms with how to tackle this ongoing problem. This was, after all, my livelihood.


Working for different education authorities, for many years, meant that I’d never had to ask for my wages; these wages were deposited directly into my bankand that was that. Running one’s own business is a different matter. I needed to be strict and I needed to act sooner rather than later.


I have spent a long time addressing this issue and I now have very firm and, hopefully, easy to understand terms and conditions on my website.I direct new customers to this page as soon as they ring me so that there can be no misunderstanding!!


I charge my customers for all cancelled lessons, whatever the reason,including family holidays. As I have already mentioned, my business is my livelihood and my places are limited and  always very sought after. And of course, I work incredibly hard, planning my lessons each day. 


As far as cancellations are concerned, I think that the best way to explain it is that I now run my business as a private school would. Customers are given a ‘place’ or ‘slot’ which is their slot until they leave me (this requires one month’s notice). If a child attends a private school and they are absent, the school does not refund the fee and thus I work along similar lines. 


If a customer asks to rearrange a lesson, there is little room for manoeuvre simply because I am always full. I cannot conjure places out of thin air, should a customer wish to take their child to a party or a football or a cricket match instead of bringing him or her to their lesson; that is their choice and I do make it quite clear in my terms and conditions that they must pay for the lesson. They have, after all, booked that slot and my time.


I also make it clear that I will not carry over cancelled lessons to the holiday or into my own spare time; customers should be very aware of this. I cannot alter lessons and teach them in my own spare time because it is my own holiday time.

I have always striven to give my customers my best, both in terms of quality of tuition and value for money. When customers occasionally cancel a lesson I always feel a little disappointed as I have missed an opportunity to teach and I know that there is little room for me to manoeuvre in order to offer a replacement slot.


Having reviewed my business of many years standing, I note that on average I rarely have more than two cancellations per month. So,I therefore ask my customers to consider what the chances would be (out of the four days in my working week) should they need to cancel their original slot, that the day I offer to them would be:  a) convenient and, (even more importantly),  b) whether the hour would be too!



Wednesday 2 April 2014

A 'shake up' of early years education!



If Sir Michael Wilshaw has never heard of Susan Isaacs, then he really ought to drop everything and start reading about her, PDQ!



Susan Isaacs was a great advocate of Nursery Education; indeed she was passionate about it!
Believing that the nursery setting was vital to a child's development, she said, of play:


'Play is for the child a means of living and of understanding life…it is supremely the activity which brings psychic equilibrium in the early years… It is the breath of life to the child, since it is through play activities that he… can work upon his wishes, fears and fantasies, so as to integrate them into a living personality… If we attempt to control and contain it, we simply make it lifeless and formal.'

She also believed that too much interference by the teacher, would be harmful to the young child:

'It is of comparatively little value for young children in the earlier school years to follow a prescribed programme of formal work…If we try to cramp and control him by our own notions of what he ought to be, we may close up the very channels which will bring him value and safety… The passive work of the educator in leaving the child free to make-believe is as valuable a part of his function as his more active services.'




'How serious a mistake it would be to try to make little children grow along the lines which these records show they can follow. They must be given a large measure of freedom to imagine or to think as the need and occasion arises. If we tried to teach them these things formally, or to exert pressure upon them in these directions, we should simply waste our time, and might even do positive damage.'

***

When I was training to be a teacher, a permanent feature on my bookshelf was a book by Susan Isaacs, which my nursery trained mum had passed on to me. It made fascinating reading and although I was not nursery trained, much of it was still applicable and most helpful to me when I was teaching early years children; in particular the rising fives, in my reception classes. And later on, when I did do a stint in a nursery unit, Susan Isaacs was there, in spirit.

I am a huge believer in 'play with a purpose' and I hope that whatever this 'shake up' brings,
someone will have the sense to stand up and say that first and foremost, PLAY is vital as a firm foundation to a young child's development. Without that, progress will be stunted.

It always amazes me that, when I was training to be a teacher, we had a vast collection of absolutely
brilliant educationalists on whom we could call, to guide and help us in our quest to became
skilled teachers. These people still, to this day, rattle off my tongue. 

Yet, we ignore such people, their research, their findings...their common sense....
and, instead, we are going backwards in education! 

People like Susan Isaacs must not be ignored. Their contribution to education was massive!

***



Saturday 29 March 2014

Skills for writing.



I get excited when I receive new resources...yes, quite excited

 ...but with no-one to share my excitement!

A private tutor's life can be quite lonely...the staff room buzz

is missing...at least in my staff room it is!

Coffee time is a riot...not!

Anyway, I've been waiting for quite some time

to receive this resource, in the hope that it really is a little different

and will help my KS3 children to improve their writing.


Debra Myhill is the Director of the Centre for Research

in Writing. She is also the Subject leader for Secondary English.

She and her team have been working on this resource, which is

now finally published.


She says:

'... my commitment is to the bringing together of teaching, teacher education and research so that children and young people‘s experience of learning to be literate enables them to be confident, articulate citizens of the future, able to use language and literature for personal fulfilment and economic well-being.'


I have huge issues with the way that children write and so

I am really longing to get my teeth into this resource in the hope that I can

help my older pupils achieve better things!

Fingers crossed!!

;-)





Thursday 13 March 2014

Scruffy teachers!


Many teachers will be up in arms today, their answer being, 

’ What I wear doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to the way that I teach,’

That might be absolutely true but those teachers are missing the point…completely!

Teachers are supposed to be role models.
They are the people who have most contact with pupils throughout the year. They should set an example in how to behave, how to conduct oneself and how to dress. They are helping to prepare children and young people, for life and to take a pride in EVERY aspect of their lives. It’s all about taking a pride. That surely has to start with looking at yourself and your appearance. If you can’t be bothered with that then why will you be bothered with expecting high standards in the classroom, in other areas, for instance, classroom tidiness, classroom displays, classroom discipline. If you’re going to dumb down on appearance then that will lead to dumbing down on all sorts of other everyday things. That’s what I think.

Personally, I think that the erosion of dress standards, over the years, is much to do with many teachers wanting to be the children’s ‘friend’. Not good! It’s doing the children a massive dis-service and not only that, showing them total disrespect.

Looking at the picture of that scruffy devil at a Camden school, I thought, ‘You want to be treated as a professional person but you certainly don’t want to dress like one.’

For me, the clue is in the word, 'professional'!

I’ve never thought much of Ofsted but I’m with them on this one. ;-)