#101
7 Likes
#102

Greens overtaking the LibDems: the Starmer effect

#103

Think I predicted the smaller parties (herein including Plaid Cymru and SNP) would see a significant boost at the next election off the back of Starmie’s leadership and the Tories no longer having the Brexit magnet. Feel fairly confident about it.

#104

And from YouGov, too

#105

I mean, much as the “Twenty points” thing has run its course, there has been absolutely no concerted push-back / proper opposition about the government’s handling of this, and this has helped solidify among genuinely reasonable people this idea that “the government has done the best they could, and really what else could have been done?”, and tbh that’s kinda more insidious than being up/down in the polls.

7 Likes
#106

I wonder if British people are just completely primed to never expect anything from the state and just blame everything on individuals. Such a large chunk of people just never seem to see the government as responsible for anything at all.

2 Likes
#107

Fuck Harris Academies:

“I don’t want to be accused of cutting the arts, but we want kids to be successful,” said Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, one of the UK’s most successful academy chains. “I do not think they will be pleased to look back when they are 40 and see that, because of a bit of art or French or design and technology, they did not get the qualification in English or maths they needed to get a job.”

#108

Famously not needed in any future economy.

10 Likes
#109

I was teaching DT in UK schools about 5 years ago. It was a complete joke. Because I had already been teaching a good while abroad I was on a scheme where I got paid to do an extra qualification. I was technically a student teacher, but the schools took advantage that I was basically a free cover teacher.

I was basically strongly discouraged from doing anything practical with the kids, even though both schools had decent facilities. I actually got told I shouldn’t teach GCSE textile students how to screenprint, even though we had all the equipment and loads of supplies in the cupboard. Apparently they only needed to know enough to answer an exam question about how you would do it, you didn’t need to try it for yourself or actually know what you’re doing.

Same with both schools had computers with the Adobe suite on, but the teachers were getting the kids to use it like ms paint because they didn’t know how to do anything.

A senior manager told me off for not wearing a suit to work, and when I tried to explain that I was in the workshop all day around glues and paints and dyes and I wore overalls over my clothes a lot, he told me I should never be getting messy because it “sets a bad example”

#110

CEIAG in this country is in such a fucking state.

#111

It’s so weird as well that the UK has massive acting, music, literature and video game industries that are very sought after in other countries, and rather than embracing that as a source of exports like say Korea did, there’s constant hostility towards it.

6 Likes
#112

Not sure how it will ever get fixed but we really need to do something about the number of Head teachers who see onward progression as a binary between “clever / good” pupils = Russel group uni to do law or medicine and “non academic / trouble” pupils = the local 6th form fir an apprenticeship in a construction trade or hairdressing.

The kids and their parents don’t know any better and they’re horribly failed by the system as it stands.

1 Like
#113

And there’s so many traps in the system you can fall into with bad advice at crucial stages, even worse if your parents don’t really know the system. For example universities not being very keen on A-level Law for entry into Law degrees.

#114

Sometimes the huge amount of choice actually deliberately disadvantages people, because they don’t get the same advice and knowledge of how to navigate the whole complicated system.

#115

Design Technology was my favourite subject at school. But I didn’t chose it (in the mid 90s) as an A Level. The teachers were OK, and the facilities reasonable, but it was abundantly clear that there was massive levels of upheaval, chaos and uncertainty in terms of the curriculum and the way it was going to be taught and assessed. So I avoided what I perceived to be certain chaos by choosing sensible, career-oriented Maths, Physics and Economics instead.

Epilogue

Did Civil Engineering at uni. Then, within a year of doing that as a job, went back to uni to do the design degree I’d always fancied. :grinning: Then went back into a career in construction anyway. :laughing: (Albeit in design-based roles rather than on-site contractor side, so things kinda make sense.)

#116

As evidenced by my previous post, despite encouraging parents and being reasonably motivated and ambitious personally, I still stumbled and fumbled along, taking ‘safe options’ (“something to fall back on”) and working it all out as I went, because the whole ‘professional world’ and how to get into it and navigate it, was alien to my upbringing.

Whereas for some, if you called your dad he could stop it all.

#117

Yeah, I mean my parents both left school at 16 with a couple of O-levels and don’t have a clue about all the maze of qualifications and careers. They let me do what I wanted as long as they didn’t think it was completely stupid.

My dad did a few different basic jobs then got an apprenticeship where he was sent on day release and to evening classes to get a qualification while working, and then worked for the same company his entire life.

My mum did admin jobs, and then got other admin jobs off the back of having done previous admin jobs.

Both of them are/were horrified at the level of hoops you have to jump through now, and all the things employers demand. I remember my dad being appalled that sometimes I’d go to interviews, and not even get the courtesy of being told I hadn’t got it. Ghosted by a job interview. Often ones where you had to do significant prep and a presentation.

My mum has been trying to forward me job listings to apply for since I’ve been out of work, and she’s appalled at how much they’re asking for, and how little things pay.

1 Like
#118

I mean like I went into the museums and heritage industry because I naively thought that relevant qualifications and experience would be the route in.

There was nobody to tell me that it’s an old school tie closed shop.

#119

Just saw a local news story that the local Rotary Club spent £15k on 50 Chrome books to give to local schools to help students who don’t have a computer at home. Their press statement has a strong undertone of “FFS education department, why aren’t you sorting this out fir schools”

#120

This is the thing about the uk education system that annoys me the most.

Teachers have to teach to the exams, because it’s how their performance is measured.

But it’s a shit way to educate.