The government is banking on parents not caring about children or education

[noblegiraffe]

There have been requests on other threads that posters email their MP if they are concerned about what is going on in education and someone asked if there were some links to statistics or stories that posters could use.

I have, over the next few posts, tried to break down the main issues so that parents can pick out bits that they are affected by/concerned about so that they can email their MP in a personal way.

The issues I've written a bit about and put links for are:
Funding
SEN
Mental Health
Poverty
School buildings
Teacher recruitment
Teacher strikes

So you could write a bit about how your kid hasn't had a maths teacher all year and awful recruitment statistics, or how strikes are affecting your child's education and how the DfE are being disingenuous about funding. Or about how you are concerned that school funding at state schools in relation to private schools will put them at a disadvantage. Or how your child's SEN support has been eroded as the school cannot afford teaching assistants.

Or just write your own thing.

The government is relying on education being a low priority for voters, but our children deserve better than this.

If you email your MP, the easiest way to do this is use http://writetothem.com
Ask your MP that your email be forwarded to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education. This means that you will get a response from the DfE.

Thank you @noblegiraffe. We need to keep talking, and shouting about the crisis in education.

@gogohmm Why would more divorced parents mean a higher incidence of SEN?

I'm really concerned about cuts to the arts. I was very recently talking to a friend of my son who is about to go off to university to study music. He comes from a notorious area where many of his previous classmates are involved with crime, drugs, violence etc etc. He used to hang around with these kids. I asked him what it was that made him different, got him away and he said it was the opportunity to learn an instrument, then the music teacher got hold of him, got him involved in school shows, gave him a place to go where he felt valued and gave him a passion in life. He went from being on course to fail his GCSE's and potentially being asked to leave school to getting the grades to go to college and now uni.

I've been told in the past that the arts don't matter in state schools, they should concentrate on numeracy and literacy instead to increase employability. But that is so, so short sighted.

Thank you@noblegiraffe . As a retired teacher, with a teacher daughter and a granddaughter who will be starting school, I'm really worried about the future of education (and of course the present state of it). I'll definitely be using your information to make sure my MP and Gillian Keegan's office are aware of my feelings.

Mostly self taught on different topics, One cannot fully expect to learn the arts of espionage from a state school.

@MsCunk
As for commoner, happy to be one we are all human at the end of the day. I just try to be polite, and try to help each other, when I can.

This thread is moving slowly for a school thread. Of course, it deals with important issues that require some thought and effort, such as emailing MPs, to deal with, rather than just merrily accusing all teachers of being part time, overpaid slackers.
Anyway, bumping.

I teach science in an independent school. I wouldn’t teach in state again.

• My class size is a max of 20 (which I think is the same as Scotland state!) so I can do practicals safety and demos where everyone can see/ interact clearly.

• I have all the equipment I need to do my job properly. If something breaks it is fixed or replaced.

• There is 1 lap tech per science, plus 2 part time that move between. Compared to a state school of similar size where there was 1 person.

A significant chunk of the fees will go on the grounds (lots of pitches, everything looks very pretty, huge amount of space) but I wonder how much it would cost to run a school without all the bells and whistles and just concentrate on the in-class education?

*lab tech not lap!

I went to a private school and it was dilapidated.

What makes them succeed is 100% of parents supporting their education, longer days, more homework, expelling DCs who are disruptive, admitting minimal SEN (not saying I agree with this btw!), no supply teachers, no class sizes above 28 and much smaller for those struggling, lots of extra curricular activities to keep DCs busy at lunchtime, evenings and weekends and success being celebrated not ridiculed.

I went to a private school and it was dilapidated.

State schools aren't just dilapidated, they are unsafe.

But if you went to a private school, that will have been a while ago. Unless you went to a super-fancy one, the difference in funding per-pupil between state and private now is much bigger than it was even a few years ago.

Private schools now have roughly double the money per pupil than a state school. That's not private schools shooting ahead, they have had to put up fees reasonably to cope with increasing costs, that's state schools falling further and further behind.

Thank you @noblegiraffe for working tirelessly raising awareness for the conditions in education that need to be better for children.

I have always worked with children, now in SEN and remember the day in 2010 when the budget was cancelled for classroom purchases.

I went to a local private school myself and revisited it recently and the buildings and equipment are far more improved than before so I am not surprised by that statistic.

I love my job and I’m not enjoying striking and losing money but I do hope it will mean better funding for students (from the government budget not schools).

Thanks for this. I've just written to my MP. He's a dyed in the wool Tory government supporter but he has young kids and likes to be seen doing the best for his constituency. It's also a marginal seat so he's not "safe".
I have asked him to lobby for a funded payrise for teachers, highlighting the need for retention of teachers and funding.
He will reply, probably in about three months, and probably just to say how committed he is to ensuring the best for this constituents. Nothing will change, but I think you're right that it is important that MPs know that education is important to voters.

Thank you for these links. These stats will help us fight the proposed redundancies.