When is cheating cheating?

Many schools have teachers involved in the examinations process. The system would not work without it. The pay for doing so is dreadful, but the advantage is that the teacher gains great insight into the exams process which helps their teaching of exam classes.

The temptation to provide students with "inside information", i.e. the exam questions, is huge in the high stakes world of private education. So this year we seem to be seeing a swathe of teachers caught red-handed. Interestingly shopped by their own students - if students have actually done the necessary studying they will have a very strong sense of injustice if someone else gets an easy ride...

Giving out actual questions is obviously wrong. What about the grey areas of say, getting in professional actors to coach students in their Drama exams - no State school could possibly afford to do that, but it is done in some private schools and is condoned by Headteachers who are hungry for high grades.

In other schools the game playing is more about offering fantastic bursaries to star sports players in order to ensure that their team win or at least are at the top of the league tables.

All of this "games" playing is a form of cheating it highlights various issues:

1. A lack of knowledge and confidence in how to develop real cognitive and physical skills.
2. Insane professional pressures from league tables, governing bodies, and Headteachers to produce results in the short-term and little interest in developing deep professional knowledge and confidence.

Headteachers and Governing bodies are busy casting out those who have been foolish enough to be caught doing something obviously wrong; but surely they ought to look at themselves and ask why they have created this toxic system that demands that their students and staff always look "excellent" or "outstanding" all the time - it is not realistic behaviour, unless you are a robot. Look at websites of some of the top 100 private schools in the UK and ask yourself what are they selling and is it in the best interests of the child in term of academic opportunities and mental health? This is the group who are going to go on to dominate the leadership of the country - what are they really being taught? https://www.best-schools.co.uk/uk-school-league-tables/a-level-passes/