Grrrrr.
This is nothing to do with screenwriting.
Just got off the phone to the Teacher who is really upset. Her school is getting the Ofsted treatment. The Teacher is in charge of Foundation, the little ones. This type of unit is run according to the Government's EYFS guidelines. (Early Years and Foundation.)
It is actually pretty good and for the very young ones encourages learning by playing - "child-initiated learning" is the buzz phrase. You give them lots of things they can do, lots of different sorts of experiences and the children do them. They role-play, play with words, letters and numbers and so forth. The "teachers" are there to help, and to put in ideas for the kids to think about and try out. There are guided activities (what you might call "teaching") as well but these tend to be short.
So in comes this woman from Ofsted and thinks it's all a mess and nobody is learning anything, the Teacher is on for a barely Satisfactory rating when actually she is the one who goes round to other schools to help them put in EYFS, her work is exemplary and recognised.
Why does this woman not recognise this? Because she is a Secondary school teacher, Key Stage 3 = teenagers, and she knows nothing about EYFS.
Plus there is no appeal system, so this ignorant woman issues her dictat that says the Foundation stage is barely Satisfactory and that goes on the Teacher's permanent record and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Of course I'm angry. And frustrated because I'm not there, not that there'd be anything I could do even if I was. The only thing is to search the web for a Government document that is a simple guide to EYFS that she can show this stupid woman tomorrow.
I did suggest being all nice and saying "Oh gosh, what you're saying is very interesting - can you show me where it says that in the EYFS guidelines?"
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Still working on a Drupal 6 website, getting into the nitty-gritty now, but should be finished soon.
What's on the turntable? "Warning Sign" by Coldplay from "Rush of Blood to the Head"
2 comments:
My sympathies to the Teacher. It must be so frustrating and having no appeal route stinks. I'd like to see the assessor try to keep a bunch of Foundation kids sitting in seats all day if she thinks that's how it should be done. I think they'd have her on vallium in no time.
But, surely the inspector isn't doing her job?
I'm sorry, I'm old fashioned. I expect people to do research into a subject if their decisions have any kind of power over other people's lives.
My brain is reeling in horror. I need to go find coffee. And maybe vallium.
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