Comments for EducationState: the education news blog.

Comment on Teaching profession or teaching as a career ‘under-rated’? by ashley

ashley — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:30:56 +0000

i know what you mean

Comment on CfBT Education Trust Seeking Special School Closure by Rebecca Jardine

Rebecca Jardine — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:05:16 +0000

CfBT Education Trust is a “Charity”; with over 100 million annual turnover. One million or 1/100 goes toward research grants. CfBT is actually a thriving commercial entity that hides behind the mask of a “Charity” only so it does not have to pay tax. CfBT employs high priced talent from the recruitment and education consultancy fields and pays them top dollar to increase their profits. CfBT has non-arms length arrangements with several other “Education Trusts” (that also do not pay tax) and many commercial entities with which they share profits, commissions and revenues. The “Trusts” with whom CfBT is directly allifiated are: Nord Anglia Education, Brighton Education, Cambridge Education (Mott MacMacDonald), Cognition Education, Mosaica, GEMS, ESOL, Academics, Chase Resourcing.

Comment on How challenging are Teach First schools? by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:21:08 +0000

That was nice. I used to be hoping to get some solid information about the make a difference. I look ahead to a lot more from you. Many thanks once more:-)

Comment on Teach First, McKinsey & Goldman Sachs by Jeff Yates

Jeff Yates — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:53:06 +0000

Have you actually done any research into Teach First and the huge benefits it has had on these schools?

Brett doesn’t teach in the schools and nor does he train the teachers. He runs the business end of Teach First. Latest Ofsted ratings for Teach First: Out of 44 categories they received 44 Outstandings.

Do some research instead of writing garbage articles.

Comment on Teach First, McKinsey & Goldman Sachs by William

William — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:48:31 +0000

“He’s not a policy expert or researcher”. Erm… he did commission and chair Policy first, which contributed towards the Education White Paper. He also spent many months/years researching TFA and educational disadvantage and continues to do so. He’s done more ground breaking work than some education ministers have. How you can say that Brett is not a policy expert or a researcher is beyond me.

In the traditional sense no he’s not a policy expert or researcher, but independently and through TF, he has contributed a huge amount to addressing educational disadvantage and the rich-poor diving in UK education, precisely through policy and research!

The closing dig at the Ttories is complete nonsense, it was under a Labour government that Teach First was launched and supported. The Tories have rightly continued supporting this highly-effective charity, grad scheme and educational programme. Let’s not bring politics into education just for the sake of it.

The writer sounds bitter and highly uninformed.

Comment on How challenging are Teach First schools? by Graham Cameron

Graham Cameron — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:17:06 +0000

Good articles and information. I really enjoyed your blog. Keep up the good work.

Comment on Teach First ‘Teachers’ on the Cheap by Rob

Rob — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:06:34 +0000

What utter nonsense. Yes, TF pays graduates less than most schemes for the first 12 months, but after that the salary is comparable to many private sector schemes (I should know, having spent four years on a private sector graduate scheme before beginning Teach First this year).

The first year salary is low, but then I only teach 15 hours compared to the 21 hours that my colleagues teach. The fact that I am doing a PGCE entitles me to the financial support available to full-time students too. If I was taking the traditional PGCE route I would have *much* less disposable income, living off a student loan/small bursary.

I may be relatively cheap for the school to employ (for one year of a guaranteed two-year employment), but the amount of support I require as an unqualified teacher from senior staff, plus days off to attend training, compensates somewhat for that.

Next year I will be an NQT on a decent salary, with the advantage of having already taught for a full year in my school. Personally I think TF is a superb way of training teachers, as well as delivering keen, quick-learning graduates to schools that often struggle to retain staff.

Comment on How challenging are Teach First schools? by S

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:27:06 +0000

I feel this is a rather simplistic analysis of the way that Teach First operates. You argue that Teach Firsters are put into schools to teach the cream of the crop, whilst leaving the more experienced members of staff to deal with the more unruly and, ultimately, leave. In my experience of Teach First, and those I know who have been on the programme, it was actually a rare occurance that a participant was given any high sets. Rather, it was the norm that you were given some of the most challenging sets and expected to deal with it, along with the rest of the members of staff, regardless of experience.

You argue that really Teach First is some sort of conspiracy generated by top businesses to provide free training for their future employees, courtesy of the tax payer. Interestingly enough, Teach Firsters are contracted to their school for two years (their equivalent PGCE year and their NQT year) and, following these two years, roughly 50% of them remain in teaching. It is an equivalent statistic which remain in teaching following just their PGCE year, if you go into teaching through the normal route.

Comment on How challenging are Teach First schools? by H

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:43:16 +0000

Teach First primary schools are (obviously) not picked according to GCSE results: the decision is based purely on whether or not they have 50% or over of pupils living in the lowest 30% of the IDACI index. Unfortunately this has been proven to be a very good indicator of educational disadvantage, and few Teach First primaries have outstanding SATs results. I would however suggest that eligibility to be a Teach First primary should be based on the percentage of children reaching SATs floor targets, consistent with the GCSE-based attainment aspect of secondary eligibility.

Putting Teach First teachers into schools in special measures is not done because they are still training and need to be around teachers and management staff who are proven to be competent in order to learn from them.

Comment on The Perfect Test by Ron Dietel by Ron Dietel

Ron Dietel — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Thanks for your comment Brian. I can’t give away too much of the story, but you are on the right track, sort of. Hope you will read it and let me know what you think.

Best, Ron Dietel