OFSTED and 2020 vision.

I think that as we progress further into this new millennium, that we have got Education and Regulation wrong. League tables, performance tables, stressful visitations and special measures.

Being a teacher has neve been an easy task but does a baker have to deal with flour that doesn't wan't to be made into bread? 

Does a carpenter have to deal with wood that doesn't want to be carved into artistic figures? 

Does an artist find that the paint refuses to be placed on the canvass?

Doctors do, on the whole, deal with patients who actually want to get better.

I was told in a twilight that we are teaching kids for jobs that don't actually exist yet. 

Great.

Why do I get the impression that more and more kids don't actually care about their education or the education of those around them?

We are told that kids don't know how to revise? How did that happen?

That we need to teach to different learning styles .....like trying to manage Manchester United where 2 of the team want to play rugby, 3 don't like the colour red and 5 are late or in detention already.

We need to be aware of all the issues going on in the lives of our students ....we are teachers not social workers.

Having spoken to 2 year 11's who were three weeks from their exams with their heads down on the table during a lesson, a third girl who is one of the biggest underachievers in the class told me that I should be grateful that they have come to school!

Many have no motivation whatsoever. Colleges accept people with no qualifications. Many of our bottom sets have no motivation to try as they have already got in. Many have no idea what they want to do and can't track back to see what that need to now as they have no direction.

OFSTED need to change the way they work.

Why do schools get Ofsteded and not the parents?

I'd love the concept of OFSTED going to inspect failing families and setting targets for younger siblings.

Short inspections to look at the parents who take their kids out of school for holidays or who don't want any part of the behaviour/lack of effort/poor ethos that they as parents have developed on their children. You can't unteach those things as well as an ever changing curriculum

The parents who don't bother attending school parents evenings because they know what's coming and don't want to hear it. 

Parents who have no idea that behind their kids bedroom door they are online on their phones till all hours. 

We get students for 1,2 or 3 hours a week depending on the subject. Parents have them for 11 years before secondary schools get them. Where is their accountability.

How about it OFSTED? 

Mind the gap.....

"Mum, Dad, I think I'll take a gap year"........

Words that are heard by parents across the world...although it appears very popular in the UK and the USA.

I'd like a year off before I start my University life.........I want to find myself,

Now, in my day there was no such thing as a gap year. Am I just envious? No! 

I have just watched a video where there two different attitudes to post 16 life. One which says two years of A-level, 3 years of  university, first job, marriage etc.....another talks about all the different options including gap years.

For me, a gap year sounds like getting your pocket money before you clean your bedroom.

We don't all start a new job and say that we'll take our holidays straight away.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with wanting to teach English to kids in India, it is an admirable thing to do as your parents spend their time worried about all the things that could happen as you have never been away from home before and didn't enjoy that camping weekend with the scouts.

Surely there if you wish to do good, there are loads of things that you could do with your own community to make things better without going half way round the world.

Whilst I understand that the financial costs of going to university and paying off student loans may take a shine off the start of your first job, surely spending your free time earning money would be a better thing to do to get you back on sound financial footing sooner rather than later.

It does sound romantic and is full of good intentions, but is it a way of avoiding the responsibility that others are willing to take on?

Gap years also seem to be spent in far flung, warm and exotic locations......places that many people never go to or go back to.

Surely we should be teaching our children the importance of responsibility and whilst a gap year may provide "life changing" experiences, more often they don't.

A new religion......

Karl Marx said that "Religion was the opium of the masses"

It's not.

It's commercialisation, shopping and the need to use up time on replacing things that don't actually need to be replaced.

Holidays.

A nice little extra to keep you going though the year. Bank holiday Monday, Good Friday, Boxing Day. All occasions where we should enjoy the extra time that we have been given to spend time with loved ones and celebrate.

I blame Homebase

Why do you need to paint or wallpaper rooms over a long weekend? What's wrong with the current decoration that has seen you through many good years? No! You don't need to......wait a minute....there's a Sale on.....there's a discount price just for the Bank Holiday weekend....ooh, go on then.....

You see...too easy for us to get up off our sofa and grab our wallets.... But what about that sofa...there's a sale at DFS

Why do you need a new sofa? Has the one you have been sitting on as you watch the tv adverts "stopped working"? I mean, what do you need from a sofa.....sit comfortably...check....yeah, it's still working......"but we've changed the curtains and they don't match the sofa" .....why did we change the old curtains?.........did they stop working...opening and closing...no they were fine too.

....and I love  a good marketing myth.....like the new "rule" for a mattress.......you need to change it every 8 years.......since when?.......if you spread the story often enough it will become the truth and for married couples to avoid the 7 year itch, invest in a new mattress in time to freshen up your marriage.

When does a DFS sale end? It would be nice if they took out an advert to say so......it appears that when one holiday sale ends, another holiday sale begins.

I could go on and on about this but I've got to go into town for a bit....it seems there's a sale on.

What exactly does Britain stand for?

Well, hopefully for pregnant ladies, or old people on a train or bus but it is interesting that in the current political climate that we have become a country that stands FOR nothing but does stand AGAINST whatever there is.

BREXIT. We don't like Europe so let's have a vote. The end result was that everyone who hates anything voted. I hate the Tories...BREXIT! I hate Labour.....BREXIT......I hate being told that my bananas must be straight....BREXIT.

I almost felt sorry for Theresa May...it's like she's always wanted to captain the ship and now she's at the helm of the Titanic and I'm smelling ice.

So then the voters decided that they didn't like Theresa, but couldn't quite get rid of her so she's taken a shot below the waterline but is sure everything will be ok. Strong and stable dearie.

I think that this is now a trip where nobody really wants to drive ( a worry because politicians ALWAYS want to drive) but all the passengers want to go in different directions.... A bit like the minibus home after a drunken night out where everyone wants to be taken home first......and the taxi driver still doesn't want to be there.....with the added bonus of the aroma of stale beer and sick.

Nice to know that negotiations according to our divorce lawyers are going well.....although his lawyer says they've given up nothing. BREXIT....seems to be where you want a divorce but still want her to keep on cooking and cleaning for you, you get access to the kids all the time and you still get nookie once a week......and you're not out of pocket....any solicitor who can get that will be a fine upstanding gentleman of learning indeed.

Can we have a vote on something equally ridiculous to see if there are any other issues that a referendum can screw up. NATO membership,........the offside rule..........ABBA reforming..... All guaranteed to get an opinion but not an a tiled response.

Ah politicians....who'd be one.

What a week...

Your car has a "little" rattle that turns out to cost £4300 to repair... Oh well you think...I was planning to blow the dust off the bike after half term anyway..... ...first day of the "new me" cycling in to work means getting 3/4 of the way there before having a puncture and having to walk the rest of the way.....had to call youngest child to come pick Daddy up from school....great use of a fertilised egg that was.... ...and I dropped my favourite Chelsea mug and broke the handle off it..... ......I loved that mug! But don't worry, Antonio Conte and the lads from the bridge have just gone and won us the Premier league title again......A different sort of cup but hey...one down, FA Cup Final to go...Get in!

Friday Bloody Black Friday.

I hate the idea of things that come from the US of A. Halloween and trick or treating has swept over here. The Yanks had the joys of Thanksgiving. That's their holiday celebration that hasn't moved over here.

I do object to Black Friday. It's the American concept that Thanksgiving is over so we need to start planning and ordering gifts for Christmas.

Do we? Do we really?

5 years ago no one had heard of Black Friday.

Last year I heard of the Black Friday weekend.

This year I have already seen " our Black Friday weekend that must end on Wednesday"

Lidl have just advertised that their Black Friday will be not Thursday.

Tesco has advertised their "Black Friday fortnight " deal.

 

....correct me if I'm wrong....but isn't Friday...well one day? forgetting the fact that cyber Monday, it's slightly dodgy cousin, also gets a mention in passing but isn't quite as popular.

 

Economists have already said that things that are bought on Black Friday have been available at cheaper prices before AND after the date so what is the point?

Are we all such lemmings that we need to be told when to buy gifts?

.....oh yes we do. How many times have we heard that their might be a power cut......so everyone goes all zombie apocalypse and empties the shelves in Tescos......" There's going to be a power cut.....we had better buy a dozen tins of kidney beans and some fois gras otherwise we may never survive"

Whilst I don't recommend the " what's left at the petrol station on Christmas Eve" kind of last minute shopping......people.....you do have free will...especially if the adverts tell you that you do.

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Ricks cafe Casablanca - Tipsy Greenock woman refused service.

We had decided that Monday was Casablanca day. A 1 hour trip on a train and goodness only knows what at the end of it.

The day started with a chorus of alarms in the dark as we wanted to be up and on the 8:30 train. Breakfast at 7am sadly did not follow as there were no Riad staff around so we went back to the nice cafe where we had an omelette yesterday...and repeated our order.

 

The nice man who Sheena had spoken to in the train station phone stall yesterday who had vowed that his store was open at 7:30 had been sadly mistaken in his attempt at telling the time and selling a SIM card to my one and only, now that she had her passport with her. ( don't know how spies get away with it in movies....sorry Mr Bourne but we need to see your passport before we issue you a Burner phone)

Upstairs on the train with a bit of shared Harlan Cobens newest novel to listen to was nice.

Casablanca station is nice and modern as the city is the business capital of Morocco and its affluence shows.

Sun was hot but not too hot with a few clouds in the sky

A nice taxi driver offered to show us everything that Casablanca had to offer but we declined and instead got a ride up to the Hassan 2 Mosque, the only Mosque in the world to let in non Muslims. I do love the concept of Mohammed 5 and Hassan 2. I can almost hear the voice of the late James Alexander Gordon reading the footy results.

It was quite intimidating to look at as we approached.

U

Pictures do not do the place justice.

Although the beauty of my wife neatly matches it.

Morrocan marble and granite, with a hit of Murano glass in the chandeliers, the building was a masterpiece of arches, dark and light.

Then we went downstairs.

A pool that has alledgedly never been used.

We sat and had a coffee outside waiting to gather our thoughts as to how to walk to the medina as I observed the danger of Moroccos roads as an old bloke was knocked off his motorbike in front of the cafe

But we walked on as Sheena bought loads of fine threads from a shop in the medina as we trudged through the scales and fish heads in the road as we traveled in land.

Then we found Ricks Cafe. Yes, I know, Hollywood fiction becomes Casablanca reality.

We weren't actually hungry at this point so we found a couple of stools at the bar and ordered a vodka martini and a mohito for the lady.

No music on a Monday...apparently it was Sam's day off.

So we slipped quite gently into another, very nice round of cocktails.

Sheena asked for a third round but had to have it pointed out that All the other patrons had left as the staff geared up for dinner .

We decided to head back to Rabat and so returned to the train station.

Another hour in the company of Harlan Coben passed happily.

We walked back up Mo.V. To see if we could find something in a zebra print for a present.

We went out to the Riad Kalaa, our hotels sister hotel for dinner. Luckily tonight's salad did not have the surprise "I'm a celebrity " chicken factor. Last nights had a texture that I feel uncomfortable repeating and thinking about still give me a cold sweats.

Worse still was the fact that Sheena tried it, thought it tasted weird....yet still put the plate next to mine and said nothing.

I will get her back for this, oh yes, will get her back.

We went with the safety of a fine skewered kebab and a bottle of Casablanca beer.

Ah well, you must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss and a day trip to Casablanca was a very nice experience.

 

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