Is it still seen as 'not cool' to try hard at school?

[TaDuck]

My daughter is starting school in September and I couldn't sleep last night so I was reminiscing about my school days.

I remember how embarrassing it was to try hard at things, everyone always used to make out like they hadn't revised for their exams, didn't practice etc. My mum even used to tell me to pretend not to care if people were mean to me and basically just act u unbothered all the time 😂I wear my heart on my sleeve and so does DD so I used to get upset about not doing as well as I wanted to (DD is the same!) So pretending I didn't care didn't really work for me 😂but then I was never cool!

Is this still what its like at school these days??

Not my experience at all but in a middle class comprehensive. Wanting to do well is the default, I’m not sure that may of the kids think it’s an option not to try hard because they know their parents and their peers parents are on them like a ton of bricks if they don’t work. Year 10 and revising and studying together is a pretty standard way to pass a weekend

I don’t know if what previous posters are saying about private/grammar schools is true… I went to a private all-girls school and it was absolutely cool not to care and lame to be seen to be trying hard. That’s what the ‘cool’ girls thought, anyway.

It was largely perpetuated by those who weren't very academic at my high school (probably an issue with the education system more generally in that they didnt have space to find where they excelled). In retrospect I'd view it as a shield or some sort of protective measure in the sense that "i didn't do well because I didn't try and school isn't cool" rather than "I didn't do well even though I tried".

The comments about what is taught at school being irrelevant in 20 - or fewer - years are no doubt true, but miss the point a little. Exam passes are ‘tickets’ that are necessary to get one on to the next stage - university - if that is the aim. Essential in the short term. Other routes are possible of course, but it will be a cross country route, rather than direct!

I emphasised to my children that however little they enjoyed a subject, disliked the teacher or thought it would be useless, that was largely irrelevant. The good exam results were necessary to get them in to what they wanted to do. Tough, but that’s life.

Exactly the same here. In the 80s Rough comprehensive I was bullied mercilessly for being a good student, to the point I stopped trying and working and even started truanting in my senior year. To the detriment of my exam results. Ended up leaving school at 16 with few qualifications and going straight into work. I have done ok in life but wonder how things could have been in a different school environment.

At my DC's comprehensive school it's ok to try hard and want to do well.