We welcome your letters and e-mails, whether in response to items in Public Agenda or as a way of sharing your own insights and experiences with other readers. We are particularly keen to learn of examples of good practice from which others may benefit. Letters and e-mails may be edited. Please contact us at: agenda@thetimes.co.uk, or write to Public Agenda, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TA
Learn to teach by missing the targets
AS A FINNISH schoolteacher on holiday in England, I would like to voice my opinion on “Great Danes beat rowdy Britons” (July 29). Teaching is so much more than controlled lunches and curriculum planning as the article suggests our schools do.
Teaching is not about targets. Learning is not about reaching them. A schoolchild is an individual in a maturing process, who will reach his or her own targets in his or her own time. I don’t mean that they can’t be pushed into a higher gear, but as a teacher you must know when it’s time to give a gentle push.
Teaching starts with the child and builds up from there. It is created on the basis of the class, the groups in it and the lives of individual children, be they good or bad. Because of this it should not be demanded that every teacher reach the same targets at the same time and at the same intensity.
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Minna Glogan, Waino Aaltonen School, Turku, Finland
The Mencap curriculum
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AS A SPECIAL NEEDS teacher, with 23 years’ experience, I beg to differ with the expert response that “this type of teaching is not connected to the national curriculum” (Career Clinic, July 29). Our pupils’ work is actually planned through national curriculum schemes of work and is always delivered at the relevant Key Stage. It will, of course, be differentiated to take account of the pupils’ learning difficulties but will be recognisable by mainstream teachers as the same curriculum.
We are inspected by Ofsted on our national curriculum coverage and have to show progress in the same way that is expected of mainstream teachers and pupils. To say that our pupils are not working within the national curriculum does them and us a disservice.
Yvonne Smith, Keighley, West Yorkshire
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Can’t fight, I’m on the phone
SEEN IN HANSARD (July 29) claims that the Ministry of Defence spent £3.395 million on mobile phones and calls last year. If this is true, I’m surprised they found any time to fight, or do soldiers go into battle with a mobile phone as part of their kit?
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Bob Lee, Buckley, Flintshire
Age is a barrier
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THE EXPERT’S response to “Age shouldn’t be a barrier to working in IT”, (Career Clinic, July 29), ignores the issues — age and lack of up-to-date skills. The job search experience of the 60-year-old who wrote seeking advice, “lucky to find temporary, albeit low-paying job testing software” and “apply(ing) for about 70 jobs in nine months without success”, indicates the degree of ageism that exists.
If he insists on remaining in IT then, until legislation is in place in 2006 (when matters might improve a little), he should concentrate on understanding and defining his own transferable skills in terms which are generic to business, not in terms of IT. Identify job vacancies in the public sector which require those skills, then create a ‘power letter’ focusing on his abilities to do the job, highlighting the value of x years’ experience using those skills (not x years in IT) and requesting that all important face-to-face meeting. Only at that point should a CV be produced, which by then would be written to relate specifically to the job.
Mike Saunders, Hove, East Sussex
A votre santé!
THE Government’s decision to record our personal medical data on a national database at a cost of £130 million beggars belief.
Surely the deplorable experience of national databases would have been a sufficient disincentive. I would question the security of any national computer database, and certainly one with just one password to gain access.
The French, with so many accolades for their healthcare system, inaugurated a smartcard system holding relevant medical data for each person. The card is retained by the subject. The data on it could only be accessed by an accredited person with a device for reading it, preserving confidentiality. And it is cheaper and far more reliable than a national database.
Alan B Shrank, Shrewsbury
Railway vigilantism
IN REPLY to Chris Myers (Letters, July 22) who wishes to prosecute John Prescott as Transport Secretary, why not include the clowns who privatised the railway in the first place (John Major, Cecil Parkinson and John McGregor). An utter disaster followed by disasters. If only the Thatcher Government had invested millions like we are seeing today we would be having a better-run railway, run by railway men.
Eddie Judge, Bucks
Recompense for the elderly
SADLY Stephen Cragg (Legislation Update, July 8) is absolutely right when he states: “The elderly have no legal redress from being evicted from their care home.”
Hundreds of care homes throughout the UK have closed during the past 12 months. As a result many frail and vulnerable elderly people have been reported as dying within days of the closure of “their home”.
I would like to see a Bill of Rights introduced that protects the interests of all our elderly in care homes.
Ken Mack, Wrexham, North Wales
agenda@thetimes.co.uk
Public Agenda’s readers are our greatest resource. We want to hear from you with examples of professional good practice, letters for publication, questions for the Career Clinic, examples of extraordinary or amusing internal memos, or any other suggestions for items to include in our various regular slots. Our team is also keen to read any public sector periodicals that we may not already be receiving. Please e-mail us at agenda@thetimes.co.uk or write to us at: Public Agenda, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TA