to be absolutely horrified by Educating Essex

[spiderpig8]

i would stick pins in my eyes before i sent my kids to a place like that!!
I was watching it woth DS1 who is 16 and he was absolutely speechless at the lack of discipline and the immaturity of the pupils.
Where to start?

Why aren't they all seated in rows facing the front? They seem to be sitting clustered around tables like infants, .No wonder they don't concentrate and are disruptive.
The girls look like hookers with thick make up and very short skirts
If that was top set maths?? At 16 learning how to work out the area of a circle?? The teacher was uninspiring and unenthusiastic. And I had t laugh when it zoomed in on Carrie's so-called 9 GCSEs.She had b in English and |C in maths and that was it.the rest were btecs , functional skills, citizenship and crap that isn't worth the paper it's written on.

The head and deputy are twerps.Skating about in swivel chairs in the corridor, allowing the kids to snowball them.They try to be the kids mates rather than their role models.How can they command any respect?
Most of all allowing their pupils to appear on national television , making serious false allegations against staff, and sending abusive bullying texts.
And this is an ofsted outstanding school!!

[WetAugust]

YANBU Most state secondary schools are zoos.

[Sparklingbrook]

I wasn't sure if it was a documentary or a comedy. Kept expected Ricky Gervais to pop up as a teacher. I was really shocked, DS1 has just started secondary and thankfully says it's not like that.

[twinklytroll]

Most secondary schools are not zoos. I work in a state secondary that could not be more different than the one featured on educating Essex. It is manipulated reality .

[Flisspaps]

Welcome to what schools are (generally) really like. Your DS is probably very lucky to be in a school that isn't like that.

Of course, the majority of the students won't make 'interesting' telly, so they will have chosen to focus on a select few who have issues - otherwise no-one would watch.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

They wouldn't exactly want to make a documentary about the well-behaved and the achieving pupils.

I think the head and deputy seem to be do a sterling job in pretty difficult circumstances.

[Sparklingbrook]

There aren't any orange girls with false eyelashes at my son's school. I think there is some playing up to the cameras in the programme. Why do you think the school let the cameras in Twinkly? It's showing the school in such a bad light, and what do the parents think?

[mumto2andnomore]

Some things I recognise from where I went to school, and where my dd now attends, like the short skirts and the bitchiness.I thought they were a very caring school who really tried with all the pupils personal problems so it wasnt all bad.

[ShellyBoobs]

I was [hshock] when they said that the girl who didn't know what pi was had been put in top-set for maths and got a C at GCSE.

I just don't understand how that could happen.

[knittedbreast]

what do you have issues with?

[poppygolucky]

YABU to expect the kids all to sit in rows facing the front. Not particularly effective for learning IME (secondary teacher for 9 years). Kids need to talk to each other and work together to learn. I only sit them like that for assessments/exams.

I think this is an exaggerated version of school life: it's never going to be completely natural when pupils and teachers know they are being filmed. There are a few things I raised my eyebrows at, but on the whole it painted a fair picture. The kids achievement was good and the teachers seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs (and actually like the kids).

[twinklytroll]

I don't know why they let the cameras in because it was always going to make them look like the school was out if control and that the kids were a nightmare. It is so easy to edit to get the programme you want.

It all shows a lack of judgement.

[RitaMorgan]

I don't find it horrifying It is a bit more lax than my secondary school, we wouldn't have got away with the make-up, but we did sit clustered round tables like that.

[Sirzy]

Shows like that are always going to show the bad bits as that is what is deemed entertaining. 30 kids sat doing as told wouldn't make good tv.

Every school will have a proportion of students like those featured

[NinkyNonker]

I quite like some of the management, more empathy than teaching staff are sometimes credited with. I've taught in 2 state schools, one very much like this if not worse in terms of behaviour and one that couldn't be more different.

That said, there is no way in hell my dd would go to a school like that, over my dead body.

[NinkyNonker]

I disagree that facing forwards is better, even at my very traditional private school we didn't sit like that any more.

[Sparklingbrook]

Bearing in mind we have to sign lots of forms to say the children can be photographed at school I wonder how they sold this one the parents? 'Your child is being filmed and will feature in a C4 programme that may not show them in a particuarly good light'. Just sign here.....?

[PartyPooperz]

Why wouldn't someone who was thought capable of getting C at GCSE (and then actually did) be in the top set of Maths? When I was at school (GCSEs 1992 - 1994 so a long time ago obviously) top set was for people predicted A - C grades. I thought it was to do with the different papers set. If someone was capable of getting C but was put in the second set I thought they were then only capable of getting a D because they did a different paper.

[twinklytroll]

But you can show empathy and yet expect high standards of yourself and the young people in your care.

[WoodBetweenTheWorlds]

I was educated at a state comprehensive in Essex. This programme doesn't reflect my experience in any way. As someone else has said, this is "manipulated reality".

[twinklytroll]

Our top sets are full of kids predicted A and A star with the odd B thrown in. I would have thought the same was true in most comps.

[lesley33]

I am surprised that a top set pupil isn't someone who is predicted to get an A. But a top set I guess just means the best of those sitting the exam - so it is possible the girl is amongst the better pupils academically.

The thing about pi I thought was just "sweet" and I don't think on that alone you can judge someone's academic ability.We all say daft things at time.

I wasn't surprised by some of this - but I was surprised at things like some teachers letting the kids belt them with snowballs or swear at them.

But in some ways it isn't much different from the rough secondary I went to 30 odd years ago.

[ShellyBoobs]

PartyPooperz - If a 15/16 y/o in their final school term didn't know what pi was and had seemingly no idea how to calculate the area of a circle, they wouldn't be someone I'd expect to excel in maths and I definitely wouldn't expect them to be capable of acheiving an A-C grade.

Obviously the girl in question did achieve the C grade a month or 2 after filming. I defy anyone to not be surprised that you can achieve a good grade in maths without understanding the very basics.

[BehindLockNumberNine]

My ds attends, and I have worked in, a large (1600 pupils Y7 - Y11) state secondary school in Surrey.
I can categorically state it is NOTHING like the one in Educating Essex. Nor is it a zoo.

It is a school full of, on the whole, well behaved pupils. None of the girls are orange with false eyelashes and wild yellow hair. None of the girls are allowed to wear much makeup (the rule is none but the girls get a way with some clear lipgloss and a little bit of mascara). The skirts are not that short (at least not inside the school grounds, am sure to and from school is a different matter )

And top set Maths is for those predicted A and A*. Only.

[troisgarcons]

I would mention "Grange Hill" had to be taken off air, primarily becasue what really goes on in schools - that our children are faced with daily - could no longer be shown before the watershed if it were to truely reflect teenagers lives. Every school has it's play ground drugs dealer. Ever school has it's knickerless tart letting boys cop a feel behind the bike sheds. Every school has it's contraband seller. Every school has it's bully. etc etc and you are all very blinkered if you don't think/know this goes on in every school - even the good ones. In fact the good schools are worse, the pupils are slightly more adept at covering it up.

[knittedbreast]

i agree with trois.

one of best friends at school was taken out of school for "having sex and smoking weed". she was adopted and had really snobby parents who whipped their only darling out and put her in a nice private girls school in another town to keep her away from the awful influences (us, her friends).

so what happened? she started doing coke cos that what all the rich kids could afford, got pregnant dropped out of school and never went to uni anyway!