Schools admit they are extremely worried about the copycat protests that have erupted in the last two weeks, typically sparked by videos shared on TikTok with many thousands of views. But what has shocked many leaders most is the number of parents on social media applauding pupils taking part.Because this isn't just a case of don't-care, my-child-can-do-no-wrong chav parents. Far from it.
Sam Strickland, principal of Duston school, an academy in Northampton that teaches children aged four to 19, told the Observer: “Some parents have been arguing that it is an infringement of human rights for schools to restrict toilet use during lessons. That’s ludicrous.”
Is it? I suspect if the local 'refugee' centre told its inhabitants they could only use the toilets at certain times you'd be pretty vocal about it at cocktail parties with your fellow teaching heads...
He argues that parents are “legitimising” demonstrations that could quickly get out of hand and become a serious risk to young people’s safety, by openly questioning the fairness of school rules and the authority of teachers.
You really believe you shouldn't be subject to questions on those issues, do you?
Chris Stokes, principal of Farnley Academy in Leeds, wrote to parents on 24 February condemning a protest at his school that morning over locked toilets during lessons. A parent told the local newspaper the school was infringing young people’s human rights. Others backed her up on social media.
But Stokes said in his letter that the decision to lock toilets had followed “two very serious safeguarding events”. He wrote: “It was a necessary decision to keep all pupils safe.”
Because collective punishment is the easy way out, rather than dealing with those who break the rules. As expected.
Same rule applies to the staff toilet of course?
ReplyDeleteWhat, you mean there is more than one staff toilet?
I know it is hard to think straight when you sit crossing and recrossing legs and your bladder and or bowel is screaming "We need to go. NOW."
"Safeguarding events".
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Makes me wonder if something happened - "totally unexpected... nobody could have foreseen" etc - as a consequence of some school gender policy or another.
Having been responsible for, among other things, ensuring that exam candidates remain incommunicado whilst having access to lavatories when needed, I’m probably more aware of the difficulties than many teachers - the issue of toilet access is often overlooked because it falls between pastoral, academic and disciplinary stools (so to speak).
ReplyDeleteThe trend towards appointing ever younger Heads (and effectively driving out expensive older teachers) means that policy decisions are in the hands of people with relatively little classroom experience and whose own children, if any, are unlikely to have reached secondary school age; small wonder, then, that mistakes are being made (it’s unlikely, for example, that a Head with teenage daughters would approve the ‘red card’ system).
While I deplore the rioting and disruption, I cannot agree with denying pupils access to lavatories during lessons, although I can see that, vaping and time-wasting aside, the risks of vandalism or bullying and assault (physical or sexual) have effectively led to this impasse. Rather than a total ban, it would be better to follow the French system of ‘surveillants’ patrolling and overseeing discipline and attendance, led by an officer who is part of the senior management team (salaries would be a problem, but perhaps the local authority could cover the expense by sacking some diversity officers).
In the short term, of course, the senior management themselves should be out and about making their presence felt in the hallways (as they used to do back in my early days of teaching); let’s see them earning their ridiculously large salaries for once!
Oh, and as for unisex toilets for pupils: no. Just no.
The thing always to remember is that most people working in education just aren't that smart. They see how Kathy B has made her school successful by an uncompromising commitment to enforcing the necessary discipline and they think' hey, if I do all that, plus enforce unnecessary discipline as well, I'll be even more successful'.
ReplyDeleteGosh...hasn't schooling changed? I can even recall days when teachers were in charge.
ReplyDeleteI don't ever remember having to have a toilet break during a lesson once I'd moved on from the infants class. In those days it wouldn't have been necessary to lock the toilets as it wasn't an issue. I'm left wondering what has changed. Now I'm an old git with slightly worn out plumbing I might have a problem but I'm not planning on going back to school any time soon.
ReplyDelete@Macheath,
ReplyDelete... and so have I, as an Exam Invigilator in a Poly and a Uni. I used to get worked up about it because I knew that the bastards (usually Middle Eastern or South Asian bastards) would have their lecture notes stashed above the toilet cistern. However, the answer was simple: write the exam paper in such a way that a quick look at lecture notes wouldn't help in the slightest. And to make the whole 'looking at notes' even more futile, I presented all the exam candidates with a 'formula sheet' so that it wasn't a test of memory.
I never worried too much about programmable calculators, either, as in order to be helpful, you needed knowledge of what was coming up, and the marks were there mainly for approach rather than for arithmetic. My older colleagues were much bothered by calculators when they were invented, but again, the problem was simply resolved by how you wrote the questions and what the marking scheme was.
Although the 'no talking in exams' rule was strictly enforced, the sort of idiots who wanted to talk weren't getting help from each other, as they were generally equally clueless, and the folk who did know what they were doing kept well clear.
Again, 'cheating notes' don't help in the right sort of exam. I'd allow notes and textbooks as you have them in the real world, and consulting them is just a waste of time - IF the exam is constructed correctly, although the latter is vanishing fast in the era of 'all must succeed because they paid the fees'.
Given the mention of Farnley Academy in Leeds, it is more likely that the incident causing the toilets to be locked was not one of the tranny delusion variety, but of the local recently imported diversity.
ReplyDelete"Same rule applies to the staff toilet of course?"
ReplyDelete*chuckles* Of course!
"Hmmm. Makes me wonder if something happened - "totally unexpected... nobody could have foreseen" etc - as a consequence of some school gender policy or another."
These days, it always pays to wonder that!
"I’m probably more aware of the difficulties than many teachers - the issue of toilet access is often overlooked because it falls between pastoral, academic and disciplinary stools (so to speak)...."
Nicely done!
"...and they think' hey, if I do all that, plus enforce unnecessary discipline as well, I'll be even more successful'."
Add that to the lack of grounding MacHeath describes and it's a recipe for disaster.
"I don't ever remember having to have a toilet break during a lesson once I'd moved on from the infants class."
I can't remember back that far!
"...although the latter is vanishing fast in the era of 'all must succeed because they paid the fees'."
And we can see the results of that policy beginning to show all around us.
"...but of the local recently imported diversity."
Oooh!