Stuff

1. The school computer system is still shot. Read about it here. The inability to use pen drives to move coursework to and from school is a real pain in the neck with the deadline fast approaching.

2. Gordon Brown suggests that teacher training could be reduced to 6 months. Fine if they are good enough but most aren't. I am generally against men coming into teaching in their mid thirties. As a mentor they find it hard to take advice from someone like me who is trying to help them and it does beg the question what career have you already failed at.

3. Barack Obama wants to introduce merit based pay into US schools. However I believe this is a particularly divisive policy and very simplistic. Teaching staff have to be a team that is consistent in their approach. There is no way that one individual member of staff can enforce discipline on their own. Secondly how are you deciding who has done a good job? Exam results - well count me out of teaching bottom set. What about if a student gets glandular fever and is ill for 6 months - would there teacher miss out on a bonus. Lesson observations - how are students going to act if they know there teachers salary is based on their behaviour. I don't think that there is a fair system that can be operated. If the bonus works on a school or district level then you attract the best teachers to the best schools and increase the division between two separate areas.

4. The Republican s in Northern Ireland have been put in a difficult positions. Do they criticise the attacks and potentially irritate their voters or stay quiet and show that they support violence as a means to achieve their aims. So far nothing.

5. Does Mugabe really think that car crashes are the work of God?