I WAS rather surprised at your report on school/pupil learning agreements (“School asks pupils to sign a contract ... to work harder” The Herald, October 13). I agree with the reservations on the notion noted by the parent you quote on the use to which this contract could be put which sounds depressingly like “signing the pledge”.
However, it also seems to me that when a school starts down the road of quasi-legal agreements it opens itself up to unanticipated consequences. Most parents are streetwise enough to consider the small print in a contractual agreement when they sign it.
For example, the parents in question seem to me to have a similar right to demand that the teachers of their own child also sign a contract indicating parental expectations and presumed actions.
These could include insisting on an evaluation of their child's individual and different learning needs within the class on a regular and continuous basis and responding to such needs effectively. Providing appropriate learning resources which reflect the gender, social, economic and ethnic background of their child. Ensuring that any assessment of performance is formative and there is clear evidence available that it is used to provide appropriate next-steps. The list is too extensive to deliver in this forum and would doubtless make our lawyers much richer.
Although the General Teaching Council for Scotland provides generalities in terms of teachers’ capabilities and practices, that documentation seems to me to have little bearing on the case when individual contracts are being demanded.
I feel however that this particular can of worms has been opened by pressure on schools to constantly show annual increases in examination attainment. There are very few things schools have real power to positively influence, but at the end of the day schools have to change themselves.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.
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