The film was all her idea. Had I known then how things would ultimately turn out, I'd have left her the taxi fare home and fvcked off after twenty minutes.

And now thanks to Gove's meddling it looks like NI and Wales will have a different examination system to England.

If he was in front of me now I think I would knock him out. It looks as though OFSTED have been briefed to ensure all non academy schools are deemed failed as soon as possible.



My daughter was informed at 10am yesterday that 3 OFSTED inspectors will be turning up at 8am today to do a 3 day inspection, targetting the SATS groups (SATS are this week as if they didn't have enough to contend with). They were given a list of things that the inspectors would need to see, which would include literacy and numeracy workbooks from 2 kids at, below and above the required levels, these books would have to be marked up and all paperwork complete up to finish of business yesterday.



Because these are not needed for this weeks SATS the teachers were going to do them over the half term closure (they no longer regard these breaks as holidays as they tend to work everyday of them), but she (and her colleagues) started to do them last night. At around 9:30pm her head teacher got in touch to say that the inspector in charge had rang to say that they now needed to see ALL numeracy and literacy workbooks at 8am along with a stack of other work that would generally not be required until after the next half term, which now means they will have to get into school at 5am to get this done.



Last year her school was given 'outstanding' status and my daughter was rated the same having averaged a 6 point improvement as an average across her kids, but because of the make up of the school very few had achieved 'expected levels' for their ages (over 70% are from overseas and have English as a second language, some of the girls from Islamic countries have had NO education whatsoever up until a few months ago). Gove has now changed the goalposts and ALL kids must be at the required level no matter what the circumstances, so my daughter will now be benchmarked against a teacher from a leafy, middle class suburb of Surrey and whose kids can probably read and write when they enter pre-school at the age of 4. Some of my daughters 6 year old hadn't heard a word of English until they enrolled at her school and a high percentage are in desperate need of an SEN assessment (which is refused most of the time).



She has been tapped up by a few schools where she would have an easier time of it in areas of mostly middle class families with little or no SEN needs, but she has always refused because she knows these kids she teaches need good teachers who care and she is reluctant to abandon them, but she fears that although they know they have maintained (or bettered) there standards since last year it is inevitable that they will be deemed a failing school under the new Gove directive and be forced (against the will of parents, teachers and governors) into academy status.



I am no educational expert, but I think Gove is a danger to the future of our kids, especially those at the bottom of the academic pile as these academies will be able to pick and choose who they want and a kid from a third world country who cannot speak a word of English and have some form of SEN such as autism will not be high on the agenda for a place.

The question being of course, what private limited company would see investment value in a school like your daughters ?



If you are paid by results then clearly you target the "cream" and disregard what remains.



On the other hand if you are paid by "improvement" then its in the sellers interests to downgrade the product as low as possible to make it attractive to a purchaser who can then claim an impressive "turnaround" after they purchase - bonuses all round.



Just to remind ourselves, these are children we are selling.



Just to make a memo to ourselves - check what jobs Gove is offered after 2015.

I've changed my mind.

I would happily punch the odious little turd until he lost consciousness.

Anyone who knows my posting history and so has a general feel for me will tell you that for me that is VERY strong.



Goves ideology will wreck english schooling.

Yep, and I think at least partly the fault of a packed full (and dull) curriculum that doesn't allow teachers and schools much, if any, leeway in how to teach.

I'd go with that to an extent.



Although I genuinely believe there is a core of subjects that all young people should have the opportunity to be introduced to. And unfortunately, it seems to me, we have lost sight of education in that kind of way, and replaced it with a strictly utilitarian version - not least as employers whinge about school leavers not immediately 'being ready', for the workplace.



I remember a year or so ago, the particular complaint was that school leavers did not have skills in dealing with customers. You do wonder how anyone in my generation ever coped. In the olden days, I don't think any employer imagined that a school leaver was absolutely ready for any job - they required training of some variety. But some employers increasingly seem to view that as the state's responsibility and not that of themselves.



But I do also think that there needs to be a capacity to split children up into groups/classes/subjects that are appropriate to them.

And then a. Different sort of thing: I remember reading, two, the years ago, about a 14-year-old lad who just totally ed off with school - no interest - but found himself work as a gardener and absolutely loved it.



And there was a furore about trying to drive him back into formal education, which seemed, in that case, to not be appropriate.

Spot on, I agree entirely with having a curriculum but its just too full to allow teachers freedom to do something related but a bit different, or go on more school trips.

It's a ridiculous position many employers are taking at the moment. They appear unwilling to train employees on the job and want "the perfect candidate" whilst paying minimum wage.

You could be speaking of Alan Titchmarsh, left school at 15 and was lucky that his father knew one of the gardeners at Ilkley Town Council which by coincidence happened to be the only thing that the young Titchmarsh was interested in - three years later he was persuaded to go to college to study for a city & guilds but still wasn't keen on academia.



Many would look down on those who mow the grass in their local park though.

The sum total of Gove's idiocy

My daughter has just had her first day of OFSTED and she said that the inspectors asked for 12 literacy books for pupils who were NOT in the English as Additional Language category, to which she replied that she only had 3 (87% of her school is from an ethnic, non British born background). You would have thought that the inspectors would have turned up with some idea of the general make up of the school population.



She is still no wiser as to 'why' this was required.