Government Bill "gives pupils more rights and parents more say"

[Si Hunt]

In particular:

Under the guarantee parents will have the right to demand information about their child's performance and about their child's school, closer involvement with their child's progress through a designated tutor, including regular face-to-face meetings and more influence over their schools.

Pupils will be guaranteed a say on how their school is doing and how it can be improved, primary school children who are falling behind in English or maths will get one-to-one help and students will have the right to a personal tutor at secondary school

What I want to know is, who's going to do all this "one to one help", presumably outside normal school hours? Will they magic up more teachers, or will they just expect the existing ones to work even harder for the same money? My Dad already works most days til 9pm and many weekends just to get his work done, all for no overtime.

Is this a good idea? Education authorities say Government should check with schools that they can deliver these things, before promising them on their behalf.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Ah! It's the gobby parents' charter. The only parents who get listened to will be the idiotic moaners.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hey lets focus on league tables and parent feedback. Anything but actual teaching.

[Jamie McCrimmon]

Sounds to me like a sinking government making a desperate bid for votes at the next election.

[Stuart Wallis]

What I want to know is, who's going to do all this "one to one help", presumably outside normal school hours? Will they magic up more teachers, or will they just expect the existing ones to work even harder for the same money? My Dad already works most days til 9pm and many weekends just to get his work done, all for no overtime.

This being one of those ideas that's good in principal, but how are they going to work it? Also, can they guarantee that the right pupils get the right amount of attention? Could we get more specially-trained admin staff to decide these things? I mention this last point because someone I knew at school is a deputy head now, and his precise title is "Deputy Headteacher in charge of Administration" - in other words he does most of the paperwork so that the other headteachers can actually get on with the job of educating.