My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!

[Habakure]

Basically, one book to read a week (which is fine) but every night she has an a4 sheet of paper, to either practice her pronunciation or writing skills (things like words with 'au' or 'ee').

 

(In response to Tinks question, some reason my phone is playing up when ever I click 'quote').

[Skarclaw]

My mum was a teacher (head of department) and sacked it in last year. Massive amount of marking  and without doing her down, she isn't great at computers  (she is in mid 50's), meaning something like putting together a powerpoint which would take someone 30 mins would take her all evening. She does private tuition for special needs kids now to keep a bit of money coming in but yeah. Not a career I'd go for!

[hitmanNo2]

Also, my flatmate is sabotaging her psychological recovery progress by being *fruitcage* stupid. I will never understand women.

Women don't understand women.  We have no *fruitcage* chance.

[Habakure]

Huge sexist comment, but; this is my tiny experience with getting what I need from my wife (as in, the dirty murky world of psychological warfare) and no not sexual but to do with choosing objects or places etc. Opposite. Choose the thing that you don't want to do and pretend to stick to it. It always works but, don't do it too much. Reverse psychology is a dangerous sorcery and should be used sparingly.

 

Rant:- *fruitcage* hate roof tiles.

[Tinkerton]

Basically, one book to read a week (which is fine) but every night she has an a4 sheet of paper, to either practice her pronunciation or writing skills (things like words with 'au' or 'ee').

 

(In response to Tinks question, some reason my phone is playing up when ever I click 'quote').

Is it the same sheet for a week then a different one the next week or a new one each night?

Reading writing and literacy in general is the most important thing in a child's education. Without that they'll not be able to even access the more complex stuff, let alone understand it.

[amateurstuntman]

And if kids can't do it to a decent standard before they go to school then they are already *fruitcage*ed.

 

 

On my first day at school at 5 I could read at the level of a 12 year old.

All due to my parents.

The problem is that society is moving in such a way that both parents feel like they have to work full time, they come home tired and don't have time for their kids.

They assume learning happens at school and they don't have any responsibility for it.

 

Before you go to senior school most classroom stuff is pointless and the only reason to go to school is to to learn to socialise.

 

In the critical developmental years education is done at home.

 

 

How do we expect children to perform at school when their parents were barely educated 10 years ago and forgotten everything in the interim?

The average reading age of an adult in the UK is around 11.

 

11!

 

In Stunt's Britain parents would have to attend a course on parenting and maths/English.

They would also be given standards that their children have to reach before they go to school.

Help will be there if they need it but I envisage parents in a classroom with their child learning together.

[Hedganian]

People complain that "kids are growing up too quickly" yet primary schools expect kids to be able to write their own name, count to 50 and a whole host of other benchmarks before they walk in the door at 5.

 

When I went to school, the school taught you to do those things. Going nursery from the age of 2 wasn't that common back then either.

 

You can't simultaneously expect kids to learn all these skills *and* "stay kids"...

 

Better idea for "Stunt's Britain" would be to fix the schools so they *do* teach the kids what they need to know rather than saying they need to learn it before they get to school.

 

School should also teach sign language, first aid and how to calmly make an effective 999 call if needed.

[DarkLite]

To be fair, Stunt, the harsh economic reality is that most parents these days don't FEEL like they have to both work full time, they DO have to work full time.

 

I agree that most of the basic learning and knowledge acquisition skills should be done at home before children get to primary school. The harsh reality of the times is that your overwhelming majority of new parents today are:

 

1) Saddled with enormous amounts of student debt

2) Have little to no savings

3) Are renting their home, not owning it or paying a mortage

4) Earning an average of £26,000 per annum before taxes, NI, student loan repayments and pensions, so in actuality, £20k a year

5) Looking at a housing market where the average house price is £217,000
 

That doesn't add up well. Having one parent stay at home to look after the children means you have a total income of only £20K to cover rent/mortage, council tax, food, water, transport, clothing, internet, gas, electricity, phones etc.

 

With the very best mortage I could find for those figures above totalling 25 years worth of repayments at £1,030 a month (IE: total payment of £302k) you're looking at a breakdown as follows: (based on UK averages)

 

Per year:
Mortage - £12,360
Electricity and gas - £1,344

Internet - £612
Mobile phones for two adults - £878

Council tax - £1,484 (based on average council tax bill for a Band D property)
Transport - £3,900 (based on average weekly household spend of £75 a week via YouGov polling)

 

In total, that's already £20,578. We haven't even covered the cost of food, drinks, clothing, books, going out, travelling etc. And we're already past what a single parent working full time can provide with the entirety of their take home pay.

Even with both parents working full time, you're looking at £40k income. Let's keep going:

 

Food and drinks (non alcholic) - £3,120 (based on average weekly household spend of £60 a week via YouGov polling)

Clothing - £1,300 (based on average weekly household spend of £25 a week via YouGov polling)
Culture and recreation (books, movies, going out, travelling) - £5,720 (based on average weekly household spend of £110 a week via YouGov polling)

 

Total now rises to £30,718 a year, leaving total savings of £9,282 for the family.

 

All of this is the UK average. If you spend less on certain things you can do a bit better, but remember that the biggest costs, housing, transport and council tax, are entirely dependent on where you live.

It's not that we FEEL that both of us have to work full time. It's just not possible otherwise.

[hitmanNo2]

Toilet training would also be good by the time they go to school.  The number of children that aren't is ridiculous.

[Hedganian]

Toilet training would also be good by the time they go to school. The number of children that aren't is ridiculous.

Okay, that's essential - I give you that.

[Habakure]

But as with all things there is an even larger problem than entering school with basic skills. Special needs

 

So many special needs schools have been shut so that schools with out the necessary training, equipment and staff, now have to fill that void. There are many children that the government is failing and trying to blame schools for the problems which they themselves have created. Divide and conquer is a powerful tool, and the next load of changes, for the next financial year, are going to cause even more misery.

 

I too am of the mi d that if you can afford it (and it is a possibility) one parent stays at home. That's me. My daughter went into school with a really good grasp of the three R's (even though writing doesn't begin with an 'r' ). She was potty trained and very polite. All by the age of 3. That is normal (unless of other factors like disability etc).

 

I think I'll leave it there for now. But, and this is important, there are as much people who push their children too much as there are people who ignore their children.

 

One last thing. I drilled into my daughter (and now son) the importance of holding my hand. Something else you don't see a lot of now.

[hitmanNo2]

Don't you just hate throwing away working, but old electronic stuff.  I'm clearing out a few things and came across an old Logitech headset with boom mic.  All the rubberized type material holding the ear cups on has disintegrated.  Same with the foam over the mic.  Still works but just not comfortable.  Too old to even be listed on Logitech's site it seems so no spares available.  Maybe 3rd party ones might fit?  I don't know.  An old torch too, working but old type bulb.   Seems a shame to just chucking working stuff.  Anyone know of a more sustainable way to get rid?

[paranoiddroid]

I dropped out of a PGCE because of a combo of support from the uni and my first placements crushing my desire to actually do the job because of the lack of support.

 

The special needs system is complicated because I can vouch for the fact that mixed ability classes of SEN students in a PD specialist school which is/has to be the norm don't work. You have a class that runs the gambit from mental age of 2-5, inability to communicate and essentially there because the law says they have to be/as a form of respite care/parents needing to work to people like me who have physical limitations but are bright enough to not only cope in mainstream level classes but actually excel.

 

I could point you to several of the people I went to school with who went mainstream for secondary but were severely damaged as people by their experiences at special schools.

 

The fact staff were caters first in allot of ways and the wide range of intellectual ability meant that students weren't always prepared for secondary education to the same level as a mainstreamed child meant that several of them just honestly couldn't cope and ended up shunted off to an 'alternative education pathway' called the ACCESS course which for them was worthless because they had the ability to cope with GCSE level education but the school didn't have the time/training or resources to get them

To the level they needed to be or weren't able to put them through course loads which would allow them to cope (a friend of mine with brain damage from being hit by a *rickroller* on a motorcycle speeding through a school crossing at 55mph) if she'd been put through Maths English AND IT key skills she'd have left with what she needed for courses at a specialist disability residential college which had the resources and staff support to teach the 'life skills' the ACCESS course claimed to do (how to make a brew and make beans on toast aren't life skills preparing a child for living on their own) rather than her having to spend an extra year at home before going to do something that actually helped.

 

Mainstreaming also damages people but in different ways. The routine practice of placing multiple SEN students into one class to allow 1-2-1 support to be provided via a single member of the Learning Support Assistance staff (and allowing the school to draw from 2 pools of statements fundigg for one staff member) meant those who were 'more able' got much less help and access to help. Throughout school being mainly an ambulant student I got significantly lesser help than other students, support which I really could have benefitted from to make education easier to access. As a rough estimate with the 1-2 hours a week lost to the 'communal pool' for morning/end of day support and lunch/breaktime pool (each kid contributing X amount of time to cover it) and the fact that a good 80% of my lessons were shared support I got at BEST a quarter of what I was actually statemented for.

 

I saw kids damaged by the attitudes of LSA's whilst I was there (mainly the older 50+ age group) who effectively treated stuff as 'aww they tried' *patts on head and proceeds to take the project off them* 'here let me "help"'

 

And when my parents raised issues they got rude letters telling them off for 'not cooperating' or 'respecting the efforts of staff'

 

On SEN group trips (mainly athletics stuff) and trips with the school in general I was expected to be able to just cope because I'd shown some independence in general so there usually wasn't anyone around for me to ask for help when it was actually needed and on the SEN group trips I was expected to help other students pretty much every time by pushing wheelchairs or carrying stuff.

 

The SEN system is broken and I don't really know how to fix it to be honest. Especially when the one or two members of staff who are actually amazing, supporting and encouraging students to grow as people and become independent whilst understanding support and help is needed get chewed up and spat out by a system where mindless beuracracy is more important than actually supporting the kids.

 

Also *fruitcage* Skype Iv spent 8 *fruitcage* hours today trying to get this mouldering piece of *suitcase* to actually work

 

A full reinstall, changing my firewall settings and it worked for 30seconds and then.... Nothing I get the notifications but I can't actually see any message to come through and on some chats no messages at all come through Rolling t back as part of the suggested fix corrupted my backup of my stored chats and... The reinstall means that my Skype has rolled back 6 bloody months so a load of people have just dropped off my contacts some of them being really bloody important aaaargh

[Hedganian]

Graduate Teacher Programme is better than PGCE anyway. Only thing is that PGCE gives you post nominal letters and GTP doesn't.

[Tinkerton]

Mrs tink went through a primary education degree and is now Mrs Tink ba hons. (quite why an education degree is ba and no bed I have no idea) so gets the fancy letters.

 

SEN is broken but I'm not sure how else to do it, like droid. Me and mrs tink are for more inclusion, but of certain things. Physical issues like a lower than average number of limbs, or deafness etc etc etc can be worked around provided the child can access the current curriculum. If you're trying to teach the beginnings of bloody algebra and one or two kids in the class can't even do addition and subtraction without a number line, how are they going to do that?

 

Teaching is one of the many professions that is broken in this country, as evidenced by the vast swathes of qualified teachers leaving the profession for anything else, even supply.

 

Stop *fruitcage* about with the curriculum, stop *fruitcage* about with funding and pour as much money as possible into teachers and support staff and the like, stop *fruitcage* about with 'age related targets' and let the teachers *fruitcage* teach.

[Hedganian]

The PGCE is for people who already have degrees in other subjects. If you have a physics degree and then did a PGCE, you'd have *two* sets of post nominals: Mr Joe Bloggs BSc (Hons) PGCE.

 

When I left teaching, I realised I'd been drinking a bottle of wine per night. (I may have mentioned this before) Why anyone would want to teach is beyond me.

[Habakure]

Gin seems to have taken over from wine.

[Tinkerton]

Why anyone would drink wine when beer is available is beyond me .

 

I know what you mean though. Its a proper labour of love.

[Hedganian]

It was cheaper.

[paranoiddroid]

I wanted to do the job until I was put through the system where its points coroner and backstabbing and nastiness

[amateurstuntman]

People complain that "kids are growing up too quickly" yet primary schools expect kids to be able to write their own name, count to 50 and a whole host of other benchmarks before they walk in the door at 5.

 

When I went to school, the school taught you to do those things. Going nursery from the age of 2 wasn't that common back then either.

 

You can't simultaneously expect kids to learn all these skills *and* "stay kids"...

 

Better idea for "Stunt's Britain" would be to fix the schools so they *do* teach the kids what they need to know rather than saying they need to learn it before they get to school.

 

School should also teach sign language, first aid and how to calmly make an effective 999 call if needed.

 

You can be able to read and still be a kid.

The world is straining under the load of well written, intelligent children's books.

 

The last three points used to be taught at Scouts (probably still are) when it was nearly ubiquitous.

I agree, that would be nice.

 

 

To be fair, Stunt, the harsh economic reality is that most parents these days don't FEEL like they have to both work full time, they DO have to work full time.

 

I agree that most of the basic learning and knowledge acquisition skills should be done at home before children get to primary school. The harsh reality of the times is that your overwhelming majority of new parents today are:

 

1) Saddled with enormous amounts of student debt

2) Have little to no savings

3) Are renting their home, not owning it or paying a mortage

4) Earning an average of £26,000 per annum before taxes, NI, student loan repayments and pensions, so in actuality, £20k a year

5) Looking at a housing market where the average house price is £217,000

 

That doesn't add up well. Having one parent stay at home to look after the children means you have a total income of only £20K to cover rent/mortage, council tax, food, water, transport, clothing, internet, gas, electricity, phones etc.

 

With the very best mortage I could find for those figures above totalling 25 years worth of repayments at £1,030 a month (IE: total payment of £302k) you're looking at a breakdown as follows: (based on UK averages)

 

Per year:

Mortage - £12,360

Electricity and gas - £1,344

Internet - £612

Mobile phones for two adults - £878

Council tax - £1,484 (based on average council tax bill for a Band D property)

Transport - £3,900 (based on average weekly household spend of £75 a week via YouGov polling)

 

In total, that's already £20,578. We haven't even covered the cost of food, drinks, clothing, books, going out, travelling etc. And we're already past what a single parent working full time can provide with the entirety of their take home pay.

 

Even with both parents working full time, you're looking at £40k income. Let's keep going:

 

Food and drinks (non alcholic) - £3,120 (based on average weekly household spend of £60 a week via YouGov polling)

Clothing - £1,300 (based on average weekly household spend of £25 a week via YouGov polling)

Culture and recreation (books, movies, going out, travelling) - £5,720 (based on average weekly household spend of £110 a week via YouGov polling)

 

Total now rises to £30,718 a year, leaving total savings of £9,282 for the family.

 

All of this is the UK average. If you spend less on certain things you can do a bit better, but remember that the biggest costs, housing, transport and council tax, are entirely dependent on where you live.

It's not that we FEEL that both of us have to work full time. It's just not possible otherwise.

 

Look, I don't know about "average" houses but I live in one of the most expensive areas in the UK and my house was 100,000 in 2009.

It's worth about 130,000 now.

2 bedrooms, totally possible to raise a kid here.

 

Also, I am unusual in the sense that there is literally only one place in the entire country I can do my job.

Most people can (but don't) move house to a cheaper area.

 

If you are going to move to a new area then you might as well move close enough to work (approximately 10km radius for a novice) that you can easily and (almost) for free ride a bike to work.

 

I had my Student loans paid off by the time I was 26 or 27 (I forget), having a kid before then is a choice (and not a good one).

 

 

On top of all that, having a kid isn't a right, it's a choice first and then a privilege if you succeed.

Basically, if you can't afford to do it (in terms of time and money) then don't.  Hearing people complain about how hard it is to be a parent when you have had 9 miscarriages is a huge kick in the balls.

 

 

When I think of having a child I imagine doing all the *suitcase* stuff but I also imagine sitting with my child on my lap reading A. A. Milne and Richard Scarry books to them.

 

Parenting is all responsibility and duty.

 

 

 

Also *fruitcage* Skype Iv spent 8 *fruitcage* hours today trying to get this mouldering piece of *suitcase* to actually work

 

*fruitcage* Skype - Discord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I went to 6 primary schools and 2 secondary schools, I was sidelined and bullied constantly for being weird.  By the time I was 10 I was drinking every night so I could sleep.

I was abused physically and sexually, denied sleep and food, beaten daily and isolated for 6 years.

 

Do you think I learned anything at school?

 

The only thing I learned is that people are *Ubarflock*.

 

I taught myself from books having been taught to read by my mum.

The only maths I remember being taught was by my dad.

[paranoiddroid]

I give up 3 registry cleans 6 appdata wipes 4 installs and it still doesn't work

[Hedganian]

Not everyone goes to scouts/cadets/etc. but everyone has to attend school by law.

 

Anything vital should be taught there, not left to some extra curricular activity.

 

And I know what you mean about patents complaining about their kids, Stunt. "Only" 5 miscarriages here, though.

[Mike_West]

Once again I find out I'm surrounded by incompetent flock of utter cretins. People who don't know the internal procedures, don't keep deadlines, forget to do important things in advance... and I'm substituting for THREE PEOPLE until the end of the week!

[Hedganian]

Sounds great, Mike...