Little Things That Irk You: The Hateful 08

[dataDave]

Why bother

Arcade Club. But typically that's closed on the days my wife booked. So I thought maybe the Pleasure Beach, but then two out of four of our party can't go on any rides, so it's a waste.

We'll be playing with the boomerang and kite on the beach mostly. I want to go up the tower as I've never done that before.

[dataDave]

Trying to pre-order Live-A-Live from GAME. I don't mind collecting it in-store to save myself a fiver on delivery... but I still need to pay a fiver for delivery even if I'm picking it up from your ****ing shop? **** off. I'd rather do without.

Apparently, Burnley won't be receiving stock of this game, so the only way to get it is to pre-order.

EDIT: Amazon it is.

[cutmymilk]

Bit cheaper here https://www.thegamecollection.net/li...BoCuQAQAvD_BwE

[prinnysquad]

Ofsted. Thankfully not coming to my place, but I’ve seen various people on social media say that they’ve had the call today.

It’s the last week of term. The temperature is inhumane. The kids are wiped. The staff are wiped. Just piss off, Ofsted, and use some common sense. The pandemic proved one thing about Ofsted: it’s a needless, useless quango that’s not fit for purpose. By its very nature it can never be fit for purpose. Time to get rid it and replace it with something useful.

[Lebowski]

Ofsted. Thankfully not coming to my place, but I’ve seen various people on social media say that they’ve had the call today.

It’s the last week of term. The temperature is inhumane. The kids are wiped. The staff are wiped. Just piss off, Ofsted, and use some common sense. The pandemic proved one thing about Ofsted: it’s a needless, useless quango that’s not fit for purpose. By its very nature it can never be fit for purpose. Time to get rid it and replace it with something useful.

My wife had to deal with these idiots on a regular basis when she had her own classroom, she worked in a inner city school in a very deprived area with pupils that where 90% Muslim, She regularly had pupils who came into school not knowing English, not having eaten, and all the other issues that come with poverty. So instead of starting at point zero like you would in a leafy lane primary your already a few steps behind most other schools.

it was so demoralizing for her to have kids making massive progress in a year relative to where they started to then get an inspector coming in and telling you your pupils are behind the national average and therefore your failing as a school. What really used to gall her was being told this by failed teachers who couldn't hack it in the classroom and now tell other people what they should be doing,.

[QualityChimp]

Ofsted. Time to get rid it and replace it with something useful.

As a teacher, what do you think would be a better alternative, Prin?
Ofsted definitely needs an overhaul, so I am interested on what your thoughts might be on ways to progress it.

[prinnysquad]

I’d have more of a supportive system.

Local inspectors that team up with schools to guide and improve. People who know the schools and know the area. Professionals with training in the area. Who have a good grasp of context and direction, and can make a positive contribution. They could liaise with HMIs to ensure a constant productive dialogue. Tests should be more regular and supported by class work, so kids are allowed to have a bad day, and schools are not judged on one test on one day. How can that summarise 7 years of a child’s education?

None of this punitive, fear-based counterproductive nonsense. These inspectors waltz in with no idea of context, usually with preconceived judgements based on data alone. Data that consist of one test on one day. The whole process depends on a culture of fear rather than support. Inspectors are often trained in an area of expertise that’s not related to the one they’re checking. It’s a negative, depressing experience, where the overwhelming feeling is that they’re trying to catch you out, or misinterpret, rather than improve you.

[Asura]

None of this punitive, fear-based counterproductive nonsense. These inspectors waltz in with no idea of context, usually with preconceived judgements based on data alone.

You've got a really good point, prinny.

One of the issues with Ofsted is that it's the fist of "standardised education" - that being the (admittedly, noble) aim of a system that intends to try and give every student the same curriculum of things we believe they need to be a functioning member of society.

While good purely in theory, this doesn't work because every student, class and school is different. Standardised systems, then, can fail students who don't fit easily into a box with rigid sides.

For a contrasting example, I taught at schools in Japan, and their system is far more standardised than ours. Every subject has a government-approved textbook, which literally has a section (a page or a few pages) for every lesson. Every student, country-wide, has precisely 42 lessons in maths in a given school year (I don't know the actual number; maybe its 35, maybe it's 55, point is it's the same for every student in the country).

There are some good things about that. For example, it means a student who moves schools doesn't usually have to worry all that much about them being in different parts of the syllabus, because they're unlikely to be more than 1-2 lessons out.

But in practice, it creates an issue with conformity, or where students struggle to conform. The adage here is "if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a ladder, it's going to spend its life always believing itself to be a failure". Students who are particularly gifted don't really get to shine, and students who aren't traditionally academically bright really struggle. And most importantly, it's based on something kinda fundamentally flawed; the idea that every student needs the same education. Some of these schools are in isolated rural communities, while others are in cities, and it's difficult to created a standardised system which caters for all kids.

(there's also the slightly darker topic of how everything taught in school is vetted by the government, but that's a discussion for another day)

Some schools are "better" or "worse" than others. But the reasons for that are tremendously variable and not always within the control of the school. A school on a council estate in Preston is always going to give worse results to Ofsted than one in a nice part of Leamington Spa, because to judge them by the same standards is to imply equality between two things that are not equal.

[fishbowlhead]

Printing directly from InDesign, being a right f****r recently, straight up corrupting the print job most the time (pdf seem to be ok but theres always something off about the jobs). I may have to retire my colour printer for something not obsolete as my work around's are running out for the printer and getting decent quality jobs out of it.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Printers are the one bit of technology that hasn't progressed in 30 years. We have all this tech sitting in our pocket, but a printer still drags a bit of paper through a roller. There must be a better way

[Dogg Thang]

Printers are the one bit of technology that hasn't progressed in 30 years. We have all this tech sitting in our pocket, but a printer still drags a bit of paper through a roller. There must be a better way

I imagine the racket here is in the ink so there is no real motivation to improve printers.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I imagine the racket here is in the ink so there is no real motivation to improve printers.

Probably. My parents had a HP printer that they (foolishly) subbed to get ink deliveries from HP. Eventually they saw sense and cancelled it and HP remote killed the printer!

[Dogg Thang]

Probably. My parents had a HP printer that they (foolishly) subbed to get ink deliveries from HP. Eventually they saw sense and cancelled it and HP remote killed the printer!

I can well believe that. I had a printer that refused to print black or even light grey because a colour cartridge was starting to run low.

[fishbowlhead]

Im printing product labels on high gloss labels. Mainly for products that don’t warrant 20k runs printed by a printing firm, small runs of 400 lables so its quite a niche print job. Recently all my work arounds are running out and even the printer dialogue box wont come up whatsoever, no matter what you do, so you can’t calibrate or anything.

Effing printers.

[endo]

I can well believe that. I had a printer that refused to print black or even light grey because a colour cartridge was starting to run low.

This one drives me to ****ing distraction! "Print black and white", "Oh hi, yellow's running out so that'll be a no." Just why? Don't give me the option to print in black and white if you're going to be an unreasonable twat about it. It's amazing printer manufacturers are allowed to get away with the **** they pull.