If you don’t live in the U.K., what unimportant thing does your school system obsess over?

[Flynnstone]

In the U.K. policing uniform takes up a disproportionate amount of time. What is the equivalent pointless thing where you’re from?

Also obsessed with attendance in UK!

The school supplies list (stationary)

It's not even funny. It's SO specific.

Live in Canada

I’m in Sydney. A lot of angst is expended on parents registering their children for private secondary schools before they are 1. Some families waste a load of money on registration fees only to find they’ve moved house/ can’t afford it/ have changed their mind before the child gets to high school age.

A lot of discipline energy is also used on uniform here, especially the length of skirts, uniforms have logos on them - so you can’t buy jumpers from unofficial shops - and the wearing of hats (but I’m happy with that, given the strength of the sun!)

I’m in Canada and watch the uniform and attendance discussions with fascination. And the Ofsted stuff. It’s all so much more relaxed here in our public (ie, state) schools.

French Immersion programs, though. Parents who don’t want to pay for private use them as a way to get away from kids and families with more needs and have their children with a more “selective” group. There can be serious competition for places in these programs, I have heard of people queueing up for days in some places where spots are scarce. Knowing French is of course also important if you want your child to ever be able to get a government job on Canada, so there is an additional class aspect. (It’s all madness, to my mind, people fighting over the chance to have their children educated not in their first language).

I'm from Australia originally and went to a small independent. They were obsessed about so many things, but one of them was that you were not permitted to use the water fountains that had been designated for another year level. I once went to get water on a 42 degree celsius day at the fountain closest to my classroom- it was for year 10s and I was in year 11. I got a detention for that. Not joking.

I'm in Finland, there really isn't much pointless obsessing here but we have a school app for communication between home and school, and teachers can make lesson notes for each lesson a child goes to, either positive green ones or more negative ones like didn't do homework. Some teachers seem to do them all the time, like if a child did nothing bad they get a green note so I constantly get notifications for nothing. Other teachers only use them when a child does something out of the ordinary which seems a more useful use of them.

I’m in Denmark and not much person but school can obsess in periods about play dates we organise at home: how many we’re having, making lists of who to have play dates with in which week, notes home if you haven’t organised the right play date in the right week etc. It’s not unimportant but it can get excessive.

France: stationary. You get a list of stationary that you need to bring with you at la rentrée (start of year). It is specific to both the school and the year, and sometimes even the teacher. Local stationers have access to the list and will prepare packs so you can buy the whole lot.

Here is a typical list for CM2 (equivalent to year 6):
4 ballpoints (blue, black, red, green)
2 pencils
12 colour felt tips
12 colour crayons
rubber
96 page A4 notebook
96 page A5 notebook
correction pen
21cm 60degree set square
30cm ruler
12cm protractor
12cm scissors
compass
5 tubes of coloured gouache
3 paintbrushes (different sizes)
pencil case
A4 pre-perforated paper
double A4 pre-perforated paper
flexible A4 folder
rigid A4 folder
2 A4 notebook protectors
gluestick
A5 music notation notebook
Planner
Plastic wrap
A4 protective pockets (pre-perforated)
pencil sharpener
tape dispenser
50 pocket binder

I don't think some of these stationary items even exist in the UK - I've never seen double A4 pre-perforated paper or porte-vues (which I translated as pocket binders), or stylo correcteur (which I translated as correction pen).

@SadiraOfTyr wow, that's some list.
How much would that cost approximately?
( I'm an ex teacher and I was lucky if the kids brought a single pen !).

Usually anything between 50€ and 90€. This website has lists for most schools in France: https://www.rentreediscount.com/LISTES-SCOLAIRES.html

Wow that's a lot! In Finland you don't even need to buy a pen, everything is provided by the school.

We use to camp each year in the south of France.

We loved going to the supermarket near the port on the way home to get stationary for school - it was a thing of beauty 😆

Ireland. Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything. DS went to an Educate Together primary, so no uniform, teachers all on first-name terms and the main rule was mutual respect. Now at a standard secondary. No bees in bonnets, apart from a flurry of emails last year about kids acquiring ‘decoy’ burner phones to put in the school Phone Away lockers, while keeping their real phones on them.

Very interesting!

Poland: changing shoes from outdoor to indoor. Indoor shoes have to have white outer soles, presumably so that it’s easier to check that they haven’t been worn outside. Fair enough in winter when it’s muddy and snowy. In the summer, kids just end up changing from one pair of trainers to another. Teachers take it very seriously, they check everyone’s shoes and mark students down if they suspect outdoor shoes are worn indoors.

Keeps the floors much cleaner though. In Finland there's just no shoes inside the school at all (in primary schools at least), they have to take them off in the entrance then carry them to their classroom, where they are left outside in the corridor. Shoes are only worn inside in the wood/metalwork rooms for obvious safety reasons. This rule applies to teachers too, and any visitors. Makes it fun when there's a fire alarm, saw a teacher waiting outside barefoot in winter because he didn't have time to grab his shoes while helping his class evacuate.

This is highly controversial to anyone from where I live but it’s an anonymous forum so I’ll say it!

Basque language

i live in the Basque Country in Spain where they speak both Spanish and Basque. basque (unlike Catalan for example) is nothing like Spanish. It’s a notoriously difficult language to learn even for Basque people.

There are no schools which teach in just Spanish, and to get into the local university you have to do a Basque exam. The schools treat Spanish like it’s a leper language. Children get told off for speaking to each other in Spanish. I can see why they’re doing it because you can’t get a job here without Basque but it would make so many children’s lives easier if they could have an education in an easier language that is spoken globally that they all speak at home. It also creates an unfair advantage for the children of basque speakers vs the children of Spanish speakers.

Not poland but slippers too. No exceptions.
It actually is case in some workplaces too

I did part of my schooling in a country (Australia) that had stationery lists and it was my favourite part of the year! I used to love organising it all in the summer holidays in my anticipation for the new school year. Yes we had all the very specific types of binders etc.

We also had to buy our own textbooks, is that usual in the UK? (I live here now but my kids aren't school age yet.)

I remember they were very concerned with the performance of the students in lots of academic competitions. For example there is a national titration competition for Australian schools. Our school would worry if there was ever a year where our students failed to place. I have never met anyone from any other country which had a titration competition.

Haha I'm French, living in the UK but sans kids, so I have never really thought about stationery, I thought our very detailed stationery lists were common everywhere.

I also discovered recently that we have specific writing notebooks, the "Seyes".
I thought everyone was using that.
As a kid, we had to learn how to write with a fountain pen, blue ink only, not sure if it's still the case though.

Ireland has similar rules about compulsory Irish and Leaving Cert Irish needed to enter any of the National University institutions, or for primary teaching. I find it pretty uncontroversial in terms of promoting a minority language largely wiped out by colonialism, colonial discriminatory educational policies, and colonialism-induced poverty pushing emigration.

I'm a teacher in England but I was recently chatting to a teacher from Wales who said that it's a requirement to have a bit of "incidental" Welsh language in all your lessons. NB he is a science teacher, who is not fluent in Welsh himself. So it's a case of memorising phrases like "sit down everyone" in Welsh and then immediately switching back to teaching about microbes in English. Seems pointless...!

Australia - Queensland. Uniform at secondary. Public state primary schools aren't as pedantic.

Attendance - it's obsessive. There are even awards!!

Sport. It rules everything. The latest is private schools to become an Olympic pathway school. Whatever that is!

Prestige. All schools, evenow socio economic public, chase a prestigious reputation.

Well it’s controversial because despite the fact that everything you say is true. It’s a bit shit for kids who can’t get into uni or fulfil their potential because they speak Spanish… in Spain.

The policy has done wonders for the language, it’s not as endangered anymore, but it does have drawbacks.

Australia:

• wearing hats for all outdoor activity. It’s a good obsession but I was somewhat baffled as to why my child’s UK primary enforces EFYS and KS1 children wearing a tie but not a suitable hat for playtime.
• stationery lists although it’s quite a nice return to school experience to get your books and personalise them
• private schools. A large % of Australian children are educated in fee paying independent and Catholic schools - almost half at secondary age. The gymnastics involved in getting your child into the right school is quite a challenge. People get quite worked up about ensuring that their children go to the same school that they did 30 years ago.

Where are you? I'm in BC and we weren't asked for anything.