Author Archives: essiep

Another record

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11C, rain. CR:60

Only to echo last week, the GCSE results are out today, likely to be the 24th consecutive year of higher results. The changed course structure will get some of the credit this time, it’s more modular now, so girls will probably do better. This story is worn out.

BBC The Education minister wants to end modularity, so perhaps we’ll see the boys catch up from nest year. The Daily Mail report was interesting, in almost every respect, they got their fact diametrically opposite to the truth. They said boys were closing the gap (the gap has widened), that the yearly grade inflation (which they blamed on Labour) had finished (the increase is about the same as last year). They couldn’t have got it more wrong. Why do people buy this newspaper, everything they print is wrong?

Later: Sunshine after an afternoon decorating. Rode for 60 miles and felt really strong. No aches, stiffness or discomfort, the ride simply flowed nicely. The end of the summer holidays is often like this.

Playing “house”

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20C, sun then a shower.

What a domestic day-

  1. Valet the car, (it took hours)
  2. Fill the compost
  3. Replace missing roof tiles (fiddly since one tile in the middle is nailed).
  4. Wash the roof windows (have they ever been done?)
  5. Vacuum
  6. Laundry, 3 loads

I deserve a medal.

After a long weekend of camping/hiking I’m full of energy. Though I was doubtful of my own fitness, I didn’t get sore feet or feel worn out in any way. That’s after four 6 hour walks; if anything, I got more energetic towards the end. A good result, credit to burning off some nagging restlessness.

Moelwyns, Arenig and a Rhinog

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19-21C, days of rain then sun, milky at times.

  1. Moelwyns ridge walk (dreadful non-stop rain once we got on the ridge
  2. Short walk near Ffestiniog (2 hours)
  3. Arenig Fawr, excellent day, though the air became milky later
  4. Rhinog Fach: a change of descent this time, we cut out Y Llethr and dropped down past the lake and some quarry works. There was a stairway to nowhere, that I failed to photograph

We’re going to have known nothing like it.

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8°C, rain to come.

In a few hours the kids will get their A-Level results, the news will fill with arguments about grade inflation, the kids will pose for photos where they jump up holding their certificates aloft. Head-teachers will praise hard working staff, “young people” and support staff. The format is well established, the exam results have increased every year for 28 years. So what do you say to kids who are ‘put out’ by talk of exams getting easier? You could do what many do- lie by saying the results only reflect better teaching & hard work. I suggest they view the results in the context of 2011 standards. Students could say “I have a grade B (2011) but you got a grade B (2001) old boy”. It’s like a vintage, and after all, the structure of courses changes every two years or so. You can’t compare like with like with this pretty constant change. The media will try to anyway.

Shall I repost this next week when the GCSE results are released to kids?

Latest: the results have stayed the same for the first time in 28 years, within 0.5% anyway.

mid-break jangles

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19°C, light cloud. CR:26 miles

Mid summer holiday causes a strange feeling. It really does take three weeks to recover fully so that now I have to carefully harness the physical energy that’s liberated. Perhaps soon a trip to the Scottish highlands. With time running out, I have to worry that I’m using this time wisely. The decorating is underway, I like the colours I have chosen and the first layers are showing the effect. I want to use the multi-surface reflections which give richer colours in areas like corners and alcoves. The trick is to use several colours that are very similar. The bounced light takes on the surface colour before illuminating adjacent walls. It works a treat!

French bites

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19°C, light clouds. CR:35 miles

French bites are not like French Kisses- the bites are French but by Mosquitoes. The itch is persistent. So where have I been? Corsica, a mountainous island in the med- the most mountainous island of them all in fact. The landscape was rather like semi-desert, dry hot & dusty land, a dense soil of barren dust. Each step taken scatters lizards amongst plants that are so dry they almost rattle. that’s nothing though, the scent of the macchi was the most magical sensation from the place. It was like a mixture of fennel, artimesia,  annise, pine and the smell we get here in the England- oil-seed rape. A nice souvineer would be some plants that I can get for the garden. Oh and an olive tree– they’re not vulnerable to frosts.

decorate

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21C, Rain

Painting the attic room. First put a coat of white matt to act as an undercoat & hide the rather unpleasant colour beneath. It’s been a while since I have done any of decorating and I have become rusty. Worse, some of my tools are old & shagged out. Still, Radio 4 was there to carry me along. Notably Afternoon Reading by Dermot Bolger. Followed by the excellent Russia- the Wild East.

Crows in Leomondsley

50% fail

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24C, hot & humid.

Education panic: BBC 30% of 10 year olds fail to reach the “expected” level in maths & literacy. Erm, this is where I need to call on the services of a statics expert. Remember in the Labour Govt Ed Balls wanted most kids to achieve “above average (mean)” results? So with results scattered on a Normal Distribution curve, shouldn’t there be about 30%percentage reaching only the arbitrary “expected” level anyway? If you’re comfortable handling standard deviations, then perhaps you could post me an informative link. My competence with bell-curves falls below the required standard I have to say!

What I suspect here is that we are dealing with politicians’ stats rather than competently functioning data handling. (It’s not just me that feels uneasy)

I recall as a kid leaving primary school my own reading age test result was considerably below my chronological age. I’m sure I now have a reading age considerably above 46 years. So the problem was only really a problem for the school, not for me. On the other hand, statistics abuse is a real problem in journalism and politics in the last few decades.

A snake and a fire

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21°C, Clear, dry & dusty: CR 30 miles.

Rode back from a lunchtime care stop, there was a snake weaving its way across the road. Wow! Probably a grass-snake, it looked grey with a zig-zag down its back. It wriggled away too fast for me to get a photograph.

Fire on the horizon: to the East, perhaps beyond Measham was this thick oily fire billowing up above the light clouds. [ Update: it was a fire in Ashby-de-la-Zouch)

First wasp sting of the year: It got me just under the tongue of my cycling shoe. After a few hours though it hasn’t gone itchy like in the past. However, since it stung below the shoe-tongue and through sock, I didn’t actually get to see it as I rode, looking down and rummaging with my fingers. It was more important to brake and get off the bike without injury from falling off. It was strange, for the rest of the ride, the odd sensation moved down to my toes. Perhaps that was the result of swelling restricting blood flow. I sound like an expert don’t I? you know that hollow bit where the tendon joins the top of your foot, the one that pulls your big toe? It should have a hollow to the side. It doesn’t on my right foot any more.
Still, it’s been a very nice day, finished off with some alcohol-free German beer and bed by 10.