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?

Australia varies vastly in each state.
Amazing that you consider equal opportunities socialist nonsense, particularly when most private schools here are religious and most Australians are not.

Where are you based? Attendance is important, but I agree it’s OTT in England.

Central Europe.

I've never been to Poland but i work in a pre school in an area with a fair percentage of polish immigrants. I particularly like welcoming Polish children because we have to change shoes from the entrance hall to the classroom and with only one exception every single Polish child I've come across is trained to do this by their parents. It's a little thing but it's also one of the trickiest tasks that we have to face for the first month or so of the new academic year. It's obviously a big thing in the culture

I’ve heard of that but only at schools that are wildly oversubscribed. There’s one round the corner from me that was notorious for having parents rent a flat above a shop to get the first child in. If the teacher turns up an no one lives there then they do a bit more investigating. In practice, though, the parents say that they are both at work so can’t have the teacher come over.

All the schools in my area do this. I think it should be optional rather than mandatory. I suppose you could cancel last minute. One of my kids went to a nursery attached to a state school and we had to do it for that nursery too.

I’ve just thought if another strange thing. Focus is put on future stages, so it’s important that a family have homework battles with a six year old as homework is important at secondary (after SATS y6 get no homework in our school). Lots of parents will put children in nursery five days a week to ensure they are school ready, but they then have a long summer holiday and start reception with the odd hours here and there for first month! There is a big focus on phonics, but if a child struggles to read that way, there’s no alternative. Pen licenses is another strange one - these have to be earned - even if someone’s writing is more legible in pen! Some schools still use practices like happy face / sad face or sun / rain cloud - if a child misbehaves, they are put on the sad face / rain cloud board. There is lots of research on why these practices don’t work, even if in theory they should, but schools seem wedded to them - it doesn’t matter if it makes those who don’t/rarely misbehave feel anxious or that the same names end up on the board all year. Children who are stronger in whatever is on the curriculum that year have to wait for others to catch up - the standard is treated like a ceiling in practice.