If you are a teacher or parent…

[Flopsicle]

What is one thing you would improve about your school if you could - needs to be realistic (or at least semi-realistic). It can’t be “wish I had a bigger bladder” for example! What is one thing that works really well in your school and is it primary or secondary?

For me, homework - I don’t think this works well in primary (I’m not including reading, spellings, times tables in this).

Friendship benches where children can sit if they’re feeling lonely and someone will join them, older children can volunteer to organise games.

Oh, I see. I misunderstood. Could you contact the teacher and ask for the scores, or perhaps could your child bring her tests home?

A new roof. It's very leaky.

Lockers in secondary school. It's crazy how much stuff they need to take on a daily basis

I'd stop them using quiet girls like my lovely DD as mini teaching assistants for kids that have behaviour difficulties. She has gone from a child who loves learning and school to one who frequently cries at the prospect of going. It hasn't helped her in anyway.

I agree about the lockers but now I've been at the school a while, I can see they don't have space for 1,500 lockers. Lockers also tend to be put in out of the way places that can become targets for theft, bullying and other unsavoury things.

Generally, though, the cancellation of Building Schools for the Future in 2010 was one of the more stupid Coalition decisions.

Yes I could do, but that's not going to result in the culture change that I think is required.

What is the culture? Speak to someone with responsibility and ask for regular feedback on your child's outcomes. It'll change any "culture".

Uniform - for students not have to wear ridiculous polishsbel shoes and be able to wear black trainers

teachers - to have 30 mins to one hour PPA per day in secondary and equivalent in primary.

9 day fortnight for teachers

Surely a parent should be taking some responsibility for teaching their child to change a lightbulb and how to cook a healthy meal?

That's odd. What's the point of assessing if they aren't given feedback to improve?

Yes, I can't quite work that one out. Plus the data is held somewhere.

Do you have actual proof this is a thing in all schools? I have one of each and they went to this primary school. Currently, there is one male teacher (who has been there since before DS started and is a brilliant teacher) and another male member of staff who takes forest school sessions but there have been a number of other male teachers over the years, who have since moved on (it has been 16 years). DS was taught by males for half of his primary school. I don’t recall there being a bias. Certainly, not my experience nor that of the parents my kids went to primary with, nor has it been raised as an issue by Ofsted or improvement officers. I can only influence the strategic direction of my school as a governor, not change a whole system.

More money. Much more money. The majority of problems and difficulties could be solved with more money.
Parents being supportive and reinforcing the importance of good , respectful behaviour. This is huge.

A smaller curriculum as said by a previous poster. It's absolutely batshit in primary currently. No wonder kids are stressed.

In primary schools. Get rid of water bottles. Kids don’t need to be drinking constantly. Scrap homework. Stop giving the same kids the roles in the play, the awards, the accolades, the opportunities! It doesn’t go unnoticed by the parents and worse by the children.

Secondary school. Clamp down on behaviour. On the occasions I had to go into DDs secondary school I was appalled at the behaviour I witnessed. Apparently it was all normal. It wasn’t.

All schools: Stop pushing SEN kids though mainstream schools. It doesn’t work for anyone.

"clamp down on behaviour"
Every single secondary school is trying to do this. The pushback from parents is ferocious.
We're petty/we make too many rules/he can go to the toilet when he likes/she was only talking/other kids were doing the same/you're too strict/she was only checking her phone.
You name it.
It seems to me that many parents want behaviour of other children improved. Not theirs

Hmm. Depends on what’s best for the children.
We use assessments in order to assess if the children have learnt the objectives set that term or if there needs to be more targeted support. I don’t tend to give them their tests back within class time but have said to the children they are welcome to stay back at beginning of lunchtime to look at them with me. I’ve not had any pupils take me up on that so far this year. (All assessments and progress are recorded for SLT to access.)
The reason I do it this way is a large part of the class (but not all) are below age related expectations with SEND and I’m thinking of their self-esteem. I have children whose score can be 0-5 on an out of 20 spelling test and to repeatedly get that makes them feel awful. I can give whole class feedback if the grammar assessment shows that, for example, fronted adverbials (with commas) aren’t yet featuring in their writing or they don’t know what a preposition is. So it very much depends on what is the most effective feedback for that class.

If you feel your child would prefer to see their scores, maybe drop the teacher a message.

Absolutely.

Parents are also unrealistic about how their children may behave at school.

To enter into the squash vs. water debate if you have anything to do with paediatric dentistry in this country you wouldn’t be advocating that children sip squash all day.

When you’ve done a full dental clearance on a 12 year old for decay, come back and tell me that children shouldn’t get used to drinking water as their primary source of hydration.

As for schooling, I’d abolish selective schools. I don’t know why my hard earned tax money goes towards improving the lives of middle class children with sharp elbowed parents who have the means to put their children ahead already.

So just leave the schools that select on house price and religion then?

I’d like to see a more sensible approach to uniform.

kids come (like adults) in all shapes and sizes and one size doesn’t fit all.

Also you’re into a losing battle when you tell kids that strict uniform helps them learn and then PE kit is ok in summer!!!

Black bottoms and school colour polo with fleece. Black trainers or shoes.

I think uniform is important but it doesn’t need to be so restrictive. Especially because being uncomfortable hinders learning and mental health of kids is being affected when they have to wear a style that doesn’t suit their body shape.

You know that a lot of time, schools get given SEN pupils that shouldn’t be in their school and they can’t refuse to take them? They can try to get them placed in a special school, should a place become available and that child is top of the list. Many, many schools have children within them that shouldn’t be in a mainstream setting. They can be a danger to others, to themselves, and EHCP will not cover the cost of 1-1 support all day. They’re not taking these children because they want the funding, as it will be a net loss to the school, but they can argue all they like, and if the LA says so, they have to take them.

A friend has a foster child who the local Junior school refused to take, and they have a good reputation for taking SEN children. So schools absolutely can refuse if they don't think they can meet the child's needs. I understand it's different if the school is named as provision.

You are super super lucky .

We had one male teacher only in our Primary .

A gorgeous school for sure , just incredibly bias against boys. It was a known thing.

That’s all.

Teachers aren't 'uninterested' in the child as a person. How easy do you think it actually is to thoroughly demonstrate this interest in the individual child when you are with 30 of them at a time though? I teach almost 300 students a week. Teachers have a curriculum to deliver, on a schedule. That is the non-negotiable element of the job.