Year 6

helen · Year 6

I have to pass on this conversation I had with my friend the other day.

She was telling me about how she had overheard her 2 children chatting about being in year 6 at Marton and about how they had totally different experiences even though they had both been in 6A. The eldest one loved her time in 6A, she had one teacher for the whole year although they worked with the other teacher in groups at times. She worked hard for SAT's but only in the mornings, they had "fun" lessons in the afternoons and learnt a lot about World War 2 and rivers etc. They also had 2 hours of PE every week. She was talking about how much she had enjoyed Book Week when everyone got dressed up and Health Week with interesting and different activities.
The younger child said she "hated" being in year 6 and is miserable. She counted up that she had had 7 teachers since September. She finds maths difficult and was telling her sister that she is struggling with it, in the first term she had so many supply teachers she didn't know what she was doing in maths. She said that they have now been told they are to have more maths lessons and when she added up the time it came to 9 hours in a week (my friend was so shocked by this she checked it, it was right). This child said she isn't doing rivers or history, they haven't had a river trip or any other visits, there has been no Book Week or Health Week, not 2 hours of PE, there are no fun activities any more it is just one long slog of maths and Literacy. As she hates maths the child feels like making her do more is not making her better at it but even worse.
My friend said she had never heard her daughter sound so miserable about school she has always loved it before. My friend told me now there is an Easter school for more maths. Why is this necessary? If Mrs Coupe's plans had been working she wouldn't need to put in more maths lessons the children would be getting enough in a normal week. this doesn't sound like a balanced timetable to me. My friend wants her children to have the same chances and she doesn't feel that they have. One has had an education that covered everything and the other has had an unbalanced one.

In my opinion Mrs Coupe is panicking as she knows that her plans are not working and she is desperate for the results to be as good as they were before she came. These children are being used as guinea pigs in her game. My friend is now wondering whether to take her youngest child out of Marton at this important time. Has Mrs Coupe thought about the effect this is having on the children?

Alan Veale

Helen - these words will surely mean a lot to many people reading this forum. Every one of us must realise how urgent this situation is now becoming, if we are not to see our children permanently handicapped by one woman's selfish desires.

Please check your private messages (see the link at the top of this page if you don't know how) - I have a suggestion to put to you.

Alan Veale

mary

In view of what is now happening at Marton School (the excessive teaching of Numeracy, at the expense of other subjects such as history and science, as outlined above) I thought it was worth reproducing something I found on the internet as I researched best practice in teaching and learning in primary schools.

The following extract is taken from Ofsted’s National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies and the Primary Curriculum.

p.55

177. Many schools try to raise standards in English and mathematics by focusing too much on these subjects in isolation. This is detrimental to the subjects themselves, the secure development of sustainable skills and to the curriculum more generally. Further, although schools try hard to minimise the risk, “booster” classes and other intervention strategies can mean that pupils miss the lessons they might enjoy most: they spend more time with teaching assistants, less time with teachers and follow a narrower curriculum.

178. Too many schools are not convinced that more creative work will really make a difference to standards and may be unwilling to take a risk. Ofsted’s report, The curriculum in successful primary schools, demonstrates that a rich and balanced curriculum can contribute to high standards in the core subjects. The focus on curriculum leadership in the new Framework for the inspection of schools should reassure schools that Ofsted supports curriculum innovation where it leads to higher standards.

If anyone wants to check this information for themselves, the following is a link to the corresponding page.

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/...17/hmi1973_nlns_primarycurric.pdf

It seems to me that, far from Ofsted agreeing with Mrs Coupe, they seem to be totally against what she is now doing. Perhaps when they first heard about her vision it made no mention of the desperate measures she would have to resort to in order to bring the school back up to its previous standard.

For the sake of the children we need to speak up NOW.

AR · Arbitrary Targets

What has become of education ? I thought that this type of teaching to exams in Primary schools went out with the end of the 11+ many years ago. Even then I very much doubt that 9 hours of maths would have been taught. Now it has crept back in through Mr Blair's obsession with target setting. These targets are passed on to LEAs, then on to schools and on to the children.
Heads need to be strong enough to stand up to speak out for real education.
Where, honestly, in the scheme of things will these SATs help each child. They have no bearing on later exams, A levels or university. They are purely and simply an arbitrary means of creating league tables.
Mary has pointed out the dangers found by Ofsted. The Government's own advisory unit, the QCA, sent guidelines to ALL school with advice on a healthy curriculum. It certainly did not support the teaching of many hours of maths to the detriment of a broader curriculum. Guidelines were actually given for how many hours would be sensible for each subject per week/month and year, to give teachers more flexibility to teach in a creative way.
It is no wonder that we are finding so many young people being 'switched off' from education at an early age.

Year 6

Arbitrary Targets