Back to school..

So it was the first day back to school today, strangely enough I actually feel glad to be back to a regular routine after these magnificent 6 weeks. I thought it might have been a reasonably laid back schedule with it being the first day back, silly me, we were in and it was all stations go!
 

We went through the results from last week and compared them to last years and the bench mark. From there we then dispersed into departments and analysed individual class results. I only taught AS last year but even so, the results of these students depend on whether or not they take Maths this year so it did make me feel very conscientious. From looking and comparing results of the different classes we were then asked to make certain targets in order to improve for next year. We were asked to take a few factors into consideration: the results, teaching and learning surveys undertaken by the students, lesson observation feedback, reflections on lessons.
 

Upon reflecting on all of the above there are a lot of targets I would make. Those of you who work in a sixth form college will know that the majority of the pressure comes from ‘above’ to make sure we get the least number of ‘U’ grades as possible. So, we try and concentrate as much as we possibly can to be on the back of the borderline students so they get their ‘E’ grade rather than the dreaded ‘U’ grade. But after thinking about this further, is this actually good for the student, and in turn better for us as teachers? Will the ‘E’ grade really make a difference for them (bearing in mind all the hard work put in by us and them). If a student is not ‘good’ at a subject then why should we have to break our backs for them to just scrape a pass? Wouldn’t you rather concentrate on getting those A-B grades? I’d like to know your views on this so feel free to leave comments..
 

I have not concluded any targets as yet, I will be happy to share them with you if anyone would like to know.