What do you think your children are like at school?

[HarrySnotter]

A friend of mine used to be a TA and she used to say that people have no idea what their children are like at school and often refuse to believe they have believed in a certain way.

I've been volunteering in a school recently and am gobsmacked at how rude some of the children are to staff. Not to me as I'm kind of on the outside of it all, but I am genuinely taken aback by some of the behaviour of the children, many of whom I have known for years and know their parents. Constant backchat, sneering, general rudeness, ignoring requests to work etc. The staff follow the behaviour policy and sanctions are given but I don't get where this all comes from. If I had spoken to a teacher or anyone else in my school like that I would have had my arse handed back to me on a plate. I just wouldn't have done it.

Made me worry what the hell my own are like at school.

didn't do all the 1001 small things that maintained that level of respect for each other, and slower but surely it slipped. Playground behaviour went first, then general moving round the school, then assemblies, then classroom behaviour.
None of it was massive, it was subtle, but it ended up very like what you are describing.

This sounds exactly what has happened. The current Head has been there two years and the staff who have been there a long time tell me that it was never like this before she came. One of the staff is also a parent and really doesn't know what to do about it. There does seem to be 'rumblings' about parents contacting the Chair of Governors to voice concerns but I wonder what that will actually do.

I remember that the school used to have such a fantastic reputation and it certainly doesn't any more.

I think they are a bit quieter than at home, well behaved though.

Myneldest is anwreck at school, my middle is slowly getting the hang of his new school but is 100% himself, the youngling is invincible. All polite, if somewhat odd. All have SEN, only one is in specialist provision.

I could see my youngest bobbing under somebody carrying a box. Not through lack of manners, but because he wouldn’t see somebody needing help, he’d just see the obstruction and work out how to get from A to B.

I spend a lot of time in a school. It’s eye opening.