It is that time of year where I do the appraisals of staff and colleagues, this year in the spirit of transparency and honesty, I thought it best to be public with my comments about Mr Drew.
"It has been a fantastic year for you, whilst the pandemic has meant we have not actually met or spoken, your output has been such that has rightly eclipsed both Plato and Aristotle as go to guides for wisdom in the modern age. With this in mind and recognising your needs to be rightly admired amongst your peer group of course to please your dear old mum too, I can say you have indeed earned fully the special A*++ rating, created in fact just for you."
* 360 review feedback welcome in the comments
* Appraisal grades are in no way linked to the pay round later in the year.
* White males in receipt of any appraisal grades above fail will be marked down by a minimum 5 levels during the equalisation meetings in September. Sorry old fruit.
8 comments:
Miss Quango got A*, A* & A.
BQ, I'm sure she deserved it: she can only play the team in front of her
CU - who you callin' a fruit?! (there's extra points for that, didn't you know?)
Anyhow, for all those contemplating making an entry in that 360-degree appraisal, may I simply say that because my every function has been severely hampered this year and I have thereby suffered immeasurably ...
(a) my output has clearly outperformed that of every preceding generation by a significant margin, and an A*++ is the least I deserve
(b) I am now withdrawing from the event on account of nurturing my mental wellbeing, which indisputably demonstrates what a strong competitor I am. A further round of applause and adulation, if you please.
"could do better"
... that was in every report
congrats to Miss Q - hope you can afford those Harvard Entry fees.
If blogging was am Olympic sport Mr Drew would hold Gold, except that he'd be disqualified for being a white male who knows the words to the National Anthem.
Congrats to Miss Q
Who'da thunk ? Close the schools and the grades get better !!! (That's no comment on Miss Q btw.)
Close the offices and productivity gets better !!!
Ye Olde life was shit, wasn't it ?
Mr. Drew is one of a few
Blogs better than the rest of us
His spelling is better than our CU's
so earning him A star plus plus
I'm not sure whether my comment is totally on-target for the mainline post; a thing that escapes me. However, I have something to say and for this place, it is of some relevance.
Back in the day that A-level results mattered to me personally, it was 1971.
The going asks (perhaps specifically for STEM subjects) were pretty much as follows.
For Cambridge and Oxford the A-level asks did not exist: they set their own exams. And nearly everyone who aspired to go there sat their exams in the first term of a third year in the sixth form.
The next rank of universities (now perhaps the Russell Group - or perhaps only its top half) were asking BBC.
The rest of the universities were asking CCC.
And then there were the polytechnics, offering CNAA degrees. Sorry, I don't know what they asked, but I suspect it was CCC or close.
Now, back in the day, somewhere between 12% and 15% of the age cohort went to either university or polytechnic. And, as stated above, the threshold for that 12% to 15% was nowhere near AAA. As for A* - I suppose that was then awarded for distinction (A1) or merit (A2) in the subject special paper; which your school had to put you up for. [Aside: my recollection is that I was the only pupil in my school that year put up for a special paper; mine was in maths, and my physics teacher refused to put me forward.] Thus I deduce award then of the A* equivalent was pretty rare.]
Anyway, my point is not that there has been grade inflation: there certainly has.
My point is vast concern that we no longer properly measure the ability of pupils across the whole range of ability. With ABB or similar (more, even A*AA, for some outside Oxbridge) being required to go to university when around the 'top' 40% get there is a grossly useless bunching up of the scale of measurement. This compared to around CCC being the boundary for the top 12% to 15% back in the day.
The thing about measurement is that it must be usefully meaningful or just plain OF USE. We had that (to an extent) back in 1971: today not!
Oh, and one more thing. That university that I went to ran an exam for first-year students at the end of the first term. Fail and they sent you down straight away, with a kindly spoken: "Try again next year."
Keep safe and best regards
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