Ministry of Education

DfE need to listen to the people they represent and invest in children's futures - until then, they will br rated inadequate

Rather Pathetic

Robbing Tory parasites. 34 MILLION POUNDS of taxpayers money to refurb this building, what an outright bloody scam.

Good experience

I have taken biology and chemistry exams twice, with different exam boards, because it was my intention to study biomedical science. I studied hard for many hours a day every day to obtain excellent grades and performed well in every exam but I was not awarded any grades (two Us). Two months after taking exams, students are all awarded Us. Exam boards state that the person who viewed the answers made a mistake. They say that another person must view the answers to award them the right grades. They steal students’ money by stating that answers must be viewed many times. The word “review” is used to hide the fact that grades are awarded in exchange of money. Exam boards sell grades because they are private commercial companies (Limited). My internet provider is a Limited company. I give them money and, in return, they provide me with access to the internet. The more money they receive, the better students’ grades will be. Despite their huge profits, they are registered as charities to dodge taxes.Grades should have been included in the expensive fees I had paid to sit exams. Students have to pay expensive exam fees to take exams because further education is monopolised by private commercial companies. I was awarded two Us because I did not buy grades. Although I proved universities that grades are sold, they adamantly refused to accept me. It is evidence that universities’ admission departments and exam boards work together. If students do not buy grades, they are not accepted. A few people study biology and chemistry at A-Level because it is very expensive to buy grades in these subjects. As a result, the NHS has a chronic shortage of personnel. Poaching medical personnel from poor nations is unethical and it is not the solution to this problem.The government privatised education to save money but it pays for students’ tuition fees. This is a paradox. If the government owned sixth form colleges and universities, it would save a lot of money. Additionally, the NHS would not have a chronic shortage of medical staff because studious people, indigenous and foreigners, would attend British medical schools. Moreover, doctors would not misdiagnose diseases.Universities are private institutions (de facto). A university degree costs £9,250 because the government does not own universities. They are considered public institutions (de jure) because the government pays for students’ university fees. Medicine and dentistry are the most expensive courses. For this reason, the government limits places in medical schools (numerus clausus). If the government owned universities, numerus clausus would be useless. If there were no numerus clausus in medical schools, the NHS would not have a chronic shortage of doctors. Rich people only can buy 3 As in order to enrol in medical schools. UCAT exams are managed by private commercial companies. Admission to medical school is based on money only, not on knowledge and mental skills. Unfortunately, private education has a detrimental effect on people’s health and lives. The NHS has to pay billions of pounds every year in compensation because private education produces incompetent doctors.If education were nationalised, the NHS would save billions of pounds as doctors would not misdiagnose diseases. Furthermore, “mickey mouse degrees” would disappear. I think that European universities do not accept British A-Levels because they are issued by private commercial companies. In the other European nations, there are no exam boards because academic certificates are awarded by sixth form colleges themselves on behalf of governments. If A-Levels were public qualifications, the logo of the government (Dieu et mon droit) would appear on certificates. I am not the only person complaining about the fact that education is monopolised by private entities. There is no meritocracy if education is private. Meritocracy is in public institutions only.PS: I am also capable of studying at medical school.

The DfE’s Strategy for Sustainability & Climate Change is a step in the right direction but it’s woefully lacking in ambition, funding, and accountability. Our young people are not being any way near sufficiently prepared for a future dictated by the climate and nature crises, content about which should be woven into the curriculum in ALL subjects and stages. The Government itself declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 and the DfE should acknowledge this by making it a safeguarding priority in order to protect our young people and those of us who work in schools. I speak as as an experienced and committed Geography Teacher who has tried to engage with the DfE on this issue in a number of capacities but have struggled to make headway. The climate & ecological crisis should not be seen as a political issue - it is clear in the science and has been for years. It is the responsibility of civil servants to work with teachers and educators convince their Ministers to take more meaningful action on this. Thank you for your work on this but our children deserve more and better.

I experienced many problems trying to develop my career in education. After following up issues as much as I could myself with no success, I started to contact the dfe for help.After attending 10+ interviews for jobs in education, most within the space of a year after leaving my last permanent job in 2017, I started to feel increasingly fed up with how difficult it was becoming to secure work.A typical recruitment process would last a day. This often involved a few hours prep for me- designing a power point for the lesson that I would teach, preparing resources for students, writing a lesson plan and reading up on possible interview questions.As someone who has much experience in recruiting myself, I felt that I was often being negatively impacted by incorrect recruitment processes and condescending attitudes from adults. I ended up feeling apathy towards the whole process, and being none the wiser on what I should do differently after each failed interview.A snapshot of my experiences during recruitment processes with a school or agency 2017 onwards:1. Attending an academy and then being left unsupervised in a staff room after teaching the lesson, waiting to be interviewed. I was the only candidate and after around 2 hours, when I finally went to the reception desk to enquire about the delay, I was told that I should not be walking around unescorted. I continued to wait.2. My folder of personal documents containing photo ID, proof of address, original degree and teaching certificates being left in an unsupervised and unlocked room after being taken for photocopying by an academy. I had been asked to bring all this paper work in for the interview.3. My personal documents being copied by an agency, only to be returned with my original birth certificate missing which was then found on the photocopying machine.4. One agency had photocopied my documents (ID etc as above) in front of me. So on another occasion, I asked an agency if I could be present when my personal documents were being copied. The individual did not agree to this and I gave in as I did not want to risk not being able to register.5.Not being provided with class data for a lesson I was teaching as this information was 'sensitive'. I was then assessed on progress of the class (and told it was not good enough).6. Being asked to plan an observed lesson for a 'low-middle ability' class and on request for further clarification of what this meant in terms of grades, being told that I cannot have this information as it will go against school policy.7. Receiving feedback that I was not what they were 'looking for' from a school. That was all.8.Receiving feedback from interviewers that they did not feel my teaching style was 'right for the school' but they added that I 'had excellent subject knowledge'. I felt that there was no real substance in this feedback.9.Receiving feedback for my lesson where students were using strawberry laces and jelly beans to make models of atoms that it would have been better to use blu tac and mini whiteboards. I was left thinking this was a reason for not getting the job.It would have been too much for me to put in a complaint every time - my focus was to get a job. I did still raise concerns about an interview process many times but this was not followed up so I eventually stopped attending interviews.I ended up registered with at least 8 teaching agencies in a period of 3 years. Agencies in an area generally work with the same schools anyway. I was spending hours filling in long application forms requiring the same information in a different format each time.At the same time, I had no choice but to register with a new agency every so often to ensure I had an income.I eventually stopped writing to the dfe to complain because I felt ignored.Problems continued and in the end, I left teaching completely because of the negative impact on my health and wellbeing.

Why you change gcse to linier???? Are you doing gcse no so why are you adding on more stress!!!!!

Didn't help when abuse by teacher

Requires much improvement.