I see Park House has now joined Kennet School and become the second school in Berkshire to receive Academy status.  

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=16671

It'll be interesting to see how that develops locally, or whether this strategy will become something that will bite them on the ar$e in years to come, as Downs School, Theale Green and St Barts are also in the process of becoming 'Academies'.

Interestingly the newsfeed states "Having academy status means that the school will be directly funded by central government but is independent of local government control. The school will have the ability to set its own staff pay and conditions and can also change the lengths of its terms and school days."

Now if the product of these Academies don't quite reach their anticipated potential I'm quite looking forward to the time when the Headteacher suggests that they adopt a more 'continental approach' and introduce Saturday morning compulsory classes for all.  That would be on my agenda if I was Head (after all, the money I'd be earning in this dream world where I could set my own pay to match Mr Dick's I wouldn't really mind working a Saturday.... Not so sure the pupils with Saturday jobs will be so chuffed...)

I'd be looking at longer terms and dropping German off the curriculum (a waste of somebody's education time IMO)  Pidgin German spoken by English pupils is just embarrassing when german toddlers are better able to speak fluent english in return....

Any other suggestions that can be submitted to Mr Peaple for the benefit of his charges (and staff)?

Quoted from spartacus

I'd be looking at longer terms and dropping German off the curriculum (a waste of somebody's education time IMO)  Pidgin German spoken by English pupils is just embarrassing when german toddlers are better able to speak fluent english in return....

Great idea - bring back Latin and give the kids a proper eduation.

Mind you I read an article a day or two back that noted that there are plenty of nice EU jobs available for Brits - if only they could find some who spoke another language or two.

WBC should encourage all its schools to go for academy status - then they could close their education department and save loads of dosh.  As it is the education department will soon be in dire straits as its funding disappears into the academies.

Quoted from blackdog

Great idea - bring back Latin and give the kids a proper eduation.

I studied Latin for four years and look where it got me!
What do you think the kids of today would think of it?
I can tell you.....but you already know don't you?

Quoted from blackdog

Great idea - bring back Latin and give the kids a proper eduation.

Mind you I read an article a day or two back that noted that there are plenty of nice EU jobs available for Brits - if only they could find some who spoke another language or two.

WBC should encourage all its schools to go for academy status - then they could close their education department and save loads of dosh.  As it is the education department will soon be in dire straits as its funding disappears into the academies.

Academy Status doesn't necessarily mean that these schools won't use WBC services.

Is nobody else a bit worried about basically all the schools in WB being able to do whatever they want with money from the Government?

Quoted from skyfairy

Is nobody else a bit worried about basically all the schools in WB being able to do whatever they want with money from the Government?

Presumeably they are still monitored by Ofsted ?

Think Mr Dick is worth EVERY Penny.

Ditch German lessons great idea, but who on earth needs to speak Latin ? Chinese would be better !

Saturday morning lessons would be great - particularly if it puts pay to some of the homework I have to try to understand !!

Lessons on life in general would be good - how to open a bank account, what APR means, how to shop for essentials, pensions, mortgages, customer satisfaction when employed, health and safety when riding a bike/scooter/skateboard (why isn't wearing a helmet compulsory ?) ooh the list is endless !

Quoted from PaulaM

Ditch German lessons great idea, but who on earth needs to speak Latin ? Chinese would be better !

Saturday morning lessons would be great - particularly if it puts pay to some of the homework I have to try to understand !!

!

Latin is not a spoken language, but it helps you to understand your Doctors notes and prescriptions...We used to go to school on a Saturday morning...it was a part of our normal week...Saturday afternoons were for detention with Basil, the Bas---d!

I'm afraid German as a subject would just have to go.... French is a tongue that can be used in much of Africa and Indo-China.. and even Canada, so that can stay.  Spanish (that used to be what the thick pupils that had no gift of picking up a language were forced to learn for a while) is spoken all over the Americas (they reckon it won't be too many decades before there's a hispanic US President with English as his second language) Plus it's useful on holidays so that can stay.

But German? Who else speaks it apart from the germans? ....Or needs to when the germans are so good at speaking English...

MY Academy curriculum would be more 'Back To Basics' and have a touch of Victorian Workhouse/Grammar School about it.....  

(I'd just LOVE to see what kids would make of a slide rule and a book of log tables.... )

Lessons on life in general would be good -

err, isn't this what parents are suposed to do.........................

Quoted from 78

Lessons on life in general would be good -

err, isn't this what parents are suposed to do.........................

The problem starts when the parents aren't capable.

Teaching English and it's usage would be a start.


Threep.

Quoted from Greenham Common

The problem starts when the parents aren't capable.

Then what are they doing having children?

Quoted from Threepwood

Teaching English and it's usage would be a start.  Threep. Then what are they doing having children?

Someone as learned as you would surely understand why?  Some of the most impoverished countries in the world have the largest average sized families.  It's what nature has programmed us to do.  Survive.

I would make Saturdays a community service day.
divide the students into various teams devised to tackle different socially beneficial tasks.
Rotate the students through the teams periodically, so they all get a stab at the various activities.

Also, German is pointless. I've spent months at a time travelling there, without ever speaking a single word of it. Never been a problem, not once.

Quoted from Greenham Common

Some of the most impoverished countries in the world have the largest average sized families.

That may actually be due more to religious dogma than self-determination.

Quoted from Greenham Common

It's what nature has programmed us to do.  Survive.

You're not suggesting the future of our race is dependant upon people who aren't capable of bringing up their children correctly?

Threep.

Quoted from Threepwood

That may actually be due more to religious dogma than self-determination.

It might also have something to do with increasing the likelihood of one of your children surviving to have more children and look after you in your old age.

Quoted from Threepwood

You're not suggesting the future of our race is dependant upon people who aren't capable of bringing bring up their children correctly in a way we disapprove of?

Trying to rationalise the irrational is, well, irrational!