Best teachers at the worst school

[mollykins]

So I don't have to reveal which high schools I've ben to/ am at now, and for simplicity; I will call the high school i went to for years 9 to 11 A, which coincidentally I still have a few lessons at, for my a-levels now, and B is the school I only had to start going to from this september, for the majority of my a-level lessons.

A is apparantly a better school in almost every category, according to ofsted, than B is. Yet my fellow students that go to the sixth form, based at both high schools, which had / have lessons at both of the schools agree that the teaching is better (and the teachers are nicer) at B than A, although the exam results are roughly the same. it simply doesn't make sense and can anyone think of why this could be?

[dzug2]

Because Ofsted use different criteria to you and your fellow pupils.

[redcrx]

being a nice teacher gives no indication of their ability to teach.

[mollykins]

We don't think they're better teachers jsut because they're nicer but we feel that we learn more from their lessons and I end up doing far more revision for the lessons I have at school A because it hasn't sunk in aswell as the information I was taught at B.

[mollykins]

And FYI helen, many of the people who agree with me are 18 or 19 . . . . .

[dotty.]

18 or 19 eh? foolproof then

[DTCwordfan]

well schools do move up and down on rankings as a f. of teaching ability and f. of the overall class. School Heads/Headmistresses have considerable effect as they can very much set the tone of the school, its confidence etc etc and the best ones have a rapport with the kids as well as the parents.

The proof is/will be in the exam results.....

[mollykins]

And even the one's that aren't 18 yet are mature. The one's that were in my year group that aren't mature and can't be bothered with work or school are dossers, roaming the streets all day with nothing to do except terrorising old people.

[cc1]

You sound old enough to understand that in this life there are people with whom we get on better than others, for whatever reason, and perhaps sub-consciously we put more effort into that relationship, getting more out of it. From my own distant experience as a pupil, I know that there were teachers who I worked well with and other pupils didn't.
Maybe, you need to put the modern obsession of personality to one side and accept your teachers as human beings with all their frailties.

[dotty.]

you're an education snob molly

[mollykins]

If I was dotty, I'd have gone to Hobart high, in Norfolk, which I actually got into but my parents persuaded me not to, I can't even remember why, probably because they couldn't be bothered to drive me to the bus stop in a village about 3 miles away. But if i was as much of an education snob as you think i wouldn't have let my parents decline my place there, which is the best non-private school in Norfolk.

[Dris]

My daughter and son both left home at 16.They were able to function as adults (how condascending coming from their mother but im sure they would forgive me) -one running a home on her own and the other entering Univeristy and sharing a student flat-never to come back home either one.Im very proud they were mature enough to do that.
So why arent Mollys mates mature enough at 18/19 ?
Molly do you ever despair of the 'adults' who reply to you? I do....
Please dont think ALL adults behave in the same manner and that goes for all your threads -we dont- only a few let us down so dont emulate them -apart from the ones who you have fun with you and you know those ones -thats normal but not nasty -dont take the others on on no need to be a sychophant just cos youre forced into it -thank and acknowledge people as you see fit.
I didnt undertsand your Q btw cos im thick:)

[sherrardk]

" I can't even remember why, probably because they couldn't be bothered to drive me to the bus stop" - yeah, that'll be the reason why you didn't go to the best school in the area.

[Mosaic]

Some startlingly unpleasant responses here to a perfectly valid question. Molly, from my own viewpoint - the wost teaching I came across in 30+ years as a teacher was at a grammar school. The kids were so well-behaved that the teachers could be lazy ie set boring work for the sake of it, knowing that all the kids would do it and learn it for a test as well. In a normal school, or a tough school, fist fights break out if the work isn't interesting - and even then they might break out anyway! Plus, most senior staff are lazy and crafty, and if you have a problem with kids they will say 'oh but the work wasn't interesting enough' quick as a flash, so you have to be on the ball with your teaching if you want them to support you.
Ofsted inspectors only see what they see on a visit, 'nuff said.

[mollykins]

It is sherrard plus the roads we'd have to use to get to it in the winter wouldn't be gritted. The bus gets there at 7.30 ish, my dad wouldn't be able to take me there and mum couldn't be bothered.

[saxy_jag]

Because you cannot measure the worth of a school by its exam results and you can't evaluate an entire community on the basis a three- or four-day inspection every three years or so.

What makes a school good or bad is its ethos and its hidden curriculum - how staff, parents and students treat and relate to each other, what values prevail and how the school interacts with the wider community. These are things you just can't quantify, and if you can't quantify them, then you can't 'report' them.

I've seen some fantastic, much loved schools attain lousy OFSTED reports simply because they've failed to measure up to pre-ordained levels. What successive governments have failed to spot is that a school is only good when parents and their children are happy with what goes there. Since that will never be the same for all children, then clearly what we need is diversity of schools with a range of approaches and curricula.