As a NASUWT member for over 25 years (now retired), I was disappointed that my old union invited a Conservative Education Secretary to its annual conference, but, after listening to extracts from Nicky Morgan's speech today, I have to admit to being more enlightened, if not in the way Mrs Morgan would like.
Now, as regular readers of this blog know, I am not a fan of the educational establishment. This lack of enthusiasm is based upon having been on the receiving end of numerous inspections and an awareness of the growing pressures on the teaching profession. I have escaped those pressures, but am well aware that those pressures have worsened since my retirement. Having worked as a supply teacher since I retired in 2011, I can bear witness to those worsening pressures, and will discuss them later.
Let us return to Mrs Morgan's speech. I am often amazed at how senior politicians - in particular those who deal with education - are out of touch with reality, but this speech speaks loudly of someone who has passed through the looking glass. For those who have not read the speech (and those who have avoided listening to it), here is a gem:
“I visited the NASUWT website recently and found of the last 20 press releases that the NASUWT had issued only three said something positive. Wouldn’t it be more helpful if your press releases were more positive?”
Please note: Mrs Morgan is not disputing the veracity of the press releases; it's just that she doesn't like their tone. Anyone would think it was the job of teaching unions to act as a public relations agency for the government, rather than represent the interests of their members.
Mrs Morgan was adamant on one issue, however: all schools will become academies. According to her:
"It isn't for me or officials in Whitehall or Ofsted to decide how best to teach or run schools, it's for you, the teachers who know better than anyone what works in the classroom."
I laughed out loud at this, as academies will be able to employ teachers that are unqualified and - more seriously - the trusts that run the academies will be the ones that decide how schools shall be run - not the teachers. If you click on the link above, you will see that Mrs Morgan laughed a lot during her speech, which perhaps indicates that even she knows how laughable her claims are. As Lucy Powell, Shadow Education Secretary, said:
“Nicky Morgan has failed to provide a single compelling argument as to why these changes are necessary when the vast majority of schools affected are already high performing schools.”
It may also be pointed out that, had a Labour government imposed reforms (or in the case of academies DE - forms) in such a high-handed way, the Tories would have been incandescent with rage at what they would call Stalinist tyranny, or some such thing.
To conclude, I would like to bring a personal perspective to bear on this topic. Let's return to today's speech, and look more closely at what Mrs Morgan said about the negativity put out by the NASUWT. The Guardian quotes here:
“Wouldn’t it be helpful if more of your press releases were actually positive about the teaching profession? Because If I were a young person making decisions about my future career, and I saw some of the language coming out of NASUWT as well as some of the other unions, would I want to become a teacher?” Morgan asked. “No I wouldn’t.”
Once again, I had to laugh. Anyone would think that it is only the teacher unions who are being negative about the state of the profession. Mrs Morgan is so out of touch that she is completely unaware that it is ordinary teachers, current and retired, who are telling the truth about their workload, pay and conditions and, quite rightly, are warning young prospective teachers of what awaits them. I have written a number of blog items about the demoralisation of teachers in the past - is Mrs Morgan going to tell me to be more positive? (She'd better not). Is she going to threaten legal action against older or ex-teachers telling young people not to become teachers - as indeed we do? Somehow, I doubt it.
Lastly, I would like to quote two young teachers, both in their twenties, whom I met recently while doing supply work:
"I've been teaching for five years and I feel like I just want to run away" - male teacher, facing serious classroom discipline problems with little support.
"This is the end. I'm stressed out as it is" - female teacher, facing an imminent OFSTED visit.
40% of newly qualified teachers leave the profession in their first year of teaching, and even Michael Gove has acknowledged that there is a serious problem with a teacher exodus. Perhaps Michael Gove should tell Nicky Morgan about it? Her return through the looking glass is long overdue.
Saturday 26 March 2016
Sunday 20 March 2016
Downing Street, a Rat and a Mouser
Although having passed it a number of times when in central London, I did not know much about Downing Street. I knew, of course, that the Prime Minister lived at Number 10, and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer lived next door, but I knew nothing of its history. Then, a few weeks ago, I was in the National Gallery shop and bought, on impulse, "Killers of the King", by Charles Spencer and learned about the man whom Downing Street is named after - Sir George Downing. I shall return to Sir George later, but here are a few fun QI facts about the Prime Minister's official residence, which Pitt the Younger referred to as: "A vast awkward house":
- The first residential house on the site of Number 10 was built by Sir Thomas Knyvet in 1581. He was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and arrested Guy Fawkes after the gunpowder plot.
- No 10 was originally No 5 and did not acquire its present number until 1779.
- The last private resident of No 10 Downing Street was called Mr Chicken. Nobody knows anything about him other than his name. He moved out in 1732.
- In the early days of Downing Street the area was much livelier. There were lots of pubs nearby, such as the Cat and Bagpipes and the Rose and Crown.None of these pubs was a branch of Wetherspoons, but I bet the price of a pint was higher than anywhere else in Britain, even then.
- It is only since Arthur Balfour became prime minister in 1902 that the prime minister has been expected to live at No 10.
- Only one former prime minister has ever died there: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who resigned on April 3 1908 but was too ill to move and died 19 days later. His last words were: “This is not the end of me.” Famous last words, if ever there were any.
- The front door cannot be opened from the outside because it has no handle, and no one can enter the building without passing through a scanner and a set of security gates manned by armed guards.
- In the first five years after Tony Blair became prime minister, 37 computers, four mobile phones, two cameras, a mini-disc player, a video recorder, four printers, two projectors and a bicycle were stolen from the building. No comment is necessary about that.
- The first cat designated as Chief Mouser, Larry, a Londoner, was sacked by David Cameron because he slept on the job. He was replaced by George Osborne's cat, Freya. Osborne certainly knows how to get rid of his opponents. Freya is responsible for keeping numbers 10, 11 and 12 Downing Street free of mice. Let's hope she lasts.
To return to Sir George Downing (1623 - 1684): we need to briefly set him in a historical context. Born in Dublin, his family emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts, and the young George was one of the first nine students to graduate from Harvard in 1642. He returned to England in 1646 and became an ardent supporter of the Parliamentary cause. Colonel John Okey, who had sponsored Downing's education at Harvard, took the impoverished graduate under his wing, making George his unit's regimental chaplain. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell made Downing his Scoutmaster-General (intelligence chief) in Scotland. In 1657 he was appointed resident at The Hague, in the Netherlands, to effect a union of the Protestant European powers.
At this point, we need to hark back to the historical context. There is still a romantic aura about the English Civil Wars that needs to be dispelled. As John O'Farrell has said:
"The death toll of the English Civil wars was catastrophic: when you add in related deaths and from Cromwell's massacres (in Ireland), a larger percentage of the British population was killed in this conflict than in even the First World War".
O'Farrell is right. From combat, starvation and disease, the Civil wars are thought to have claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people in England, out of a population of just five million. In Ireland, the figure for dead, Catholic and Protestant, is thought to be 616,000.
After the execution of Charles 1 on 30 January, 1649, Cromwell instituted the first British experiment at a republic, which O'Farrell describes as: "...the Protestant version of the Taliban". Pubs and inns were closed down, Easter and Christmas were banned, swearing and gambling were punished and all theatres closed. It was the Commonwealth, without the games. After Cromwell's death in1658, his son Richard took his place but wasn't up to the job. Thanks to political confusion in London, and a military intervention led by General Monck, Charles the Second was restored as King in 1660, to what seems to have been widespread relief. I don't know if the pubs opened specially.
Known to history as "The Merry Monarch", Charles 2 had promised no hard feelings to former opponents who had supported the Parliamentary cause - with exceptions. The exceptions here are known to history as "The regicides", the men who had been involved in putting Charles 1 to death. Charles 2 was less than merry regarding these men, and sought to hunt them all down and put them to death. One of these men was George Downing's former patron and comrade - in - arms, John Okey. Like most of the regicides, Okey sought to escape Charles 2's vengeance by fleeing abroad - to the Netherlands in his case. He might have chosen to do this because the English ambassador was none other than his old friend, comrade and chaplain - Downing.
Downing, like many former Parliamentary soldiers, had decided to change sides and become a strong supporter of the Restoration. Okey, trusting in the power of past friendship, contacted Downing to see if he and his fellow refugee would be unmolested. Charles Spencer says here:
" (Okey)... received assurances of their wellbeing from Downing, who claimed that he had no orders to look out for them". Alas, Downing lied, and later seized Okey and two others in Delft, producing a blank Dutch arrest warrant to concerned Delft authorities. Okey and his two fellow regicides were shipped to London to be hung, drawn and quartered. The bitterness of Okey and his family towards Downing can well be understood, even after all the intervening centuries. Spencer quotes a friend of Okey as saying of Downing:
"...his New England chaplain whom he clothed, and fed at his table, and who dipped with him in his own dish should prove like the Devil among the twelve to his Lord and Master".
In 1682, Downing secured the lease on a piece of land close to Westminster and set about building the street that bears his name. He prospered after the Restoration, and died a very wealthy man. Samuel Pepys described him as a “perfidious rogue”; I think I would describe him as a despicable, ungrateful, treacherous rat. And this is the man after whom one of our most famous streets is named.
If I could, I would like to give a present to Freya, the Chief Mouser. It would be a large plump mouse of any colour - and I would name it George Downing.
Freya, the Chief Mouser.
- The first residential house on the site of Number 10 was built by Sir Thomas Knyvet in 1581. He was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and arrested Guy Fawkes after the gunpowder plot.
- No 10 was originally No 5 and did not acquire its present number until 1779.
- The last private resident of No 10 Downing Street was called Mr Chicken. Nobody knows anything about him other than his name. He moved out in 1732.
- In the early days of Downing Street the area was much livelier. There were lots of pubs nearby, such as the Cat and Bagpipes and the Rose and Crown.None of these pubs was a branch of Wetherspoons, but I bet the price of a pint was higher than anywhere else in Britain, even then.
- It is only since Arthur Balfour became prime minister in 1902 that the prime minister has been expected to live at No 10.
- Only one former prime minister has ever died there: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who resigned on April 3 1908 but was too ill to move and died 19 days later. His last words were: “This is not the end of me.” Famous last words, if ever there were any.
- The front door cannot be opened from the outside because it has no handle, and no one can enter the building without passing through a scanner and a set of security gates manned by armed guards.
- In the first five years after Tony Blair became prime minister, 37 computers, four mobile phones, two cameras, a mini-disc player, a video recorder, four printers, two projectors and a bicycle were stolen from the building. No comment is necessary about that.
- The first cat designated as Chief Mouser, Larry, a Londoner, was sacked by David Cameron because he slept on the job. He was replaced by George Osborne's cat, Freya. Osborne certainly knows how to get rid of his opponents. Freya is responsible for keeping numbers 10, 11 and 12 Downing Street free of mice. Let's hope she lasts.
To return to Sir George Downing (1623 - 1684): we need to briefly set him in a historical context. Born in Dublin, his family emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts, and the young George was one of the first nine students to graduate from Harvard in 1642. He returned to England in 1646 and became an ardent supporter of the Parliamentary cause. Colonel John Okey, who had sponsored Downing's education at Harvard, took the impoverished graduate under his wing, making George his unit's regimental chaplain. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell made Downing his Scoutmaster-General (intelligence chief) in Scotland. In 1657 he was appointed resident at The Hague, in the Netherlands, to effect a union of the Protestant European powers.
At this point, we need to hark back to the historical context. There is still a romantic aura about the English Civil Wars that needs to be dispelled. As John O'Farrell has said:
"The death toll of the English Civil wars was catastrophic: when you add in related deaths and from Cromwell's massacres (in Ireland), a larger percentage of the British population was killed in this conflict than in even the First World War".
O'Farrell is right. From combat, starvation and disease, the Civil wars are thought to have claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people in England, out of a population of just five million. In Ireland, the figure for dead, Catholic and Protestant, is thought to be 616,000.
After the execution of Charles 1 on 30 January, 1649, Cromwell instituted the first British experiment at a republic, which O'Farrell describes as: "...the Protestant version of the Taliban". Pubs and inns were closed down, Easter and Christmas were banned, swearing and gambling were punished and all theatres closed. It was the Commonwealth, without the games. After Cromwell's death in1658, his son Richard took his place but wasn't up to the job. Thanks to political confusion in London, and a military intervention led by General Monck, Charles the Second was restored as King in 1660, to what seems to have been widespread relief. I don't know if the pubs opened specially.
Known to history as "The Merry Monarch", Charles 2 had promised no hard feelings to former opponents who had supported the Parliamentary cause - with exceptions. The exceptions here are known to history as "The regicides", the men who had been involved in putting Charles 1 to death. Charles 2 was less than merry regarding these men, and sought to hunt them all down and put them to death. One of these men was George Downing's former patron and comrade - in - arms, John Okey. Like most of the regicides, Okey sought to escape Charles 2's vengeance by fleeing abroad - to the Netherlands in his case. He might have chosen to do this because the English ambassador was none other than his old friend, comrade and chaplain - Downing.
Downing, like many former Parliamentary soldiers, had decided to change sides and become a strong supporter of the Restoration. Okey, trusting in the power of past friendship, contacted Downing to see if he and his fellow refugee would be unmolested. Charles Spencer says here:
" (Okey)... received assurances of their wellbeing from Downing, who claimed that he had no orders to look out for them". Alas, Downing lied, and later seized Okey and two others in Delft, producing a blank Dutch arrest warrant to concerned Delft authorities. Okey and his two fellow regicides were shipped to London to be hung, drawn and quartered. The bitterness of Okey and his family towards Downing can well be understood, even after all the intervening centuries. Spencer quotes a friend of Okey as saying of Downing:
"...his New England chaplain whom he clothed, and fed at his table, and who dipped with him in his own dish should prove like the Devil among the twelve to his Lord and Master".
In 1682, Downing secured the lease on a piece of land close to Westminster and set about building the street that bears his name. He prospered after the Restoration, and died a very wealthy man. Samuel Pepys described him as a “perfidious rogue”; I think I would describe him as a despicable, ungrateful, treacherous rat. And this is the man after whom one of our most famous streets is named.
If I could, I would like to give a present to Freya, the Chief Mouser. It would be a large plump mouse of any colour - and I would name it George Downing.
Sir George Downing, the rat.
Wednesday 9 March 2016
Spiral, French TV and Dixon of Dock Green
I had never watched the French police series "Spiral" ("Engrenages" in France). French TV does not have a good reputation anywhere - not even in France, so I never bothered. Anyway, a friend recently lent me the box set of Series 1-4 and, as I have been laid up for the past couple of weeks with a virus, I thought I might as well watch the whole set. Series 1 was produced in 2005, Series Two in 2008, Three in 2010 and Four in 2012. I have not seen Series 5, and Wikipedia says that Series 6 is in production now. It would be reasonable to suppose from this that "Spiral" is a success story for French TV and it is worth examining what has brought about that success, given that French TV is rated as being so dire.
To attempt to answer that question, I shall use the French word for gratuitous -" gratuit". There is plenty that is gratuit in Spiral, and I think this what has made the show so successful. In a nutshell, there is gratuit horror, gratuit violence and gratuit sex.
When first you encounter the Parisian police squad who are the heroes of this series, your initial impression is of a seedy, down-at-heel bunch, dressed in clothes that come from the French equivalent of Primark. That impression is a lasting impression, as they are wearing the same clothes in Series Four that they wore in Series One. Paris police must be badly underpaid.
There are six main characters in the show, three belonging to the squad and three to the legal profession, who appear in every series. Heading up the squad is Police Captain Laure Berthaud, a formidable young (ish) woman with a tempestuous love life and a ferocious temper. One example of this happens when she does not get her way in something, shouts "Shit! shit! shit!" ( in French of course) and bangs her head against a wall in front of her colleagues. Juliet Bravo or Vera would not have approved.
Another squad regular is Police Lieutenant Gilles "Gilou" Escoffier, who is a bit of a lad, to say the least. In the first series, we see him snorting cocaine and cavorting with prostitutes. Mind you, he's given that up by Series Two. In a later series, he provides a police firearm to gangsters which they use to murder a man. Somehow, he gets away with all his misdeeds, but he'd never have lasted with Inspector Morse. Police Lieutenant Frédéric "Tintin" Fromentin is the nice guy of the team and thought of as being stable. As he tells his colleagues in nearly every programme that he has four children, it's a surprise they don't think of him as just being bloody boring.
The legal eagles are: Judge François Roban, (earnest and dependable); Assistant Prosecutor Pierre Clément, (weak, divorced and easily led); Lawyer Joséphine Karlsson (Venal, very good defence lawyer and very sexy). Roban is a man of integrity who frequently upsets his less-than-incorruptible superiors. Through the four series, Clement abandons his role as a prosecutor and goes into partnership with Karlsson, with whom he enjoys good relations of every kind, despite not approving of her working for gangsters.
We may well wonder what has catapulted a show with dubious characters like this into prominence around the world, so much so that Wikipedia says:
"Spiral has been an export success, with sales to broadcasters in more than 70 countries including, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom"
Well, as I said above, the three gratuit factors of horror, violence and sex must have helped greatly. Horror is endemic to the show; photographs of mutilated corpses are presented indulgently to camera (so you get plenty of time to look!), as are all the many cadavers littered throughout the action. Autopsies are carried out with chilling sound effects (the programme makers must have used frozen meat).
As for violence, it becomes rather difficult to distinguish between the violence of the police squad and that of the criminals. Gilou, for instance, beats up suspects in a way that Dixon of Dock Green (or should I say "Dixon de Dock Green"?) would never have countenanced. Captain Berthaud is a little more restrained, although, on an off-duty date, she pulls a revolver on a man who gets fresh with her. Anyway, there is plenty of violence, physical, mental and sexual - enough for all the family.
Sex is never far from Captain Berthaud, and she strikes you as a lady who needs as much of it as she can get. I lost count of her affairs in all the series - I should have kept score, but didn't. Her relationship with another police squad leader blossoms in Series Three and Four, as evidenced in a memorable nude sex scene. Gilou and Tintin, alas, are not so lucky, but, then, Tintin has four children. Roban has little success, if any, but Clement and Karlsson hit the jackpot on several occasions. Clement enjoys (very much) a dalliance with Captain Berthaud, while Karlsson has successful encounters with a number of people, one being a lawyer some years older, who she thinks will advance her career. Clement and Karlsson get it on together on the lawn outside her father's house at her sister's wedding reception. I found it hard to comprehend this: Karlsson sees her widower father; he gasps; she alludes to something that passed between her and her father years before; she and Clement have stand-up sex on the lawn. I must have missed something here. Whatever, the incredible thing is that they are enjoying each other vertically about 20 feet from a window, and none of the partygoers inside seem to notice, not even when Karlsson has her loud "When Harry Met Sally" moment (i.e. an orgasm). I know French people are thought to be highly sophisticated in these matters, but that is ridiculous.
Well, it looks as if Spiral is turning around the fortunes of French TV, but we're certainly a long way from Dixon of Dock Green.
To attempt to answer that question, I shall use the French word for gratuitous -" gratuit". There is plenty that is gratuit in Spiral, and I think this what has made the show so successful. In a nutshell, there is gratuit horror, gratuit violence and gratuit sex.
When first you encounter the Parisian police squad who are the heroes of this series, your initial impression is of a seedy, down-at-heel bunch, dressed in clothes that come from the French equivalent of Primark. That impression is a lasting impression, as they are wearing the same clothes in Series Four that they wore in Series One. Paris police must be badly underpaid.
There are six main characters in the show, three belonging to the squad and three to the legal profession, who appear in every series. Heading up the squad is Police Captain Laure Berthaud, a formidable young (ish) woman with a tempestuous love life and a ferocious temper. One example of this happens when she does not get her way in something, shouts "Shit! shit! shit!" ( in French of course) and bangs her head against a wall in front of her colleagues. Juliet Bravo or Vera would not have approved.
Another squad regular is Police Lieutenant Gilles "Gilou" Escoffier, who is a bit of a lad, to say the least. In the first series, we see him snorting cocaine and cavorting with prostitutes. Mind you, he's given that up by Series Two. In a later series, he provides a police firearm to gangsters which they use to murder a man. Somehow, he gets away with all his misdeeds, but he'd never have lasted with Inspector Morse. Police Lieutenant Frédéric "Tintin" Fromentin is the nice guy of the team and thought of as being stable. As he tells his colleagues in nearly every programme that he has four children, it's a surprise they don't think of him as just being bloody boring.
The legal eagles are: Judge François Roban, (earnest and dependable); Assistant Prosecutor Pierre Clément, (weak, divorced and easily led); Lawyer Joséphine Karlsson (Venal, very good defence lawyer and very sexy). Roban is a man of integrity who frequently upsets his less-than-incorruptible superiors. Through the four series, Clement abandons his role as a prosecutor and goes into partnership with Karlsson, with whom he enjoys good relations of every kind, despite not approving of her working for gangsters.
We may well wonder what has catapulted a show with dubious characters like this into prominence around the world, so much so that Wikipedia says:
"Spiral has been an export success, with sales to broadcasters in more than 70 countries including, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom"
Well, as I said above, the three gratuit factors of horror, violence and sex must have helped greatly. Horror is endemic to the show; photographs of mutilated corpses are presented indulgently to camera (so you get plenty of time to look!), as are all the many cadavers littered throughout the action. Autopsies are carried out with chilling sound effects (the programme makers must have used frozen meat).
As for violence, it becomes rather difficult to distinguish between the violence of the police squad and that of the criminals. Gilou, for instance, beats up suspects in a way that Dixon of Dock Green (or should I say "Dixon de Dock Green"?) would never have countenanced. Captain Berthaud is a little more restrained, although, on an off-duty date, she pulls a revolver on a man who gets fresh with her. Anyway, there is plenty of violence, physical, mental and sexual - enough for all the family.
Sex is never far from Captain Berthaud, and she strikes you as a lady who needs as much of it as she can get. I lost count of her affairs in all the series - I should have kept score, but didn't. Her relationship with another police squad leader blossoms in Series Three and Four, as evidenced in a memorable nude sex scene. Gilou and Tintin, alas, are not so lucky, but, then, Tintin has four children. Roban has little success, if any, but Clement and Karlsson hit the jackpot on several occasions. Clement enjoys (very much) a dalliance with Captain Berthaud, while Karlsson has successful encounters with a number of people, one being a lawyer some years older, who she thinks will advance her career. Clement and Karlsson get it on together on the lawn outside her father's house at her sister's wedding reception. I found it hard to comprehend this: Karlsson sees her widower father; he gasps; she alludes to something that passed between her and her father years before; she and Clement have stand-up sex on the lawn. I must have missed something here. Whatever, the incredible thing is that they are enjoying each other vertically about 20 feet from a window, and none of the partygoers inside seem to notice, not even when Karlsson has her loud "When Harry Met Sally" moment (i.e. an orgasm). I know French people are thought to be highly sophisticated in these matters, but that is ridiculous.
Well, it looks as if Spiral is turning around the fortunes of French TV, but we're certainly a long way from Dixon of Dock Green.
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