Beefy's Corner - The Off-Topic Chat Thread

No but it will probably go on Youtube or something after.

It's 2-2, Flo and Kilbane scored for the ledges. Graeme Murty is on.

 

Everyone should sign this petition and stand up to corruption in the FA!

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/doncasterbelles

For those that don't know, it's in response to the FA's disgraceful decision to relegate Doncaster after just 90 minutes of football in order to make room for Man City just because they have more money. In fact, the whole WSL expansion has been full of disgraceful decisions: Excluding Leeds and Pompey in favour of Durham and Oxford, Promoting mid-table Man City two friggin' divisions, relegating Doncaster to make room for Man City as I've said, turning the game into ]franchise football by relocating Lincoln to Notts County, etc.

There's a very good article on it here:

http://popularstand.wordpress.com/20...caster-belles/

 

Root out for 71 .

 

Ah, only just seen this. The facepalm was more due to stating that increasing the school day is a plot to destroy family life. It's not really, it's just sensible, get more done in school which means kids, especially younger kids, won't get as much homework and would also probably lead to better academic attainment. My 5 year old niece gets homework every day but if the school day was a bit longer, then she wouldn't need to and a 5 year old getting home work is pretty ridiculous. Furthermore, there is the ridiculous situation whereby kids even in senior school finish school at around 3pm. Sure maybe at infant school level kids should leave that early, but senior school level? That's just silly. It would also benefit parents more as it means they'd have to pay out less for childcare costs between the end of the school day and when they get home from work, if they finish at 5. Though I'm not sure starting earlier would be much better, unless they're intending to finish later as well. One of the schools I went to we finished at 7:30 in the evening, but we didn't have homework ever!

And I'll have you know I voted independent during the County elections.

Also I'm not a Brony.

 

Bairstow out for 5 .

 

Well first off you're completely ignoring teachers in this extending of the school day and cutting down the holidays business. Considering they're paid bugger all I think it's preposterous to suggest they should work longer hours. I'd also say that the ending of schools at 3 o'clock is totally fine, it leads to children going out in the world with their friends and becoming far more well rounded citizens than staying in school and becoming robots who only aspire to ace their next test.

 

Oh dear. England go from 159-2 to 171-6. Pathetic.

 

Beat me to it Tomw.

Still won't know until the Kiwis go in again , but we were looking strong ......

 

There's actually plenty of evidence in other countries that shorter hours might be more beneficial for the kids. A later start would help, as well as cutting out bullshit subjects that people don't need to be taught.

 

I see Verona vs Empoli is getting called a fix.

 

Plenty of people get paid bugger all but work long hours. Plus, from my job searching, pay doesn't seem that terrible for an ordinary (i.e. non-HoD) teacher. Though of course if you're in the private sector, you have it made.

I still think 3 is too early. Finish it at 4 for kids in year 6/7-9, as you can get a lot of extra stuff done in a double period, and maybe 4:30 or so from year 10 onwards. You can still go out and hang out with friends afterwards, maybe finish earlier on a Friday and possibly a Wednesday. Tbf, I do think 7:30 was a bit excessive, especially as we had Saturday school.

I'm sorry to hear about your mum, I don't really have an opinion on the academy system I'm afraid as I don't know much about them and I don't want to comment on something I know little about, but didn't Labour introduce them?

I hope you're not including geography there!!!! But maybe a later start with a later finish would be beneficial.

 

Children start a term before their 5th birthday is stupid, they should start school at around 7yrs old. Starting school so early leads to burn out and they wonder why 12yr olds etc start dropping out of school.

 

I just realised that I should probably remove the stuff about her as I don't want her getting into any trouble over what I said.

I guess it's down to particular kids and how they learn whether lengthening school hours would help or hinder them. I'm kind of predisposed to get angry at most things Gove proposes though.

 

I only got 3 years of geography (years 7-9) so no, that's not taught too much. I was thinking more along the lines of religious education and compulsory PE.

Kids should probably know the basics of what religious people believe, and they should be taught to be tolerant, but I don't see how they need weekly lessons for 12 years to get the hang of that. PE should be optional after school, like in Germany, and I might go as far as including all the "arts" in that as well. In my experience, most kids just piss around during those lessons and it's just a waste of everyone's time.

 

Children of 5 years up to about 9 or 10 should be spending most of their time playing, not doing schoolwork. You learn an incredible amount by playing. The problem is that nowadays any form of play which involves risk is completely frowned upon, and that's the form of play where you learn most.

And what's all this guff about academic attainment? The problem is that if you try and gear school around passing exams, you exclude the majority of children who are not academically inclined. Those children who need most help at school aren't the bright ones, but those who struggle with reading and writing and basic maths, and they just get ignored in today's exam-centred universe.

 

Personally, I was very lucky to have went to two very good schools that have definitely given me the best chance of doing something with my life. So while I'm sitting here thinking that there's not much wrong with school, I appreciate that it's not the same for everyone.

Admittedly, there was a lot of guff taught (like RE, the only black mark on my CV...), but yeah, I guess I was one of the lucky ones...

 

The role of homework is not to do work which you don't have time to do in school. The point is to get home, and do some extension on the work already done at school, in order to cement the knowledge in the children's heads. Even if schools lasted another 2 hours, the amount of homework should in theory remain constant, if not increasing, as the function is to supplement work that has already been done. So really the trade-off in increasing school hours is not 'work at school' vs 'work at home instead', it's between 'more work at school' vs 'more free time'.

 

I'd find another planet for Farage and his wacky ideas!

 

It also promotes independent learning.

 

Michael Gove is absolutely clueless! Mind you so are the rest of his Tory chums! It's a pity that there is nothing radical coming from Labour at the present time!