Wednesday 26 May 2010

Extra-Curricular Activities To Cry For

Regular readers may remember this snippet of state primary education from February.

No such nonsense from the girl Puddlecote's school. They had a Big Green Tidy Up today ... or litter-picking, to you and me.

I think the caretaker had a day off.
Well, it appears he's still not back as they traipsed around for an hour picking up rubbish again yesterday.

It's all part of 'Community Week', you see, and the educational delights don't end there. Tomorrow, she will be off on an exciting school trip - to Sainsbury's where they will be spending two hours packing customers' bags before lunch.

And today? Probably the most revealing day of the week as far as school aspirations are concerned. They were seconded to the senior part of the school to help with the bigger girls' studies ... by having their nails done.

Again, I'm seriously not making this up.

Thankfully, there are no activities planned for Friday. Because they all have the day off while the staff are trained how to teach this shit.

Just to remind you again. The cost to the taxpayer of 'educating' each primary school kid in England is £3,780 per year.


13 comments:

My Thoughts My Country said...

How many actual lessons, eg maths, english and science, is she taught.

They are in school to be educated, not to pick up litter.

I know the new government is in it's infancy, but I hope they change this sort of thing soon.

JJ said...

Well I don’t mind telling you DP…I think this is all pretty useful education for when they enter the real world.

I would introduce a spot of Morris dancing, and how about floral arrangements. These could all be part of good solid education.

Lets be honest who needs the 3 Rs – eh?.

PJH said...

DP:
Tomorrow, she will be off on an exciting school trip - to Sainsbury's where they will be spending two hours packing customers' bags before lunch.

One hopes that all the customers, and employees, that come into contact with the kids have been CRB checked?

On a more serious note, in addition to MTMC above, I'd be interested in how many hours tuition (out of hours of 'lesson time' - it was 23hrs 20 mins per week (35 min x 8 periods x 5 days) when I was a bairn) kids get what most would hopefully call education in proper subjects these days.

Incidentally, while doing a mediocre amount of research (on timetables/subjects in general), I stumbled across this. WTF? Period 1 - 0908-1006. Period 3 - 1124-1222. Do they give these kids atomic watches??

Anonymous said...

To keep the massses in their
place, low quality education and
dumbed down entertainment are
essential prerequisites for the
ruling liberal elite
Give Mum some Corrie,give Dad
Fi highlights and give the kids a Playstation, works a treat.

musket primed
Ready when you are

J Bonington Jagworth said...

I don't envy the staff of your school on parents' evenings! :-)

Jock Coats said...

It's all okay though, it's all part of the "Big Society".

Dick Puddlecote said...

MTMC & PJH: Strangely enough, Mr Puddlecote Sr asked exactly the same question tonight regarding lesson time. I think it's beyond due that it was asked. I'd also like to know the cleaning bill for the school if kids are being asked to do the job. FOI on its way tomorrow.

PJH: The CRB angle is well made. I remember parents being excluded from a sports day once in case someone sneaked in who might get a jolly out of looking at kids.

Nothing like consistency, eh?

banned said...

Further to PJHs point about CRB checks, were full Risk Assesments made in advance of each customer bag packing excercise, if not, why not?

1327 said...

Last year I was returning to work with a sandwich when I turned the corner and found the road was full of little kids in luminous bibs. Some of them were litter picking but to my horror some of them were putting their hands into the council bins and pulling stuff out. Now at night that area is the preserve of junkies/prostitutes and we quite often come across used syringes on the street and see them in bins.

I told the first bunch of kids I came across to stop doing this (and I'm not CRB checked) then went to have a word with the teacher. The dopey article turned out to be a teaching assistant who explained that it was "Green Day" or something and that her little charges were helping the environment. To her credit as soon as I explained the dangers she rounded the kids up but it didn't seem to occur to her or whoever was in charge of the possible dangers.

Anonymous said...

They're being trained to become subservient as that will be the key survival skill in the world government coming into power soon. The more docile, quiet, conformist and servile, the more likely one is to avoid whatever extermination processes the ruling class of experts will endorse and normalize. They just need to add a course in no-smoking, no-drinking and no-lard to round out the curriculum and then the children will be saved.

BTS said...

I went to three supermarkets today and couldn't find any schoolchildren.

So I bought milk, fruit and wine gums.

I was quite stoned.

Dick Puddlecote said...

1327: Interesting contribution. Teachers are as wrapped up in this nonsense as the rest of the turgid population. Robotically repeating 'safety' regulations without engaging their brain and noticing that there are other things in life that are more dangerous ... but not covered by the regulations they studied.

BTW, I asked the female Junior Puddlecote this evening how many classes she has had this week which didn't involve 'community week'. She looked at me as if I was daft and replied 'None'.

Normal lessons, you know, the important stuff, were suspended.

PJH said...

DP: BTW, I asked the female Junior Puddlecote this evening how many classes she has had this week which didn't involve 'community week'. She looked at me as if I was daft and replied 'None'.

I'm sorry, I thought half-term *next* week?