to wonder if secondaries are really this bad?

I would have hated this. Some of the boys at our school would have found it funny to listen outside cubicle doors when girls were inside and make comments. They found anything to do with periods and sanitary products hilarious. Also, what about those times when you really need to wash the blood off your hands before dressing yourself? At least have sinks inside some of the cubicles.

Then the child will almost certainly work out that the rules being imposed are arbitrary, unfair, and don't reflect reality; for most people that's when they lose respect for the system and those that run it.

😳

I am 44 and we had to walk on the left we would be shouted at if not on the left. Also had to tuck shirt in etc we gad to line up for lessons I remember having to stand up everything a teacher came into room wonder if they do that now . Normal secondary school in Yorkshire
Also I am surprised that more schools in the UK don't do like they do in usa and have metal detectors stop knives being carried etc

( edit) - sorry I didn’t mean to quote you but the OP) so this message isn’t directly to you . For the OP to read: locking toilets, not a thing where I teach, students have toilet passes if they have something medical which would mean they would need it more often but also we are encrypted use our judgement, if it’s the same kid asking everytime who does no work and spends ten mins in the loo - its most likely going to be a no compared to the girl or boy who works well and rarely asks to go. We had a child try to hang themself at our school in the loos , weve had children self harm too in them during lessons, hence one of the reasons why we are very strict on who we let out to the loo

Secondary school teacher here.

1. Behaviour is dreadful. Some school’s uniform policies are silly but many are just trying to enforce standards. No one likes it, it’s boring and time-consuming for everyone.

2. Toilets have to be locked as students are meeting up to vape or go on their phone or to take drugs in the toilet. They can still use the toilet if they have toilet passes. You can also use your own professional judgement, a lovely little Year 7 who is clearly desperate will be allowed to use the loo. A Year 11 who meets up with his friends every single lesson and is late/rude/truants cannot.

3. This is to avoid students being crushed. The Michaela school(s) enforce silent corridors, you’d need a particular layout for that to stand a chance. If you saw the way our students went from lesson to lesson you might not think it was such a bad idea!

Lots of the rules seem silly to outsiders. It isn’t until you work in one that you realise they are very much needed.

This basically describes my DC school which has been rated ofsted outstanding and is in the top 2% in the country.

I like the strict rules as it also translates into zero tolerance of bullying and bad behaviour- meaning children receive a better education. With regard to the toilets, if your child has a genuine need they are allowed to leave and go to the staff bathroom which is manned and unlocked (class teacher will give a note).

Much better than kids running feral.

"When she got to her next lesson and explained, the teacher said she had to tick her card because she was late and that was the rule."

R member when people said during the pandemic. " I need to prioritise keeping a roof over my head and feeding my family " for sending positive kids in, well it goes both ways. Teachers in academies are subject to Quality control that they are enforcing rules in line with policy. Don't like those rules? send your kid to a different school or home school them...

Is it nicer for kids and teachers in non-academy schools?

I’m a teacher. I think what you are describing is a small number of free schools or academies, certainly not the majority. Walking in corridors in silence was big in the press as it is being done at the Michaela school “ the strictest school in England” it certainly isn’t the norm and I’ve not heard of it in the city I am in. Blazers are always allowed off when hot wherever I have taught.

Just tobacco or cannabis too?

At my school we had to walk on the left of the corridor. It wasn’t about control. It’s basically ensured easy movement of hundreds of kids through narrow corridors every 40mins

But how does banning a jumper in September but allowing one October help with behaviour? I can see why schools need to be strict with the low level disruption stuff but some of the uniform rules just seem petty and setting up battles that aren’t really important in the scheme of things.

Blazers are a load of tosh as well. It does nothing to help prepare kids for ‘business dress’ as most of the students will then go to university to dress like slobs for 3-4 years and people are much more casual in the workplace.

Shit happens.

If they make an exception for that, then they have to make an exception for any children who claim they were stuck (even when they weren't)

Open toilets are mainly there because locked up ones with main doors = bullying, vaping etc and of course teachers can’t go in to check because it makes them a paedophile

I’m sure school culture will improve once start charging VAT on private schools.

It's to stop the constant on then off the in again x 30+ kids.
And the "oh, sorry, did I hit you, I was only taking my blazer off" and "oh no, I dropped everything on the floor LOL" and the like.

Give kids an inch, they'll take a mile!!

Very well said.

Same.

We also weren't allowed to ask for the blinds to be even partially shut even in blinding sunlight.

Not allowed to go to the local shop (literally across the road).

Had to fully strip off for the showers, mandatory after PE.

If you forgot your PE kit you wore manky stuff from the lost property box, even though dirty and wrong size.

Had to have an assembly and sing hymns, despite it being a non-religious school, because they got pulled up by OFSTED for doing IT lessons in the time instead and were told they had to have "communal worship" more than once per term.

No water in class, not sure if that's still a thing.

Think all the rules about only certain types of shoes, no jewellery, hair colours etc are still a thing now.

My school

• a clear but not ridiculous uniform policy. Blazers in corridors but not in classrooms and we are not daft we know when it’s hot
• a one way system because we have over 1000 kids in a building built for 600.
• pupils walked in silence to and from break and lunch because some year groups are still in lessons (see above, split breaks and lunches necessary)
• unless medical reason can’t use the toilet in lesson time as supervision of toilets required due to truancy, vaping, phone use etc

What!! That's crazy. I didn't know it had gif to that 😠

I'm all for rules. But when the rules and systems create the situation a child gets sanctioned for, it has gone too far. DD3 was given a tick on her 'proud card' (3 ticks=one whole day in the 'hub') because she, along with 5 other students, was trapped in a classroom, physically unable to leave because of the stream of students passing the classroom door, following the one way system. When she got to her next lesson and explained, the teacher said she had to tick her card because she was late and that was the rule.

This was normal in the 1990s.

Not new.

Is it because a lot of children are so badly behaved that they have to have these rules, to stop them running, pushing and fighting in corridors and stop bullying in the loos?

The blazers thing makes no sense at all.

The rules are necessary because parenting has changed. There's no focus at home on obedience. Too many families don't really impose proper consequences for bad behaviour.