Let's get back to a time when students, not teachers, could be blamed for exam performance

noble - I agree that the culture in England places a lot of responsibility with schools to educate children (and not just instruct them). British DC are often quite ill-disciplined and that has to do with parents not knowing what they could do to have better behaved DC. Things like learning to sit at table in a restaurant without crayons and toys can be fabulous preparation for school, but by and large British parents think this is conceptually impossible.

No, it's not a very small percentage. Even in primary school I would say it is 50/50 ( although obviously this depends on the school/area/demographics ) and worsens in secondary where many children are simply left t their own devices

Noble, what do you mean by "done parents expect schools to do all the education for them". If you mean have some parents abdicated educational responsibilities, along with no support at home - then I would say it is a very small percentage.

Yes, trial runs. You are indeed subjected to factory processes.

exam results analysis meetings?!

Yes I think this happens in every school. Then the target setting. Then the accountability.

Meanwhile the kids are relaxing with a McDonalds and their parents are bitching about the teachers!

Matchsticks - it sounds horrifically close to my most hated course on my MBA, Operations Management

My family are immigrants and the importance of education and the concept of being educated is highly valued. DH is from Denmark, his family definitively working class, and education just is not a priority for them. He talks about his schooling as just being. His parents were not involved at all and he left school at 17 to do military service followed by a job.

I was so lucky to have parents who highly valued education and sought out schools with a great ethos in terms of learning. DH has since completed an MBA and it really opened his eyes to education. He is a whole lot more vested in our DCs education now.

Our DC go to the public school in our town here in the US. It is a good school because the teachers command respect and have absolute control over the pupils. They teach discipline in a few ways during the early years but if parents don't follow through it will be for nothing. This is why in our town, where 47% of the school are on FSMs, so many parents switch to private after 3rd or 4th grade.

In the U.K. I think what has happened to teaching is unacceptable. There needs to be a rethink about the value of education and it starts with pegging teacher salaries to the highest paid professions just like they did in Singapore.

The verbal and physical abuse that teachers are forced to put up with is unacceptable. Those pupils need to go into specialist units. Yes this costs money. All I hear is how we can't afford it. Personally I take the viewpoint that we can't afford not to do it.

Yes, every Sept. I have to analyse the performance of sub-groups too: gender, pupil premium, SEND, looked-after children. I keep records of letters sent, phone calls made, who attended booster sessions and when. I spent £90 of my budget on a revision app for them and not all of them even use it. The dept results dipped last year and although I didn't teach the Y11s that year, I still had to explain the results.

The fault lies with the school..my son ,in top sets for everything is pushed hard..my friends daughter in bottom sets,is never pushed or encouraged..my son for the past year has had catch up in every subject every day after school getting home at 5 pm...my friends daughter no catch up offered....the system STINKS?.

Yes noble. You are exactly right. The NSS is utter folly.

I refuse to comply. Instead I put all my efforts into managing expectations and making it clear that I am not holding anyone's hand for their own good. Their expectations will not go down well in a workplace.

Matchsticks - exam results analysis meetings?!

This sounds like dystopian hell.

I agree that teachers in England are given far too much responsibility for pupil compliance. Children need to be taught that it is their responsibility to do the work. I am very happy that our DC, educated in French schools, know that they are responsible for their own learning. As a parent, I know exactly what school expects of me and of my DC. I appreciate the role clarity.

I'd like schools to return to this because it might prevent students coming to university who think that it's my responsibility to ensure they pass, not their responsibility to do the work and make use of the resources available to them. Increasingly they're both unwilling and incapable of writing anything without insisting that I look at their plans/tell them what they should be writing/exactly what to read (because a reading list isn't enough guidance; they want me to read everything for them and tell them exactly where the information is). They've mostly come in with qualifications based in coursework that their teachers appear to have been pretty much doing for them (and I don't for a second imagine the teachers want to be doing that).

It would be much better for everyone if we insisted that it was the student's responsibility to ensure they pass from GCSE onwards. You can lead horses to water...

noble

You are seeing them when they are old. It starts pre-school. Everything to do with confidence and motivation and tenacity does (and initiative, and intellectual curiosity) I know you know this BTW
Teachers in Primary need MORE TIME to focus on these factors if they are to redress the problems that some children have with their thinking skills and learning behaviours

That's awful.

I am a secondary HoD. In my exam results analysis meetings I am expected to be able to evidence everything I have done to try and get the pupils their target. I have 30 in the current cohort. A good third of them were pushed into taking my subject by parents who were told the EBacc was the be all and end all by SLT. They neither like nor have any aptitude for my subject. But they still have targets of B or higher. If I don't achieve at least the national average, my own performance is called into question. But it fails to take into account the above reasons.

Yes, noble but to an extent. Ds1 became more motivated in Y9 as GCSEs started so he knew the stakes. Ds2 takes it easy and I will try. Motivate him in Y9. We have many cousins doing well at school and university so peer competition among them helps.

I am an Indian background parent. I am never happy with performance, as it can falter at any time. I know from my own experience. We also tend to see jobs as the ultimate goal. We drive our children to those ends.

Interesting article here:
www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/think-leicester/education/2016/against-the-odds-ethnic-minority-students-are-excelling-at-school