To not understand the negativity about schools in England

My youngest is in her final year of sixth form and I've been happy with their schools. (Secondary is a Comp.) Their teachers have been pretty nice and dedicated. My dds have been happy and done well.

Not quite right. Funding per pupil has actually increased year on year over the past few years.

Per pupil funding levels have been below 2010 levels since 2010 due to austerity and only returned to that 2010 level last year (or this?). Anyway, it has had a devastating effect on schools.

Bollocks. The teachers on here are 'at the coal face' and have an understanding of what exactly is happening in education. That we care fed up, frustrated, angry, demotivated is not an indicator of us hating the job. Rather, it is knowing that children in the UK right now are not getting the quality of education we all expect.

Not quite right. Funding per pupil has actually increased year on year over the past few years.

The problem is inflation and costs. Teachers salaries have gone up (quite rightfully), electricity/gas have gone up (essential for schools!) so after paying for essentials there isn't much left.

I work in a school where most of us love our job.

Lots of new teachers don't stay long as the term time workload is often crazy. I work 4 days a week and when I've finished marking my Y11 exam papers I will have done 48 hours this week.

One huge change is behaviour - kids seem to be less disciplined and d9nt respect rules and boundaries. A lot of this is due to huge amounts of screen time instead of being parented, particularly during lockdown. These kids are a minority but do take up a LOT of resources. Suspending them pushes them back into the environment that caused the problem in the first place.

Overall I think most UK schools are fine.

I'm in a country where the pisa scores are higher than the UK.

Mostly the deprofessionalisation of teaching, behaviour issues and subsequent classroom management.

In what sense? I've heard that other countries are astonished by our level of safeguarding.

We're also doing pretty well in the PISA stakes.

So what sort of thing are you talking about?

I'm abroad currently doing teacher training and actually the UK education system is used as a comparison of how not to do it...

Schools are run in a way which counter to the culture we have more broadly and wildly differently from most parent's values. There is no an increasingly lack of respect for schools and school's for parents. Schools need a total change to become up to date but they also need to be freed from ofsted. We can't expect a modern, compassionate, inclusive schooling system when we keep paying teachers based on how well children perform on tests.

All of this

Underfunded, understaffed, constant changing goalposts and trends set by ofsted, poor behaviour from children and parents. We are the last service still standing and we are milked for everything we've got. The job is very different from what it used to be.

Hot chocolate (whilst relaxing on the iPad) for the most disruptive pupils in the Head's office is really a thing, as a PP mentioned.

The most disruptive kids in my school were given 'special treatment' like this too. They were all invited to a pizza party at the end of each term if their behaviour improved. Thing is, none of them did actually improve their behaviour at all, in fact, it mostly got worse, but they were all still invited as long as on the day of the party they behaved well.

Imagine the effect that has on the hard working well behaved children. What message does that send?

Bad behaviour and poor SLT aside, it's the lack of funding and unmanageable workload due to constant pressure of Ofsted that breaks teachers and leads to a negative environment, the ripples of which are felt by all.

Wee do have state run g SEN schools my son goes to one and had always gone to one ,we have four in my LEA two primary and two secondary and also several autism hubs
But the provisions for SEN are very hit and miss across the UK.

I agree with this. For example, education in America appears to be poor for the most part. Lots of examples of UK children finding they are working 2-3 years ahead of their school year when they move there.

@Fluffyowl00 I've emailed my MP, who has been great, but still nothing gets done.

This is in the press today... my DDs school isn't mentioned but is one of the 200+ schools impacted.

As usual when this story is covered, no mention is given to the impact on teachers and students.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj35v5xky0xo

Academisation. Wacky punitive behaviour policies with no basis in evidence, SLTs that assume they are above the law, (employment and equality), the lack of any meaningful accountability, plus curriculum reforms that are unfit for the modern world.

You can easily email your MP. Of everyone on this thread did it it would have an impact.

It is! But I’ve lived in a few countries and nowhere but the UK have I seen such a laissez-faire approach to violence among students. Supported by a general feeling from staff that it’s probably good for them.

My godson had his foot broken in reception and his collarbone in Yr 1, and his friend the same age suffered a fractured skull - all in the course of ‘rough and tumble play’ (pushing one another off climbing frames, tripping each other over on the pavement, crushing one another into the wall at the side of the school) which the teachers were adamant was crucial to the psychosocial development of boys in particular. Seemed awfully backwards to me.

You are lucky then, because I teach somewhere much leafier than inner city Leeds and my school is really struggling to get teachers. Any teachers, let alone great ones.

No, not London. Leeds.

Schools have changed a lot in 10 years. And not for the better.

School funding has reduced hugely. For example my child’s primary school is £320k worse off in real terms than 5 years ago.
Covid wasn’t managed well with lots of flip flopping and long periods with no education or stressed teacher’s trying to teach from home with their own children with them. When lockdowns finished whilst every other country realised that a period of adjustment and focus on social skills and wellbeing was needed, the government decided to focus on ‘catching up’ then created a half baked and drastically underfunded tutoring with private companies making quite a lot, rather than funding schools.
At the same time NHS has been crippled and so whe child mental health was at a terrible level across the country, schools had no money to help and CAMHs were on their knees. So children with severe mental health difficulties were being ‘managed’ as best staff could.
The inspection regime demanded more and more control of students and absolute achievement levels were prioritised (value added used to be a much more important measure which meant great schools in very challenging areas could still do well).
Teachers and school staff yearly got poorer and poorer as no inflationary pay increases were given. The job was getting almost impossible and so lots of staff left with few replacements.
Simultaneously, Special needs provision which is provided for by the council has become increasingly rationed. Parents have to fight for even the most clear cut and obvious needs. So mainstream staff are trying to cope with children with very high needs, for less money, whilst short staffed, under pressure they will fail ofsted, whilst large numbers of children have mental health conditions… all whilst they themselves can’t pay the bills or see a doctor.

That’s without going into foodbanks, reduction in free school meals, decimation of youth services etc..

No wonder our kids are some of the most depressed in the world.

I disagree with this (aside from the points about the curriculum).

For one reason or another, the level of SEN is increasing beyond a point we can cope with, and it starts before they arrive at school. It’s stretched the services so thin that all they can give the kids are the bare minimum, if that.

Our spending is roughly in line with comparable countries, and spending on SEN is very high. The issue is the demand but I have no idea what can be done about that.

I think the only way to answer this question is to have had experience of schools in other countries. As the vast majority of posters on this thread won't have had this, their viewpoints are almost irrelevant to OPs question.

I can't think of a single country where people don't complain about state education, for basically all the same reasons stated here. It's not unique to England.