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Miss Jean Brodie

September 5, 2008 4 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

My sister is working as a teacher in a tough outer London comprehensive school. She has just started a blog diary… http://passthepenciltest.blogspot.com/. (Link also in the side bar).

I recommend it, it’s hilarious. I hope she keeps it up.
Her school is the definition of a sink school. One of the alumnae from this school was kicked out of the recent Big Brother (9) show for intimidating other housemates with gangster threats (link). Intake has shrunk over the last 5 years from 9 ‘Year 7’ (first year of Secondary education) forms to only 4. No one wants to send their children there. 
Located in Croydon on the outskirts of London, this borough has the highest number of ‘unaccompanied’ children in the U.K. These are children direct from war zones throughout the world. Every couple of weeks, arrives in class yet another traumatised non-English speaking child. This obviously causes tremendous problems for continuity of teaching. Some of them are clearly not able to be in mainstream education. 
The school is going into ‘special measures’ as it’s a failing school that will be closed and merged. Finally it will be taken over by a private company as part of New Labour’s Public Private Partnership initiative. This company allows creationism to be taught in schools.
As my teenager is undergoing la rentrée, we have been discussing the differences between the French and British educational systems. French schools are old fashioned, academic and based on the rigid system of the baccalauréat. Pupils spend long hours sitting down listening to “chalk and talk”. 
British pupils are encouraged to learn sensually, kinesthetically, to get up and move in order to improve retention of information. Otherwise pupils can sit there and “glaze” through the lessons. My teenager has spent the last two years “glazing” through every lesson. Copying stuff out in beautiful French script but retaining very little.
We are so concerned about education in this country that British teachers are taught the most advanced teaching methods in the world. Each British school has somebody assigned just to keep up teacher training. So what’s going wrong?

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Comments

  1. Ben Emlyn-Jones

    September 6, 2008 at 8:15 am

    Maggie Smith was always role-typed into techers after that one! Many years later of course she went on to play Professor Mcgonegale in Harry Potter.

    I can only speak from my own experience of school which ended 20 years ago. I did best in the subjects I enjoyed and the subjects I enjoyed had the best teachers. Not all of them had the knack of inspiring a young mind; it's an indefinable ability! I had two history teachers; one was very good and one was very bad. The bad one used to simply "chalk" not talk! He used to write long passages on the blackboard which we used to simply copy into our books to revise in the few weeks before exams. The good one used to spend time explaining things to us and answering our questions.

    I've become very interested in hisatory since I left school and if it's down to thanking anyone then I thank my good history teacher.

    Reply
  2. Ben Emlyn-Jones

    September 9, 2008 at 7:53 am

    (BTW: Sorry, ML. I've only just spotted your comment on my article "The Psychic Mafia".)

    Reply
  3. Stop Staring at my TITS!

    September 9, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    Please pass my praise to your sister working as a teacher in a tough outer London comprehensive school.

    Simply splendid read and an eye opener, bravo!

    Reply
  4. marmitelover@mac.com

    September 9, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    Dear SSAMT,
    Thanks for your comment and welcome to the blog…
    What an amazing coincidence…my sister has also simply enormous tits…bigger than mine even.

    ML

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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