Please explain exam boards to me: why so many? Why doesn't the DofE do it?

@Wherehasthecatgone Exactly: with GP practices there are external bodies with whom to escalate your complaint. Not so with academies.
Tale this GP complaints policy: https://marylebonehealthcentre.co.uk/complaints-and-feedback-procedure/
You can complain to NHS England, to the Health Service Ombudsman and you can also file a complaint with the General Medical Council.

Now take Mossbourne's complaints policy: https://www.mca.mossbourne.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Complaints-Policy-September-2024-onwards.pdf
Stages 1 to 4 are just the school investigating itself.
Stage 5 is the Secretary of State, but even they cannot overturn a school's decision https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/11105/making_a_complaint.pdf

See how the model is different?
See how academies lack accountability?

@twistyizzy She seems to have no issues with schools which have bullied and emotionally abused hundreds of students, and no issues with the academy model that lets them do so with no accountability. So, no, my comments are not exaggerated.
Of course if you want to think that I am the crazy one because I think schools should be accountable and should not be allowed to engage in bullying and emotional abuse, by all means think that and unfollow the thread.

@Araminta1003 Of course different schools will fit different families.
I am not saying that every school must be how I would want a school for my kids.
I am saying that things like emotional abuse are always wrong.
I am saying that we cannot excuse those abuses, and we cannot have a system which lets academies carry on with those abuses because they are de facto unaccountable to anyone.

@Araminta1003 I am very happy with my DCs schools and all are now academies! We do not have big problems and if parents do not like it, they can vote with their feet and pull their kids out and send them to another school.

If you mean that parents can move their kids to non-academies, no, most families cannot do that. Most state secondary schools are academies. There are many parts of the country where the percentage ranges from 80 to 100%.

Regardless, I am not sure that "I have never had a problem myself, so those who did can get lost" is a reasonable or fair approach.

They are accountable to parents, parental opinion locally matters hugely. Parents, en masse, being dissatisfied is terrible news for schools so most do care.

How are they accountable, exactly? They are not. They are only accountable very indirectly, to the extent that, if a school becomes undersubscribed, it loses funding. But there are many parts of the country where the demographics are such that most schools are oversubscribed and will continue to remain so.

Are you familiar with what's happened at Holland Park school and Mossbourne?
Both rated outstanding. Both oversubscribed. Both had excellent results on paper. But, under the surface, both enabled a climate of fear, bullying and emotional abuse

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61325597

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjd383z9lyo

Creating a hostile climate towards special needs children is one way to achieve this, but not the only one. Those two schools have done much worse.

Are all academies like this? Of course not.

But the academy model means that academies mark their own homework. They investigate their own complaints. Not even the Education secretary can overturn an academy's decision (look up their complaints policy).

Take Mossbourne: hundreds of people come forward with accusations of bullying and emotional abuse, of seminars on how to instil fear in children, etc. And what happens? Nothing. The school commissioned its own investigation (the suspect paying someone else to investigate it!!!), whose results will not even be disclosed.

Are you happy that your tax money is being used this way? I am most certainly not.

Would you accept a system where, if you complain to your GP, the GP investigates the complaint, and no external authority or body could tell the GP practice they were wrong???

@Wherehasthecatgone The Academy system, removing schools from LA control and letting them be run by private consortia, was introduced by Labour

Yes, this is often forgotten. A good summary is here: www.education-uk.org/articles/25academies.html

I think we have gone from one excess to the other: from a system where schools had too little autonomy because of too much control from local authorities, to one where they have too much autonomy because they are not accountable to anyone and not even the Education Secretary can overturn a school's decision. And of course we did that with the worst of privatisation, by having unaccountable private trusts running our schools with everyone's tax money.

Hysteric? I would not have expected to see that word used on mumsnet, given how its etymology is rooted in misogyny https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2012/mar/08/mind-your-language-feminisation-madness

Nobody knows best and more than hundreds of years of tried and tested history and culture

What is this supposed to mean? That traditions are always right and nothing should ever change?

Corporal punishment was only banned in 1986 in state schools and in 1998 in private schools. By your logic, should we still have corporal punishment because hundreds of years of tried and tested history and culture etc etc??

Gay marriage was only legalised in England in 2013. Should it still be illegal because hundreds of years of tested history and culture etc etc?

"Promotion of homosexuality" was illegal till 2003. Should it still be illegal because hundreds of years of tested history and culture etc etc?

Marital rape became a crime only in 1991, when the House of Lords overturned a centuries old legal tradition that the wife's consent was always assumed. Should marital rape still be legal? How did we dare overturn centuries of tradition history culture etc??

Maybe now you see how nonsensical the argument about history and culture is??

By the way, the unelected Anglican bishops in the house of lords voted against gay marriage. I am not proud of a constitutional arrangement that gives unelected priests the right to block legislation based on an outdated moral sense not shared by most of the population. But you do you, of course.

What has that got to do with exam boards?

Nothing. Like I have said multiple times, I got carried away when someone asked what I thought the priorities were, because I agree that exam boards are not a priority

@twistyizzy Yes, my agenda is equality of treatment for all.
My agenda is that crucial services paid for by everyone's taxation should not discriminate based on religion.

Such a dodgy agenda!
Such a conspiracy!
Such hidden ulterior motives!

It is obvious that only morally bankrupt individuals could want to avoid discrimination, right? That's self-evident...

And, for the record, the discussion got derailed when someone asked what I thought other priorities would be, since I said from the beginning that I do not consider exam boards a priority

@Wherehasthecatgone Social services was the wrong word. I should have said something like crucial services paid for with everyone's tax money (like schools and hospitals)

you are aware that non-faith schools are actually Non-denominational Christian schools?

Yes, I am. So what? That's wrong, too. But at least those schools do not discriminate based on religion, and many schools de facto ignore that, luckily.

I fail to see your thought process. Can you explain it to me? Surely you didn't mean that faith schools are justified in using everyone's tax money but discriminating based on religion because... non-faith schools are non-denominational Christian? What's the link? I fail to see it. Can you explain?