Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Statistics

Some odd statistics about this blog.

Pageviews
United States
5063
United Kingdom
1732
Russia
1192
Germany
615
Netherlands
595
Poland
203
South Korea
183
Ukraine
157
France
87
Canada
86

The number of people in the US reading this blog is very gratifying considering it is predominantly about British politics. The sales of Classroom Teacher Manual are higher in the US than in the UK too.

The 157 in the Ukraine is a surprise too!

The browser statistics show an interesting trend

Internet Explorer
5005 (42%)
Chrome
3892 (33%)
Firefox
1866 (15%)
Safari
467 (3%)
Opera
327 (2%)
GranParadiso
59 Mobile Safari
23 Netscape
23 Mobile
19 Java
Putting IE firmly in the lead. However this week's statistics tell a changing story:

Chrome
383 (71%)
Firefox
94 (17%)
Internet Explorer
27 (5%)
Safari
26 (4%)
Opera
4 Mobile Safari
3 BingPreview

The triumph of the Chrome it would seem.

The audience statistics for this week are:

United States
369
United Kingdom
137
Switzerland
11
Russia
11
Germany
5
Malaysia
3
Belgium
2
Poland
1

And a big Dzien dobry to my Polish reader!

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Unqualified Disaster - how do we fight back?

This (union branch) notes that the government has brought in the use of unqualified teachers against the opposition of all teachers and heads organisations and a majority of parents. This was brought in without any discussion or consultation.
The government claim that this will enable schools to bring in "brilliant people" instead of teachers to teach our children. We reject this argument as false. Brilliant people are already invited to visit schools to talk to children and to answer questions. If they wanted to teach they would have been brilliant enough to get a teaching qualification.
The government's aim would appear to be teaching on the cheap. Our children deserve better.
We therefore call on other education stakeholders including governors, head teachers, parents' organisations and local councillors to protest this move and to write to Michael Gove telling him that they support the use of qualified teachers to teach our children. They should also query why they were not consulted about this drastic and irresponsible move.
School letterheadings and notices could contain the words "Qualified teachers only" to differentiate schools who care for their pupils enough to insist on qualified teachers. This is as important as hospitals employing qualified surgeons.
Parents have a right to know whether their children are being taught by qualified teachers.



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