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!!

People have mentioned the mobile phones and kids wandering around. Sometimes in a difficult school, it's better to get the majority settled and working and then mop up the disruptive kids.

In some schools if you kept interrupting your lesson to deal with each little incident as it arose, you'd have kids who never got to begin any work because the teacher had spent all lesson arguing with the disruptive ones.

It reminds me of the state secondary in Essex I went to TBH. A noticeable minority of disruptive, dysfunctional, or obnoxious pupils, with a silent majority who just got on with it. And yes, there were orange peroxide blondes with terrifying eyeliner, skirts up to their bums, heels as high as they could walk in. Boys with ripped ties, wearing trainers and untucked shirts.

The girl (Carrie?) who didn't 'get' Pi perhaps just got lucky in her exam to get a C. But to her credit, she was shown at the after-school revision classes which were presumably voluntary. It may have just all made sense just in time for the exam. She seemed a fairly bright girl, no reason why she couldn't have done well with a bit of extra help. (And, IME, the 'cool' pupils always liked to make a scene of how they didn't 'get' this or that, to avoid being seen as 'geeky' or a 'boffin'.)

I think they have failed to impose even basic rules such as no mobiles in the classroom

Why do you think that they haven't got a rule about not using mobile in the classroom? Because you saw a clip in which a kid used a mobile in class, so you assume it's allowed? Kids aren't allowed to use mobiles in my classroom, it doesn't stop them trying. If I see them, they get confiscated, but with 31 kids in a class I know I don't always see them. A camera might, though.

no wandering around in the classroom to talk to your mates etc.
There might be lessons where movement and talking are necessary, so 'imposing' a blanket rule would be stupid.

Also, behaviour in the classroom is the responsibility of the teacher to pick up on.

albert
the converstaion went thus:

Chem: I asked to see you, I'm having problems with the class
Me: Ah! But are you having problems with X?
Chem: Well, no, when I ask the class to stop rioting, he's the first one to sit down, he's very polite.

margory parts of Essex are grammar, not all of it. Colchester is. Eg Barking isn't.

It was every class they were chatting and wandering around.

Dh knows one of the teachers who is sometimes shown and they have definitely selected the best bits for TV.

I also know someone who sent their children to the school and still live near it and said the family of the girl who accused the deputy of pulling her are notorious for making up allegations.

Wouldn't send my kids there, but the girls I see in town are orange with fake eyelashes!

I'm surprised you saw every class, maypole, I only saw the select few on the TV programme.

Why is it helpful to exclude a troublesome pupil? To palm the problem off to someone else? Oh right, that's ok then.

Exactly! Kids texting on mobiles, and teachers not acting up it, students wondering around talking with their friends in lessons, and general disrespect for the teachers.

maypole I would never send my DC to either a church or private school, totally against my beliefs and principles. And I can't comment on whether parents in the catchment for Passmores are voting with their feet, have no idea if as you say "most people dont want passmores".
Do you live in the area?

I went to two different comps in SW London and other schools. The school in the documentary looks pretty good compared to the schools I went to. I saw teachers and pupils being assulted, people smoking in lessons and pupils coming and going as they please.

Exclusion is always a last resort.

Even when you have an habitually problematic pupil, often a 'managed move' is better for all.
(a) it keeps the schools exclusion rate down
(b) it doesnt stigmatise the child as a trouble maker.

In 5 years I've only known 2 full exclusions, both because the pupils involved had criminal records and went to youth offenders institutions. It was untenable to let them back, even though their crimes were non-school related.

Two, that I personally would have strung up from a yard arm for school-related incidents remain on roll but are outsourced to the PRU.

Perm exclusions rarely happen. From where I sit, pastoral care is a far more effective tool in turning a child round. Children aren't born naughty or evil; it is frequently circumstances/homelife/influences that determin their behaviour. If you can get to the root of that and teach them to manage their own emotions and subsequent behaviour, that is far more use to the wider world than a barrow load of GCSEs. The point of schools is to prepare for the next step into adult life.

@spiderpig :

btecs , functional skills, citizenship and crap that isn't worth the paper it's written on

If this is your perception of the curriculum, I would respectfully advise that your DC would probably benefit from lessons which would help them to have a broader mind than you appear to have. To describe Citizenship, for example, as 'crap' suggests to me that you would deprive your DC of the chance to learn about key current issues and develop their own opinions and informed perspectives. They would subsequently find the jump from GCSE to A-level very difficult if their parent had dismissed a subject which offers the background to any subject at this key stage.

Oh I agree Maypole, the school I taught in had a no mobile rule...if you saw it you could take it. However in reality sometimes the teacher will be concentrating on something else and the camera picks it up instead. Likewise depending on the age range confiscating a phone could turn into a very very lengthy, confrontational process. Whilst I am engaged in that who is teaching the other 30 pupils?

There's no good having a 'rule' that mobiles aren't allowed to be used / looked at in class if the teacher then has to spend a lot of time and energy fighting to enforce it.

Zero tolerance is the only way to go with stuff like phones and uniform, otherwise it just becomes a battleground and a stick the pupils use to beat the teachers with. Don't some schools make pupils hand in their phones at the start of each lesson and claim them back at the end?

I don't see the logic in 'picking your battles' with this kind of thing either - kids of all ages are very adept at picking up what they can and can't get away with and will exploit any laxity to the max if they are that way inclined.

catherinetheElf to be honest I don't give a hoot why don't all the neigh sayers have the trouble makers in their Childs school see how understanding they are then people always feel justified when their child is not being disrupted or bullied

I would love to hear form a teacher or parent who child has been assaulted or scared to attend school who wants the tormentor to stay in the school and be given tea a chats

NobleGiraffe - Can people who are sneering at the results and the make-up really not appreciate what a brilliant job that Mr Drew and Mr Goddard are doing with those kids?

Totally agree. It seems obvious to me that they are passionate about their jobs and they actually enjoy working with the students.

Agree wholeheartedly that the PE teacher favours boys. She wasn't even looking at the girls this week, who were disclosing a bullying issue.

What comes across is that the staff really do care about the pupils - and as it's a fairly small year group, maybe that's easier to achieve.

They can and should ban mobile use in class.

I'd like to see them tackle the culture of low aspirations in girls, but I think sexism is pretty rife amongst the teaching staff there. The otherwise kindly pastoral support worker this week suggested that a lovesick boy found a new "bird", the aforementioned PE teacher told him his love object was "just a girl", the SLT was in fits of laughter about porn use and a lot of the girls featured, dress like they are auditioning for TOWIE.

Where does pi come from?

I have an A in GCSE Maths and I have no idea either I don't remember the origin of pi being on the exam though.

maypole1 what would you like to see happen to the bullies/tormentors?

I would love to hear form a teacher or parent who child has been assaulted or scared to attend school who wants the tormentor to stay in the school and be given tea a chats

Well, my youngest had a lot of trouble at primary to the point he was a nervous wreck and on the verge of a breakdown.

I removed him. Simple really.

The other pupil involved? Well I did understand why. His mother was caught in bed with her Dhs best friend. It then all came out the friend had been paid by the husband to shag the wife, so he could leave and set up home with his bit on the side.

So you see, I wasnt going to exacerabte that childs misery.

Far better to remove mine and give him a fresh start as he no longer felt safe there.

troisgarcons but rare or not but no sanction should never be off the table the fact that it is rare shows students when mentioned how serious things have become with out it i feel students have a sense of impunity

I'd like to see them tackle the culture of low aspirations in girls, but I think sexism is pretty rife amongst the teaching staff there. The otherwise kindly pastoral support worker this week suggested that a lovesick boy found a new "bird", the aforementioned PE teacher told him his love object was "just a girl", the SLT was in fits of laughter about porn use and a lot of the girls featured, dress like they are auditioning for TOWIE.

You talk to pupils in their language and in their mindset - you cant be chucking a psychology manual at them. Teenage hormones are not prone to rational conversation and clarity!

bigTillyMint removed to a unit were their are smaller class's a councillor ad more hands on subjects

Also along side their parents made to attend parenting classes

I don't want them flogged just not allowed to effect the majority of children

Are the "neigh sayers" the ones who are feeling a little horse?