Sunday, July 25th
An article in today’s Observer, setting out a teacher’s observations about how schools have changed during his near 40-year career, includes as “lows” the advent of Ofsted, targets and league tables.
The teacher, Alan Hemsworth, says: “I hate league tables – I think they are so destructive – and it has a spin-off in the classroom, because then everything becomes focused on results, results, results.”
The highs included German exchanges, in my view an example of an educational experience which surely has value aside from the grades it may or may not have generated for each pupil at the end.
Well worth a read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/25/teacher-remembers-40-years