🚀 go-pugleaf

In message <31379F8A.75D@tcp.co.uk> David Seagrave wrote:


> Wake up sunshine-schools do need all the help they can get, because this 
> government certainly has been determined not to give them any money.You 
> are living in a dreamworld.We shouldn't have to pay for these things in 
> place of the government.If our schools are so great how come even Blair 
> and Harman (supposed advocates of the state schools) don't send their 
> children to them??

Now that is a different issue which ought to be switched to uk.politics.

Blair and Harman *do* send their children to state schools - Grant Maintained
schools are not independent.  They have simply exercise parental choice as
have I with my own children.

If schools are underfunded then I agree, that is the fault of the present
government. However, we all have to live within our means and that includes
schools. One of the judgements made during OFSTED inspections relates to the
value for money that the school gives and I have to say that I have seen
schools on a tight budget that are well managed, well equipped and have
excellent results even though they serve quite deprived areas.  Poor schools
tend to be badly managed and suffering from discredited ideologies.

Getting back to issue of second hand kit, the point I was trying to make was
that you do a school no favours by giving them clapped out and unreliable
cast-offs.  They cause more trouble than they are worth to overworked teachers.


By the way, I do have considerable experience of schools - teacher for 10 years,
adviser/inspector for 8 years, 10 years as a governor, my wife is a teacher . . .

-- 
Paul Heinrich
Education Consultant and Writer

Homepage: http://www.tcp.co.uk/~heinrich/