What is really going on in our schools? Well, Laura....

[noblegiraffe]

Laura Kuenssberg appears to have just discovered that schools exist. New to the concept she has written an essay discussing what might be going on in them, from the perspective of someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. Basic errors include "standards haven't crashed because GCSE and A-level results in 2022 were up on 2019".

She mentions the lack of funding, but doesn't mention the lack of teachers. She mentions increased pupil absence but doesn't mention the implosion of support services for children like CAMHS, or the huge waiting lists for SEN diagnosis and the cutting of TAs in schools due to lack of money. She suggests covid might have had an impact, but not that the government have done basically nothing to address this and that their covid catch-up adviser resigned in disgust.

She says a minister says that 'teachers have had a bashing since covid'. Since covid! She doesn't mention this is led by the government and has been going on for years.

So, what's really going on in our schools? Anyone want to help Laura out?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65360168

If people on here are complaining that year 8s can't sit quietly and focus, how would another year before school help?

CAMHs are pushing schools to provide a higher level of MH support as part of their reforms here too.

The government had a big plan to put mental health teams into schools to help with the crisis.

Apparently they're all quitting because the job is too stressful. So, teachers will be dealing with it while doing their own jobs again then. 🤷‍♀️

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-mental-health-teams-struggle-retain-staff

Some earlier mentioned how rude and disrespectful children are. This is probably one of the things that drains me the most of a daily basis.

They have clearly never been taught to listen when somebody is speaking. That it is rude to talk over and interrupt someone. They do it to me and they do it to each other.

And yes to the fact that they don't think an instruction applies to them. I waste a ridiculous amount of time at the start of break telling 6 year olds that they have to put their coat on, it isn't optional. Or time wasted nagging children to tidy up properly and not just leave it to the one or two conscientious children in the class.

Problem is that we are already specialists at something else. We don't have capacity to pretend to be another type of specialist.

It's awful. It seems to be the solution to every services' problems.

I have a 6YO and 8YO. Both with complex needs and EHCPs and identified well before school. Considering the 22 months age gap, the differences in experienced has been absolutely shocking.

Indoor voices and no running in the corridor seem to be a thing of the past. See also, being mortified if heard swearing by a teacher.

I know people are pointing to screens, but kids have been addicted to phones for a while now and the behaviour issues I'm seeing with my Y7 are dramatically worse.

On the subject of the NHS passing the buck to schools, recently I posted about how NHS South West will no longer be accepting referrals for autism diagnosis except in cases of extreme need (so family breakdown, or non-verbal violent child). The NHS said that schools would be able to manage these needs regardless of diagnosis.

So schools will now be expected to attempt to to diagnose children by classifying behaviours in a way that might suggest certain approaches are beneficial, without actually diagnosing them, and without any expert seeing them.

Highly controversial but I would add increased parental age and alcohol use.

And yet many schools will not accept private diagnosis from appropriately qualified professionals following the NICE guidelines. It's almost as if they don't want people to be diagnosed with a disability as that makes it harder to avoid putting appropriate support in place.

@TheNefariousOrange

If people on here are complaining that year 8s can't sit quietly and focus, how would another year before school help?

^***
I think the poster was suggesting another year beyond what they get already, so phonics and learning to read finishing in Y3 rather than Y2.

I'm so reassured reading this thread - a good chunk of my Y5s struggle to follow a single instruction. So sad but relieved to read it's not just me. As others say, getting them to open a book/ close a book in a particular way to make it easy to mark is a drama. And lining up without chatter, squabbling, scuffling? Impossible.
A third of my class is on SEND register, another third on ha behaviour plan (surprisingly little cross over between the two groups. It's the higher ability children who are struggling with behaviour)^

Mental health support is being pushed on to schools.
I regularly have social workers asking for our primary school to provide support and GPs referring parents to schools, rather than CAMHS.
This isn't children with mild emotional needs, this includes children who have been sexually abused, neglected and physically abused, had immediate family members commit suicide amongst other challenging home situations.
Where I am, there is a year plus waiting list for these services.
This is at a time when our budgets are being squeezed.
The result is stressed families, stressed children and stressed staff.

I've been in schools for almost 30 years and it has never been as tough as it is now, and I have never seen families under pressure as much as they are now. Sadly, I don't see anything changing soon.

Oh my goodness.

I wonder whether its screens at key developmental ages in the brain. My year 11 wasnt exposed to proper smart phones until he was a bit older because they werent commonplace. I couldnt have given him one to play with as i didnt own one. My year 8, they were be coming common not long after ubiquitous.

My 6YO was labelled as global delay at 2, was meant to be reviewed 6 monthly. Covid happened. His EHCP was issued Jan 2021, aged 4.

Then when paeds restarted routine appointments he was 6 months from starting school so they discharged him and told me to get his new school to re-refer if issues persist.

Started school and he obviously needed to settle so school submitted his re-referral March 2022.

This was rejected due to not enough evidence of need. He is doubly incontinent, EHCP, signif. Speech and language, attention and learning difficulties. Then said they would just upgrade his GDD diagnosis to learning disabilties without seeing him. Managed to get this over turned August 2022. Told he has 18 months for an initial appointment. Then it will take approx. 9 months for the assessment with very bitty gaps between each stage. In the mean time, continence service won't touch him due to his clear Autism and ADHD. We believe there is a genuine medical issue but he is so hysterical no one can get near him to do anything medical. They won't sedate him for xrays and scans because he doesn't have a diagnosis. So we were left in limbo.

Obviously, I can't just leave us in limbo for another 2 years. He's 6 and that's borderline cruel. We have just done the whole process privately. The private service is run by the same Paediatrician our local NHS service use. £2550 later he's got his autism and ADHD diagnoses. The comment on the report is that he has really high level of needs. His ADHD is so severe that despite being low average cognitively, he needs the support of someone with a learning disability. Big things need adding to his EHCP to give him a fighting chance. We are about to self fund play therapy to help him tolerate the medical care he needs, this is £80 per hour. In the mean time his school are dealing with a poorly funded, doubly incontinent 6 year old. They get 3k top up for him..

The LA also removed all of his direct speech and language therapy from his EHCP after I raised he wasn't being provided it. He has a severe speech disorder. Their solution was to remove it and to tell me a child receiving SALT is not appropriate and they only need to provide appropriate provision. £735 on an independent SALT assessment later we have tribunal Jan 2024 to get his SALT back. In total this provision will cost £720 per year. School aren't being funded for it but are now providing it through their PP funded SALT. This means other children now aren't accessing her. He can't wait until Jan 2024 to receive it, it is affecting his education too much. It might just be £720 but 3 or 4 kids in the same boat adds up fast.

The school are supporting him well and doing their absolute best, I can see that everyday but it isn't fair on him, the school or the other children. I'm just thankful behaviourally he is not a problem at all.

The reality of the system for children is awful and this is part of the reason why schools are in such a mess. His older sister is a whole seperate post!

So schools will now be expected to attempt to to diagnose children by classifying behaviours in a way that might suggest certain approaches are beneficial, without actually diagnosing them, and without any expert seeing them.

Sadly this happens anyway because the child still attends school whilst awaiting a diagnosis (which may take years to happen if at all) and in the meantime....

The LA have engaged solicitors against me fighting his minimal speech provision. They are continually engaging solicitors for tiny disputes that they don't legally have a leg to stand on. It's like the ones they know they can't win they rely on using a solicitor to intimidate the parent to drop it instead.

I do agree that the curriculum needs a complete overhaul. I’m a secondary maths teacher and we spend quite a while teaching student’s calculator skills, but the reality is most the kids do not have calculators at home and probably won’t ever have a calculator at home - we all just use our phones instead.
if I need to know how many rolls of wallpaper I need to buy, I use the calculator on the b&m website. I don’t work it out myself.
I do feel like we are teaching a 1980’s curriculum to 2023 kids, especially at secondary level.
but my biggest issue is that we teach too much, but master too little. What is the point in teaching students trigonometry and solving algebraic equations when they struggle with understanding fractions and can’t manage percentage increase/decrease. A mile wide and inch deep is the perfect description of the curriculum.

I agree about microplastics, now we're finding out it's present in breast milk, what else is there? Also, screens in place of human face to face interaction from babyhood, happens too often sadly.
Will check out that Netflix doc, thank you.

In schools themselves so much is crammed in now with crap funding, shit buildings and hardly any staff. Some of the younger staff I've come across in training evidently and quite obviously do not have the aptitude to do the job and droves will leave. Teachers are shat oon by the media and the government to seem like greedy B'stards, truckloads of children coming to school in nappies, SEN in 50% of a reception class, parents having little awareness of boundaries or what schools are there for. In short the Tories have fcked education. It will take decades to get on top of it.

Real terms state education funding has doubled since the 1980s. ^

I should bloody hope so too! I was at primary school in the 80s. There was NO money. None. I remember us all scrabbling around on the floor because the teacher told us there was a penny on it. After what seemed like ages we popped up with 'all we could find was this plastic straw' - followed by long lecture about how much straws cost, how precious resources were, and how we had to look after things better.
At one point we went for weeks without any paint in school, as there was no money to buy it with (more of an issue then as we had time in the curriculum to use it!). I remember the excitement the afternoon the tins of poster paint turned up unexpectedly- because a teacher had got fed up and popped out to the art shop on the high street to buy paint with her own money.
The 1980s were a truly shockingly shit time for state education. And here we are, back in an even worse situation 40 years later.^

Regarding children following instructions.

I've worked in primary education for 24 years. The last couple of years I have been so shocked at the numbers of children who will just not do as they are asked. They won't help to tidy up. They won't get changed into their P E kits when asked to. Won't be quiet when lining up.

It makes every little task take much longer than it should, is exhausting and demoralising for staff and makes the classroom generally a less pleasant place for everyone.

And that's not even thinking about those with more serious behaviour issues who throw chairs around when they don't get their own way. And those with genuine needs who really need 1 to 1 input but have no funding.

It's just too much. I'm no longer a teacher, I left the profession in 2021 and am now a TA looking to leave the sector completely.

@Busybody2022 That sounds horrific. for you

This sort of stuff doesn't help either though. Many children do genuinely struggle to attend and schools face a lot of resistance when offering standard approaches to start with but now EBSA seems to be the latest bandwagon. How om earth do schools distinguish between genuine difficulties and kids who just want their WiFi like this one. It's impossible and a daily battle.

I spent my working life in education, working with every age from 5-16 and advisory and SLT.

Since I left, it’s exponentially unworkable. I could refer to an EP and we had EP hours. My school had a SRP for S&LT and many more than in the unit benefited from their advice. I had 26 TAs, most of them experienced and the new ones learned from the experienced ones. I had a couple of specialist teachers, although not for very long. Now the need is ever greater, there’s no EP support, no S&LT, and less than a quarter of the TAs.

I’m amazed that anyone stays in teaching and admire hugely those that do. From the middle of the last decade, it was obvious the wheels were falling off. Now it’s not just the wheels; the whole structure has disintegrated and I don’t think it can be fixed now. Online education might be the only alternative left.

I was at a family event a few weeks ago. A relative was bemoaning the poor state of discipline in the school attended by her children, and wondering aloud what on earth was the reason for such diabolical behaviour. I didn't quite know how to politely respond, as her three upper-primary aged children were literally creating havoc as we spoke - crawling on and under the function room table, knocking over drinks without being spoken to about carelessness, rampaging about bellowing, chucking toys about, running full tilt into elderly relatives etc. I wanted to say, 'Well if even half the kids in that school are allowed to behave in the way you allow your kids to behave, of course it will be fucking mayhem!'

In my experience, a lot of issues stem from shit parenting and lack of parental support for teachers when we attempt to teach kids that they need to sit down, shut up and listen.