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?

We pay for the extras. Music lessons, language classes, and every weekend involves new books, even if it’s just a trip to the library. Screen time only until tea time, then after we’ve eaten they can read, play, learn something new.

It’s more the writing involved in GCSEs and A levels I am concerned about than the workplace. Public exams in the UK are not yet paperless and some subjects involve a lot of writing.

I’m an English teacher and DH is a PE teacher but is an excellent mathematician- if and when there are gaps we’ll tutor our children but it isn’t just the academic. Some benefits to two teacher parents!

As teachers we have an insight into what Unis want to see in the UCAS process and students who embrace all aspects of school life are very successful. I’ve always told my children “you get out what you put in”. Both do a wide variety of extra curricular - one instrument, one sport club minimum outside of school and then join whatever clubs are available to you in school. The level of apathy with some students I teach is atrocious, they’re not interested in anything except TikTok. They have no ideas to contribute to class discussions, let alone to an interviewer at interview!

I want to say at Parents Evening “put down the phone. Watch a good film. Watch a good documentary. Go for a walk. Talk with your parents! Form an opinion - on anything but who your favourite influence is! Learn who people are!” Basically open your eyes to the world and not through the lens of social media.

Lots of children do very well in the state system.

Mine went to small church primary schools and then grammars. They have been fine and challenged. They did and are doing very well, no different to many family & friends at top private schools. But they are very intelligent and absolutely needed the challenge of grammar schools and being streamed properly. You can’t put fast learners with very slow learners past a certain age, it is massively demotivating for all, that is the lie we have been sold. Slower learners need loads of extra help and attention.

I agree with you and I also think grammars make it viable to do subjects like Latin which the more academic kids can hugely enjoy. I was lucky to have a grammar school education and I am sad the option wasn’t available to my kids.
We made a point of choosing a secondary that streamed, but because of his cohort not doing y6 SATs due to COVID they didn’t bother streaming ds2’s year for y7 and 8. He is so much happier this year and I don’t think it’s coincidence.
I remember when my oldest nephew started secondary and we asked what subjects he was enjoying and his list was precisely the subjects he was streamed for.

I'm mainly doing it so he can write legibly for exams. There is a lot of writing for english lit and lang, the humanities, languages, sciences etc. A levels require lots of note taking and also written exams. Degrees even more so.

It sounds awful but I'll be hoping mine might stand a chance at a scholarship for private secondary.

Do you think the likelihood will reduce if VAT is added? Private schools might cut down

I was just about to say the same - they're being reduced / scrapped already!

Do you think the likelihood will reduce if VAT is added? Private schools might cut down
It wouldn't surprise me.

I think Starmer is barking up the wrong tree with that policy too. He's doing the same sort of culture war approach that the Tories do, just on a different topic.

He has the opportunity to go for a much more meaningful tax on wealth and clam down on loopholes that allow the richest 1% to avoid paying their share, but instead has chosen to try and pit workers against each other by acting like it's fine and egalitarian to buy very expensive houses in sought after catchment areas and spend a fortune on educational enrichment, but the most awful thing to live in another area, not have great options and choose to pay a small middle of the road independent school to do what state should be doing.

Thankfully dd is amazing at self study and should still come out with good grades. It's alarming the amount of times they don't have a teacher though and just get worksheets or to read.

We are moving house to get ds into a highly sought after top performing state secondary as there is no way he will take it upon himself to get good grades without good schooling.

It's awful though that children are being let down.

I'm mainly doing it so he can write legibly for exams. There is a lot of writing for english lit and lang, the humanities, languages, sciences etc. A levels require lots of note taking and also written exams. Degrees even more so.

Private schools have really embraced tech hence why many found the transition to online during lockdown much easier. I can’t see my dc having to do as much handwriting in their a levels & degrees. exam boards will have more digital assessments.

This is our problem. We are considering trying to scrimp and save for private secondary, but prospect of labour + VAT would make it even harder to reach.

I don't understand exactly what a labour govt would want us to do in our situation. We can stay state, take resources that could be used elsewhere, and live a better lifestyle at home, or go private at great (and increasing) personal expense.

The argument for VAT is we become more invested in DC's state secondary, but as a 2 income family you really aren't going to see me propping up the PTA cake sale...

@bravefox "but as a 2 income family you really aren't going to see me propping up the PTA cake sale..."

Why not?

Well my boy will be sitting exams in 18 months so I'm not banking on it.

Also, digital examination doesn't currently exist and I imagine will be fraught with glitches and problems just like the terrible online homework platforms are.
I can't see them forking out on a few million special locked/exam only ipads so that my sons year group A level students can do their exams in 4 years time.
Can you imagine the recharging, problems logging in and wifi problems that could occur during an exam. I reckon it'll be pen and paper for a good while yet.

So, pen and paper for my boy for now anyway. He's a dab hand at digital stuff so if it changes he'll be fine both ways.

Because we both work (not WFH) and rely on wraparound care to make everything work

@TidydeskTidymind obviously you do what’s best for your dc. I just think in a decade exams will look very different but you don’t have to agree.

This is our problem. We are considering trying to scrimp and save for private secondary, but prospect of labour + VAT would make it even harder to reach.

Why not go for an excellent state?

I think these changes happen more slowly than one would expect, and the poorer we get as a nation the more this will be the case. So I wouldn’t want to bank on it either way.

However if your kids are 8 doing extra art is probably going to be as effective a way to make sure they are on track for written exams as anything else you could do. If it is likely to be an issue it will be clearer further down the line.

In a decade I'm sure they will, but my child is doing GCSE's next year, then A levels two years later.

Lots of children used to do very well in the state system.

As a teacher in a state primary and secondary. The government are failing a hell of a lot of the future generation.

Cover lessons are seen as a doss by children whose parents have told them supply teachers aren't proper teachers and that if the teacher doesn't have a degree in the subject they won't be able to teach it.
I have had conversations with kids like "Non, je ne suis pas une professeur Francais, mais vous apprenderez les nombres de un a vingt. En avant!"
At the school I cover regularly, there is a team of permanent cover teachers, all of whom seem to be qualified teachers, backed up by agency staff who also seem to be qualified. Sometimes there's a graduate getting experience before committing to training as a teacher.

If parents told children to respect cover teachers and to be extra well behaved in cover lessons, they would get the benefit. You could also ask why if the classes are being covered, could they not have the same person covering the same group. And have your child record the name of the cover teacher in their book, so you can say "look, DC had Mrs Salt for 4 maths lessons in a row - is that a teacher?" or "look DC had Mrs Salt, Mr Sub, Miss Art Technican, and Mr Semi-Retired. What's going on?" Sometimes the SLT don't have that information about a specific class.

In a decade I'm sure they will, but my child is doing GCSE's next year, then A levels two years later.

And mine are yrs away hence why I said you do what’s best for you…

The best thing you can do for your children is vote the Tories out at the next general election. They have deliberately underfunded education and SEN provision for the past 14 years and this is the result. We need a new national curriculum that is fit for the modern world and the replacement of high stakes exams and inspections with something more meaningful, as these two factors are major contributors to the current mental health crisis schools are facing.

In the meantime encouraging reading will help, as will making yourself aware of GCSE subject content, taking your child on educational visits, encouraging them to work independently and making sure they get enough sleep. For the last two it's important that you check on them as well - even the most diligent teenagers won't necessarily be doing them!

The best thing you can do for your children is vote the Tories out at the next general election. They have deliberately underfunded education and SEN provision for the past 14 years and this is the result. We need a new national curriculum that is fit for the modern world and the replacement of high stakes exams and inspections with something more meaningful, as these two factors are major contributors to the current mental health crisis schools are facing.

This is the heart of the issue.

After so long I can't work out if it's due to incompetence or being deliberately designed to fail huge numbers of children.