sixoh8sixoh Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Morning all, the longest day is rather dull here and I think the forecast was rain last time I looked... More cr4p is flying at work thanks to a certain education minister all will be revealed on Friday apparently. Mick, looks like the cat's out of the bag a day early. Telegraph: GCSEs to be scrapped Those of you that know North Wales might be aware of a 'country park' called Loggerheads between Ruthin and Mold. While taking advantage of their facilities yesterday, I poked around a little. It is the site of a long abandoned lead mine. Really interesting photos. Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 Morning all. Rather persistent rain here this morning, Robbie will be getting an earlier walk than usual today as we have to go to the vets. I've booked him in to the kennels later this year and they now require a kennel cough vaccine to have been administered, so that will be done today. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 The track record of politicians (of all colours) on education, is an inglorious one! I`m always worried by 'tinkering'......better to do the job properly: well advised and competently. I was wonderfully fortunate in being educationally privileged (and also minded to make the best of it from an early age).....many aren`t so fortunate and their life path and opportunities, are entirely contingent on those (very) few years of state-organised schooling. The idea that 'targets' and 'results' are the goals (within goal-posts ever in motion!); not the former-priorities of: literacy, numeracy, sciences, history, general-knowledge of our world, and the instilling of "moral-character", would seem to be where the 'system' has (successively) gone wrong. I`d best go and unsaddle my hobby horse.......apologies for the 'politics' this early in the day. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Don't worry Debs; it's becoming impossible to avoid it these days, seeing the havoc that the Westminster clique persist in wreaking. It wouldn't be so bad if they possessed even a modicum of; a) technical competence or B) care for anything other than themselves/party/paymasters. c) clue about life in the real world outside their little city state. Dave. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 I'm with you Debs, although I suspect we don't see it all in the same light. In my skool years there was 11+, and that was the main target of primary educators. I was lucky, being at a small primary school, and was crammed to the extent that I passed a year early, as had three other pupils in my year at grammar school. No doubt the secondary moderns of those days did feel like failure camps, although a number of secondary modern pupils then joined us in the 6th form, demonstrating that their abilities were now second to few, and going on to uni, which only about half of us did - I did not. Then the 11+ was scrapped across most of the UK, and Comprehensive was the word. In them thar days lesser abilities were tested by RSAs, I think, rather than GCEs, and then a vote-seeking government saw the attraction of merging the two, with the result identified in the Telegraph link. Dragging down the best seems to be an inevitable result to me. Parents are priceless. I recall a friend of (my) Deb incandescant because her daughter had only got an A for A level English, not an A*. Transpired the girl can't spell. While we all know there are good reasons for a lifelong failure to spell, and modern WPs ensure this may never be significant in employment, is it really fair to give non-spellers a "bye" compared to other pupils who manage to do so? Would we do so for those lousy at maths, or for those unable to hold a chisel in woodwork? We all have different abilities, and enabling the most gifted to bite off as much as they can chew - while offering everyone a chance to shine - is the only way for mankind to progress. An education system that recognises that fact is essential IMHO. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 No comments from me. I form part of the LCD. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonBradley Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 The only LCD I can find is Liquid Crystal Display - Are you fully charged Dd? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 Morning all, Dunno about Nigeria but the rainy season returned here with a vengeance last night although it's down to a mild drizzle now, but it's coming back later - good job I've not got the digger booked yet for the 'jubilee lawn' jobbie but daughter and I did shift the first pile of bricks and drive edging blocks yesterday. No comment from me about the politicos - I sussed some of their dirty little games (with the evidence) a long time back but it might be a good idea getting youngsters to school leaving age with an ability to communicate in their own language - both spoken and written and to have plenty of other basic knowledge in their noddles. I remember looking in the 'business studies room' at our youngsters' school one day and at the work displayed on the wall. At which point I gained a deep understanding of why we were receiving into our industry youngsters who couldn't write in clear and concise English, 'nuff said. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I think Dd`s reference is to being a 'denominator' (but not a denominatrix). Although the latter would surely command a vulgar quotient! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonBradley Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Thanks Debs, That makes sense, though I disagree strongly at Dd being amongst the "Lowest" or that he could be considered "common" Ha Ha at your comment as to his gender. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonBradley Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Thanks Debs, That makes sense, though I disagree strongly at Dd being amongst the "Lowest" or that he could be considered "common" Ha Ha at your comment as to his gender. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I just wrote a long post about my opinions on education and my reaction to the idea that all cats should be home by 11pm. Waited five minutes for it to be 'saved' and gave up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 There is an icon at the top to "Follow this topic". One would need staff to enable that. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 I just wrote a long post about my opinions on education and my reaction to the idea that all cats should be home by 11pm. Waited five minutes for it to be 'saved' and gave up. It's a good idea to copy it elsewhere, especially with long posts - I keep a Word document on the 'puter desktop for exactly that purpose and I find that copying into that usually (but not infallibly) leads to the post actually saving on RMweb, presumably in order to teach me not to spend my time copying it elsewhere. Meanwhile I wish the small tabby from 'somewhere up the road' would stay in at night and stop nicking Henry's grub which he then very loudly demands to be replenished. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Sidecar Racer Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 21, 2012 Just scraping in for a Good Morning and not Afternoon , after heavy rain during the night we had a bright start here , now it's back to the rain , My education level was Secondary Modern and CSE as exam level , I lost track of what it all became , but I do think standards are not what they were . Right , I'm going for a sandwich for lunch , then some knitting with wire for a few hours , Have a good day , or whats left of it . 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 Those of you that know North Wales might be aware of a 'country park' called Loggerheads We in ERs must be mellowing with age. We've resisted the temptation. The Upper Dales of the North Pennines are full of reminders of the mining industry. You can stumble across these in the most unexpected and remotest of places and even on a summer's day there is something quite eerie and chilling about them. It is as if they have their own memories and don't want to share them. On a cold and misty day they are ghostly, forbidding places. While I was out and about last week I cam across a similar set of wagons outside a hotel. At the head was an unusual 'loco'. I will try and post a photo later. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Look forward to it, BoD. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixoh8sixoh Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Absolutely agree. Even on a hot summer's day there's something eerie and cold about Killhope Lead Mining Centre (for example). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 21, 2012 I think the feeling is associated with being in a place where you know men lived and worked until they finished, a bit like the long abandoned factories etc that the subex investigators find. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 I think the feeling is associated with being in a place where you know men lived and worked until they finished In the case of the lead mines quite literally 'finished' 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) I hated skool! I failed the 11+ because I was so sick that year (Whooping cough and Measles at the same time). No one tried to boost me up after that and I was always behind (particularly in Maths - which I still consider a mystery). Mind you I did spend an awful lot of time the year before peering up Miss Honey's (I kid you not) skirt at her stocking tops and suspenders....lovely legs that woman, she must be in her late seventies by now, what a thought. Best, Pete. Edited June 21, 2012 by trisonic 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 I know where I lay the blame for the present state of education as it occurred during my time in the system. I won't name names but it might just about qualify as history rather than politics. One of the problems now is that things are seen as targets. Matthew was just good enough to be one of those students who could and did (just) get 5 grade C GCSEs. There was little incentive from the school and they just seemed to think we had unreasonable expectations of his ability, when we commented that we thought he was capable of better. As Matthew stated for him at least it all turned out fine in the end, but I do feel for those that it doesn't. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Forgive me Father, for I have sinned......Been playing away but hoping a sight of Bittern tonight will put me back on the straight and narrow. ...and just for the record, scraped through my 11+, but would happily have failed for a glance or two in Pete's class... B) 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 21, 2012 I know where I lay the blame for the present state of education as it occurred during my time in the system. I won't name names but it might just about qualify as history rather than politics. One of the problems now is that things are seen as targets. Matthew was just good enough to be one of those students who could and did (just) get 5 grade C GCSEs. There was little incentive from the school and they just seemed to think we had unreasonable expectations of his ability, when we commented that we thought he was capable of better. As Matthew stated for him at least it all turned out fine in the end, but I do feel for those that it doesn't. Tony I do wonder about the school system at times - I, and others of my era - certainly at my school - received little or no careers advice and no advice whatsoever about relating A Level subjects to post school aims. Nowadays it seems to be all about targets and with very mixed levels of interest in the pupils and their real aims and needs in terms of subject to get there - daughter was very poorly advised regarding A Level courses with not so good results as a consequence but fortunately her first choice uni saw through that both to her and her GCSE results and still took her - subsequently giving her a BA and an MA and letting her into a PhD course. Son, through the same school got far better A Level advice based largely, I think, on certain teachers taking an interest in what he wanted to do and how he was going to try to get there but he did not do the ideal BA course although he did very well on the MA course at a different uni and has actually got a real job which pays a salary albeit with not the best employer in the world. I think that as a country we seem to suffer from not relating educational ability to the encouragement it needs to get the best results for the child and in not relating that to what is need in the real world. The bulk of the people I worked with in teams in that later part of my BR career didn't have uni degrees, and many had not grammar school educated, but were numerate and literate and above all could think and, when necessary, come up with and develop ideas which they could present cogently. But the more recent (late 1980s/early '90s) school leavers while far more attuned to the use of computers often lacked basic skills in literacy and unassisted (by a machine) numeracy which in some respects impinged on their creative ability or, as importantly, their ability to get over to others the results of their thinking - it was almost as if the schools had given up trying to turn out people with a rounded eductaion. And indeed in some cases even graduates seemed to be less rounded in basic skills but often 'wanted more' because they had a degree. I'm not sure what the answer is but the problem is easy to spot - huge gaps in basic skills at almost every level you care to name, including knowing how to run a country. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 .........they just seemed to think we had unreasonable expectations of his ability, when we commented that we thought he was capable of better........ Targets, labels and 'snapshot' judgementalism......... .......if only 'the system' could be led (solely) by the altruistic wish to educate and inform both the open-mind and the receptive-soul. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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