Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
Dec 8th 2011, 9:28 pm
#16
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Joined: Dec 2008
Location: Brisbane, QLD. (Though an Ulster girl through and through!)
Posts: 6,578
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
I totally agree, get over it! I'm a teacher, with 11 years experience, and this has always been the way, in England, Northern Ireland, and here in Australia. Us teachers are NOT lazy, the curriculum is actually fully covered, the testing has been done, the reports sent home, so yes we wind down! I made my class a 'Christmas Book', which contained sums and lots of writing exercises as well as some COLOURING IN, all Christmas themed. Hardly lazy, but the children are exhausted, as are the staff, so this is the only way we can 'engage' the children and keep them enthused. Library books - the schools need to do stock takes, the same with reading books. Homeworks, why should we give them for the sake of giving them? Half of the time the parents can't see them far enough! Some I NEVER see and others that I do are covered in last nights dinner and torn....hmmm....
So please, they are children, give it a rest and don't accuse us teachers of being 'lazy' or not caring, the work is done and dusted, how else would we report to you parents if the work wasn't finished?
I don't think I have ever been so exhausted at the end of an academic year, thank crikey that's it over for another year!!! lol
So please, they are children, give it a rest and don't accuse us teachers of being 'lazy' or not caring, the work is done and dusted, how else would we report to you parents if the work wasn't finished?
I don't think I have ever been so exhausted at the end of an academic year, thank crikey that's it over for another year!!! lol
Dec 8th 2011, 9:35 pm
#17
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Joined: Dec 2008
Location: Brisbane, QLD. (Though an Ulster girl through and through!)
Posts: 6,578
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
As I usually do on a Monday after my son, aged 8,comes home from school I asked him where his weekly homework sheet was as it wasn't in his school bag.
We haven't got any because it's nearly the end of term he cried. That's a week and and a half away I remonstrated in disgust.
Not allowed to take out a library book either this week and he has started to bring home all his work, including exercise books.
And he seems to be spending a lot of time colouring in pictures in class. Very nice but not exactly challenging.
So I am not sure if the kids are being taught anything educational. Call me old-fashioned but I thought we sent our children to learn English, maths, science, geography, history, etc right up until at least the last couple of days of the school year.
On Wednesday I was handed a note from my son's school informing me: "During the last few days of the 2011 school year, the Year 3 classes will be watching Nativity, a 2009 BBC comedy" as part of end of year celebrations. Not sure how this fits into the curriculum.
I'd like to know from other parents if their kids' teachers also on "go slow" for the rest of the school year and think the teachers are being lazy.
I know if I decided to "take it easy" at work for 8 days because I was going on leave for a couple of weeks I would be sacked. Why don't the same standards apply in the public sector ?
I would be very annoyed if I was sending my son to a private school and paying for him to spend time watching TV and colouring in pictures of crocodiles and snakes.
We haven't got any because it's nearly the end of term he cried. That's a week and and a half away I remonstrated in disgust.
Not allowed to take out a library book either this week and he has started to bring home all his work, including exercise books.
And he seems to be spending a lot of time colouring in pictures in class. Very nice but not exactly challenging.
So I am not sure if the kids are being taught anything educational. Call me old-fashioned but I thought we sent our children to learn English, maths, science, geography, history, etc right up until at least the last couple of days of the school year.
On Wednesday I was handed a note from my son's school informing me: "During the last few days of the 2011 school year, the Year 3 classes will be watching Nativity, a 2009 BBC comedy" as part of end of year celebrations. Not sure how this fits into the curriculum.
I'd like to know from other parents if their kids' teachers also on "go slow" for the rest of the school year and think the teachers are being lazy.
I know if I decided to "take it easy" at work for 8 days because I was going on leave for a couple of weeks I would be sacked. Why don't the same standards apply in the public sector ?
I would be very annoyed if I was sending my son to a private school and paying for him to spend time watching TV and colouring in pictures of crocodiles and snakes.
Dec 8th 2011, 10:22 pm
#18
Bitter and twisted
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Upmarket
Posts: 17,503
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
No wonder the schools here churn out so many illiterates
Dec 8th 2011, 11:50 pm
#19
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Location: Perth
Posts: 281
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
I totally agree, get over it! I'm a teacher, with 11 years experience, and this has always been the way, in England, Northern Ireland, and here in Australia. Us teachers are NOT lazy, the curriculum is actually fully covered, the testing has been done, the reports sent home, so yes we wind down! I made my class a 'Christmas Book', which contained sums and lots of writing exercises as well as some COLOURING IN, all Christmas themed. Hardly lazy, but the children are exhausted, as are the staff, so this is the only way we can 'engage' the children and keep them enthused. Library books - the schools need to do stock takes, the same with reading books. Homeworks, why should we give them for the sake of giving them? Half of the time the parents can't see them far enough! Some I NEVER see and others that I do are covered in last nights dinner and torn....hmmm....
So please, they are children, give it a rest and don't accuse us teachers of being 'lazy' or not caring, the work is done and dusted, how else would we report to you parents if the work wasn't finished?
I don't think I have ever been so exhausted at the end of an academic year, thank crikey that's it over for another year!!! lol
So please, they are children, give it a rest and don't accuse us teachers of being 'lazy' or not caring, the work is done and dusted, how else would we report to you parents if the work wasn't finished?
I don't think I have ever been so exhausted at the end of an academic year, thank crikey that's it over for another year!!! lol
AUSTRALIA'S ambition to become the "clever country" is in tatters because it cannot produce enough experts in the two most critical disciplines - mathematics and science.
Top scientists and mathematicians, furious about the Gillard government's $400 million cut in HECS fee relief and axed school science programs, warn Australia is in serious danger of losing its mantle as a world leader in education.
In a bid to return the Australian economy to surplus Treasurer Wayne Swan has taken the razor to education, increasing annual HECS fees for university science and maths students from $4691 to $8353 - cancelling the incentive to study those subjects.
Barry Jones, a former science minister in the Hawke government, said just 9 per cent of Australian university students enrol in the sciences of physics, chemistry and mathematics when the OECD average is 13 per cent and in South-East Asia it is 26 per cent."It looks bad," he said.
There are serious problems in maths and sciences in Australia generally."
Are we a nation of dunces? Have your say below
The "deficiency" starts in primary schools with a high proportion of teachers themselves uneasy with maths and science and by high school, students move on to other interests, Mr Jones added.
And the crisis is set to worsen by 2020 when Australia will have more PhD mathematicians retiring from the workforce than entering it - despite a 55 per cent increase in demand across all sectors of the economy.
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute is so worried about the decline it is planning a national advertisement campaign on buses and trains to promote the impact of maths and statistics on people's "daily lives and on their health and wellbeing".
The head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of NSW, Anthony Dooley, warned the cut to HECS would affect student numbers in the core subjects.
"The country needs more mathematicians and scientists ... our enrolments have been going up by 10 per cent a year and that growth is a realisation that maths and science are crucial to the world's future," Prof Dooley said.
"We need the government to realise that this is a crucial national priority ... we need to be clever and we need people with mathematical skills to drive the economy forward."
The number of advanced maths students across Australia dropped by 25 per cent between 1995 and 2008, while university maths majors fell by 15 per cent between 2001 and 2008. The Australian Academy of Science also urged the government to do more to support the subjects.
"We are slipping behind neighbouring countries in maths and science performance at secondary school and there are growing shortages in the workforce of young people with maths and science skills," president Suzanne Cory said.
"Australia's robust economic future depends upon innovation.," she said.
A spokesman for Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said the HECS subsidy was being abolished because it had not proven to be a cost-effective way of lifting maths and science attainment.
"By the time young people are making university choices many have already made the decision to drop the study of advanced maths and science subjects at high school," he said. "It's for that reason that the government has asked the Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, to work with the science community to develop new means for further lifting student participation rates in maths and science."
Federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett said that science and mathematics were two of the first four subjects to be rolled out under the new national curriculum.
Universities Australia said alternative programs to improve school science and maths and university enrolments were vital while the University of Sydney was seeking more funds to support the most talented students.
Dec 9th 2011, 1:51 am
#20
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Somewhere South... Not Telling YOU
Posts: 10,959
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
Article in today's Sydney Daily Telegraph under the headline: "Are we a nation of dunces ?" The seventh paragraph with the quote from former science minister Barry Jones says it all.
AUSTRALIA'S ambition to become the "clever country" is in tatters because it cannot produce enough experts in the two most critical disciplines - mathematics and science.
Top scientists and mathematicians, furious about the Gillard government's $400 million cut in HECS fee relief and axed school science programs, warn Australia is in serious danger of losing its mantle as a world leader in education.
In a bid to return the Australian economy to surplus Treasurer Wayne Swan has taken the razor to education, increasing annual HECS fees for university science and maths students from $4691 to $8353 - cancelling the incentive to study those subjects.
Barry Jones, a former science minister in the Hawke government, said just 9 per cent of Australian university students enrol in the sciences of physics, chemistry and mathematics when the OECD average is 13 per cent and in South-East Asia it is 26 per cent."It looks bad," he said.
There are serious problems in maths and sciences in Australia generally."
Are we a nation of dunces? Have your say below
The "deficiency" starts in primary schools with a high proportion of teachers themselves uneasy with maths and science and by high school, students move on to other interests, Mr Jones added.
And the crisis is set to worsen by 2020 when Australia will have more PhD mathematicians retiring from the workforce than entering it - despite a 55 per cent increase in demand across all sectors of the economy.
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute is so worried about the decline it is planning a national advertisement campaign on buses and trains to promote the impact of maths and statistics on people's "daily lives and on their health and wellbeing".
The head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of NSW, Anthony Dooley, warned the cut to HECS would affect student numbers in the core subjects.
"The country needs more mathematicians and scientists ... our enrolments have been going up by 10 per cent a year and that growth is a realisation that maths and science are crucial to the world's future," Prof Dooley said.
"We need the government to realise that this is a crucial national priority ... we need to be clever and we need people with mathematical skills to drive the economy forward."
The number of advanced maths students across Australia dropped by 25 per cent between 1995 and 2008, while university maths majors fell by 15 per cent between 2001 and 2008. The Australian Academy of Science also urged the government to do more to support the subjects.
"We are slipping behind neighbouring countries in maths and science performance at secondary school and there are growing shortages in the workforce of young people with maths and science skills," president Suzanne Cory said.
"Australia's robust economic future depends upon innovation.," she said.
A spokesman for Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said the HECS subsidy was being abolished because it had not proven to be a cost-effective way of lifting maths and science attainment.
"By the time young people are making university choices many have already made the decision to drop the study of advanced maths and science subjects at high school," he said. "It's for that reason that the government has asked the Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, to work with the science community to develop new means for further lifting student participation rates in maths and science."
Federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett said that science and mathematics were two of the first four subjects to be rolled out under the new national curriculum.
Universities Australia said alternative programs to improve school science and maths and university enrolments were vital while the University of Sydney was seeking more funds to support the most talented students.
AUSTRALIA'S ambition to become the "clever country" is in tatters because it cannot produce enough experts in the two most critical disciplines - mathematics and science.
Top scientists and mathematicians, furious about the Gillard government's $400 million cut in HECS fee relief and axed school science programs, warn Australia is in serious danger of losing its mantle as a world leader in education.
In a bid to return the Australian economy to surplus Treasurer Wayne Swan has taken the razor to education, increasing annual HECS fees for university science and maths students from $4691 to $8353 - cancelling the incentive to study those subjects.
Barry Jones, a former science minister in the Hawke government, said just 9 per cent of Australian university students enrol in the sciences of physics, chemistry and mathematics when the OECD average is 13 per cent and in South-East Asia it is 26 per cent."It looks bad," he said.
There are serious problems in maths and sciences in Australia generally."
Are we a nation of dunces? Have your say below
The "deficiency" starts in primary schools with a high proportion of teachers themselves uneasy with maths and science and by high school, students move on to other interests, Mr Jones added.
And the crisis is set to worsen by 2020 when Australia will have more PhD mathematicians retiring from the workforce than entering it - despite a 55 per cent increase in demand across all sectors of the economy.
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute is so worried about the decline it is planning a national advertisement campaign on buses and trains to promote the impact of maths and statistics on people's "daily lives and on their health and wellbeing".
The head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of NSW, Anthony Dooley, warned the cut to HECS would affect student numbers in the core subjects.
"The country needs more mathematicians and scientists ... our enrolments have been going up by 10 per cent a year and that growth is a realisation that maths and science are crucial to the world's future," Prof Dooley said.
"We need the government to realise that this is a crucial national priority ... we need to be clever and we need people with mathematical skills to drive the economy forward."
The number of advanced maths students across Australia dropped by 25 per cent between 1995 and 2008, while university maths majors fell by 15 per cent between 2001 and 2008. The Australian Academy of Science also urged the government to do more to support the subjects.
"We are slipping behind neighbouring countries in maths and science performance at secondary school and there are growing shortages in the workforce of young people with maths and science skills," president Suzanne Cory said.
"Australia's robust economic future depends upon innovation.," she said.
A spokesman for Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said the HECS subsidy was being abolished because it had not proven to be a cost-effective way of lifting maths and science attainment.
"By the time young people are making university choices many have already made the decision to drop the study of advanced maths and science subjects at high school," he said. "It's for that reason that the government has asked the Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, to work with the science community to develop new means for further lifting student participation rates in maths and science."
Federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett said that science and mathematics were two of the first four subjects to be rolled out under the new national curriculum.
Universities Australia said alternative programs to improve school science and maths and university enrolments were vital while the University of Sydney was seeking more funds to support the most talented students.
Huh
Werent we talking about Australian primary schools and some peoples opinion that the foot has been taken off the gas too early this term.....
How did we jump from that to this???????
Dec 9th 2011, 2:23 am
#21
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Location: Brisbane, QLD. (Though an Ulster girl through and through!)
Posts: 6,578
Dec 9th 2011, 2:29 am
#22
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Sep 2005
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Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
Dec 9th 2011, 7:51 am
#23
Officially Bewildered
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW
Posts: 5,523
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
But honestly, once the exams are over then what are they supposed to be studying, next year's work?
At 8?
(that's to the OP, Eddie, not to you)
Dec 9th 2011, 8:46 am
#24
'Made in Ulster' Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Location: Brisbane, QLD. (Though an Ulster girl through and through!)
Posts: 6,578
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
Maybe if the OP isn't happy with how us professionals are educating her children, she should pull them out of school and educate them at home herself?! Now there's an idea!!!
Dec 9th 2011, 9:00 am
#25
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2010
Location: Darwin australia
Posts: 253
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
As a teacher i feel the children are working far later here than they did in the uk. In england christmas concert/ Play rehersals ate into the curriculum from mid november. There were mOre parties, discos etc. Christmas worksheets are common in both countries.
Teachers busy working in evenings, weekends all year round- their workload is horrendous, unlike other professions they dont get hour lunch breaks, they cant stand at a photocopier having a natter, they cant be a little late to work if they were up in the night witha sick child.
I think the ease off is well deserved - they spend time enjoying the children. End of year is report writing and assessments - some of these need 1:1 when else can teachers do those?!
Teachers busy working in evenings, weekends all year round- their workload is horrendous, unlike other professions they dont get hour lunch breaks, they cant stand at a photocopier having a natter, they cant be a little late to work if they were up in the night witha sick child.
I think the ease off is well deserved - they spend time enjoying the children. End of year is report writing and assessments - some of these need 1:1 when else can teachers do those?!
Dec 9th 2011, 9:11 am
#26
MODERATOR
Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Province of Vicenza
Posts: 19,049
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
Well well well.
I spend a lot of time criticising how school works in Italy - and I know how it works in the UK. I spend a lot of time reading threads on education in Australia and America and Canada and Spain and France - to get an idea if my kids are doing too much or too little.
I'd be bloody happy if my kids here were spending a week learning a nativity play or something to wind down for Christmas, especially given the country we live in.
There is No nativity play. There is No end of term concert. There is No school choir and there is NO school dance/disco whatever. They do have three days of making stuff after the first two hours of lessons (which are never fully cancelled for so called creativity) to sell at a Christmas school market. There is No half term in Italy. The kids have been slogging away since school began in September with only November 1st off and this long weekend because the bank holiday of December 8th fell on a Thursday.
It's a long haul and the teachers push them. I'm happy for them to wind down a bit. They've been worked hard and they are knackered.
There are a lot of things I do not like here - but a bit of down time before the holidays is not something I moan about.
I spend a lot of time criticising how school works in Italy - and I know how it works in the UK. I spend a lot of time reading threads on education in Australia and America and Canada and Spain and France - to get an idea if my kids are doing too much or too little.
I'd be bloody happy if my kids here were spending a week learning a nativity play or something to wind down for Christmas, especially given the country we live in.
There is No nativity play. There is No end of term concert. There is No school choir and there is NO school dance/disco whatever. They do have three days of making stuff after the first two hours of lessons (which are never fully cancelled for so called creativity) to sell at a Christmas school market. There is No half term in Italy. The kids have been slogging away since school began in September with only November 1st off and this long weekend because the bank holiday of December 8th fell on a Thursday.
It's a long haul and the teachers push them. I'm happy for them to wind down a bit. They've been worked hard and they are knackered.
There are a lot of things I do not like here - but a bit of down time before the holidays is not something I moan about.
Dec 9th 2011, 9:21 am
#27
Im a woomaaan
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,978
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
I don`t see a problem myself - as a kid I never had homework until I went to High School, and we used to bring in games the last few days of Christmas Term in PS. My daughter finished school the other week after her Yr 11 exams and I certainly don`t have a problem with kids relaxing a bit - Term 4 is always a long term no matter how many weeks it is on paper.
Teachers (and support staff) do a lot work not seen by most parents - cut them and the kids some slack.
Teachers (and support staff) do a lot work not seen by most parents - cut them and the kids some slack.
Last edited by gobbyjock; Dec 9th 2011 at 9:25 am.
Dec 9th 2011, 10:54 am
#28
BE Enthusiast
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Location: Helensburgh...the proper one in Scotland
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Dec 9th 2011, 11:06 am
#29
Mostly Harmless
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Semi-rural wonderworld, Brisbane
Posts: 15,109
Re: Does this happen in all schools in Australia ?
Clutching is inevitable.
I bet all the teachers are on a plane to Barbados for 6 weeks, bastards.
