Our education system is an utter shit show

[Noonelikesasloppytrifle]

I don't think people outside of education realise what an utter mess our education system is in and how bad it actually is.

I have 4 DC with one still in primary and the rest at secondary or 6th form. I have worked in various educational settings and have been a Governor. I am currently working in a large secondary ( 1500 students) in a pastoral role having moved from another area of the public sector which is also in a mess. My DC all attended state primaries. Two of them are now privately educated with the other 2 attending state grammars and one moving to a sixth form college.

I have been really shocked by how bad it is in the school I work at. It has clearly been managed badly for a number of years (former head went on long-term sick, followed by maternity, followed by sick leave) so they were rudderless for a while. They have just joined a MAT who all want the same behaviour policies with a blanket discipline regime and no regard to the individual needs of the kids. There are a mix of behavioural problems but they are all lumped together so those kids who have SEMH issues are punished for not attending lessons when the classroom environment is so toxic for them that they can't cope. There is no resource for it to be dealt with in any other way.

The curriculum and assessment schedule has completely disenfranchised a whole raft of kids. At the start of year seven they're already aware that scraping a 4 in most subjects would be their best outcome but they're forced to sit in classes where the only attainment measure is an exam at the end and we wonder why we see so many challenging behaviours in lessons. There are barely any TA's so often 30 students with one teacher and some very difficult kids to deal with.

This week at my school they had so many staff off sick that for three days we had 5 classes put together in the main hall. It was either that or close the school.

The staff all appear to dislike each other. Teachers don't like SLT or pastoral but also exhibit a sense of entitlement. It's certainly not an "we're all in it together" type of attitude.

School are expected to solve all the ills of society. On a daily basis we're dealing with the impact of poor parenting, lack of boundaries, the poor diet and social media etc etc. There is so little resource to deal with this properly

I know that not all schools are like this. My 16 yr old DC (at Grammar) does not report the same issues at their school that I do at mine. However, I do know that our other nearest secondary is experiencing the same thing as us and they have a similar demographic (rural county).

I feel so sad for the kids coming out of this system, particularly those without the network around them to provide support and direction.

The sure start centres were still there when my DS was small, but it didn't help. I think ASD is a much bigger problem than we have realised and a lot of kids come over as being badly parented when in fact there are mild developmental differences in play.

Sorry, organising a revolution isn’t really my skill set! Feel free to lead with your own banners though!

You're the first person to mention this on this thread, I think that lots of mumsnetters are able to care about these two issues at the same time.

For what it's worth, the Tories may know what a woman is, but I don't think they care about women any more than any other party, so that issue won't be swaying my vote (although not sure I could vote Green at the moment).

When we talk about funding the UK is in the top 1/3 of OECD spending. Sooo...... of course more money helps, it would help with everything, but it does throw up questions as to why countries who spend the least ie: Japan, have fantastic educational outcomes. It comes back to society. The money needs spending at the back end, even before a child presents to school.

At the moment there seem to be a huge number of people in the public services who are paid to follow rules, but who aren't allowed to actually use the intelligence to solve problems.

I see it constantly in the NHS and the school/council system.

In the NHS so many people spend time redirecting patients, from GP reception, to pharmacist to GP reception, to A&E, to OOH, and back to the GP for example. But nobody ever in that set actually has the time or authority to sit down with the patient and work out what the problem is.

I see it in the school system too with a SEND child. Nobody can say to us, "I see that you have money and time to help this situation and you know your child, lets see what we can do to get the best outcome for this child," it's all about following rules that were created to solve a different problem in a different time.

If the individuals in the system were able to actually think, rather than just follow arbitrary rules, I think it would help a lot.

I think people become so institutionalised they can’t see what is rational and reasonable. It becomes all about following rules and regulations even if they make no sense.

I know when I was teaching I certainly became institutionalised.

I think the vast majority would be able to. But it's even something simple as going off the school premises to the beautiful local park a 10 min walk away for a nature walk.

The local private use it for cross country running, free time, feeding the ducks etc. Costs nothing. Our school have never been. Of course a lot of the kids (mine included) spend lots of leisure time there.

It looks like a huge misses opportunity for the school not to use as a free field trip especially when the private school avail of it so much.

Thanks, it helps to know that. I will keep that in mind when I am talking to people.

I think I will find it easier to work with people if I know they are not being deliberatly obstructive. I think they are maybe just trapped.

It's reminds me of a book I had as a kid called "Help! I am a prisoner in toothpaste factory."

Great thread. DC’s Latin teacher has tried to dissuade us from him taking a classics subject because he’s unlikely to get an 8/9 at GCSE. I as the teacher whether enjoyment counted for anything? Appalling.

@Kenthighst it might mean there aren’t enough staff to cover offsite trips

It is shocking. Not new, I guess: my friend who's in her 50s recounted being prevented from doing languages at A level on the grounds that she was likely to achieve "only" Bs.

She was on track for As in STEM subjects, so the school made her do those. It was only after she had emerged from uni clutching her engineering degree that she stopped to think, "I really don't enjoy engineering. I wish I had stood my ground and demanded to do French."

Bright children won't do well anywhere. My DD is bright- predicted top GCSE grades. She can barely make it into school because of anxiety iver the environment, and when she does spends half her time in the pastoral room with no work. School aren't interested in her as they have too many other students with more demanding needs. We've given up on the idea of "top grades" and just hope she can get any GCSEs at all. She won't make a very good contribution to their progress 8 scores but they don't seem bothered by that.

@lavenderlou is taking her out an option? Or getting her signed off by GP and she can continue her studies at home. We’ve had to remove our dd from secondary and after a few months decompressing she’s engaging in studying at home but more importantly her mental health is slowly healing.

She would like that but both of us work full time (as teachers!) and financially can't manage with giving up. Really can't have her trying to self-study at home. I've looked at online schools but they are so expensive.

We are having an ASD and other psychological assessment done and hope that with more evidence we can push the school to support her more.

I hope you can find something that helps your DD. There’s lots of free or low cost resources for home learning now and ironically your teaching background could open up tutoring opportunities due to huge growing home Ed market. We are juggling it with our jobs at the moment but facilitating resources whilst DH & I are around on a work at home day. It had got to the point our DD was mostly in the send hub base avoiding all lessons very upset so we had no choice but she’s much happier and in a better place to learn now.

@lavenderlou my DS is the same. I stopped sending him to school and he is gradually getting better. I know I'm fortunate to be able to do that. It does feel a bit perilous because so much is dependent on me now.

Considering online home schools courses for my children. Not ideal when I'm at work full time but don't want to send them to that environment

Would you recommend? Do children get the grades? I would imagine this is a growing market

Also what are the fees like? I can't afford private at the current rates of circa £18k+ so see online as an alternative.

It’s not that teachers don’t tailor to individual needs it’s just so fucking hard to tailor to 30 individual sets of needs. We are busy dealing with those who shout the loudest and or exhibit dangerous behaviour.

@FreeZor

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:
• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

This - help parents from deprived areas understand what they need to do to prepare their children and work alongside the school to support deprived families.

https://kingsinterhigh.co.uk/ and https://wolseyhalloxford.org.uk/
seem to be the two places that most people talk about. There are fee calculators on the website.

Wolsey allows people to work entirely independently and from books if preferred, as I understand it, but doesn't organise exams. They do only the Cambridge exam board.

I think king's interhigh requires people to watch video lessons and be in teams calls, but does organise exams, which I think can be done at home. That's what someone told me anyway.

I think it's about £5k a year for GCSEs, for a full set.

I'm not in either of these schools, btw, but have just read a lot about them.

You do realise that the reason why schools took on so much more other than education is due to headteachers requesting to in their meetings that take.place with heads all over the county ?. Now they've realised they can't cope they go quiet and make.the staff think it was some.miraculous decision made by government. There were services that did all the emotional support and.mental health stuff but like i said headteachers ...not all.but some requested to take this on. They undermined every other service and complained so they were allowed to then take this on themselves .... And many are about to retire. An example is our local head. She believes strongly the school should take on all of it that services provide and won't refer to other services because she has an obvious ego " we are the best school " attitude .
Blame your previous or head teachers or local council.for trying to impress their managers . All ego . Thete are services out there that are helping and charities . If the school head thinks they are useless or doesn't know they exist then it's them taking it on.

I drove to many classes at different sure start centres when my children was little. They were all in deprived areas. The parents attended drove in from more affluent surrounding areas. The carpark was mercs, audis, bmws. The majority of mums were uni educated. The ones who weren't had husbands in good jobs. The surrounding house’s curtains were rarely even open while we were there.

They may have been put in deprived areas but in my experience it was not the target market who attended. in order to get the target parents attending it would have to be compulsory and you just cannot enforce that.