Don't bug me teacher, eating me breakfast.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I think we all (as a community) have some responsibility to each other......this proprietor lives in the area of the school...she must know what time school starts....and while she has no responsibility to ensure the children are in class at the correct time, she didn't need to undermine the authority of the teacher in the way she did.
The message she is sending out to these children is that it is OK to break the rules.....and she is sanctioning that.

I am very disappointed to read this story in the Observer, because in a way they are justifying her actions by reporting it in the way they did.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

Accrington is a terrifically boring place isn't it. How this got in the paper at all is a mystery.


The school is obviously an institution geared up for failure on every front.

Maybe this teacher cares enough(or maybe it is the school that cares) to stop the rot, by taking the action that was reported.
We have actually got a very one sided story......there was no comment from the teacher concerned, or the parents of the pupils involved in the incident

[shakermaker]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Maybe this teacher cares enough(or maybe it is the school that cares) to stop the rot, by taking the action that was reported.

Surely it'd be a better example to set if the school was to improve it's clearly awful standards academically and make the students want to be there on time, or at least feel like they should. Patrolling butty shops shouldn't be the first thing a teacher does in the morning.

[Margaret Pilkington]

You cannot improve standards when the pupils show such a blatant disregard for school rules and discipline. Being late because you can't help it is one thing, but being late because you don't care.......!
Latecomers disrupt the learning of the more interested students, and generally give the school a bad name.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by jambutty

As for the butty shop – well it’s none of the school’s business who buys what and when. The teacher who stormed in the shop was out of order. She/he should have been in school doing his/her job and not actiung like some avenging Truant Officer. A schools’ responsibility starts and ends at the school gate.

What makes you so sure that it is not that teachers job to act on truant kids?

And yes it is the schools responsibility what the kids buy when they are in school time.

Did you know that the school can issue a fine to the parents of the truant children?

I do hope that the Head Teacher at Rhyddings comes down hard on these children and makes an example of them.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

Patrolling butty shops shouldn't be the first thing a teacher does in the morning.

Why should it not be?

We all like to moan about the lack of discipline in schools and how it used to be better in the good old days.

Surely the first stage of discipline for a child should be getting to school on time.

[panther]

Why are kids going to the butty shop for their breakfast in the first place?

Whatever happened to the good old typical breakfast.......TOAST OR CEREAL!!

They shouldnt be having egg buttys or bacon buttys!!, no wonder the grades are low

[shakermaker]

Originally Posted by Neil

Why should it not be?

We all like to moan about the lack of discipline in schools and how it used to be better in the good old days.

Surely the first stage of discipline for a child should be getting to school on time.

Hunting kids down with snipers and bear traps is just going to create more anger in the youth.
Making standards better with teaching and discipline within the school will have positive ripple effects.
Go into the jungle that is Rhyddings and then go into BRGS, for instance. You will see that it is the standard of teaching and discipline within the school that transcends to behaviour out of school. After your visit to both schools, take the school bus home. You'll see what I mean.
A lot of the problems in this country at the moment are due to failure to tackle the problem at the core.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

A lot of the problems in this country at the moment are due to failure to tackle the problem at the core.

What is the core problem?
What is BRGS?

[shakermaker]

Originally Posted by Neil

What is the core problem?
What is BRGS?

The core problem in this instance is shoddy educational standards.

BRGS is Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Neil

Why should it not be?

We all like to moan about the lack of discipline in schools and how it used to be better in the good old days.

Surely the first stage of discipline for a child should be getting to school on time.

Spot on Neil, if we were late for school in the morning, we were also late leaving in the evening, like detention

[katex]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

Hunting kids down with snipers and bear traps is just going to create more anger in the youth.

Tut, tut, tut ... that someone had the audacity to point out in public that they ought to be in school at 8.50 a.m. and not buying butties !!!

Have taken Jambutty's comment re. the school gates on board .. ok then teachers, if on returning home you see some of your pupils in uniform, turning over a dustbin, writing graffiti on walls and tripping an old lady up with a walking stick on Union Road, just completely ignore it please, as bound to be someone who comments that it is none of your business.
I still feel that what this teacher did was over and above the call of duty and deserves a medal !

Attacking 'the core' problem has nothing to do with this thread, and from what I have read Rhyddings are making every effort to improve their standards.

Are pupil's lateness/absences not put on the end of term report now ? Know it was on my sons (up to 8 years ago) .. I always checked to see if any I didn't know about.

[steeljack]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

The core problem in this instance is shoddy educational standards.

BRGS is Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School.

think you could be wrong in this , I'm thinking the kids at BRGS have parents at home who care about their offsprings future and see education as an investment in the kids future , whereas the parents of the morons attending Rhyddings see the place as just somewhere the kids have to go .

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Doesn't the school's responsibility start when the school day starts? Perhaps it is part of the teacher's duty to track down elusive pupils who should have been in school at that time of day. Why do you use the word "avenging" to describe a truant officer? Aren't they just doing their job and ensuring that children are where they should be? What would you suggest a truant officer should do if they find schoolchildren in a butty shop when they should be in school?

I don't know who the particular teacher was but I do know that some teachers (head/deputy head/head of year etc) have far more responsibilities than simply teaching lessons.

Yes it does but only at the school gate. The only time that a teacher has responsibilities outside the school gate is on an official trip away from school or when walking the pupils from one school to another. Although from what I can gather if the class has to go to a different school for a particular lesson, this is usually done during the dinner hour unsupervised.

Some schools are reluctant to phone the parents of a pupil that hasn’t turned up for school to ask where that pupil is. And why should they? Indeed some head teachers have been heard to state that it is not their job to chase up missing pupils. It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their kids go to school and not the schools to make sure that they get there.

If there is such a thing as a Truant Officer these days then it is that officer’s job to apprehend any school child that he sees not in school. Whether s/he can forcibly march them there is debatable.

Anyone bursting into a shop demanding that the pupils should be at school can legitimately be described as an “avenging” somebody. In any case I wasn’t describing a Truant Officer as avenging, I was comparing a teacher to an avenging Truant Officer.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Many schools will send parents a text message if their child has not shown up for registration.