Lyn

My husband is also a self employed electrician, and like you say apprentices get taken on at 16 not 18. Why do the schools promote 6th form so much when in my personal opinion A Levels pretty much mean diddly squat nowadays. When my eldest son decided he did not want to be an accountant he stayed on in 6th form on the advice of the careers officer and several teachers to do PE to A level as this was the way he was veering. After speaking to and getting a job in a gym during his first year in 6th form he was told that a PE A Level means nothing in that industry, it is NVQ's that companies look for. I think some schools promote 6th Form so they can say 'Our 6th form is brilliant, we have x number of pupils studying to AS and A Level'. My husband laughed when we spoke to the Science teacher when my eldest son was doing Electronics as a GCSE. The teacher told my husband it would stand him in good stead for the future if he wanted to become an electrician. Obviously he did not know my husband was an electrician so when my husband told him that he had been an electrician for 30 years and then added ' believe me making an electronic alarm for a fishing rod for his GCSE coursework is not going to get him a job as an electrician' the teacher was speechless. What a useless piece of information to give a child or their parents if they were none the wiser.

Regards Jackie

I think its so sad really.Im not saying all careers advisers would encourage our children on to further education if they didnt want to do it or wernt capable of getting the right grades required but i do feel if it looks as tho they will get decent enough grades they will encourage them to stay on to 6th form for 2 years . many of course oft out after the first year which is then a complete waste of time . my eldest son doesnt do his GCSE,s until may , he is an average child ability wise and really has had enough of school thanks to his mother (me of course ) that is constantly on his back about homework/coursework etc but now thanks to my nephew that works for a large JIB company who has obviously put a word in for him and a dad in the know he now knows what he needs to do but the sad thing is there is a large orginisation that oversees the apprenticeships for these large JIB registered companies, you apply to them with your predicted grades ,do a basic test and if you pass it they then circulate your interest and details to all the big companies who interview you in June before you even have your results. Their literature tells you to see your carrers office for their information who will give you an application number, but did the careers office offer this information to my friends son. NO of course not just a recommendation to do another 2 years in the 6th form when really their advise should of been ""You are very capable of getting some good A level results if you complete your 2 years in the 6th form but you could then miss your chance of the apprenticeship you want .you really need to apply now and start your electrical /plumbing training ASAP". What hope do some of our children have

lyn

On the other hand my sons girlfriend attends our local grammer school ,is very capable of gaining 10+ A* grades, and will almost certainly go to 6th form then on to uni . she wants to be a pilot and good luck to her she will need all those qualifications and more and i know she can do it but that is the other side of the coin.

Why do they promote 6th forms so much ? Because kids bums on seats puts the money into the school budget to pay the staff wages etc. Each 6th former is worth well over a thousand pound.

is that right liverpool loo? do they actually make a profit out of our children staying in the 6th form??. well i had never thought of that. Ive always known that with college and uni. they have always been there to "sell" our children a course whether they need it or not

lyn

is that right liverpool loo? do they actually make a profit out of our children staying in the 6th form??. well i had never thought of that. Ive always known that with college and uni. they have always been there to "sell" our children a course whether they need it or not

lyn

Oh yes Lyn - it's called Average Pupil Unit Weighting (APUW) each child from Nursery to upper 6th bring with them a set amount of money that varies with the age of the child.

I think we are getting a bit off topic but as far as most schools are concerned VI forms don't make money and have to be subsidised from the general school budget. Schools hang onto them for status reasons. I can't speak for VI form colleges as they have far more students. However education does not run at a profit (in the state sector at least) far from it, most schools exist hand to mouth and a small drop in exam results followed by a small drop in pupil numbers can send a school spiralling into the red.

Yes. I would agree. I work in Education as well. State schools operate on a kind of break even basis. They get just about enough money each year from central government to run themselves. No profit, no loss. Most of the budgets go on staff salaries. They may get so much per pupil, but that is what it costs for the pupil to attend.
I also don't know about sixth form colleges. Sorry well

i am in wales and not sure if all exam timetables are the same .
i have got my sons schools exams dates in front of me and they are .

Internal.

yr7. 21-25 May 2007
yr8. 21-25May 2007
yr9 21-25 May 2007
yr10 12-15 June 2007
yr11 5-16 feb.2007

2006 gcse resits 6-10 nov
2007 gcse exams will take place between 21 May and 29 June.

Hope this is of some help.

must be differetn where we live in Nottinghamshire/Yorkshire border...Gav is sitting ( well he would be if we weren't going on holiday) a GCSE in science on Thursday 9th and on 23rd he is supposed to be sitting a GCSE module in maths. I don't know if they are real or pretend, but he is missing them due to our hols and that is that. We didn't know they were scheduled for then the school did not provide a time table with exam dates scheduled amd we thought that by avoiding May/June, the traditional exam time, we would be ok. We were wrong. Luckily, Gav is a bright boy and will probably be ok anyway..that said, he is doing an apprenticeship in sports and leisure anyway and works on a wednesday and a saturday at the local sports centre. Wednesday counts to his NVQ and saturday is just extra...he is doing BTEC in sport and NVQ in some other subjects. The only GCSE's he is doing as far as i am aware and English, Maths ( he is on a fast track for that i believe as he was top of the year group in the SATs they did earlier this year) Science and RE (a bone of contention, but i digress)..the other subjects he chose he is doing BTEC's and NVQ's..
I don't think he will want to go into any 6th form.

Our science GCSE module test is on the 24th Nov. We are doing the AQA syllabus. However I am planning to do an ISA piece of work with my classes this week and next. This will entail the class carrying out a practical investigation in one lesson then taking a test on it next lesson. I am free to choose when I do these with each class but would tend to do it near the end of each module as a) I know the class better and b) we will have covered the necessary prep work beforehand. The marks from these ISAs count towards their GCSE grades. However if a pupil misses the ISA it is not critical. As laong as they sit one during the year (there are 6 that can be done) then they qualify for a mark. Obviously if they sit more than one over the year the school can select the best mark for submission and practice makes perfect so the more they do the better their mark is likely to be.

I think I have said before that today's GCSE, GNVQ, Applied and A level courses in many subjects contain so many componants that it would be impossible to pick a week when there is not something important being assessed or completed in one subject or another. Today I planned to complete a piece of Chemistry coursework with one of my yr 11 classes. Out of 21 pupils I only had 13 turn up. 2 were on holiday, 3 were ill and 3 were on a trip in another subject. They will have to make up this work (or if they don't then accept a reduced grade). Of the 13 there 2 had been on holiday last week and so had not done the preparation for the work.

Hi

As I mentioned in a previous post, it is not so much the exams we know about, it is the ones we don't know about. Obviously it helps when booking a holiday if we know the dates but also it helps us to make sure our kids are revising and can be given any help if needed.

Anyone heard of this one, it's new to me. The whole of my son's school, from year 7 - 11 has an academic review day on 22.11.06. The normal timetable will be suspended for the day and each parent has to make an appointment which will last for approxiamately 15 minutes with their form tutor or another nominated member of staff to discuss their progress and targets for the forthcoming year ( I thought that is what parents evening where for). Pupils must accompany parents to this meeting and if any parent fails to make an appointment the school will mark the child as truant. Fortunately I am self employed so will have no problem attending but what about the parents who go out to work, they have to take a day off for a 15 minute appointment to avoid their child being marked as truant.

I have mentioned this before and will mention it again, DOUBLE STANDARDS by the schools again. They have only just gone back after half-term to which our school added a teacher training day on the Friday before and one on the Monday after, surely another day will only hinder those doing course work which has a deadline.

Just a thought - perhaps if the schools added all these teacher training days together and any other pointless days off like the one my son and the rest of the school had at the end of September due to next years year seven being shown around for the day, they would probably add up to almost another fortnight when everyone could book holidays, Yey

Regards Jackie

Jackie for Prime Minister!!!!!!

Val

Glad you have the confidence in me. Let's face it, I couldn't do any worse

Regards Jackie

Never heard of an academic review day!!!!!!

Here in liverpool,my sons school sends an attainment and assessment report on 19 Dec-----but thats about it!!!!!

HI Jackie,
At the school my kids attend we have review days 2-3 times a school year, the appointment is with their form tutor and lasts about 5-10 minutes, the tutor has a sheet of paper for each child in their form and it has remarks on from all the teachers the child has saying how well they are doing. If you then want to see a particular subject teacher we have to make an appointment for another time, this is done on the way out in the foyer of school.

The kids are given work to do at home for the rest of the day, but nobody has asked for it back each time my son has done it, ( daughter 16 never did it).

As you say people who work have to take time off or not attend. we are sent a letter a couple of weeks earlier with time slots on and you have to tick one then a time is sent back with your child. I always pick between 9-10 then i can do something with the kids the rest of the day, it tends to be fridays and lucky for me im not in bed then ( work night shifts)

Theresa

my son took his gcses this year so has now left and started college, but his school did do this review day to chat parents and pupil for 10 mins and he had to attend in school uniform at an appointed time, i dont work so i was able to attend but if parents had to work then as long as the child attended that was fine

Looking in on this thread as a bystander, then I personally think that the person or persons who are to blame is the Government. end of!

They set the budget, the time-table and the curriculum that teachers have to follow.
Teachers are public servants who now have to teach/work according to the Governments (brain box) (think tanks) ideas of producing a well educated society.

We spend more on education, than we (as a society) have ever done, but despite the vast amount of money poured into the education system, we still have young people leaving school with no qualifications and no prospect of being "taken on" as an apprentice in certain sectors.

The Government brought in the system of fines and when they realised that parents are prepared to pay the fine, in comparison to the price of an holiday at peak times, then some smart ass decided...
Hey, I know what, let's stagger the exams/assessments right through the academic year, knowing that any respectable parent who wants the best for their child will not pull them out of school....and then the Governments plan where we all take our kids on holiday in July & August will work.

Then you have the Tour Operators who make their profit during those summer months, and no Government would want to see a British company go down the pan, therefore it is in the Governments best interest to keep these companies afloat, and subsequently working hand in hand, they set rules that benefit those companies....it keeps the unemployment figures down and reduces the amount of benefits paid to people out of work.

How can you expect a politician, who is on an extortionate salary, who's kids probably go to a private school and who also has all the summer off when parliment breaks up for the summer recess...to understand.?
The majority of them are so detached from the real world, that they just cannot comprehend the difficulties that parents in todays society have to face...day in, day out.!

How did the previous education/society manage to produce a generation of doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, electricians, joiners etc etc with less money at the time being poured into the system?...and blow me down, they were took out of school by their parents, who can you believe..... took holidays as well

The Government have messed about with education that much, that even the teachers don't know from one day to the next, what the they are suppose to be teaching your kids.

The word "compromise" by all parties is IMO something that is sadly missing today.
I worked, I couldn't take time off at the drop of the hat, but I still managed to attended every parents evening and every appointment that the school required me to attend, and it wasn't as though my kids were near in age either.
I had 10 years between them and juggling a primary school appointment with a senior school appointment took some organising...but it can be done. and I'd be blowed if I would let anyone tell me when I could/could not go on holiday.

Don't shoot the monkey....shoot the organ grinder

SanJi

I say Sanji for Prime Minister

Regarding this Academic Review thingy. Can anyone tell me who has experienced one if it is basically the same as a parents evening? If it is what is the point of the kids having a day off school for the sake of a 15 minute appointment. Normally we have the parents evening once a year, progress reports at the end of each term, and the written reports at the end of the year (summer). Our letter states that if the parents can't attend the Academic Review with their child for any reason that they are to make an appointment for one evening after school. I have requested an appointment between 9-10.30a.m. so my whole day is not wasted, hope none of my sons teachers come on here and read this, they are sure to give me an appointment for 3p.m. just to wind me up.

Regards Jackie