To think the uk education system needs a complete overhaul and parents need to be more accountable ?

[Schoolscool]

I mean teachers don’t have pencils for classrooms (and that’s the least of their worries!!) why not take a few leaves from Ireland’s book and do the following to save money!

1. Each child needs to have their own resources! Yes! We do that. We have back up stuff in class but it’s not bought for “everyone”
   
2. Families buy the school books and workbooks themselves from an independent school shop or the school themselves or use the school rental scheme (pay a minimal amount to rent the books)
   
3. We pay photocopying/admin fees (varies per school) but it could be nominal 5 or 10 etc
   

These are just basic suggestions I suppose but surely it can’t be up to the school to provide everything!! Some of the onus must fall on parents!!

[ShatnersWig]

Whole fucking country needs a complete overhaul - education, NHS, political system.

[SileneOliveira]

There isn't a "UK education system".

Do you mean England?

[cindersrella]

At school as I parents we are asked to donate things such as comfy clothes, football boots, shin pads, baby wipes and also there is a weekly school fund we are asked to put to.. I wouldn't mind donating pencils but I to be honest I have never thought to. My daughter used to take pencil case but a lot more f the children were distracted by them so we were asked to stop.

[Fazackerley]

Most kids I know have their own pencil case and we pay for photocopying. This is state secondary.

[Schoolscool]

@SileneOliveira yes England

[sashh]

I'll just leave the words of Joshua T Dickerson here for you to read.

I woke myself up

Because we ain’t got an alarm clock

Dug in the dirty clothes basket,

Cause ain’t nobody washed my uniform

Brushed my hair and teeth in the dark,

Cause the lights ain’t on

Even got my baby sister ready,

Cause my mama wasn’t home.

Got us both to school on time,

To eat us a good breakfast.

Then when I got to class the teacher fussed

Cause I ain’t got no pencil

[Fazackerley]

None of that is the teachers fault. What a passive aggressive poem!

[NCforthis2019]

[Rufusthebewilderedreindeer]

We have provided what we need to provide

The Government needs to sort some of this stuff out

Its ludicrous that our local school cant put the heat on

[Schoolscool]

@Fazackerley I didn’t say it was the teachers fault!! I’m on the teachers side!!

[merrybloomizoothief]

i think the poem is to remind staff at school that what goes on at home, really effects what goes on in the classroom.
Some parents really do need to up their game- the amount of parents who consider reading with their child three times a week to be an onerous task is unbelievable.

[TeenTimesTwo]

When you say 'parents need to be more accountable', what you are actually saying is 'parents need to pay more' - aren't you?

I disagree. Schools need to be properly funded.

And the government needs to stop changing the exams system every 5 minutes so schools can invest in text books / study guides without them being out of date by the end of the course.

[Bezalelle]

Ridiculous poem!

Agree that all systems need an overhaul though.

[EvaHarknessRose]

But it does point out how much schools are often needed as a place of safety and development for pupils with parents who lack capacity due to addictions for example. Although the OP was clear that some resources should be provided.

[FoofFighter]

So you aren't aware of the Cost of school day campaign then? Might be just Scotland I realise, but with child poverty affecting upto 25% of children in some areas, it's another pressure on families if they had to buy school text books etc

[Schoolscool]

@TeenTimesTwo yes partly and what @
Some parents really do need to up their game- the amount of paremerrybloomizoothief said!
parents who consider reading with their child three times a week to be an onerous task is unbelievable

Yes about funding too obvs!and
And the government needs to stop changing the exams system every 5 minutes so schools can invest in text books / study guides without them being out of date by the end of the course 👍👍 absolutely right!!

[Cyberworrier]

Is there provision of school resources for children from v low income families in Ireland OP?
I can imagine your suggestions working fine in some schools I’ve worked in but not in my current inner city one. But I do agree whole system needs an overhaul and parents could do much more!

[Longtalljosie]

I think in a world where kids are missing school because there are no tampons, expecting them to attend school with self-bought textbooks would just mean they didn’t attend

[FoofFighter]

www.cpag.org.uk/content/cost-school-day-toolkit

Appears this one is just Scotland, am quite certain that there'll be something similar for rest of GB though?

[Fazackerley]

Schools should have a pot of pencils for those who don't have one but pencil cases encouraged

Textbooks should be free and borrowed but parents fined if they are lost

[OftenHangry]

Where I grew up, we never got pens and notepads from school. But we were provided with textbooks, which we returned at the end of the year. You were charged for it if you ruined it.
I think that was a good system and it could save considerable amount of money.

[LaurieMarlow]

I think there are lots of things the UK could learn from the Irish Ed system (particularly in primary) but parents supplying their kids books isn’t one of them.

It looks like it’s going that way though

[Schoolscool]

@Cyberworrier yes of course there is provision (free book scheme that you apply for) and as I said we have book rental schemes also.

[Kazzyhoward]

And the government needs to stop changing the exams system every 5 minutes so schools can invest in text books / study guides without them being out of date by the end of the course.

As seen in the recent "back in time for school" series, successive governments over the past century have regularly chopped and changed what is taught (and how it's taught) at schools. It usually follows from so-called expert reports as to what is working and what isn't. Governments aren't changing things for fun, they're following advice from so-called experts working in education.

As for books etc., how about they go back to using generic text books rather than buying specialist text books that only cover a specific syllabus? When I was at school in the 80s, we didn't have any of this "exam specific" text books - we used a variety of generic text books - the teachers would tell us which sections were relevant and which to ignore. Some of the text books were 20 years old. Buying whole new sets of text books when a small part of the syllabus changes is utter madness.

[IceRebel]

i think the poem is to remind staff at school that what goes on at home, really effects what goes on in the classroom.

Trust me teachers and school staff know what goes on at home affects what they experience in school, because they deal with it every day.

• Children who haven't eaten breakfast
  
• Children who are tired, because they're kept awake all night due to parents arguing.
  
• Children needing to borrow clothes, because they don't have a coat or jumper and it's snowing.
  

And so on.

• Children