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

we are getting an increasing number of students who can’t access mainstream but there’s nowhere else for them to go. We can’t recruit the support staff to help them because the pay at Aldi is better (and the stress is lower).

I've given up. Am leaving in July.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot
The boomer generation (according to Florida
State University) have had their IQ levels reduced by lead damage so the notion that micro plastics could be having a similar impact is an interesting idea.

This was the graphic I meant to post earlier!

Great idea - and to Laura!

It's a good question. I'm a parent and have noticed more and more over the last 2 years how bad things are getting. My kids talk to me a lot about the constant substitute teachers, the subject teachers who don't seem to know what they are talking about, the fights, the poor leadership etc etc. At this point I am just glad both mine are getting out this summer (DS doing GCSEs and has an apprenticeship set up for Sept as he is fed up of education and DD is off to uni). It's hard to know who to kick off to - I don't think having a go at the school will help. Where else to go?

What a depressing thread! And all so true. 35 years in the classroom and it just keeps getting worse! Society is broken and this is reflected in the classroom.

standards of PGCE students have been declining drastically and frankly, the ones we have currently are woeful. Because no-one with half a brain would willingly sign up to this. And none of them stick with it, after realising what they are actually getting in to

none of our students this year made the year. They didnt want to be working into the night and on weekends when their partners earning much, much more clocked off much earlier. No feeling of being trapped by a pension means it is an easy decision for those who are only 1-5 years in.

We used to have four PGCE students a year in our dept. This year we had one first placement who I will be surprised if they pass…. We were supposed to have someone second placement but so many have dropped out there wasn’t enough left….

I'm a TA in a secondary school and leaving in a month. I can't believe how bad things have got at our school with behaviour generally but also with the children the school is taking who (to be blunt) should be in a special school because they have extreme and complex needs that the school cannot handle. Half of our large Inclusion department have left or are planning their exit strategy, it just isn't worth it anymore for the salary.
I have the greatest respect for teachers; their job has become more difficult over the 13 years I have been at the school and where they used to have 2 or 3 TAs helping with the most challenging or vulnerable groups, now they are lucky if they have one. And I am aware that some of them have received complaints from parents if they so much as tried to instil discipline by setting detentions or other behaviour strategies. I've seen teachers in tears and TAs in tears and it's really not acceptable in the workplace (hence I'm leaving).

Not only that but Im shocked frequently by the poor levels of concentration of NT students in years 8 and 7 in particular. Very little ability at all to concentrate on an extended piece of work. Reading a paragraph is a drama in form time. I honestly do not believe they are reading anything at home other than the cereal box.

-Very difficult to recruit in certain subject areas: we are down to one ICT teacher

-Very difficult to recruit and afford support staff

-Struggles with behaviour (though it has improved for us this year after a low point the year after covid)

-Lower attendance following covid and parents more willing to have children off and missing school

Just a few ideas but agree with so much already said

I do wonder if there is a perfect storm around behaviour and also ASD/ADHD etc I have an ADHD child. Not extreme but on meds. Her behaviour is not something I ever say in any of my peers at two large schools. My DC have screens but not half as much as peers.
Our high is great but almost no homework so no culture of doing extra at home or revising for tests. Yr8
Prob just creates teachers more work.
DC use on line homework resources but most of their friends don't bother

I left

I love teaching, and I am really good at it. I was just utterly broken by the system, the lack of support caused by underfunding and the COVID stresses just were the icing on the cake.

Kids being put into school from outside the area and bringing in drug and knife crime, yr7 getting harder and harder each year with less and less support. It's totally unsustainable.

So I left. And I love my new job, and cannot believe now, looking back, how crazy life in a school is.

I’m not a teacher, I’m a parent of 3 secondary age Y7, 9 and 11.

their school is falling apart, between a third and half their lessons as taught by substitutes, the rest are NQT or the wrong subject teacher. Not so much an issue in Y7 and Y9, for now but my Y11 has not had a chemistry teacher for more than a few weeks at a time (maternity, stopped coming in due to fuel costs 🤷‍♀️, new teacher to the school off with personal issues 2 days a week, both Days of the chem lessons for his set) as a result they haven’t finished the syllabus. He is totally disengaged now, from a decent 7s level across the curriculum he no longer cares, the school don’t care. Not one of them has had the same tutor for more than a year, despite the school policy being to have the same tutor through the school. The school numbers have increased by 20 or 30 % but no more space and now less break time, rather than extending the school day they have reduced lunchtime, and reduced access to the grounds. Presumably to save on lunch time supervisors and no sports equipment allowed. Or phones. Very few clubs. Not enough catering staff so long queues for the expensive and low quality food.

aside from all that In Y9 behaviour is horrendous. And they have imposed draconian sanctions on the whole school. But Y9 don’t care anyway…

In Y7 struggling with lack of teachers, lack of pastoral availability due to pressures in upper years.

My feelings are the ed system was in crisis pre covid, and taking out the cost of living and ongoing incoming staff isssues, the children have been fed the subconscious message in 2020, 2021 that being in school wasn’t that important, their education was second to all the other issues, then they went back, no more disruption was promised, except they all got covid and had to be home for a week, meaning classes were half full, the teachers got covid so they were off for a fortnight, and years were sent home as not enough staff. Then their kids got it, they were off,… and so it went on, then this year it is strikes (which i support) and all but Y11 sent home again.. every sodding time.

Alongside that is the parents being disillusioned and 😏 and I admit I am fed up with the school, with the push back on parents to supervise yet more schooling on strike days. Except no work is actually sent home! It’s no wonder the children who have spent the last 3 years feeling like their schooling JUST isn’t as important, are also disengaged.

Also I’m sick of the school hassling about wearing grey socks not white ones.. like really does this matter.? Currently the whole school is being daily uniform checked taking huge amounts of time out of teaching time. For what? To make them tuck in shirts and roll down skirts.

the teachers (that they have) are fed up and disengaged there is no respect for the pupils and no respect back . There is no trust between them.

What a great thread! For someone working in education (SLT but not teaching) it encapsulates what is happening. Throw funding grants at us and say ‘fix it’ with no method as to how when it’s not an education issue it’s a society issue.

I know of Yr7/8 who seriously need AP but can't get ECHPs and access to AP. School can't cope with them. They are so far behind that they can't keep up in even bottom sets. They cause chaos with behaviour. They are so let down. Can't access any help and school left to try and deal with it.

Because the kids are not at home? Just relieved they are back in school. Also they are just about coping with cost of living crisis, cold, hunger, work etc. And some of the noise was not about the children before (as you have pointed out frequently)

Death by a thousand cuts:

Teachers are not going to manage SEN children as well when teachers are tired and stressed. (Based on experience as parent of SEN children and varying levels of tiredness and stress) They do not have time to support or adapt learning. (Need more teachers,training and TAs) More difficult to teach these kids as the gap gets bigger and they struggle more.

If the support is not put in school in nursery for children then problems get worse up the school, gap widens. Some schools don't manage SEN well. (Seemed to be school wide policy that's inflexible: not sure whether it was the school or what has been imposed on the school, lack of capacity in teachers due to overload of work, recent teacher training trends, or NQTs inexperience ['cos they are cheap] and some of the experienced teachers managed kid well) kid was damaged by inflexible school system (stopped talking for a term self harmed) ,then no help available from underfunded services. Thus arrives in year 7/8 requiring extra support and making more work for staff.

Add up lots of kids where inadequate support early on has caused more difficulties/bigger gap/ more behaviour issues and you get harder work conditions. It doesn't take much of a difference in each child to cause collectively a big problem.

Incidentally, small free adjustments have made a big difference. (Got a good Sendco now)

Similarly for parents: parents who are struggling financially and working more and are more stressed are not going to be able to provide as much support at home, cook as healthy meals, read as often, help with homework, have the patience to teach kids stuff when it's quicker to do it yourself, have the energy to discipline or impose bedtimes as effectively.

Parents of SEN children don't get support and are not going to be able to do the extras. Kids are not getting support so parents are struggling. (Teaching use of knife and fork is not a priority when you are dealing with other stuff first and six hour long meltdowns after school)

It all goes back to not enough money. Not enough teacher retention to get experienced teachers. Not enough CPD. Not enough support staff. Not enough support from outside agencies. Too much work load, too big classes, not enough support for parents, not enough NHS space for assessments...

Has it got worse since the Gove curriculum?

When the children were younger things seemed to be very rigid in teaching some stuff..less ability to adapt work to the class. Quite a change in a few years since I left teaching.

I suspect there’s also a huge amount of undiagnosed foetal alcohol spectrum disorder

At my special school the assessment unit nursery has no children coming in as Surrey want to do away with sending children to special schools and ehcps. Let's send the kids diagnosed with ASD at 3 to mainstream under the name of inclusion. Can't talk or use the loo but no problems! Why waste your budget on a 24k school place when a standard mainstream with no ehcp is a few thousand? So what if they get overwhelmed and punch little Darcey or throw a chair at the teacher? Schools never push back. They just expell

Also my dd is in mainstream in year 3 with ASD and a ehcp in Surrey. She has 15 hours but no TA in her class ever. Teacher told me my dd needs a TA and gets £15,000 pa funding but has no provision. Two days later the same teacher denied she needed a TA in her class in front of the senco to me. I have zero sympathy if she can or cant gope with dd after that. Dd money probably went on fixing her classroom roof when it collapsed. When the senco tells me my dd had a epic meltdown I just rolled my eyes. Senco won't put in support so how the hell can I do anything? She has asd but no issues with speech, sensory or learning according to the senco ( so how can she ASD with none of the needs) . Because every need was downplayed to block the ehcp. And so it goes on. Schools dig their own SEN pitfalls some of the time.

This is a sad and worrying thread to read - I had no idea what was going on in secondary schools.

I was a primary school teacher but left 5 years ago. I did 7 years. A big thing for me was a lack of respect from parents towards teachers. This filters down and affects children’s behaviour in the classroom.

I’ve worked with some phenomenal teachers over the years. None of them are still teaching and I don’t blame them at all.

I agrée with lots of this (ex teacher/SENCo) but we also have a HUGE issue with parenting in this country. Kids have no boundaries anymore, they rule the roost at home and then come up against discipline at school and all hell breaks loose. And when it does all go to shit parents scream at the teachers.

i don’t miss it at all. But I miss the kids so much it hurts 😢.

Agree with all of this and more. I’ve been teaching in primary for ten years and the job now is unrecognisable from when I started. I was so passionate about what I did back then. I can’t even begin to describe the picture in schools other than a total shit show.

Cuts upon cuts, less and less support staff, more children with SEND, high number of INAs with increasingly complex needs, less money for school meals, high energy costs, stupid pressures from ofsted, poor retention rate, disrespectful parents, children with huge gaps in learning, no money for resources including paper, planning lessons to suit a wider and wider range of pupils (including non verbals), little to no support from parents at home, assessment of EVERY subject on the curriculum, continuous stream of data being recorded, more complex behavioural issues than ever before and no one to refer to, no Ed psychs for love nor money, ongoing battles with CAMHS, my list could go on and on.

I have got a new job outside of education and handed my notice in this week. I never thought I would leave education, but I am exhausted.

I understand she is asking for emails about Ofsted:

[email protected]

I have contacted her. We are a double RI school under forced academisation. Our KS2 results are in the top 20% of the country, so we are most certainly not ‘coasting’. Our second RI was for not developing our curriculum enough - but the first RI praised the exact same curriculum. Ofsted need to make their mind up and stop moving the goalposts.

Let's send the kids diagnosed with ASD at 3 to mainstream under the name of inclusion. Can't talk or use the loo but no problems! Why waste your budget on a 24k school place when a standard mainstream with no ehcp is a few thousand? So what if they get overwhelmed and punch little Darcey or throw a chair at the teacher? Schools never push back. They just expell
Exactly this. Which is a travesty. Except expelling someone with SEN is incredibly hard so the problems just go on and on and on and everyone suffers.
It's a dreadful, shameful situation, and there are no winners.