Music service and other extra services - expendable post corona?

[manxman1980]

22 minutes ago, Destinymoon said:

For someone who doesn't teach in DESC or Music Service Manxman you sure do seem to know a lot about this kind of thing.

I have never taught a day in my life.  I do, however, have family and friends both on the Island and in the UK who are teachers and some who sit on the School Governor's which gives me a lot of insight into the world of teaching.

To give you an idea of how things have changed... Retired teachers have told me about the changes they saw in their careers and the twists and turns that the curriculum went through.  They went from teaching almost "parrot style" to adapting to "learning through play" and they also saw the introduction of paperwork, lesson plans, OFSTED inspections etc which they felt took away from their primary duty of educating children.  At the same time they would say that the respect for teachers was fading as were the levels of "education" that children had when entering schools.  Reception teachers would tell me that increasingly some children coming into the classroom were not potty trained and not able to even part dress themselves.  This generation of teachers has retired now but they left their careers feeling thoroughly fed up with the situation and often had the view that Head Teachers were becoming administrators who never set foot inside of the classroom and had no grasp on the reality of life in the classroom.

Younger teachers will tell me that they work long hours doing preparatory work such as lesson planning, report writing (on children of all ages), marking work, and dealing with parents/guardians.  Many have also had members of social services in the classrooms to help deal with particularly disruptive children (behavioural problems) as well as having to incorporate children with special needs.  Whilst they are more accepting of the current reality many feel as if they spend more time on paperwork than they do actually teaching.

All of this should go some way to explain why I have never felt compelled to entering teaching.  

22 minutes ago, Destinymoon said:

I do respect your previous posts and agree with a lot of what you have said.........particularly griping continually about teachers.......like a lot of professions they have had to deal with massive change in the delivery of lessons and assessment.

The survey appears to highlight discontent in the teaching staff not only in Music Service but many other schools, something that agreed needs followed up to ascertain whether this is a genuine cause for concern or just a gripe/group personal vendetta at a person in charge. How do you realistically gain an insight therefore into the genuineness of such a damning report into management confidence.........surely independant assessment? Is that not what guarantees a neutral approach?

Internal follows up are too connected to personalities and mates, (ie, if there has been long outstanding issues that HR or senior leaders have been aware off, have they been addressed by the Director etc. or just passed over) just saying, but if it affects the operational output of a department/school then the reason why needs sorted and learnt from. This is a really basic thing.

I will come back to the whole origin of this thread which was about cutting costs post coronavirus.  How does appointing an independent assessor cut costs?  Why would they not use the internal resources available to address the concerns raised?

What is need is someone to head up the action plan who has the authority to actually implement it and take action over those who don't.  An independent assessor may get to the route of the problem but would have no powers to follow it up or make any changes.  It is as simple as that.  So you have just paid at probably significant cost for an independent assessment which has no guarantee of being followed up or actioned.

 

[Andy Onchan]

1 hour ago, manxman1980 said:

Reception teachers would tell me that increasingly some children coming into the classroom were not potty trained and not able to even part dress themselves.

Things haven't changed MM. My primary school teacher daughter says it's worse now than ever. Quite disgraceful. But when this is pointed out to parents all she gets is verbal abuse (apparently it's her job to wipe their arses!).

No one should have to put up with that but she does. Why? .... because she believes every child has potential to make a contribution to our society, irrespective of how unprepared they are when they attend.

[manxman1980]

1 hour ago, Andy Onchan said:

Things haven't changed MM. My primary school teacher daughter says it's worse now than ever. Quite disgraceful. But when this is pointed out to parents all she gets is verbal abuse (apparently it's her job to wipe their arses!).

No one should have to put up with that but she does. Why? .... because she believes every child has potential to make a contribution to our society, irrespective of how unprepared they are when they attend.

I don't understand how, or why, parents think it is acceptable.  Sure young children can have accidents and most teachers I know were okay with that but to have children coming in wearing nappies...  Part of me thinks the schools should simply bar access for these children but, as I am sure your daughter would agree, that punishes the child not the parents.

[Zarley]

20 hours ago, manxman1980 said:

I don't understand how, or why, parents think it is acceptable.  Sure young children can have accidents and most teachers I know were okay with that but to have children coming in wearing nappies...  Part of me thinks the schools should simply bar access for these children but, as I am sure your daughter would agree, that punishes the child not the parents.

Children coming to school in nappies is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the bigger problems seems to be children coming to school with very poor verbal skills and limited vocabularies due to the verbal interactions with their parents being mostly limited to being told to "shut the fuck up" and similar phrases, along with never being read to.  

Many of the parents who raise their children like this at were raised this way themselves. I wish I had an answer as to how to end this cycle of neglect and abuse* in families. Banning children thus affected definitely isn't the answer. 

*imo it's abuse to not equip your children with the ability to use the toilet and the ability to communicate successfully, before attending school.