Tuesday 5 October 2010

Of All The People To Target…

Two learning assistants were singled out by inspectors at the Trosnant Junior School in Havant, Hamps, for their heavy local accents and grammatical inaccuracy, which they said were setting a bad example to pupils.
At last! This’ll gladden Steve Shark’s day!
Now the school’s head, Jim Hartley, is to draft in a consultant to help them brush up on the way they speak.
Clearly, no cutbacks affecting this school…
Mr Hartley admitted there was a problem with 'Pompey' slang at his school after it was served with a 'notice to improve'. The Ofsted report highlighted that “adults do not always demonstrate grammatical accuracy in speaking and writing. This sets a bad example and limits pupils' progress".
You know, I can’t help but think that this is hardly the only school with such a problem….
"This is not denigrating the Pompey accent or dialect - we are all proud of where we come from.

"I accept however that bad grammar is not acceptable in the classroom which is why we have taken the inspectors' criticisms constructively.

"We will be bringing in a consultant to work with two of our learning assistants to enable them to use the Queen's English in the classroom."
This will no doubt come as a shock. As will this:
Mr Hartley, who declined to name the assistants in order to protect their identity, said the problem was on a par with other mistakes like bad spellingthat you would expect teachers to correct.”
I would indeed expect teachers to correct it, but then, for many years, the policy of ‘not stifling their self-esteem’ has held sway. As we hear from bloggers like Dick Puddlecote and the wonderful Miss Snuffalupagus (who has sadly now closed her enthralling blog).

So forgive me for being sceptical…
He said: “A lot of our children come from Portsmouth and have a Portsmouth accent.

"But we need to be able to hear it for ourselves to help them. We can't let them say things like 'I likes football'.
But we can allow them to say things like ‘innit?’ and ‘aks’..?

Because certainly, no-one’s ever bothered to pick up any of the schoolchildren I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to come across on my morning commute. So I wonder why?

Is the Pompey accent and slang somehow more offensive, or could there be some other reason?

11 comments:

subrosa said...

Other reasons Julia including social engineering. How teachers or even classroom assistants with poor spoken and/or written English skills were ever employed in a school beats me. Yet we're continually told what a high standard of education we provide.

Angry Exile said...

Is the Pompey accent and slang somehow more offensive...

I reckon that depends on whether you're from Southampton :-)

Woman on a Raft said...

O/T - any idea what is up with Al Jahom?

JuliaM said...

@WoaR: there was some Twittertalk about blog problems yesterday - I expect he'll soon have it sorted.

Anonymous said...

What we now need is the case of this recommendation being made against a black, Chinese lesbian with a speech-impediment. Under Horriet's Law this would be a criminal matter. Why is my BCL entitled to diversity and a denizen of Portsmouth not?

Macheath said...

@subrosa

'How teachers or even classroom assistants with poor spoken and/or written English skills were ever employed...'

Easy; it's the Estelle Morris effect - 'those who themselves struggled with academic work are are best placed to understand and help slow learners' - and its converse, 'you can take your Oxbridge MA elsewhere - we don't want your elitist sort here'.

The educational establishment has spent the past four decades driving intelligent teachers into the private sector.

Captain Haddock said...

That we should expect, nay demand high standards of spelling and grammar from Teachers is something which the "profession" has been deliberately ignoring for at least 50 years ..

I have a very good friend (now retired and aged 70) .. He was a Geography & Maths Teacher for the whole of his working life and his spelling is atrocious ..

As the old saying would have it .. "Those who can, do .. Whilst those who can't, teach" ..

Pavlov's Cat said...

In an interview with a 25 y/o today

I was called 'bruv' 'guv' snd 'mate' countless times. Despite having introduced myself and wearing a prominant name badge around my neck

The response to any question started either 'Yeah bruv...' or 'Nah bruv...'

But bless him, he never said 'innit' and knew how to pronounce 'ask'. Which at the moment seems to be a rarity

blueknight said...

Pompey Slang as I have heard spoke.

Bunt (n) money
Wielder (n) moustache
Gavver (n) Police Officer
Shant (n) beer,drink
Squinny (v) moan or complain for
no reason
Dinny (n) stupid
Chaw (v) steal
Lairy (adj) aggressive
Scummer (adj)resident of Southampton
Cushty (adj) nice,good

banned said...

"We can't let them say things like 'I likes football'. " Why not? Pompous twat.

I first encounted "aks" about forty years ago and put it down to the black African equivalent of Chinese people not being able to pronounce certain Latin letters. Just once or twice have I come across poor white younglings using it in a desperate attempt to fit in and survive in the squalor to which we have abandoned them.

JuliaM said...

”How teachers or even classroom assistants with poor spoken and/or written English skills were ever employed in a school beats me.”

MacHeath beat me to the answer.

”What we now need is the case of this recommendation being made against a black, Chinese lesbian with a speech-impediment. Under Horriet's Law this would be a criminal matter.”

Indeed! Why the Condems didn't put that little IED on the 'first to defuse' list, I'll never know..

”But bless him, he never said 'innit' and knew how to pronounce 'ask'. Which at the moment seems to be a rarity”

Someone will snap him up, with those skills!

”Pompey Slang as I have heard spoke.”

I didn't know that's where 'lairy' and 'cushty' came from! I've always assumed they were London slang.

”Just once or twice have I come across poor white younglings using it in a desperate attempt to fit in...”

It's pretty common in East London to be totally unable to tell the difference, with your eyes closed or your back to them, in the race of school age youngsters from their voices alone...