CfE is make or break: Donaldson (1 June)

- “Too much of what passes for in-service training is quite frankly insulting for teachers.” And yet teachers are required to attend some of the guff and put it on their record like a badge of honour. The number of times I’ve been given a ticking off for saying what Donaldson says! I also find his slighting of the results agenda slightly ironic when one considers HMIE visits and reports.

“The responsibility for teachers to do their job well lay with teachers themselves” - so why are we over-managed by layer after layer of managers focused on the accountability agenda promulgated by HMIE over the last 20 years? If it is really the job of teachers, give them the freedom instead of the over-prescriptive bonds of 5-14 and now CfE with its interchangeable capacities and all-encompassing “principles”.

Set them free, remove QIOs and HMIE and use the money to boost time in school for reflection, real local self-evaluation and true capacity building based on the ability to meet colleagues in a relaxing environment.

cochrane1964

Funding for language teaching may be doubled (1 June)

- Financial support is only one half of the coin. Funding should be linked to conditions and those should be anchored into a policy embracing all modern foreign languages throughout primary and secondary education.

Linking the teaching of MFLs to the native language in every possible aspect is one of the principles of relevant language learning and scientific language teaching. There certainly appears to be a lack of linguistic knowledge of pupils in English, which might be worthwhile addressing in order to support the development of literacy across the curriculum and the colleagues in the MFL departments.

rosered27

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