Chatroom

6th November 2009, 12:00am

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Chatroom

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/chatroom-37

All-boy, lower ability class

Posted by morrisseyritual

Maths and modern languages in my place have decided they’ll turn boys off their subjects by setting low-ability classes. As a learning support teacher, I’m in the middle. The teachers of these classes can’t cope, creating volatile disciplinary flashpoints; hilarious if not so disheartening!

Posted by Aldo1983

I feel sorry for those pupils who genuinely struggle but have pleasant personalities, who end up being exposed to the misbehaviour of others. We should set classes according to ability AND behaviour - with specialist teachers taking the most disruptive element.

Posted by morrisseyritual

When I politely confronted the PTs, they implied there was no other way. They want help in these classes and I am refusing to assist until they revise the setting. I am at my wits’ end with these landed teachers - both are from farming stock with “money” and not a tinker’s cuss for the pupils they undermine, then discipline for not liking the humiliating set-up they are forced into.

Posted by catmother

Are you saying it’s unfair these pupils are in the lower set? That it should not be boys only? Every school has bottom sets and, in my subject (ML), boys make up the majority. Not sure why you bring the PTs’ background into it. I see you’re taking the boys’ side but what about the other pupils’ right to an education? You say you’re learning support but are refusing to help? Did you also say you found the teachers’ struggle hilarious? What a lovely colleague you are!

Posted by Aldo1983

Do you want girls thrown in there for good measure? But they generally behave better and attain better results. There should be two bottom sets - one for those who are slow on the uptake but well-behaved and one for those who clown around.

Posted by catmother

I’ve taught such sets in rural schools and deprived areas of a big town. Those boys (and sometimes girls) were vile. Disgusting behaviour, language and manners, fearless, and now with mobile phones, which make it even more fun. Wild dogs might show more mercy for their victim. I would be the first to agree they should not be doing ML. Their behaviour can just about be explained by their lack of ability, though it doesn’t explain their lack of basic human decency. You say it’s a sentence for them? Trust me, torturing the French teacher seems fun for them. For me, going home in tears is not.

www.tes.co.ukscotland, click on forums then behaviour.

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