Get ready to e-mail this one to your friends…
The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) wants to remove the word “fail” from scholastic vernacular and replace it with the phrase “deferred success”. They fear that telling a student that they failed “can put them off learning for life”.
A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. “We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time,” he said.
Can you imagine?
“Congratulations, Timmy. You deferred your success on yesterday’s pop quiz! Oh, good for you!”
(Tip credit to observer)
School bans ‘wrong race’ hairstyle
A 13 year-old student of Middleton Technology College was sent home because she is the wrong race for her hairstyle. She had her normally straight hair put in tight braids at a family outing and the school allows only dark skinned students to wear this particular style. She will not be permitted to return to school until she removes the offensive hairdo.
Middleton Technology College headteacher Allison Crompton confirmed that braided hairstyles were generally banned in the school but she would make exceptions for hairstyles which are a reflection of cultural heritage rather than a fashion statement.
Ms Crompton said: “We don’t allow any extreme hairstyles of any description at the school. We are a high-achieving school with high standards and we don’t allow any street culture into school.
“We are very strict on appearance. Wearing a school uniform signals that children are ready and willing to be a part of the school community. We have smart children who work in a purposeful way because that’s the ethos of the school.
“If we didn’t allow some leeway for their cultural and ethnic background I think it would probably be discriminatory.”
(more…)
Primary school bans pencil cases
Two students at St Anne’s Primary School in Denton, Greater Manchester, got into a bout of “boisterous play”. One of them, aged nine, got superficial cuts from a letter opener wielded by his friend. The school’s solution to this problem? Ban pencil holders.
Glenys Dyer, head teacher at St Anne’s, said: “We have banned all pupils from bringing pencil cases and their contents into school to prevent any other potentially harmful instruments being brought into the classroom.”
She said the decision to exclude [expel] the child sent “a clear message to both the child and the school community that this is unacceptable behaviour which we take very seriously.”
Ms Dyer added: “It was a boisterous play between two friends which got out of hand as a consequence of involving a letter opener which had inadvertently been brought into school in a pencil case by another child, and we believe there were no malicious intentions.”
No malicious intentions, inadvertent minor injury. The logical solution for this administration is to expel the student and institute a ban on pencil boxes. Just what do these Brit administrators have against pencils? Just a few months ago we profiled a story where they banned pencil sharpeners. Pretty soon these students will be relegated to using blunted crayons.
(Tip credit to Steve Birks)
Playground insults banned
What’s the best way to reduce domestic violence against women? According to the British government and the National Union of Teachers (with the very appropriate acronym of “NUT”) a great way is to crack down on little boys on the playground.
Sexist insults are to be banned from the playground.
Teachers are warned today that words such as “slag” and “slut” lead to boys feeling superior to girls and make domestic violence seem more acceptable.
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The NUT lists unacceptable insults including “lezzie”, “pro” and “your mum’s a whore”.
Boys should be challenged if they are heard directing such terms at girls. It is considered equally unacceptable for girls to aim such insults at one another.
I guess it’s okay to say these things to boys though.
In further moves to tackle domestic violence, teachers of subjects including English and drama are being urged to use their lessons to examine relationships and gender stereotypes.
My English class in primary school was woefully deficient in relationship exploration and the examination of gender stereotypes. We had all of this boring stuff about nouns and verbs and conjunctions and so on. It’s good to see that schools are moving away from such archaic instruction and actively pursuing the much loftier goal of social constructionism.
[/sarcasm]
(Tip credit to Pam)
Pencil sharpeners banned after attack
A student at Waterloo Primary School in Ashton under Lyne dismantled a pencil sharpener and used the blade as a weapon, slashing another student across the neck. The school’s response? Nothing short of unbelievable.
The attacker was suspended for two days and is now back in school.
Police, who were notified two days later, have spoken to the young attacker and his parents.
Headteacher David Willis has now banned all pencil sharpeners.
(more…)
SORRY..IT JUST ALL GOT OUT OF HAND
Two girls from Bournemouth’s all-girl Glenmoor School were arguing over their common two-timing boyfriend and they gathered a crowd of onlookers and hecklers. Head Pam Orchard was summoned by one of the teachers watching the commotion and she suspended every student there for bullying.
Forty girls were suspended after it was caught on CCTV but yesterday another girl, Chelsea Collins, 14, said she and many others simply “went to have a look”.
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Chelsea said: “I was just walking past the crowd and went to have a look at what was going on.
“I was on the edge of the group. I didn’t say anything to anyone and I didn’t attack anyone.”
(more…)
A meteor is coming and we’re all going to die, British teacher tells pupils
A female teacher at a Manchester high school had a brilliant idea. To motivate her students to “seize the day” she would convince them that they were living their last. She told them that a meteorite was going to strike the Earth in 10 days and that they should go home and say goodbye to their families.
The teacher … only realised [sic] her lecture was misjudged when many of the assembled teenagers started crying, the Sun newspaper said in its Friday edition.
According to the report, the unnamed female teacher made the announcement to around 250 pupils at St Matthew’s Roman Catholic High School during their regular morning assembly.
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After the crowd of 13- and 14-year-olds looked on in horror, and many burst into tears, the teacher swiftly explained that she was only trying to encourage them to “seize the day”.
“Some of the children were 100 percent convinced they were going to die,” the father of one child told the paper.
“God only knows what this teacher thought she was doing.”
Good thing she’s in England. Over here they’d bump her up into administration now.
(Tip credit to Patriot Paradox)
U.K.: It’s sunny, stay inside
Schools warned over sunny trips
School stops boy using sun cream
Sunburn can be a serious issue. Studies have shown that sunburns or exposure to the sun can increase the risk of skin cancer and other skin ailments. What is a school to do? They are responsible for the care of their students and sometimes there is a scholastic need or purpose to being outdoors. Sometimes the sun being out coincides with those planned external activities. The Derby City Council has a solution - cancel trips if the weather is nice.
Children are used to being told a trip is being postponed because of the vagaries of Britain’s rainy summers.
But now schools in Derby are being told to consider cancelling trips in good weather because of the risk of sunburn.
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Derby City Council … said teachers should consider “postponing or cancelling events… in periods of excessive sun”.
(more…)
Pupils ‘riot’ over shorts
Rhyl High School has school uniforms. Make that “uniform”. Students attending summer school in winter uniforms had enough of the record heat and staged a spontaneous protest. The school may have overreacted a bit.
Police were called in to disperse the pupils because it was claimed they were blocking a nearby road.
Head teacher Mike Williams yesterday criticized the protesters for failing to take up the matter through the school’s council.
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Mr Williams said the protest was pre-planned, and some of those taking part were wearing shorts.
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The council said four teenagers have been excluded on a short-term basis and four more have long-term suspensions until September.
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The mother of a 13-year-old pupil who took part in the demonstration accused the head teacher of over-reacting.
She said, … “From my point of view it wasn’t necessary to call the police and I don’t think it was necessary to call the parents of each child either. … “I think the school has over-reacted.”
According to the students it was a quiet and peaceful assembly. They were grouped off of the road on a grassy area and chanting slogans like “boys for shorts” and we shall not move”. Police were called in but no arrests were made. The definitive response of the school seems to be the typical bureaucratic withdrawal from reality.
A spokeswoman said, “Shorts are not part of the approved school uniform and to change the school policy requires a governors’ decision.”
In other words, protest all you want. Until the board of governors tells us to change our policy we are going to make sure you are wearing long pants and button down shirts regardless of whether such clothing is actually appropriate.
School reviews headscarf ban
We travel over the big pond to our friends in Great Britain for this one. A Bedforshire school has a ban on headgear in place that they are going to review. Kudos for at least reviewing it. That’s the first step towards removing bad policies. What struck me as odd about this one was the exclusion in the rule.
The school’s uniform policy banned all headwear in the classroom, with the exception of turbans.
(more…)
