Teachers who have watched 'Adolescence'- what are your thoughts?

'Absolutely terrifying' is a bit ott

Well, school IS really a cesspit. They are very "tough on discipline" when it comes to correct uniforms, but when it comes to bullying or antisocial behaviour - then "there is nothing the school can do".
Of course murder is extreme and something that doesn't normally happen, but the show is spot on about low key bullying - it can really tip someone over the edge.

I will caveat that I haven’t watched the programme yet and sounds nothing like my old schools (mixed primary, singles sex grammar) or my DC’s schools BUT many posters have said that the behaviour in this fictional school IS very similar to theirs or their DC’s.
So, yes, it is/was real life for many people, which is unacceptable and many do not have an alternative available to them (catchment area, money, religion).

@Mummabear04 it’s noticeably ramped up though. Very noticeable since COVID. Does follow what is happening in wider society. Problem is schools are expected to solve all of societies ills as so few external agencies

I would say misogyny and bullying has always been a problem. The programme was an accurate portrayal of my own experience of school nearly 30 years ago only without the social media. Maybe the problem is just parents are expected to be more involved and so adults are more aware of it. I honestly think the rise in violence is a reflection of wider society. I don't think it's just a schools problem.

@Mummabear04 many schools are like the one portrayed. Not all schools and there are a number of factors for that, but there is a huge problem of misogyny in schools, creeping more and more into Primary schools. Behaviour has taken a nose dive since COVID. Child on child abuse is a worry, so much so Government asked Ofsted to do a review on this, and it makes for very sad reading. More and more parents question every sanction their child is given, refusing to believe their child could do anything wrong.

Obviously, it is important that parents can question things that happen in schools, no school or teacher is perfect, but lack of supportive parents is causing a problem in many schools.

It's mad how people are discussing this tv programme like it's actually real life. Surely the school is portrayed as shouty and volatile because there has just been a violent murder and these people are also victims of that crime. Why are people bothering to relate that to real life schools that haven't had a pupil commit murder?!

The problem with boys (and men) lies completely with toxic masculinity and people's (yes, girls and women too!) free reign of misinformation on the intermediate. It all starts with this idea of what a man should be. They should be strong, successful, provide, physically competent, confident etc. Even from my short experience of being a mum, I have already heard 5 year old kids say "boys can't wear purple" and things similar. It all starts very small and insignificant and grows very slowly but eventually it all builds up and explodes.

I meant not acceptable, not no acceptable!

@Fstt1978 in your OP you said "[I] sanctioned 4 boys this week with a demerit each - for pushing and shoving in the corridor- swearing loudly and generally being gobby to me. All 4 boys parents have written emails to say it's unfair/ I'm picking on them etc etc" and you then went on to talk about an assault and the parents talking to solicitors and you then went on to say this is a boy problem, you don't get parents of girls reacting in a similar way, yes? I would like to explore this as it just doesn't resonate with me at all. The parents I know of kids who are routinely behaving badly don't write into the school. The parents who write into the school mostly are genuinely concerned about the sanctions and querying what on earth is going on where there is a mismatch between what they see at home and what the school says, or think that it is the schools' attitude to sanctioning which is causing the problem. NB - child development research states that punishment including sanctions are not at all good for children of this age, that they do not work - at all - and very often simply raise stress levels, are demotivating, etc etc. Obviously the behaviour of the boys is not acceptable. But obviously your sanctions policy is not working too. Do you accept this at all? And if so - what do you think your school could try to do differently?

I would also like to know what the parents actually said. Did they not believe what happened? Or did they believe it but question the sanctions? Did they say that the reason why the boys are behaving like that is because of the environment of the school and they are copying other children/demotivated/constantly getting sanctions? Or something else?

The boy who assaulted the other child - have the parents explained why they are contacting solicitors, and given more information?

Supportive parents make a huge difference to what happens in schools

I think you are right that anecdotal from just one school is just that - just one school - but MN is full of threads by parents or teachers talking about school life, their school's attitude to "sanctions and rewards" etc and it is still useful talking about patterns. I think there is enough to acknowledge that there is a problem with how schools are doing sanctions, rewards, dealing with bullying, giving sufficient support to kids as a matter of course. There are a lot of parents wanting to homeschool this age group as a last resort and in desperation because the school environment is just no acceptable. It is interesting that when you try to probe the OP and make suggestions, the OP has reacted by trying to close down discussion (in my opinion).

There are a lot of parents on MN complaining about schools and a lot of teachers complaining about parents. This is not a broken relationship, it is an indication that there is a mismatch in expectations.

How a school is doing is going to vary hugely that is absolutely true, but there are also well established patterns across the board. The OP of this thread has given anecdotal evidence of just her school. But clearly thinks that there is a pattern across schools - though not every school. Parents are commenting in a similar vein.

The behaviour on the show is not a million miles away from the issues I experienced at school in the 80’s. Many boys were out of control then and there was no internet to blame. Lack of strong parental guidance was definitely a factor then and is now (my generation was the first to have many mothers at work when we came home, more divorcing parents and corporal punishment was thankfully banned whilst I was at school). Some teachers barely had control of my classes.

my elder dcs secondary was in special measures, head was removed, school set alight on the day of the ofsted inspection and attendance running at 80% … my youngest went to a different school! What a difference but the catchment was very different, middle class and 50% of students were Asian ethnically, mostly Indian decent to be precise.

Things i don’t think have changed as much as some think, the problems are intergenerational. At my eldest school the parents of the wayward teens went to that school themselves I was told, and were trouble makers

*work not war

It struck me that we’re sending some of our children into environments that are really quite anxiety provoking and just expecting them to crack on when adults wouldn’t have to

This exactly - I can’t imagine how stressful this must be for a child. I couldn’t go to war every day with the possible threat of violence, disruption and aggressive swearing, yet so many children have no choice as this is their catchment area school. Parents can’t necessarily afford to move into the catchment of another school, pay for private education or home educate.
Private education is definitely not the paragon of virtue and there will difficult children there, too but no child would get away with a swearing at teacher or being violent in a class room.

My own secondary schooling was far wilder than the one portrayed, so the schools I have taught in all seem much calmer in comparison. Perhaps my view is more skewed than I realised. I’m wondering what would be seen as “normal” in a school of this size and similar student intake then? All of the ones I have been in have been much like this, and have been for years. Is it just people who haven’t been in this type of school for decades forgetting what was the norm, or have I just been tolerating too much crap at work?

I really worry about what behaviour in 5 years time will be like in high schools. The behaviour I’ve heard about in primary is bad enough. A lot of the boys in my daughter’s class (outstanding school) are basically feral. I am not naive- I was expecting secondary to be a challenging environment as my own was but I wasn’t expecting 8year olds to tell teachers to fuck off or attack other children. There is one kid who I’d bet money will be in a youth offenders institution before he’s 16. I hate to write off a child but you can see how it could happen. The worst thing is the other boys all gravitate towards him and they feed off his behaviour.

It struck me that we’re sending some of our children into environments that are really quite anxiety provoking and just expecting them to crack on when adults wouldn’t have to. My daughter has become resigned to it but I’m moving her out as I don’t want this to be her normal and I don’t want her to be seriously hurt as the boys get bigger and stronger. There is no chance I’m sending her to the catchment school some of the boys in her class will go to.

@ForRealCat quite a few teachers have said it is realistic representation of their schools

I don't have any experience of comprehensive schools. I thought it was more like a zoo than a school, and that they had exaggerated it for effect on TV. The fact you think this is a realistic is absolutely terrifying.

They did have a troop of Chinese dragon dancers in that ended up closing the school though. They were throwing out fruit and veg to invite prosperity for the new year. It descended into chaos and one boy got knocked unconscious by a full head of cabbage. 😮

I am not sure that posters who are not teachers and only have anecdotal evidence from their own DCs schools can comment that just because their school doesn’t do something it means no others do. The recent thread about publishing surnames and the threads about the emergency lock down drills show just how different schools can be. My sons high school has weekly assemblies that they discuss these kinds of issues in and they also have a PHSE day every term (the last one had young male offenders in to talk about how they ended up in prison, the one before that had athletes from the para and special olympics to talk) that includes different workshops to explore. This kind of thing should be across the board but I think things differ hugely depending on geographical factors, SLT, LEA and so much more. As parents we should be working with our schools to support or children to succeed and I think everyone here is fully on board with that.

Not according to your earlier posts, and most threads like this on MN!

Someone upthread suggested that mums of boys would know more than teachers. As a mum of boys there is just the incredible amount of energy they have (even before they are born) just non stop running around. Anyone who helps at scouts can see the sheer physicality of little boys - and that is before any testosterone kicks in.
Friends who are teachers feel they would like to send boys on a long run before they try to start teaching a lesson.
Where does that energy go if they spend so much time in their bedrooms at a screen.

There was a graph in about 2021 of the impact of school closures on lifetime earnings. The UK had one of the longest school closures due to Covid in Europe.