Jamie's Education Taste-the-Difference Committee
I've collected here a live feed of my thoughts as the Education Select Committee met with the team behind Jamie's Dream School.info: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/jamies-dream-school/full video feed: http://bbc.in/iNFVvJ
- So I went to parliament today for some IYC2011 business and on my way home I saw this tweet from @teachingofsci.
- I had already ...
- but this was an entirely separate affair (and to put myself on the record once again - I know there are many schools where not enough practical occurs but we should also be looking at improving the value of those practicals
Having misread the date on the meeting I thought that the meeting had taken place whilst I was sat in the foyer of Portcullis House ... (don't ask about the orphaned "knowing" - not sure how or why he was there)
People were tweeting around this short clip from the meeting: http://t.co/k07TN51 wherein the most vocal of the Dream School participants was lamenting the frowning teaching profession. You see apparently as teachers we just don't smile enough.
It's easy to take this comment out of context though. Although the picture painted by Angelique is not one I recognise, she is right - a smile will improve self esteem and help to build relationships.I didn't want to judge the whole of the meeting on a clip the Telegraph chose to pick out though ...it's apparent the Telegraph hadn't watched much of the meeting before deciding what to report back as I came across the section in which I was told that teachers don't smile around 8 minutes in. It's a shame because already the louder students were being allowed to monopolise the conversation. The girl who spoke first came across as intelligent and it looked like she would have a lot to offer. Unfortunately we didn't hear much from her and some of the other boys.
- Two of the boys were describing their education as mostly consisting of working from a textbook. It struck me that a "dream school" was not the solution but just a working "school" because their education doesn't seem to have any of the most basic standards set out in the profession. I'd really hope that what they described isn't happening anywhere in modern Britain but whilst I've never experienced that myself I know other teachers who have.
- .. but having said that, what we want to be doing is building a picture for these committees that shows a range of experiences from a range of schools. I'd be extremely worried if this kind of description led to general policy being created that could further stifle the vast majority of teachers who don't work in this way. We want to be identifying where this kind of teaching is taking place and fixing that rather than seeing these descriptions as an accurate portrayal of the wider teaching profession. Hopefully that is what will happen!
- Again, it was interesting to note the lack of pastoral support these students felt they'd been offered. I'd be really interested to see what percentage of students nationally feel this way. In the schools I've worked in, if anything I feel like at times we've been offering the students too much support leading to highly dependent, untouchable students who meander through their studies whilst we're asked to step back if they don't do their work or attend your lessons because "they're having a hard time"
- one of the lads did step in on the side of teachers to point out all the help he'd had
- At the 23 minute mark, Pat Glass waded in with a ridiculous question ..
