By the way, the rumour about her Head, Dr Irene Bishop being an ardent Labour supporter turned out to be true- she'd even appeared on stage once with Tony Blair. (No, not in a pantomime; in a party conference).
Obviously this had nothing to do with the course of action she took.
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The head did say (apparently and after the event) that she felt the school had been manipulated by New Labour (re the whole academy flagship thing I imagine).
I think we need to stop blanket blaming teachers and/or schools for Govt policy.
As Ms Birbalsingh said; 'good teachers are ordered to follow bad rules' and schools are forced to collude with the folly of inspectors in a ratings war.
I work with many more good teachers than bad ones, and the good ones are just as frustrated as I am.
Of course teachers are in the hands of successive governments and their whims. Very unfortunately. However, who would go near a government which was proposing to destroy the pensions of teachers, nurses and council workers? I voted Labour and I am not ashamed of it. Irene Bishop is a woman of integrity and principle who would never write a malicious blog about her colleagues. As a teacher, Head of Department, Deputy Principal and Principal, Irene has worked always for the highest educational standards and for those children in her care. She is a legend. What rubbish is this?!!!!!!!!!
When you say 'destroy the pensions of teachers, nurses and council workers', do you mean stop forcing the rest of us to fund the index-linked pensions you receive after a relatively short working life during which you spend more time off sick with stress or whingeing than actually at work?
If so, not only will I go near them, I'll go near them and shake their hands.
You voted Labour and are proud of it?
It takes a certain kind of myopic conceit to put your own pay ahead of - just to quote one area where they screwed up horribly - a couple of wars which have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and remain 'proud' of the party.
But that's teachers for you I guess.
I have decided to comment on this, although I have decided to stop commenting on Katherine Birbalsingh. Let her become Secretary of Education for all I care. How dare you comment that I might have spent my time whingeing about my lot! I have an excellent work record and I have not been driven out of the classroom by 'despair' as has Mr. Frank Chalk. I worked through cancer treatment for god's sake! I'm sure this comment won't stay on this site very long (or won't even appear). If it does, 'Well done' to Mr. Chalk. He couldn't take the heat of the classroom however.
Someone has to do the job. And those who write malicious blogs about colleagues and students are not my sort.
World Wars? Let's look back a bit further. Churchill? No one has clean hands. But teachers are not responsible for wars. They are public workers, that's all. Are we not still paying off the debts of Churchill's war and don't get me started on some little island off the coast of Argentina?!
Let's get on to the Civil Sevice and the Police. Shall we wipe out their pensions too? Who is going to 'man'the country? Who will have the balls to do the job? Not Mr. Frank Chalk obviously. He was in so much 'despair' over
those he taught. Poor love. And he wrote a blog.
Good for him. No one stays in a job after writing a blog. Despair aside.
I am not Eirlys. I am Wendy. Just had to open another email account.
Eirlys, you need to stick to the truth. We aren't still paying any debts from WW2 and I don't think Frank ever mentioned the word 'despair'.
He does claim to have taught for 15 years though, which is more than enough time for any intelligent person to realise that they are wasting their time in state education today.
I lasted just one year before quitting and I've never looked back. It wasn't the 'heat of the classroom' as you put it, it was more the culture of mediocrity and incompetence that put me off.
There's nothing heroic in sticking with something that just isn't very good.
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