We went to the school parents' evening last week, keen interest in our son who is in year 4, just transferred to junior school.
We went in, shared smiles and handshakes with his class teacher. She told us how our son was doing, in terms of teacher assessment and placing him in the 1234/abc brackets. If your are a parent you will know what I mean. The generalised target for children in class is 2a/b (from memory) for this year. Last year he was 3c in english and above that in maths. (this truely is not a my son is good blog, bear with me)
We do not think that the weekly, English and Maths, work he brings home is hard enough for him, not pushing him enough. He finds it very easy. Knocks thorugh it in 20mins and gets top marks from teacher.
Ahh, yes back to the parents evening....
Us: "Do you give harder work to those more able in the class?"
She: "No, I give same work to all. I have 30 kids in the class, some who cannot even string a sentence together"
Us: "Fair enough, but our son can and the work being set is too easy and not challenging him. We have problems getting him to do homework as he is not interested. What is top grade he can be assessed to in this year?"
She: "Well it is level 4 but I would have to give level 4 work and I have 30 kids in the class."
Us: "Errr...why don't you differentiate the work? Do you differentiate the work?"
She: "No, do not differentiate the work"
Us: "Can you send him home with level 4 work so that we know the level and we can work with him"
Some more small talk around the work and we say our goodbyes.
Next day he brings home level 4 assessment work along with his normal homework.
Now this is not a piece about the teacher but rather about the system in which she works.
She has a class of 30 children, some who are above the target for the year already and some who are below target for the year. The focus is going on those children who are below target to bring them up to target and the ones who are currently above are not pushed as they are unlikely to fall below.
The job pays the bills and keeps a roof over her head. She will be judged on how many of the children meet the target not on how many who are exceeding the target exceed further.
My feeling is it is the systems fault because what is reported is how many meet the target irrespective of their background.
So we will keep on pushing him at home and pushing to change things at school. Don't consider myself a pushy parent just doing ensuring the best for my children. She is doing the job required within the system and at the end of the day it is just and job and it pays her bills.
Yes, I get annoyed but it is tempered by the fact that it is just a job
Are some jobs staffed by so called "Angels" or just people who want to do a good job? I err on the side of the latter, which do not mean that the former does not exist, just a lot fewer and they are often working against the system rather than with it.
