to be absolutely horrified by Educating Essex

[spiderpig8]

i would stick pins in my eyes before i sent my kids to a place like that!!
I was watching it woth DS1 who is 16 and he was absolutely speechless at the lack of discipline and the immaturity of the pupils.
Where to start?

Why aren't they all seated in rows facing the front? They seem to be sitting clustered around tables like infants, .No wonder they don't concentrate and are disruptive.
The girls look like hookers with thick make up and very short skirts
If that was top set maths?? At 16 learning how to work out the area of a circle?? The teacher was uninspiring and unenthusiastic. And I had t laugh when it zoomed in on Carrie's so-called 9 GCSEs.She had b in English and |C in maths and that was it.the rest were btecs , functional skills, citizenship and crap that isn't worth the paper it's written on.

The head and deputy are twerps.Skating about in swivel chairs in the corridor, allowing the kids to snowball them.They try to be the kids mates rather than their role models.How can they command any respect?
Most of all allowing their pupils to appear on national television , making serious false allegations against staff, and sending abusive bullying texts.
And this is an ofsted outstanding school!!

What really bothered me was the way they all had mobile phones out in lessons, in the corridoors, in meetings with teachers...It just seemed so wrong. The rest is not dissimilar to a school I worked at few years back! And I won't even start about sets and 'O' levels and the olden days

Wow. A lot of very superior people here. "Most state secondary schools are zoos" are they? Which means you think most state educated children are animals. You know what? Fuck you and your revolting condescension.

For what it's worth, the question "What is pi? Where does it come from?" doesn't strike me as remotely stupid. I know from memory it's 3.1415926, but I haven't got a clue where it comes from, who realised the significance of that number and how they did so, or why it has such magical properties. Does anyone else here?

I visited Passmores on a professional basis this week, meeting groups of kids. I was startlingly impressed by the atmosphere of the school, by the behaviour and the attentiveness of the students, and by the commitment of the teachers.

i'm still chuckling at the queue of kids snaking down the corridor waiting to get bollocked for misusing the computers and the porn email story the other night had me rolling around the floor [hgrin]

Yabu btw, I think the staff are fab in often very difficult circumstances.

E and dh were horrified when we watched the show, this rule they have that the NEVER Permanently exclude a student well I was shocked so I would imagine thats whey the students walk round with a swag because whatever they do they will never got rid off

Instead allowing the majority of children suffer their behaviour or sending the offender home for long periods at a time with them not learning but not able to have a fresh start at a different school which for some people is exactly what is needed

No wonder why people will pay in excess or 50k more on a house to get their kids into a school

And for those who disagree with church schools this is exactly the reason why they cannot be bottom rid of because the alternative dose not bare thinking
About

I thought Grange Hill was taken off because it got boring!

Certainly even in the 70's it bore no relation to my experince of state school.

as other have said, the day to day dullness of kids doing exactly what they are told would also be dull.

Telly is telly, not reality.

Well said.
THe 'show'(because that is what it is) focusses on difficult pupils for, I would have thought, obvious reasons. We haven't seen much general misbehaviour from the rest of the pupils.
As for Top Set, whether it is A and A, A-B or A-C will depend on many things, including the size of the year group and the general level of ability. A school with only A and A targetted pupils in top set must be either
a) very large; or
b) not actuall a comprehensive at all, but selecting somehow or having the benefit of a very affluent local area.

I thought it was a spoof.

The little bit I saw was very funny.

Bold fail.

Maypole1 ... Did you not pay any attention? The reason they don't want to permanently exclude kids (it's not a rule, they do when there is no alternative left) is that 85% of those who end up being sent to prison were permanently excluded from school earlier in their lives - it sets them on a life path from which it is very difficult to get them off. The teachers, admirably, see their duty as to set their students on the best possible path, given whatever obstacles are in their way, not to think: "Shit, this one's too much hassle. Let's just palm them off on someone else."

Get off your high horse, and remember that kids from backgrounds that have lumbered them with God knows what problems deserve the chance to be helped.

What AllFallDown said...and more later, but must dash.

I work in a state secondary and recognise elements of my school here. Certainly we have constant battles to do with make up, skirt length, phones , but discipline did seem more lax than at my school and some of the things i saw would not be tolerated, eg open phone use in lessons, swearing at staff pupils getting up and wandering about in lessons. Rows facing the front is seen as old hat now and not necessarily the best practice, but having said that I thought the seating and classroom arrangments and atmosphere looked poor. , etc. remember that the programme is focusing on a small % of the year group who will make good telly. Most kids just get on with their work. Also, In my school a top set maths group would get a*s, not bs and cs.

I think mr drew is fabulous btw.

I have taught in quite a few schools and the 'feel' of each one differed. In Kent, where they had the 11 plus, it would be perfectly understandable, in a comprehensive school (the highest achievers would have been creamed off to attend grammar schools), to have a class where the highest achievers are looking at a grade c for maths.

The feel of a school is greatly affected by its catchment area and the behaviour of the head and deputy head.

I have worked in schools with a 'difficult' catchment, but superb management, where discipline was excellent. I have also worked in schools with weak management and appalling behaviour. I actually think the teachers in this school are very caring and seem to have tailored their 'style' to suit the children in their school. Some of these children have real problems going on in their lives, but obviously have a lot of respect for the senior management team in their school. The staff are walking a fine line and appear to do it very well, with the right mix of friendliness and authority.

I think there has been a very accurate portrayal of how the kids interact with each other - particularly the bitchiness of teenage girls.

exactly my experience, moules

Ooh, thanks for the reminder. I've been meaning to watch this for ages (secondary teacher currently on mat leave), but keep forgetting to ask my in-house IT support DP to set it up on 4OD. I'll be back in an hour or so to add my tuppenny's worth about how realistic it is!

I was coming back to address the zoo comment (disgusting and ill thought out) but see it has been handled well already. I think the "where did pi come from" comment was quite funny, as did my once-trained-as-a-maths-teacher husband. Also worth remembering that the cameras will zoom in on bad behaviour, phones out etc.

The main thing I disliked this last time was the female sports teacher they all go to for advice...she very obviously favours the boys. She spent an awful lot of time counselling them, taking them off for chats etc and yet the girl who was being quite nastily bullied was more or less ignored as she carried on her marking or whatever.

Where we are it is nigh on impossible to exclude a pupil, the lea insist on 'managed moves' instead. As the school I worked at was failing guess where most of them ended up...

NinkyNonker ... They have a house system there, so the sports teacher might have been head of house for the kids she was counselling, with pastoral care responsibilities, rather than favouring boys over girls.

I know, but it just appeared so obvious. If the girl had gone to her presumably that was for a reason? She must have some responsibility?

AllFallDown so every one else must suffer at the hands of a hand full of children

Get off your high horse why should good well behaved children have their learning affected by the bad minority

Why should they

They SHOULD have a chance to be helped but not at the expense of others

Wonder how you would feel if someone was threatening to kill your dd make their lives a mosey and they didn't want to go to school followed your child home but the people who were causing that were allowed to remain with in the school

May be whilst your dd fell into depression May be tried to kill themselves like many children who are being bullied do you would quote mr drew

Yuk

My kids are shocked by this school. They go to an average comp which I visit it regularly (as a parent and a governor). It's nothing like the Essex one in any way shape or form.
I wanted to take a wet flannel to that girl and wipe her panda eyes off.
Mr Drew however, is magnificent.

allfalldown & troisgarcons I agree with you both wholeheartedly. The condescension of the OP is v v unreasonable. Every child matters, however they present, and whatever their behaviour. The disgusting behaviour of the Bullingdon members at Oxford is a good example of the product of an expensive private education. Those who think they are helping their children by contributing to the educational apartheid of grammars & private schools can continue to delude themselves if they wish, I hope they are happy in their bubbles. The students I teach in our fairly challenging comprehensive emerge infinitely better equipped to cope with today's world than their peers specialising in History of Art etc. in HE. Our alumni range from Oxbridge to the trades, through all 'categories' of jobs & professions, and benefit hugely from an education in which they mix with and understand the issues facing all socio-economic sub-groups.

As for the Essex school, I would rather work there than a grammar or private school, despite having attended a very traditional private school myself and having taught French, German and Economics up to A-level for 21 years. The job satisfaction and interaction with the students are, for me, the best features of my teaching job.

I feel extremely sorry for the stoned kids at the highly-expensive private boarding school near my home ...

karmabeliever the only line the teachers should be walking is the one of the child who wants to learn but its typical of the whole of the uk we reward fecklessness,laziness and violence

I and so glad my son gose to a school were the undisciplined and swiftly delt with and the well behaved and hardworking and praised and rewarded no wonder why so many parents find god a year before year 7

it is very calm compared to the schools I have worked in!

maypole1 ... Is this a slow reveal designed to trap the unwary? Did you or your kids receive death threats? If so, I'm sorry, and that certainly seems beyond the normal realm of behaviour. But I still think your demands for punishment and retribution are cruel and unnecessary. Kids are not born evil, and only an unjust society would condemn them to the scrapheap without making every effort to give structure, meaning and hope to their lives first. Or do you think, "No, fuck 'em"?

By the way, what happens when you make someone's life a mosey?

All secondary schools are zoos

I posted this. Yes, I agree with you AllFallDown - it is a disgusting statement.

It's even more disgusting that it's the exact words said to me by the Head of Year 9 at my son's secondary school. I asked to meet him following my son's serious assuault at his school, which required A&E treatment.

He also went on to say "Some of the kids here are little thugs but there is nothing we can do about it. We can't follow your son around all day long to make sure he's safe".

I immediately removed my child from this Ofsted rated 'Good' school.