---

@cee-dee wrote:

Well creeky, I'm pleased you've been happy with the teachers you've encountered however......

 

As to the curriculum constantly changing, who provoked the changes? "Experts" who convinced "governments" to make changes and just where did those "experts" come from? = Academia!

 

Until I became a full time ebayer (!!!) I had a shop and the people I had the most "trouble" with were teachers and social workers. Talk about thick and lacking basic knowledge not to mention an ignorant attitude and in trying to be pleasant in the face of their inabilities they read that as "patronising".

 

In Wales, the emphasis is on learning Welsh and all things Welsh and some of the teachers are thoroughly unpleasant in the face of parents trying to ensure a good standard of English. I accept that there should be some understanding of the language and that it should be encouraged to live on but when you watch the news and see children in schools in Africa and the Indian continent speaking to reporters, what language are those children speaking? Not Welsh anyway! I wonder why "Explore Learning" has such a good attendence with children from enlightened parents?

---

I think you have just backed up my post with the above - who is it that insists Welsh as a language is a compulsory subject for all children in Welsh schools and also established Welsh Medium schools where Welsh is the first language and subjects are taught in Welsh? - answer, politicians.

With over 400,000 teachers working in more than 24,000 state schools then I accept that the small sample of teachers that I have encountered can not be taken as an absolute indication of the standards overall - all I can say is that my experience of teachers obviously does not match yours.

Whilst it is certainly true that 'academia' have a major input into the design of the national core curriculum it is politicians who decide whether or not to accept the recommendations of the 'Expert Panel' - a panel incidentally consisting of three university professors and head of assesment at Cambridge University - ne'er an actual teacher in sight!