How can state school parents try & bridge the educational gap that's rapidly forming?

[Kenthighst]

Following on from the excellent thread regarding the shambles of state education. What can us parents do to bridge the gap? Our state school children are being failed & we are being kept in the dark.
What can be done outside school to bridge the gap that has formed between state & private?

I've seen no evidence of gap at my DCs state comprehensive. DS on course for excellent A levels 🤞 and has G8 distinction in his chosen instrument.
It's the quality of teaching that is important.

I've recently spent time interviewing Year in Industry students at work (FTSE100) - the state school students are not at a disadvantage; not that I've seen anyway. If anything, they come across as a bit more grounded

I just looked up what a ‘knowledge organiser’ is. Some examples seem similar to those revision books which used to be published for every Key Stage and subject. If they still are, and I presume they are, wouldn't they do?

It's the quality of teaching that is important.

Yes and no. "Quality First Teaching" is a soundbite to justify not funding SEN. Yes, the quality of teaching is very important. But even the best teacher in the world cannot do their best when >50% of the class needs additional support.

Just before that gets picked apart, I do mean mainstream. Obviously SEN teachers do, but they have 6 in a class, not 36.

My youngest DC is in year 5 and on their 3rd form tutor for the year. Behaviour is awful and disruptive - I have never encountered 9 year olds calling their teacher a fucking bitch before. This term some of the boys have been suspended on different occasions for constant violence and sexualised behaviour towards some of the girls. They have are behind on the curriculum so their breaks and PE have been cut. The head teachers can’t pretend it’s not happening any more and bang on about how great the access to violins is.

DD is a lovely, conscientious and shy child and I know she finds school stressful. She is very bright but clearly behind where my other DC were at her age. I’m so upset and have gone back and forth about moving her since year 3 as she does have some nice friendships, and I’ve been sympathetic because of Covid and expected things to get better. It does but it never sticks.

We do all the enrichment and love of learning with our DC as that is a reflection of how we spend our time as a family, but her schooling is so poor nothing can compensate for that. We chose a socially mixed school where we live (there are million pound houses and tower blocks) but I will not take any chances that she’ll have the same experience at secondary so she’ll go to private even though we can’t afford it. Every child has the right to a happy childhood.

Sorry it’s a bit of a tangent but I wish I’d known how bad things really can be at state primary. Examples of reading with your kids, taking them to museums and theatres just doesn’t cut it if you’re up against a broken education.

Knowledge organisers exist from a number of different companies. @NotAPsycho Would you be prepared to pay for them if teachers provided you links, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel?

As a matter of fact, I was in charge of making our own set last year (because my school doesn't have money for pens this year, let alone to pay for more subscriptions).
@noblegiraffe is spot on with workload - creating each of the 18 that needed doing for my subject for the 18 different exams (3 sciences, Foundation, Higher and Separete Tiers, 6 exams each) took an hour for the first 6, then around 20min each to adjust for the different tiers to ensure all content was adequately represented. That's not taking into account photocopying, which I outsourced.

Only for some students to take them and throw them straight in the bin. In front of me. A big part of bridging the educational gap is teaching students respect.

My child is still in primary but I am terrified of what secondary will be like.

However, as a parent I do find it very hard to support my child's learning when I dont actually know what they are learning. We had textbooks and my parents could actually see what topcs/subject were were doing, going to do next. How are parent meant to do that now without any such resources. Occasionally my child brings home some random pieces of paper. I've been in education to 20 years, have a PhD but have no idea what they are currently doing in history or science.

I understand that teacher have no capacity to write out guides. But thats a real problem as it stops me from knowing how best to help my child. That should be another thing to advocate for.

That sort of behaviour from 9 year olds is just awful - for the teachers and other students. No amount of tutoring or support is going to help when children have to try and work alongside that - my DD would be terrified.

You can get the appropriate support books for most subjects eg CGP for the Yr group in question. That's what we did in lockdown, bought the CGP books in science, English, maths, geography, French and history for Yr 3 +4. DD engaged with them well and they are a good way to support what they are learning at school.

Every child has the right to a happy childhood.

Yes. That school sounds dreadful. Your poor DD and other children there. Good luck to you for doing your best to pay for a better school environment. You just have to try, don’t you?

I have bought resources, but they don't match what the school has put in place and this is my issue. I'm more than happy to buy eg cgp books if it matches what is getting taught, but there are differences.
Respect works both ways and respecting parents that want to help the middle of the road Dc that are pigeonholed at age 10/11 I would have thought would be in the child's, teachers and schools best interests.
Also it is eminently possible to create these as there are schools that have so what makes you/your school different? No one is asking you by yourself to create all these for your subject, as I am sure you have colleagues or are part of a multi school trust and what is available does not have different 'levels' they are aimed at core knowledge.

“Teachers can just <add x task to their existing workload>” will be the death of the teaching profession.

Teachers are on their knees. Ridiculous workload is the main reason I see hundreds of young, vibrant, enthusiastic professionals leave within 5yrs of starting. Government would have the public believe that it’s leftist ideology making them serial complainers about pay. Pay is not the issue. Sure, we could do with a pay rise but we join knowing what the pay scale is. So it’s not pay that makes these bright graduates think, ‘sod this’. It’s 100% workload.

Add to that the 15 times a day you’re told to fuck off and how demoralising it is to have spent hours preparing lessons only for half the class to actually participate whilst the others rip up the work and throw it back at you. IT IS EXHAUSTING both physically and mentally. And when you’re done being exhausted by the teaching you then have all the other stuff still to face.

Why on Earth would a good graduate choose to work under those circumstances when they could instead join a graduate scheme for Whitbread, Unilever, Deloitte or similar? They could earn more, not be sworn at or verbally, and sometimes physically, abused and not spend their evenings and weekends working just to keep their head above water.

State education is not failing in every school. I know my own kids are very lucky. But overall, it’s a mess created by years of neglect and underfunding. Government has done a great job at convincing the public that teachers are ‘lazy lefties’ only interested in higher pay. But it’s the workload that’s killing our passion for the job. And this is what’s causing the gap. Not poor teaching but rather poor investment in making state schools somewhere that good graduates want to work and where motivated YP can learn.

Some of you are quoting really badly behaved children and teens as being the issue. Now why is that an education rather than a parenting/unmet SEN etc issue?

What could actually solve the problem with kids who just do not know how to behave and spoil everything for the other kids/teachers etc? My DCs have virtually zero behaviour issues in their grammars. There are the occasional ones but because it is so rare, those kids get interventions/help quickly. What their schools are struggling with is much higher levels of anxiety amongst their cohort.

You’ve left teaching, Lola? So many great teachers I know from mumsnet quitting. It’s a disaster.

@noblegiraffe - I know a lot of great state school teachers who have left to join private schools so their own DC can go there with a hefty discount. Makes sense at secondary level for a few years. They are not working any less, but all of them seem happier.

@Araminta1003, I would have done exactly this had we not been in the lucky, and vanishingly rare, position of having a well funded, high performing state school on our doorstep.

@LolaSmiles, yes, we are relying on too many ECTs to prop us up. They are taking on too much when we should be nurturing their talents and ensuring they don’t become overwhelmed.
Also, too many young teachers taking on HoD roles when they don’t have the experience behind them. Trouble is, nobody wants the job or the extra workload.

The local university write to us practically begging us to take a student on TP. I’ve had many student teachers over the years and always welcomed what they can bring to the table. But the commitment is now too much on top of everything else and universities and colleges are really struggling to place students. A doctor friend has explained that one of the reasons why we keep med school places low despite a massive shortage of doctors is because we simply don’t have enough experienced doctors willing or able to mentor med students on the wards. It’s all just this horrid cycle caused by years of neglect.

@NotAPsycho ,

Why do you think you can best decide what is important in education?

The thing is that if teachers make these planners, that is time they cannot spend on other work, such as preparing exciting new lessons.

I was teaching in private for 10 years in a scarcity subject, as a second career, and it was entitled parents like you that, at least in part, led me to leave at the end of last year (plus ludicrous marking requirements and a culture of presenteeism in the staff work area).

Ultimately, I went into teaching for the pupils, as most do, but as senior professionals (as teachers are termed by schools), we don’t like to be micromanaged, and certainly not by parents!

Teachers need to both be paid appropriately to their skills, and respected as professionals. If that doesn’t happen, the bad teachers stay and the good teachers leave.

@Newbutoldfather
Both my parents were teachers in state sector so not in any fee paying school and they see how far it has declined. I am hardly entitled for wanting to be able to best support the children/parents/teachers and school. Don't blame me for your/schools short-comings.

@NotAPsycho ,

I am blaming you for your autocratic attitude, not my school’s shortcomings.

You have had several teachers explaining to you why planners don’t add much and they are a waste of teacher time, but you keep persisting.

I had parental complaints from a bunch of Year 11 parents why I hadn’t told them what was being examined in the mock (ummm….the entire syllabus minus two topics, which I had told the whole class as infinitum).

But no, I had to go into the online specification, print it out, cross out the two topics, and photocopy it 26 times as little A5 booklets. Everyone was happy despite the fact it was a complete waste of my time and totally environmentally unsound (and 5 were left on desks at the end of the lesson).

Your parents may well have been teachers but you aren’t. If your parents were doctors, would you think you could tell doctors how best to do their jobs?!

I'm not talking about yr10/11 which will be defined by the exam board and as I said in my first post I did for myself when I was a student. I'm talking about yr7-9 where the school can choose their content.
You response is typical No no no, rather than 'yes I can see how that would be useful and something that could be worked towards? I haven't heard why you think it would be a waste of time? The only thing I have read is that teachers are overworked. If they are a waste of time (from a teachers perspective) why do some schools produce them and parents who have them feel like they can actively support their DC?

Of course you didn't need to spend time printing, you could have just emailed it out to the parents who requested it!
This is the dilemma: be an involved and engaged parent but get hated on by the teacher OR be disengaged, leave it all up to the school and get slated for not caring plus run the risk of not being able to fill any gaps left by supply teachers etc.

You realise many professionals get micro managed in their jobs?

I support teachers massively but your attitude really grates on me. You quit because of marking and parents asking questions? Marking/feedback is all just part of the job in the same way as doing reports is just part of my job. Parental input I get can be annoying but at the end of the day should parents be invested in their DC's education or not?

My doctor is a professional but I still have the right to ask questions etc.