"Best Ever" GCSE/A-Level Results

Tedious annual non-story, I know, but does anyone have an opinion?

As I inherit these precocious young things after the hoo-hah has died down, my honest opinion after nearly a decade teaching in seven separate Universities across the UK is that exam results don't mean shit and that standards have most definitely dropped. Also, having been out and about today I have not seen a single 16 year old rolling around in their own vomit / clearly off their tits by midday / being carted off by the police or in an ambulance. Kids of today, eh? Pathetic.

And before the schoolteacher brigade get on their high horses, standards at British Universities are even worse.

Perhaps more of this is what we need:

youngest daughter order was very pleased with her 2 b,s and 5 c,s,, eldest will have her A results next year ,, dumbimg down? wish id got them.

WELCOME TO THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION

Like Chris says, it's not like there aren't as many bright kids as before (there may very well be many more), or even that the average standard has fallen - again, it's probably quite the opposite.

The depressing reality is that all the hard work the yoof put in is, in the end, entirely devalued by the falling standards of the shitty examinations system.

It's an annual debate there to kick about and for the various sides to kick each other over.

A couple of points;

I don't think it's a lack of bright kids - there's loads of them.

Too much time is spent teaching them things we picked up as we went along;
Something is broken, it's thrown away and a new one bought - an opportunity to learn how to mend is lost.
TV was crap so we went out and played, now it's video games etc so imagination time gone. We left the house and went all over the place (buiding sites?) and built dens, now they play video games. Computers mean they'll cut and paste everything all too often without reading it. If you did watch TV a lot of it was educational, now even quiz shows contain a high percentage of questions about celebrities.

The list goes on so we now spend time teaching problem solving, things that would have come naturally meaning less time for teaching the subject.

It's not as though this stuff isn't of use, kids born today will be doing jobs that haven't been thought of.

An example of this was on CNN the other week (one of the few English channels on holiday);

The latest jet fighters will be the last generation of manned planes. USAAF are using drones and unmanned fighter jets and bombers will be available in the next few decades. The drones are 'flown' over Afghanistan from Nevada and there is a fast track process to get the youngsters in, a key skill to get on the fast track? Being good at video games, it's a decision making skill.

Don't want to change it to a USAAF thread (start your own!), just trying to illustrate that you you can't compare what they are learning with what we did. Hope this is just a transition phase.

Education at all levels has had a load of bollocks in for years, my degree (1986-90) covered techniques that were redundant since the seventies. The excuse was it tested our understanding and comprehension. Bollocks.

James Thomas wrote: It's an annual debate there to kick about and for the various sides to kick each other over.

A couple of points;

I don't think it's a lack of bright kids - there's loads of them.

Too much time is spent teaching them things we picked up as we went along;
Something is broken, it's thrown away and a new one bought - an opportunity to learn how to mend is lost.
TV was crap so we went out and played, now it's video games etc so imagination time gone. We left the house and went all over the place (buiding sites?) and built dens, now they play video games. Computers mean they'll cut and paste everything all too often without reading it. If you did watch TV a lot of it was educational, now even quiz shows contain a high percentage of questions about celebrities.

The list goes on so we now spend time teaching problem solving, things that would have come naturally meaning less time for teaching the subject.

It's not as though this stuff isn't of use, kids born today will be doing jobs that haven't been thought of.

An example of this was on CNN the other week (one of the few English channels on holiday);

The latest jet fighters will be the last generation of manned planes. USAAF are using drones and unmanned fighter jets and bombers will be available in the next few decades. The drones are 'flown' over Afghanistan from Nevada and there is a fast track process to get the youngsters in, a key skill to get on the fast track? Being good at video games, it's a decision making skill.

Don't want to change it to a USAAF thread (start your own!), just trying to illustrate that you you can't compare what they are learning with what we did. Hope this is just a transition phase.

Education at all levels has had a load of bollocks in for years, my degree (1986-90) covered techniques that were redundant since the seventies. The excuse was it tested our understanding and comprehension. Bollocks.

Hi class!

Today we're going to be learning about work, government policy and something called "demoralisation".

I'll write that on the blackboard for you. It's a big word but don't worry about that - you'll all understand what it means soon enough....

No blackboards these days Martin.

Has "The teacher" got a job to resolve all this?

I do agree with JT (well I would wouldn't I) but you can't buy the joy on the pupils faces when they get their results after most of them have worked hard all year.

When I worked in a rather large department store, two of the A-level students at the time couldn't spell to save their lives or differentiate between basics like there/their. They both got A's in their GCSE English Language exams. They have since graduated. Their jobs now?

Primary school teachers. I'm sorry but that really frightens me. What chance have the next generation got?

I was part of the last bunch to do O-levels. Our English teacher still gave us weekly spelling tests up until the week we left school! We moaned about it at the time but how I thank Mrs. Edwards (aka Steve Bould's Aunt, no less!) for it now.

James Thomas wrote: No blackboards these days Martin.

What, not at all? It can't ALL be PowerPoint, surely??

Interactive Whiteboards, electronic versions of blackboards (if you're lucky).

Sam wrote:

Primary school teachers. I'm sorry but that really frightens me. What chance have the next generation got?

I was part of the last bunch to do O-levels. Our English teacher still gave us weekly spelling tests up until the week we left school! We moaned about it at the time but how I thank Mrs. Edwards (aka Steve Bould's Aunt, no less!) for it now.

I completely agree, last O'levels in 1987 and am glad to be a part of it. There are some fantastic primary school teachers out there, but I do worry about the capabilities of the pupils when they reach secondary school.

I spent all of last year with my year 7 form in registration doing "countdown" games to improve their spelling and vocabulary.

James Thomas wrote: Interactive Whiteboards, electronic versions of blackboards (if you're lucky).

Let me guess: you 'write' on a touch-sensitive pad and said digi-scrawl appears on a projected screen? Like a post-digital OHP? But cooler more expensive??!

Is it IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE that this might be an extraordinary waste of taxpayers money? (And, if you consider all the electricity-drinking "interactive whiteboards" being used in schools across the UK, an appalling waste of resources/mini-environmental catastrophe?)

Obviously it's a digital world and the kids have to be suitably equipped for it, but really. Don't the kids just do what they always did and use said technology to covertly draw large sea mammals with huge genitals and write "DICK LIKE A FUCKING WHALE!"* next to it????

(* - Using chalk and a blackboard, I did this at school in 1989. I got a letter home about it, but it remains my finest hour. Not my finest hour at school, but my finest hour per se. )

My lovely stepdaughter got 3A's last Thursday.She was in local Advertiser today.Well chuffed.Starts at Manchester University next month studying medicine.

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote:

James Thomas wrote: Interactive Whiteboards, electronic versions of blackboards (if you're lucky).

Let me guess: you 'write' on a touch-sensitive pad and said digi-scrawl appears on a projected screen? Like a post-digital OHP? But cooler more expensive??!

Is it IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE that this might be an extraordinary waste of taxpayers money? (And, if you consider all the electricity-drinking "interactive whiteboards" being used in schools across the UK, an appalling waste of resources/mini-environmental catastrophe?)

Obviously it's a digital world and the kids have to be suitably equipped for it, but really. Don't the kids just do what they always did and use said technology to covertly draw large sea mammals with huge genitals and write "DICK LIKE A FUCKING WHALE!"* next to it????

(* - Using chalk and a blackboard, I did this at school in 1989. I got a letter home about it, but it remains my finest hour. Not my finest hour at school, but my finest hour per se. )

just before i left they got loads of these on the maths floor, of course the fuckwits for teachers had no idea to use them, turn them off or more importantly change desktop backgrounds - so of course we took full advantage

even resulting in a letter home with me drawing a cock on the board then locking the pc, of course mum found amusing

it's a con, they used to normalise the results until 1988. this means giving the distribution of results a bell curve shape, so that only say 10% would get an A, 15% a B, 25% C, etc and 10% fail.now they let the results stand as-is, so if an exam is easy, loads of kids get an A. i took an experimental GCSE in French in 1987, a year before they officially started, result? my only A-grade, all my O-levels were either B's or C's. i've got a mate (aged 39) who's just got a degree and needs gcse's in maths and a science to become a teacher, will be interesting to see the curriculum for them nowadays.

lucyjane wrote: There are some fantastic primary school teachers out there

I monitor how my kids are doing in school,naturally,and I'd have to agree with that. There is one guy in particular in my kid's primary school,only a young lad.He really gives a shit and does a great job I think. I'm very impressed with him..

I'm impressed with the school and the teachers as a whole. They get far more homework than we ever did at primary level,though.A bit too much at primary level I think( I enjoy helping them,especially with reading,but time is a problem).Other than that,great..Maybe it's just a good school.It is a good school,no doubt about it in my mind.

I know every school is under pressure from Ofstead to perform and in some cases,improve a lot.We get all the Ofstead reports. I've many family and friends who are teachers and I know some are understandably disillusioned and up against it in the more socially deprived areas,they are only human after all..Bit of shame though.

gotta love the daily mail in late august.

last week i just about ripped my cock off

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote:

Hi class!

Today we're going to be learning about work, government policy and something called "demoralisation".

I'll write that on the blackboard for you. It's a big word but don't worry about that - you'll all understand what it means soon enough....

Haven't got a clue what your point is.

James Thomas wrote:

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote:

Hi class!

Today we're going to be learning about work, government policy and something called "demoralisation".

I'll write that on the blackboard for you. It's a big word but don't worry about that - you'll all understand what it means soon enough....

Haven't got a clue what your point is.

How demoralising.