2014- 2015 A New
Curriculum….something to look forward to.
Well I was only
going to write about MFL (Modern
Foreign Languages), but too many
things have happened since the first day of September.
Last Friday I
went for a pizza with my wife and her friends. Six 3 ½ year old girls and their
mums!
As you can
imagine being the only man on the
table, I was quite “challenged ” having to
engage in conversation with small children and trying to hold it all together
after a long week where I had been with children all day.
In between children
screaming, laughter and flying pieces of pizza, I was picking up the colouring
pencils from the floor when I heard one of the mums talking about schools and education, OFSTED Reports, and
the big expenses of private education.
This was my
heaven sent opportunity to stop being the nanny and to be able to join in to
the adult conversation for at least five
minutes.
After a
couple of glasses of wine the mums had started chatting about the eternal subject “which schools would
they apply for in September”. I thought I would share their absolute shock when
they heard that there was a new curriculum and that this meant essential
changes were on there way. The table went quiet when I mentioned the inclusion
of Modern Foreign Languages, which could be “ancient or modern” ones. They all went on to their mobiles and
started searching when I mentioned the changes in Geography, History and
COMPUTING!!!! The discussion went on and on and some of them texted later to
ask where they could find more information about this and asked what schools were
doing about it.
Anyway, what
this shockingly festive moment confirmed to me was that generally parents have
got all the best intentions of securing their children the best education they
can. However there is little digestible
and relevant information for them.
That
motivated me to write this brief blog and reflect on what kind of media should
we use as teachers to communicate between us effectively, certainly emails are good but going through 25
emails where we all agree on something, can take time from a teacher’s already
busy day.
I have always thought that a staff blog can be
immediately accessible, for us to
communicate, catch up and reflect on what has been going on. It is quite simple
to use and can be also very quick.
For instance
I wanted to share with you, how excited
and enthusiastic the children have been about MFL this year, which for me
has been a big incentive and has kept me very motivated to go through the inevitably
tedious hours of planning and marking.
Have a look
and enjoy.
Mr Santillan
(Spanish Teacher)