Sloane Grammar School Hortensia Road Chelsea London England

 

 

 

You'll find on this page, anything related to education. It will include our education, our children's education, the ever-changing state education system, and different views and news regarding education. Contributions will always be welcome. Use CONTACT US to let me know what it is you want to say.

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August 3rd, 2010:-

Still think you've got what it takes to pass a General School Examination? Tony Furneaux has sent me a copy of the Algebra section of the Elemantary Mathematics GSE he sat in 1944. The paper is dated December, 1943 and is shown below. Give it a go, but don't ask me the answers; it was never one of my better subjects! You might need to use the Zoom button on your browser to bring it up to a readable size. -

 

July 4th, 2010:-

Two things have emerged in the past week, one good, one bad.

Firstly, the bad. It was revealed that two-thirds of untrained and unqualified classroom assistants, are expected to teach 'actively' when covering for absent teachers. Unfortunately, following changes to teachers' contracts last year, which state they should only 'rarely' cover for absent colleagues, heads are prevented from asking teachers to stand in for colleagues except in 'unforseen circumstances', which presumably means when a teaching assistant isn't available.

This amounts to exploitation of teaching assistants which, of course, was what the role was created for.

The better news this week is that competitive games are to be revived in schools. As this was announced before England's World Cup demise it can't be seen as knee-jerk reaction. The new 'School Olympics' programme is seen as putting an end to the 'prizes for all' culture that has removed 'competitiveness' from the vocabulary of most of today's youngsters. It had been felt that the 'pressure' of winning and losing could be too much for children. Who thinks of these things?!

To be fair, Labour did try to revive competitive school sports with a series of initiatives but their policies seemed at conflict with their determination to sell off school playing fields.

 

April 24th, 2010:-

At long last someone in a key position has spoken out about the 'dumbing down' of exams. Tim Oates, an exam official with Cambridge University's exams board, has admitted that exam boards have bowed to political pressure to make exams more 'accessible'. Pupils and teachers now receive more guidance on how exams are marked to enable them to prepare better, and the move towards 'modular' exams has broken down subjects into bite-sized chunks to allow pupils to be examined on them rather than on a one-off paper, with marks allocated to each chunk to allow for an accumulated mark. Mr Oates said 'Giving the benefit of the doubt to pupils - consistent with the general moral sense of 'access' and 'best chance' which was foremost in the political agenda - can result in subtle grade inflation."

What he's trying to say is exams have been made easier to pass because it's seen as wrong to allow any one to be called a failure. Ultimately, exam passes become meaningless as even the brightest will be tarred with suspicion that, perhaps, even there passes aren't as good as they seem.

April 7th, 2010:-

Teachers of the NASUWT union have voted unanimously over a ballot for industrial action - over the behaviour of the children they teach. Their main argument is over the ridiculous government scheme that allows children a say about the way they are taught. One aspect of the 'Student Voice' scheme is that pupils are allowed to help select prospective teachers and provide feedback on teachers' performance. Inevitably, putting children in this ludicrous situation has led to a predictable outcome. Whoever thought up the idea that children are entitled to a role in the management and delivery of their own education? It confuses the roles of teacher and pupil. Treating children on a par with teachers must strip teachers of a large amount of their professional dignity and one Headmaster has even issued his pupils with iPhones so they can email him comments about their teachers' performance! The misguided fool should be sacked and I would be a very worried man if he were in charge of my children. Today's children lack the discipline and imposition of boundaries that we experienced, and in school, as in the home, adults are relieving themselves of responsibility for the child's correct upbringing because of their fear of doing what, today, we are being told is unacceptable.

Here are some of the questions children have been putting to prospective teachers and some of the other facts that have emerged about the involvement of pupils in selection and reporting procedure -

For a technology post teachers were asked, "If you were a font, which one would you be?" Those candidates who laughed at the question were rated 'zero'.

Job canadidates were told to bring objects to an interview. A didgeridoo or balloons won candidates more votes than one who took a snowboard.

One candidate failed with his application because he was 'too willing to ask questions' of his interviewers.

One teacher was given a job because the children liked the red colour of her shoes, and another because she was the prettiest candidate.

One teacher was heavily criticised for her Christian faith.

A languages teacher was reported by pupils for speaking 'too much French' in lessons.

One teacher was given a post by pupils who later told her she was 'useless' but the only applicant.

And, finally, staff were said to be quitting one school because of 'the culture of students threatening to report teachers for disciplining them'.

March 6th, 2010:-

I had a feeling Classmate Stefan Bremner-Morris would have something more to say on the subject of Education (see March 5th below) and here it is -

 

" The education system in this country will never improve without  a massive increase in funding (and I mean, massive!), over a generation. This would need to involve the training and retraining of teachers to become 'fit for purpose', which they are patently not, in the majority of schools. The teacher's unions must also be severely neutralised! Selection, and all of the rest of any Tory ideas will count for nothing, without suitable skilled staffing.

 

March 5th, 2010:-

Education seems to have been in the news a lot in the past week as parties gear up for an election. Whether any of these changes are ever implemented is, of course, another matter, but the Tories' education spokesman, Michael Gove, has talked of the introduction of hundreds of 'grammar-style' schools run on traditional academic values and proper discipline, if the Tories get in. They will also give the green light to about 200 schools set up and run by parent and teacher groups. It's not clear if all these additional educational establishments will be new or merely revamped old schools and preference seems to be for what have been called 'non-selective grammar schools', or 'comprehensive grammars'. These schools will be allowed total freedom over their curriculum, which worrries me slightly as, unless there's some co-ordination and cohesion , there's a chance they'll all be working to different agendas and towards different qualifications. If the attainable qualifications are agreed upon and standardised, then we shouldn't really have any objection to more new schools, so long as they are providing the kind of education the majority of parents and teachers would like to see, and it succeeds in changing the culture of low expectation that seems so prevalent today.

The Tories also plan a return to the system that worked well enough for those of my age and older, that of allowing physics, chemistry and biology to be studied separately instead of combined in the hybrid form that exists now. They have pledged to put a stop to the 'dumbing down' of the education system with Michael Gove saying,

"We must ensure that A-levels are protected from devaluation at the hands of politicians".

One other sensible idea was that of allowing universities to, once again, take control of setting 'A' levels, which should ensure only the very best move onto university.

It would be nice to think that they also plan to improve teaching skills and to allow a return to the teachers of old by giving them more disciplinary control once more.

Since 1997, the number of secondary schools has fallen 10%, with the closure of 340. The result has been that more pupils have had to be crammed into fewer schools, and the outcome of such a policy is obvious to everyone, except, of course, this Labour government. There are now as many as 294 schools in the UK that have over 1,500 pupils and whilst much of the blame lies with Labour's cost-cutting in areas that should be priority high spend areas, the finger can also be pointed at an immigration policy that has dramatically increased the number of children that need to be educated. We now have over-populated schools where pupil control is very difficult in most, and impossible in some, and where the ones to suffer most will be those children who are almost anonymous in such a sprawling system.

Not such good news this week, was the non-sensical introduction, for politically correct reasons, of school registers that will be used to record minor incidents involving pupils as young as five, that are deemed to be racist, homophobic or bullying. These 'incidents' will stay on record until the child leaves school. If you believe they'll then be destroyed, you'll believe anything. Before they were rammed down their throats, children as young as five had never even heard of those words. This Big-Brother lunacy has to stop.

 

November 13th, 2009:-

Turn up your computer volume and click on this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C5Rnb7J3sU - to hear a telephone answering machine message that staff at Maroochydore High School, Queensland, Australia, voted unanimously to use. It came about because they implemented a policy requiring parents of students, as well as the students, to be responsible for their children's absences and failure to do homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's 'fail' grades to be changed to a 'pass' grade, even though those same children failed to complete enough work to warrant it, and were absent much of the time. MAKE SURE THE VOLUME ON THE YOUTUBE VIDEO SCREEN IS ALSO TURNED UP.

November 12th, 2009:-

The following questions appeared in last year's GCSE examinations. The answers that appear underneath came from different 16 year-olds in Swindon. Some give the impression they're not too bright while others appear incredibly clever -

Q. What did Mahatma Gandhi and Genghis Khan have in common?
A. Very unusual names.

Q. Name six animals which live specifically in the Arctic.
A. Two polar bears & three, no, four seals.

Q. The race of people known as Malays come from which country?
A. Malaria.

Q. Why would living close to a mobile phone mast cause ill health?
A. You might walk into it.

Q. Joanna works in an office. Her computer is a stand-alone system. What is a stand-alone computer system?
A. It doesn't come with a chair.

Q. Name the four seasons.
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.

Q. What causes the tides in the oceans?
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight.

Q. What guarantees may a motgage company insist on?
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed.

Q. What are steroids?
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.

Q. What happens to your body as you age?
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.

Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A. Premature death.

Q. What is artificial insemination?
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow.

Q. How can you delay milk turning sour?
A. Keep it in the cow.

Q. What is the fibula?
A. A small lie.

Q. What does 'varicose' mean?
A. Nearby.

Q. What is the most common form of birth control?
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.

Q. What is a terminal illness?
A. When you get sick at the airport.

Q. What is a turbine?
A. Something an Arab or Sheik wears on his head.

Q. What does the word 'benign' mean?
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.g. the abdomen)?
A. The body is consisted into three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E, I, O, U.

October 29th, 2009:-

Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, in all his wisdom (or lack of it), has now decided that children will get careers advice from the age of seven. In the knee-jerk reactionary way we've now come to expect from 'New' Labour, they've gone over the top once more as they try to redress the effects the lack of career advice has had on children in the last fifteen years. Seven is far too early to make children think about what they will do when they reach adulthood. Let them live, for God's sake. Ed Balls believes children ned to start considering their future before they even decide what GCSE subjects they're going to take. If there was any connection between what subjects children take and what career they go into I'd agree it was worth thinking about but, the truth is most children, and many adults too, just don't have any idea what they want to do to provide them with an income. Making children begin deciding when they're as young as seven, will only push them down roads they might regret later on. Let them think about it at this age by all means but we have no right to try to predetermine their future at a time when they should be enjoying themselves.

October 14th, 2009:-

At the risk of repeating myself, this year almost a quarter of a million British children left school unable to read, write or add up properly. Two-thirds of 14 year-old working-class boys are said to have a reading age of seven or less. Whether he actually does anything when the Tories come back into power is another thing, but Michael Gove, the Tories' spokesman on schools, actually sounded as if he knew what he was talking about at last week's Tory party conference. His idea is that by giving enhanced school choice to parents, teachers will be forced to abandon the idological junk and teach the basics that parents want their children to be taught and in so doing will force others to copy them. Schools would be allowed to choose their own syllabus and examination system and we would see a return to selection of pupils based on ability. This does not mean a return to the 11-plus, which many thought came too early, but it should help to bring back that competitiveness that was once instilled in us as children, and which, in later life, brought the best out in us. He would also like to see a return to teachers being allowed to expel unruly, disruptive pupils without the need for involving school disciplinary panels, there to uphold 'human rights'. There is a long way to go, and these are not new ideas, merely a return to what once was, but there is hope that we are once again moving in the right direction.

October 7th, 2009:-

The BBC, that one-time bastion of the English language, is running a 'My Story' competition at the moment. At the top of the entry form it says, "Remember, judging is based on how great the story is, not on grammar and spelling." By failing to insist on decent standards of written English the BBC not only continues its 'dumbing down' of everything, it believes that the majority of the competition entries will contain grammatical and spelling errors. Perhaps if it had insisted on all entries being grammatically correct, and correctly spelled it, would have encouraged entrants to ensure they were, and maybe they would have learned something from it. Truth is, the BBC knows full well that standards in English are at an all-time low and is worried that too many will be afraid to enter if they think they are already at a disadvantage.

October 4th, 2009:-

Guy Boas' book A Teacher's Story has much to say about education. In the chapter on School Magazines, he recalls reading The Cheynean shortly after arriving at the school, and being particularly impressed by a contribution from a member of a matriculation form (one preparing pupils for the matriculation examination they'd have to pass in order to gain university entry). The piece parodied the closing passage of Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria, and was called Taking Matriculation. Unfortunately, Guy doesn't give it the credit it deserves by naming the author - 

' For two days more the aspirants to fame fought on; for two days more they suffered the trials of Matriculation. But after that there was an end of working; and then, and not till then, did their last hope of matriculating leave them. Their brains were wearying and their fingers stiff with inaction. Their friends gathered round them and revived a little of their former optimism, but by the last day of the examination they no longer hoped for success.

When at length the candidates had realised that their tribulations had ended, intense amazement spread through their ranks. It appeared as if some monstrous reversal of the course of nature had taken place. The vast majority of them could not remember a time when taking Matriculation had not been their main object in life. The examination had been an indissoluble part of their whole scheme of things, and that it had at last terminated appeared a scarcely possible thought.

They remembered that they had sat in the examination room silent and motionless, with the questions before them. They seemed to have been divested of all thinking, and to have glided into oblivion from which they did not awaken until the papers had been colected. Yet, perhaps, in the secret chambers of consciousness, in the midst of this inactivity, each boy had his thought too. Perhaps his fading mind called up once more the shadows of the past to float before it, and retraced the vanished visions of that seemingly long history - passing back and back through the cloud of years, to older and ever older memories - to the polished floor of the gymnasium, the scene of so much violent exertion, and his first form-master's torn gown and bustling demeanour, and his feelings after the acceptance of his first contribution to ' The Cheynean,' and his first goal at football, and his first bicycle, and the entry of the Headmaster in the midst of an uproar, and himself browsing in the Fulham Library, and Sir Archibald Peebles giving him his first prize, and a certain mathematical master's pleasant remarks, and his own favourite desk, and the welcome sound of the school bell as it ordered the cessation of work, and the trees and the grass at Roehampton.'

September 21st, 2009:-

The teaching of History in schools is gradually being abolished as this awful Labour Government seeks to eradicate all of this country's proudest achievements as if they were something this and future generations should be ashamed of. Let's pray the next party in power seeks to reverse the trend. Although it remains a compulsory part of the curriculum, 30% of schools no longer teach the subject for Key Stage 3. One school had even admitted to teaching the whole of the three-year course in just 38 hours and, overall, just 30% of pupils study it for GCSE. Much of the change has come about because of Ed Balls, the very appropriately named Schools Secretary, whose obsession with making schools hit exam targets has led to them favouring children taking up easier subjects. As Lib-Dem spokesman David Laws said,

"History is the cornerstone of a good education; it helps children understand the world and their place in it, teaches them their heritage, and informs almost all the other subjects they study."

Editor Foulsham's Note: When asked recently what Winston Churchill had given this country, a third of all children asked, replied, "Insurance." 

September 21st, 2009:-

Isn't it strange how things that we once considered to be virtuous, have now become the object of intense disapproval, and vice versa. According to Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail, a recent survey of teachers conducted by London University's Institute of Education found that some three-quarters of them believed it was their duty to warn their pupils about the dangers of patriotism! As she says,

"Once upon a time, loving your country enough that you were prepared to die for it was held to be the highest virue. Indeed, without patriotism their would be no one serving in the Armed Forces. For the past 1,000 years, it has given the people of these islands the strength and courage to repel invaders and defeat the enemies of liberty."

One of the teachers interviewed said,

"Praising patriotism excluded non-British pupils. Patriotism about being British divides groups along racial lines, when we aim to bring pupils to an understanding of what makes us the same."

On the contrary, patriotism is what binds us together through a shared sense of belonging and a desire to defend what we all have in common. What this teacher seems to be saying is that children from immigrant backgrounds can' have that shared sense of belonging because they are not really British. Isn't that a racist attitude in itself? If such children really are merely foreign visitors, isn't it even more extraordinary that teachers should tailor the education of British children to suit the needs of the few who are not? Some teachers apparently thought promoting patriotism was a form of brainwashing. Who allows these peole to teach our children and why aren't they being stopped from doing so? Much of history and politics is incomprehensible without an understanding of the power of patriotism. For that reason they should be taught to understand what it is and allowed to make reasoned judgements about it. What they shouldn't be getting is the one point of view that teachers are trying to put across - the replacement of education with propaganda. Admiring your country and identifying with it has nothing to do with racism or xenophobia.

This all appears to be the latest step in the deconstruction of the educating of history that has been going on for the last 30 years. Some believe it to be racist to do so because Britain has a history of colonial exploitation. There is an underlying feeling, one that I certainly have, that slowly and surely, a new society is being created in which everyone is equal, and the culture of the incomer has to be treated as equal to the culture of the indigenous British. The belief is that destroy national identity and you eradicate racism and nationalism, and thereby prejudice, and ultimately war. The more reasonable view is, of course, that the surest way to ensure that immigrant children are excluded from the society you want them to integrate into, is to fail to teach them to know and admire the country they have come to live in. It is the promotion of multiculturalism that has made patriotism a dirty word and that view is being fed to our children by teachers whose real target is Britain's identity itself. My thanks to Melanie Phillips, whose views I used to pre[pare this piece. 

September 2nd, 2009:-

The recession is having an effect on rural primary school education. Figures reveal they are closing at the rate of one a month as parents were being forced to move to cheaper accommodation in the towns. The problem has been caused by below average income in rural areas where there are above average house prices fuelled by an increase in well-off city dwellers wanting to move to the country and being forced to pay above market value to do so.

July 20th, 2009:-

The Family Education Trust has said that Children's Secretary Ed Balls's proposal to make sex education mandatory in primary and secondary schools will, inevitable lead to parents having less say in the content of the lessons. Parents would have less power to keep explicit materials out of the classroom and object to the Government's 'misplaced' and 'counterproductive' promotion of contraceptives in lessons. Schools would become less accountable to parents once the subject became part of the curricilum. The Trust believes 'there is a definite agenda at work to undermine the role of parents and to tear down traditional moral standards'.

Parents will retain the right to withdraw their children from these lessons but this may well lead to them being singled out by their classmates so few will do it. The material would still be widely available through contact with their friends anyway.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said "Schools have an important role to play in providing effective sex and relationship, which is essential if young people are to make responsible and well-informed decisions about their lives." I've said it before and I'll say it again, the role of schools in this should be very minor. It's up to parents how and when their children are educated on this subject, and at what pace.

July 9th, 2009:-

A letter in today's paper was interesting. It came from Roger Griffin, until recently a music teacher in a primary school. He was dismissed after refusing to scrap his successful work scheme in favour of what he calls 'banal drivel produced by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority', as well as being more than reluctant to use the 'tick-box targets' system so beloved of this Government. (Where do they get those awful names from?!). His work was conducted in sets made up of children of different abilities which doesn't go down well with the Local Education Authority mandarins who believe that only mixed-ability teaching can give all pupils the same opportunity and that they know better than the specialist teacher what to teach and how to teach it. The need for his dismissal had apparently been compounded by his 'shouting loudly and at close quarters to two disruptive miscreants' in one of his classes, which was seen by the LEA as 'bullying' and 'harassment'.

 

June 24th, 2009:-

Conservative MP David Davis, an ex-grammar school boy of Bec Grammar, Tooting, has gone against Tory policy by calling for a return to selective education to 'rescue the next generation of the underprivileged and deliver better results for all'. He said, "The simple truth is that grammar schools were the greatest instrument for social mobility ever invented", and that the only winners from the 'catastrophe' of the death of grammar schools were public schoolboys who now 'run Britain'.

It's certainly taken a long time for someone to admit that, as Mr Davis put it, "Today we are witnessing the results of a failed revolution, where egalitarians abolished grammar schools to level opportunity in our society, and accidentally destroyed the chances of the very people they were trying to help. They punished the bright poor kids who were held back. They handicapped the intellectual capacity of the country." In short, with comprehensive schools being forced to teach to the lowest common denominator, the entire education system was also forced to reduce standards across the board. The Labour Party's undying obsession remains the delivery of a society equal in every way. Dream on!

Andrea Kon says, in today's Daily Mail, that when she joined her grammar school in the early 50s she and her friends were 'blissfully unaware of class differences", because they were all 'in one sense, equal". They had been given the same educational opportunity by "dint of our own academic achievements rather than as a result of our parents' pockets."

She continues, "Today, only 164 grammars remain, and they are constantly under threat as the Government seeks to impose its 'one size fits all' educational policy across the board."

Personally,  I felt that the achievement of passing the 11+ and being taught by teachers who, in the main, encouraged us to fulfill our potential through education and taught by example. We were told to set our sights high and remember how privileged we were to be at Sloane. Though none would ever admit it, we were seen as a class apart by our friends who had to settle for the secondary-modern, and their parents. Hard work and application could bring its rewards and some of those in the secondary-moderns, who felt they had lost out on opportunity, learnt from us and worked even harder to be able to move on to the grammar school for 6th Form and 'A' levels after passing sufficient 'O' levels. Those who had ability never really lost out and, in a sense, achieved more than those of us who went straight into grammar schools. Let's hope that whoever governs this country in the near future decides the way forward is to revisit the past and bring back grammar schools and in so doing give our grandchildren the same chance to shine that we had.

June 23rd, 2009:-

A poll commissioned by the Cricket Foundation, which is hoping to encourage more children to take part in school cricket, has revealed that the unhappiest memories of our childhood tend to revolve around PE lessons. A third of those polled cited this as their most horrid experience, with it having affected more women than men. I know it's difficult to believe, but over three quarters of those asked disagreed with the saying 'school days are the best days of your life'. Truth is they probably haven't realised yet. As you'd expect, bullying was another unhappy memory, with 25% saying they had been affected by it, whilst that figure rose to 33% in the 16-24-year-old age group, which should tell us something about life and schools today. Many recalled a 'scary' teacher but even more said their most treasured memories concerned favourite teachers, with this applying to over half of those aged 55 and above. What is also fascinating is that over 33% of those from the North East of England had the fondest memories of school whilst only 15% from the East of England agreed. 

June 16th, 2009:-

The 'Equality and Diversity Panel' (ho,hum) on Sandwell Borough Council, in the West Midlands, has proposed that schools should hold 'gipsy and traveller history months' to help gipsy and traveller pupils "feel proud of who they are". Thankfully, there is opposition to the proposal from councillors and the Taxpayers Alliance. Councillor Bill Archer said there was only one official travellers' site under the council's jurisdiction and that the council "doesn't need to combat discrimination because there is none." Fiona McEvoy, for the Tax payers Alliance added, "It's not for local councils to manipulate the school curriculum based on their latest politically correct whims, especially when educational standards are flagging." Yet another  pointless new post would be created if the scheme goes ahead, that of 'Gipsy and Travel Liaison Officer'. Perhaps Bala Singh Dhallu, chairman of the Equality and Diversity Panel, is feeling guilty about the number of days already given to promote ethnic groups in schools, e.g 'Black History Week' and 'Festival of Light' days, and now feels gipsies and travellers are missing out and not being treated equally. Where will it all end? What response would I get if I insisted my daughter's school had a 'White Authors Only' day? Answers on a postcard......

June 16th, 2009:-

A report from the think-tank 'Reform', out today, claims that reforms to 'A' level exams ten years ago have resulted in sixth-formers being "spoon-fed" through courses, leading to them losing the art of original thinking because they are guided towards the answers. It has become easy for them to "learn and forget" as courses have been divided into separately examined units. Ministers have been accused of allowing the use of "nonsense" questions to drive up pass rates and encourage pupils to stay in education. 'A' level questions when I took them, in 1970, were phrased to encourage the sitter to think, analyse and put forward original ideas, giving a reason for the facts. Education minister, Iain Wright, responded to the report by insisting that papers now contained more open-ended questions to encourage more detailed answers. Let's hope that will continue to be the case.

May 6th, 2009:-

Dave Parkin sent me these examples of exam questions, the answers to which are the ones we wish we'd given all those years ago:

 

 

 

Easy really, weren't they?

 

April 29th, 2009:-

The July 1956 copy of The Cheynean carries a piece made in response to a question about what actually happened to the 'Club Subscriptions' as they were called. These were 'voluntarily' agreed by parents and staff and at the time of the article had just risen to 2s 6d from 1s 6d. They were used for items not covered by London County Council finance and these included the printing costs of the twice-yearly Cheynean magazine and the School List (which could be purchased by anyone for 6d and listed all staff and pupils attending the School each year), the hire of the baths and the cost of the medals, certificates and prizes at the School Gala, teas for visiting teams, school clubs, occasional help for assistance with the cost of school clothing and holidays for those who couldn't afford it and any other small item that might crop up.

April 20th, 2009:-

A contributor has e-mailed me the following to illustrate the development of this country's education system over the recent decades . Using Maths exam questions as an example he quotes -

1970 - A logger sells a lorry load of timber for £1,000. His cost of production is 4/5 of the selling price. What is his profit?

1980 - A logger sells a lorry load of timber for £1,000. His cost of production is 4/5 of the selling price, or £800. What is his profit?

1990 - A logger sells a lorry load of timber for £1,000. His cost of production is £800. Did he make a profit?

2000 - A logger sells a lorry load of timber for £1,000. His cost of production is £1,000 and his profit is £200. Underline the number 200.

2008 - A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is totally selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of £200. What do you think of this way of making a living and how do you think the birds and squirrels felt as the logger cut down their homes? There are no wrong answers. If you are upset about the plight of the animals in question, counselling is available.

2018 - Sorry, but we do not have the space available to enter the question here due to the number of languages we have to use.   

 

Sir Alexander Fleming

Famous for his discovery of penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming, a Chelsea resident, presented the school prizes in 1954 and gave a speech on how hard work and Fortune had a part to play in an individual's success. He ended with a quote from the Odyssey to press home his point:

'First the hard rowing.

Then the favouring breeze.'

"You have done some of the hard rowing. May you all later experience the favouring breeze."

Guy Boas on Education. Written in 1963:-

Whether or not you agree with his views it's an interesting piece, and the last paragraph predicts Sloane's fate of some eight years later. Almost forty years later it is a subject that is still debated, and one that we might yet see policy reversed on in our lifetime.

"The Education Act of 1944 abolished fees, so that one could no longer enter Sloane by payment but only by passing the 11-plus examination. So gradually fee-payers became extinct. This was a political rather than an educational matter, and the political aspect was not my province. But as an educationalist I have always deplored this national change. Our fees were not more than twelve or fifteen guineas a year, according to the boy's age on entry. This enabled parents who were not well off but were keen for their sons to go to a Grammar School, to send them there even though the boys might not have been quite able to cope with the 11-plus successfully. Such boys often did extremely well with us. The dual means of entry in fact worked well: we had sufficient places for it never for it to be necessary to exclude a scholar to make room for a fee-payer, and the good and cultural home background which fee-payers so often possessed contributed qualities to the school which only their removal revealed at their full value. Things have never been the same since the abolition of fees, and never as good. Parents, after 1944, if unable to pay the ever-increasing prices of Public Schools cannot fall back on paying Grammar School fees which they can afford, and so their boys, if failed in the 11-plus, are deprived of the education they want and which very often they thoroughly deserve. Comprehensive Schools were therefore built to try to evade the objections discovered to the 11-plus, but many parents dislike their size, preferring the greater intimacy and warmer personality of a smaller community.

The Comprehensive School threatens with extinction all those maintained Grammar Schools which it has not already killed, and the days of Sloane as I knew it are clearly numbered. To have built the London Grammar Schools with such high hopes and prospects and just when they were fulfilling those hopes and expectations to cut them down and kill them is a tragedy with no parallel in our history of education."

Guy Boas also had much to say on examinations and syllabuses when, in his 1963 book A Teacher's Story, he wrote something that was a little ahead of its time-

"Specialists who draw up syllabuses for examinations should not be allowed to make the requirements of their subjects too exacting, and everyone should remember that after a child has been taught to read and write and do simple sums the choice of all further subjects prescribed for study is in fact arbitrary. There is no more reason for a child to learn Latin, chemistry, or algebra than for its learning astronomy, philately, or chess. As the world becomes more complicated more specialists are required. But at the school stage, when physique and emotional development need the relaxation that nature requires, the intellect can easily be overstrained, and a child should be no more overfed with facts than with food."

He also wrote that he would like to see 'the weaker Grammar School streams given a less academic and more palatable curriculum', and felt that, as examinations drew near, the best advice he could give schoolboys for failing them was -

1)   Write illegibly.
2)   Do the wrong number of questions.
3)   Never read through anything you have written.
4)   Use long words you can't spell instead of short ones you can.
5)   Make silly jokes.
6)   Read a question so quickly that you don't answer what you're asked.
7)   Make your precis either far too short or far too long>
8)   Choose the essay subject which you know least about.
9)   If you're allowed, go out before the end.
10) Mis-spell words which are correctly spelt in the printed question.
11) Get the wind up.
12) Go to sleep.

Guy Boas on homework:-

In 1960, Guy had been invited to appear on the BBC's Tonight programme to give his views on current boyhood. He asked of his interviewer -

" May I mention a rather delicate factor in this studio, which is that you yourselves are in such formidable competition with homework? I recently discovered that boys have been watching television for as much as four hours from Mondays to Fridays, and in one case a frank boy confessed that he watched with his family for eight hours on Saturdays and Sundays. "How do you get any food?" I asked. "My mother brings in food on a trolley so that our watching shan't be interrupted." 

At which point the cameras brought the interview to a sudden end.

 

Alan Johnson on Education. Written in 2006 when Secretary of State for Education:-

In his view, education is the key to breaking down class divides. He said, "We need to do a lot more to help someone from a deprived background to escape those shackles. It is quite scandalous how bad education has been for some children. It's not that too many middle-class parents are giving their children ballet and music lessons, I want poor children to have the same."

In 1926, when under Mr Pritchard and prior to Guy's arrival, the school had set up a Scholarship Fund to, as the Cheynean records, "assist deserving boys" with the cost of obtaining scholarships.

On selection, he believes that his children were affected by only one of the three having got into Grammar School and that parents should have more power. Whilst Education Secretary, when asked why he didn't just get rid of faith schools, grammar schools and academies he replied, "People want the choice. If you want to write the shortest suicide note in history at the next election, make that your manifesto".

"Private schools", he says, "need to do more to earn their charitable status. The original purpose of schools like Dulwich College was to educate the poor. Private schools in general have lost that sense and need to recapture it. It's not enough to lend their playing fields, it's about opening up their science labs, lending their teachers to the state sector, sponsoring academies and forming trusts".

Mothers' contribution to education:-

Mothers taught us to appreciate a job well done:-
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I've just finished cleaning."

Mothers taught us about religion:-
"You'd better pray your father doesn't see that."

Mothers taught us about time travel:-
"If you don't sort yourself out, I'll knock you into the middle of next week."

Mothers taught us about logic:-
"Because I said so, that's why." and "If you fall off that swing and break your neck you won't be coming shopping with me."

Mothers taught us about foresight:-
"Make sure you change your underwear before you go out, in case you get knocked down by a car."

Mothers taught us irony:-
"Carry on crying and I'll give you something to cry about."

Mothers taught us about contortionism:-
"Just look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

Mothers taught us about stamina:-
"You're not leaving that table until you've eaten everything on your plate."

Mothers taught us about the weather:-
"Your room looks as if it's been hit by a tornado." or "If the wind blows the wrong way you're going to stay like that."

Mothers taught us about hypocrisy:-
If I've told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!

Mothers taught us how to modify our behaviour:-
"Stop acting like your father!"

Mothers taught us about anticipation:-
"Just wait until you get home!"

Mothers taught us how to become adults:-
If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

Mothers taught us where we came from:-
"Shut that door! Do you think you were born in a barn?"

Mothers taught us humour:-
When you break your neck don't come running to me."

Mothers taught us about envy:-
"There are millions of less fortunate kids in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

Mothers taught us about ESP:-
"Put your coat on. Don't you think I know when it's cold?"

Mothers taught us about genetics:-
"You're just like your father."

Mothers taught us about wisdom:-
"When you get to my age, you'll understand."

* * * * * * * *

Making the most of resources. Janitors as educators:-

A private school in Brisbane, Australia, was recently faced with the problem of 12-year-old girls, new to lipstick, who kissed the bathroom mirror each time they applied it. Every night the maintenance man would remove the lip prints and next day they'd put them back. The school principal called the girls into the bathroom and asked the janitor to show them how much effort was required to remove the lipstick. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in one of the toilets and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then there have been no lip prints for him to clean off. There are teachers... and there are educators.

* * * * *

A poem from The Cheynean of 1956, attributed to "A First Year Parent" and contributed by Stefan Bremner-Morris:-

 

NIGHTMARE

Thirty desks spaced far apart,
Frantic thumping of the heart,
Inhuman master standing near,
 Thirty children eyes a-fear,
Time a-ticking on the wall,
The greatest enemy of all.
Sheets of paper all laid out.
What on earth is it all about?
Parents' warnings in their ears
Serve only to increase their fears.
Is it real, or is it sham -
That eleven-plus exam?

* * * * * * * *

07/04/2009:-

There is no doubt in my mind that, in most subjects, today's GCSE exams are being made easier and cannot compare with the exams we took at GCE level. Compare today's papers with those of our youth, as I have done, and there is no comparison. The reason is obvious. To try to convince us that State education is not failing, the government has to ensure that children leave school with a few pieces of paper to mark their achievement and to give them every opportunity of acquiring work and even a career. The fact that these qualifications will prove, in time, to be worthless, is not the fault of the child. The majority will work as hard as we ever did and many will end up with more 'A' grades than we could ever have hoped to achieve. Many understand what they need to achieve to progress and will put every effort into doing so. The problem is that the level they need to reach to pass a GCSE is lower than the level we needed to attain to pass a GCE but I doubt we will ever be able to convince them of that. It will give them the qualification they seek and need and they will feel elated to have reached that level after all the hard work they will feel they have put in, but it will in no way prepare them for what's required to progress in working life. There will be some, as there has always been, who will become very successful and who would have been successful in any age and it will be these that employers will be looking to employ as they come to realise that a large majority of those applying for work today will be setting their sights too high, having become over-confident because they thought their GCSE passes were all that was required. Until a decent education becomes a priority and a right once more society as a whole will suffer. From the child whose potential will be limited and the teacher whose frustration will affect his ability to teach, through to the employer who thinks he is getting a well-educated employee because of the number and level of qualifications they have and a workplace and society that will be operating on a level that will inevitably be lower than what it once was. The longer that is allowed to go on the easier it will be for us to accept and become accustomed to it. We shouldn't allow it to happen.

07/04/2009:-

Liam Fox, defence spokesman for the Conservative Party, has said that the "cult of celebrity" is undermining learning. He rightly says that a generation ago children had high aspirations. Some wanted to be astronauts, some scientists, some doctors - now all they want is fame and this has led to the decline in serious learning and an increase in subjects that can be studied at university level that would never have been entertained thirty years ago. Fox went on to warn that "the fabric of society was under threat with the 'age of reason' going into reverse".

 

Welcome news today that the ridiculous interpretation of the Data Protection Act that resulted in parents being prevented from taking photos of their children at school events, has been overturned. The Office of the Information Commissioner has said this interpretation of the law is 'simply wrong'. Common sense seems to have prevailed for once and parents can resume taking the photos of their children that are an essential part of growing up and the building of family history. What is still worrying, however, is that the Act was ever allowed to be interpreted in this way in the first place and that the latest ruling still insists on quoting specific examples of what is acceptable. These include a parent 'taking photographs of their child and some friends taking part in the school sports day to be put in the family photo album' and 'the video recording of school nativity plays'. This unnecessary 'nannying' goes on to say that 'in some cases, official school photographs or visits by newspaper photographers may be covered by data protection laws. But provided that parents and children are informed about what is happening, there should be no problem in these cases'. God help us!