Controversial Behaviour Policy changes

To be fair I think that sort of regime is all well and good for a private school and parents who have chosen it but it's pretty unreasonable for a state school where you might unwillingly find yourself.

This whole thing is a ploy by these schools to get rid of children who will not cope with these strict behaviour policies. Parents will move them because of the conflict it will cause and they will end up in ordinary schools and overwhelm those schools whilst the 'super strict' schools have the children who can cope- ie those who are resilient, hvae self-control, don't have SEN and, in all likelihood are not from dosadvantaged backgrounds and have high levels of parental support. It's all to do with Gove's curriculum and exam outcomes. Free schools and academies don't want disadvantaged children or those with SEN- they can't manage them or get them good results.

The tiger parent here must be trolling and laughing to death behind our back, no other explanations.

Maybe a salute for the headteacher too

I hope that schools choosing this route have strong SMTs who support but also audit teachers. Because the scope for weirdo teachers using this stuff to indulge their inner Stalin is massive.

Compulsory marching every morning is a great idea and I'd be delighted if DS's school introduced it. Great for pride and discipline.

I'd be careful complaining about the lack of exercise in case they introduced North Korea style goose stepping sessions.

But seriously I would consider seeing if he can sit his GCSEs as an independent candidate.

The head at DS's school has a clear policy for parents who choose not to support school policies and rules- get in line or ship out. All parents sign an agreement when they apply, which states that then and their DC can be immediately removed from the school if they refuse to support the school.

You have to have everyone- pupils, parents and staff, pushing in the same direction in a school, or it just won't work(which is why we have so many terrible schools in this country). People who don't buy in have to be taken out.

Unless the OP moves or homeschools him he will count in the school’s results regardless of where he sits them. Any child who is on the school’s roll in January of year 11 has their results counted even if they move schools, sit there exams at another centre or are excluded before the exams. If a parent wants to pay for their child to sit their exam somewhere else it will save the school some money but won’t affect their statistics.

You don't see adults in offices running around during lunch breaks

Many adults who work in offices are free to get up and go for a walk and some fresh air in their lunch break, if that's what they want. If they have a work canteen, they are no expected to sit in one place in that canteen for the entire break.

I was one of the well behaved, quiet kids that did the work, usually got good grades and flew completely under the radar, even when I was struggling. Rules like these would have given me something to righteously rebel against. Either I’d have been organising a sit in protest in the playground, or my anxiety and depression would have got so bad I would have refused to go, and quite possibly done something really stupid.

If you’re not able to move him to a different school, can you see if you can find a different venue for him to sit his GCSE exams? In the same way that homeschooled kids do, I mean. I’m not sure how that would work in terms of lining up with coursework, but if it’s possible, it might remove some of the anxiety for him. And then you’d get the pleasure of sending the school a snotty email telling them exactly why they will lose out on your son’s expected high grades for their statistics.

This shit is starting to seep down into bloody primary schools. DD1 started at our local primary and the only bloody thing she learnt in her first half term of reception were numerous sessions where they were taken out into the corridors and taught how to basically march up and down the corridors with their hands clasped behind their backs in the "school style". Rule after rule like this - piled on 4 year olds!

She's an anxious type to start with - but by the end of the year there she was absolutely a wreck being terrified of breaking one of the endless endless lists of rules or walking down the fucking corridor "wrong" - we moved her and it took her a good half term or so for the anxiety to drop down to a tolerable level. At one point she had a screaming fit of terror after a parents evening at school that she might not be walking down the corridor properly at 6pm at night - it was ridiculous the effect it all had on her.

Neither of mine would cope in a Michaela hell hole... DD2 has SEN - so isn't wanted, and while academically she's actually very bright - doesn't ever appear to be paying attention in lessons - you can either have her sat beautifully still with eye contact, or you can have her actually taking in the content of the lesson. She'll recall it all, even if she's apparently been gazing at the light fitting all input time. DD1... it would send her anxiety levels through the stratosphere.

There's being strict and hot on behaviour (and I can fully understand the "no excuses" rule having been on the receiving end of a few Vicky Pollards in my time) and then there's idiotic heads on a power trip trying to big themselves up on Twitter about how amazing they are getting off on making kids' lives a living hell.

Still I suppose it sets them up for a career in a call centre where they're not allowed to pee unless given permission - which I suspect is the aim for many.

What we are doing to this generation of kids is fucking barbaric with these "take no shit" prison camps, signing over all our schools to massive multi-academy trusts to asset strip and run on nothing and allow to fall apart, decimating the teaching profession to the point it's something you do for a couple of years after qualifying before you have your nervous breakdown and are capabilitied out. We have forgotten CHILDREN completely and are just educating spreadsheets of data.

The focus on silence in the corridors isn’t something I’d personally bother about if I ran a school but the rest of their behaviour policy is not especially draconian in my opinion, especially for in-class behaviour. They do expect students to SLANT etc, but students aren’t just given detention for glancing out of a window. Before they are given a “demerit” they are first given a non-verbal reminder, a verbal but unnamed reminder and then a named reminder. Students have a number of chances to stop slouching/chatting/fiddling/staring out of the window. It sounds very similar to the way we do things in my pretty relaxed school.
Agree.
I expect students to demonstrate active listening, to have manners, to work hard, to line up sensibly, to follow entry/exit routines, to ask good questions etc.
If a child spent my lesson gazing out the window instead of working then they'd lose some of their break/lunch because they've not produced work to the required standard.

I'd probably never work in a super strict school like the ones mentioned above, but I have some sympathy for what they are trying to achieve (and i'd rather work in one of those schools than a place with appalling behaviour where staff are verbally abused, physically assaulted and told that if only they hadn't expected Timmy to take his coat off then none of the disruption would have happened... well thing is thst with 10 set 6 they don't work unless you find a hook and make it fun for them. Instead do teaching the GCSE course, you could watch the film of Romeo and Juliet, then make a collage and get them engaged doing some discovery learning where students witj a reading age of 8 work out what was going on in the balcony scene. After all poor behaviour is a sign of a teacher who hasn't planned engaging lessons).

There's absolutely no need for children to leave their seats at break or lunch. You don't see adults in offices running around during lunch breaks! DS's school makes them ask permission to leave their table at break or lunch for any reason.

Can he not have some sort of card or exemption? I have students who have permission to sit in a different position or who have permission to get up and walk about every 20 mins or so. I think students should have more freedom to move around at break and lunch but having a general rule for those without medical issues they sit up, face forward and don’t fidget during teaching doesn’t seem extreme to me.

Doesn’t your DS have some sort of movement break card where he can get up and walk around or stretch? That would seem like a reasonable adjustment for SEND students that even a strict school should accept?

All sounds very draconian to me.
UK Chief Medical Officer states that children should be getting at least 30 minutes of physical activity at school daily, so these policies contravene Government guidelines

They can pay staff to supervise lunch, generally called midday supervisors. Or they can pay staff to do a lunch duty, but they can’t require staff to do a lunch duty.

Never heard of a school requiring its kids to remain seated all lunch, it sounds so bonkers there shouldn’t need to be a law against it.