Letters: November 22, 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

EBacc not a fit measure

BRADLEY Simmons’ letter concerning the “poor performance” of the schools in my home town have caused me to feel great defensiveness on behalf of the many talented teaching staff who got me through my school career, which ended in 2015.

The letter complains of the low level of students attaining the English Baccalaureate – a set of the core GCSEs, history or geography, a language and one additional GCSE.

I was among the first pupils to take the EBacc. We were told it would show us as well-rounded academic students, and that employers would value our breadth of learning.

When I began looking for jobs, not one employer had any idea what the EBacc was. They didn’t value my surplus and irrelevant qualifications.

The EBacc is a useless product of bureaucracy, and not a fit measure of success.

Simmons also mentions the level of fixed term exclusions. In my secondary school, there were a select few pupils who were violent, overthrew classrooms, brought teachers to tears and made life hell for normal students.

These people were given every last scrap of patience and help the staff could muster before being removed from the school as a very last resort.

In short, Simmons has complaints that are only legitimate in the government bubble where checklists and criteria are gospel.

I remain thankful to the staff of Dorcan Academy, who have at heart the interests of the students, not those of Michael Gove and Justine Greening.

TRISTAN H CANFER

Willow End, Didcot

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All-through schooling

I READ Ofsted’s letter with alarm as it highlights a basic error in our education system: How are teachers able to assess accurately a pupil’s progress?

Why is schooling split at age 11? From my experience as a school governor at primary and secondary level, I observed that primary school pupils generally loved their education but secondary pupils didn’t.

If that is a fact and given the mess Ofsted maintains our schools are in why don’t we look again at how schooling is organised?

We had all-through elementary schools for children from 5 to 14 (I live in one of those schools now converted to apartments) which educated 95 per cent of the population up to 1944. Transfer to secondary school at age 11 is not based on any researched or proven good practice but was simply the result of last minute compromises in 1944 when politicians were in a hurry to build a fully national system of secondary education but, with no money, resorted to cutting three years off the elementary school curriculum to create the four-year secondary school.

To secure standards and maintain pupil progress surely we should move again towards all-through schools for five to 17-year-olds?

Teachers will be able to more easily assess pupil progress and intervene earlier if standards slip.

PAUL GREGORY

Euclid Street, Swindon

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Educate from home

MOST students of the working class know how little school prepares them for the real life. The school teaches them to serve the system and accept the way things are – you conform to the popular policies and disregard your individuality; imagination, creativity and observation.

Most people know that the school system has little to address how to write and read well.

Most students lack confidence in expressing themselves well in public.

Most students do not know how to think critically and analytically. They do not know how to ask the right questions and evaluate about their surroundings. These are the basics of education.

Most people know anytime a politician or a public figure rushes to write or make a speech, he or she is denying something. There is something rotten.

The current school system is utterly failing. The council leader, the MP and the headteachers can write articles in defence of their business. Nevertheless, they will only manage to show how school has failed children and, ultimately, society. Their articles merely show how desperately they want to deny the Ofsted report.

They’ve failed to share with us any coherent argument. Instead of telling us what went wrong, they defend the failure of the school to educate little people. Thus, they defend the indefensible.

Most people know there is another, more effective way of schooling children. They also know the current school system denies them a way of learning effectively.

The Ofsted report discusses a cause, not an effect, Therefore, it is time for school renewal. It’s time for another way of thinking about schooling. It’s time for children to be home schooled.

AXMED BAHJAD

Ermin Street

Swindon

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In praise of SEQOL unit

ON READING your piece on SEQOL in SA, Friday, November 18, I felt I must write and praise the whole team.

I had a stroke last year and during my stay at the SEQOL unit I was well looked after and the food was lovely.

I was not the easiest of patients, but they never let that matter, there were not enough nurses and they ended up doing everything, including one nurse who told me she would sing to me if I didn’t do what I was told (I’m sorry I can’t remember your name) but you were lovely.

And all the SEQOL nurses and carers that came out for my aftercare, I can’t praise them enough, they never came in and said we had to hurry up, and all of them were very caring.

It remains to be seen if the GWH will have the same service. I hope they can keep up as good a service as SEQOL.

L TOWNSEND

Rodbourne, Swindon

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Lane disciplines

ON THE way back from my daughter’s house in Covingham recently I managed to get around Greenbridge fairly quickly, but then when I got to the roundabout by Jewsons, which lets you go into either Kembrey Park or Kembrey Street, I came to a halt.

That was at 16.40, I was in the outside lane, as I was going forward to the Headlands Road mini roundabout – the inside lane is for those who want to go left to Cricklade Road and the rat run to the cross roads – but everybody and his dog now uses this lane to jump the right hand queue, so it was 17.21 when I got to the Cricklade Road junction with the bus lane as well.

The traffic was then back beyond the Jewson roundabout and out of sight.

The traffic coming up Cricklade Road, to go into the right hand lane was also back beyond sight, I eventually got to the mini roundabout at Headlands at 17.35.

This is not an occurrence that only happens now and then, it is every night.

Greenbridge is being rebuilt now, for traffic that will be generated in about four to five years time. When is this lousy council going to address this problem, if ever at all?

If, and when, I get caught like this again, I will go into the left hand lane and block the road so the right hand lane can then move forwards, not nice, but something has to be done. Never seen a PC in this area at all.

T REYNOLDS

Wheeler Avenue, Swindon

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Lunatic cyclists

RE: the new rules for Regent Street. Dogs to be kept on leads and clean up their mess of course.

But what about the cyclists? Is it okay for those lunatics that speed down Regent Street just managing to miss a lucky pedestrian?

Three whizzed past me in half an hour with no one to stop them or fine them.

P CARTER

Swindon

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‘Mind on job’, please

“KEEP your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel” – so went the words of a song from the ‘60s! Relevant to the article about eating while driving (SA, Nov 19)?

Many people are unaware of how far a car will travel in a short space of time.

At 30 mph a car travels one mile in two minutes; that is half a mile in one minute or a quarter of a mile in 30 seconds which is equivalent to approximately 16 metres in one second – less time than it takes to say “I could kill someone doing this”!

So, when driving, in addition to “keeping your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel”, keep your mind on the job!

MALCOLM MORRISON

Prospect Hill, Swindon

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Pull over? It’s socks!

LOOKING at your headline on Saturday and the photos of people with their hands off the steering wheels of their cars reminds me of an occasion when the police saw a woman knitting while driving.

The police pulled along side her and shouted: “Pull over, pull over.”

And she said: “No, it’s a pair of socks actually.”

A lighter moment on a serious subject.

GORDON STAPLES

Northern Road, Swindon

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Generous donations

THANK you to everyone who generously donated to our collection at West Swindon Shopping Centre recently.

We raised an amazing £743 which will support one of our guide dog partnerships for just over 21 weeks. Our thanks also go to the management and staff of the centre for their help and support.

ALAN FLETCHER

Swindon Guide Dogs For The Blind

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Movie remakes

YET another comic gem from Bill Williams with his movie remakes (SA, November 18).

However, he missed the obvious one: ‘Liar, Liar’ starring Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, directed by Nigel Farage.

MANDY BARRY-CADES

Matley Moor, Swindon

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Overcrowding answer

IT IS worth noting that the overcrowding problems in British prisons are increased by our membership of the EU.

Currently, if a citizen of an EU member state receives a custodial sentence for a crime in the UK they are incarcerated in a British jail.

After Brexit they could be deported to their home countries and save money and space here.

NOEL GARDNER

Carlisle Avenue, Swindon