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!!

The school my daughter went was much worse than this and so was my own school over 30 years ago. I think the school on the TV is quite tame, only a few disruptive pupils. I admire the patience of the staff tbh, although I don't think it was sensible to allow themselves to be filmed swearing and mucking about. These sort of schools are the reality for many kids who don't live in leafy suburbs.

Jesus, maypole1, the choice isn't between "tea and chats" and permanent exclusion. Your vicious and vindictive attitude on this subject is absolutely bloody terrifying.

Zero tolerance is very well and good if there is support in the classroom. Teaching at say, gcse level it is sometimes hard, there are some pupils who require no more than a look and they will hand them over with a rueful smile; others will physically front up to you and tell you to shove it up your arse. In the latter case this involves much amusement from other pupils before a behaviour mentor (read, bouncer) comes and retrieves them from the classroom. In this latter case you could just spot the phone, give the look meaning 'put it away' whilst carrying on teaching and not disrupt the other 30 odd students.

This is one reason it perhaps behoves mothers to pick decent paying careers and then pay school fees to avoid this kind of thing. It certainly helps to segregate your children from not to bright children and disruptive children so they can actu ally learn. It's why the 7% at private schools get 50% + of the best university places and even more importantly do so much better over their lives.

noblegiraffe YY to the phones thing. We to have a no phones in class rule, I did notice on EE how easy it was to sneak the phone into their top blazer pocket!!!
Much easier than trouser pocket. By 10am I usually have at least 5 phones/a few fags or a lighter/jewellery/and numerous other contraband in my desk drawer.

Although my Y10 girls are currently in a phase of tucking mobile phones in their bras. Lovely

As the first post on the thread says in some of these schools they seem to think subjects which we all know are dead easy and employers regard as toilet papers GCSEs seem to be trumpeted as good ones. Whereas we all know that GCSE French is going to be a lot harder and better regarded because you have to spend hours learning the words apart from anything else, than the very popular tourism and travel GCSE at the school nearest my home which they seem to major upon.

Allfalldown any your view that a young person can do anything they like with out fear fills me with dread

No wonder why young people are how they are been feed on a diet of people like you feeding them no reaction for their actions

"It certainly helps to segregate your children from not to bright children"

Not too bright children, I think you mean.

Yes, what society needs is more segregation. Bang on!

clopper the 'leafy suburbs' are in fact full of schools similar in every way to Passmores. The parents, management and community tend to be in denial over the situation, though, which means that the students are in a dead-end situation; if their school is rated 'Outstanding' and is left alone by Ofsted, there is little likelihood of the issues being addressed, leaving them to suffer in silence :(

I think most urban secondary schools are like this tbh. I have seen a little of the programme, as has DS1. It reminded me of my comp, and DS said it is like his (although not in all respects).

Essex is not a completely grammar area btw - there are grammars in Chelmsford, Colchester and Southend, but nowhere else. The other areas are non selective.

When I was at school in Essex 20 odd years ago I was top set maths (out of 8 sets). Only 3 of us got above a C. In Ds1's school, he is similarly top of 8 sets. The majority of children in his class will not get above a C. I suspect this is the reality of comp education in most areas, certainly those in and around London.

At my school (totally average comp, in an average, not at all deprived area), kids rode their bikes in the corridors. If you were bored in a lesson you got up and walked out. Or wandered about and chatted to your mates. There were fights every day, kids being dangled out of windows or locked in cupboards when the teacher's back was turned. Most classes were more about crowd control than teaching.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I think that's a cop-out in relation to the bits I've highlighted troisgarcons. The pastoral worker didn't use the term "bird" because he believes he's using the language of students - he did it because that's how he refers to them.

You also don't need to throw a psycholology manual at teenagers to engender mutual respect, or raise girls' aspirations. And if kids see teachers calling them "scumbags" or demeaning girls, it just normalises it.

NinkyNonker - given that the mobile phone thing is a trigger to such confrontational behaviour, wouldn't it be better for all schools to have a blanket policy that phones are handed in at the beginning of a lesson? This could start being enforced as early as primary school, so there's no big confrontation trigger - it just becomes a habit.

I think it should be. Some got really territorial over it but over time the habit could develop. Our school wouldn't allow us to confiscate without good reason, which put a stop to that idea. I think it is such a modern thing some schools haven't caught up yet...I remember when passing notes was all the rage!

@maypole1 ... But that's not what I think, is it? And it's not what the staff at Passmores think either, is it? It's how you choose to caricature anyone who doesn't take your cruel, Victorian hang em and flog em view of justice.

I believe very strongly that actions must have consequences. I do not believe in destroying someone's life chances if any other reasonable option remains open. You evidently do. Thank God you are not charged with responsibility for anyone's children other than your own.

albertcamusI'm not saying schools like passmores are without problems, and I agree with you about the problems with being rated outstanding and basically being left to get on with it, but lots of schools in the inner cities have much higher levels of disruption.

albertcamus You're spot on. The disgusting and dangerous behaviour my son was subjected to was in a leafy suburban secondary school in a mainly owner-occupied catchment area - certainly not a inner city/sink estate which some here think are those that have these problems.

In earlier times some of the intake of this area would have the sort of pupils that secured 3 good A levels, perhaps even won places at top universities - none did.

So they are being let down by being forced to struggle on in classes disrupted by a minority of very badly pupils who take up the majority of the teaching calsses time and effort.

Sanctions against bullies there - exclusion within school, which basically meant the bully sat in a room with a minder for a few hours before being unleashed again on his victims. The really bad ones were moved to other secondary schools before returning a few years later having completed their circut of the local comprehensives, tp wreak more havoc.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the state education system when a child who wants to go to school, wants to learn is preventing from doing so by disruptive pupils that the school authortities have no effective strategies to deal with them.

sargesaweyes if only more people were as realistic as you, children in the UK would not be so low in analyses of happiness against their peers from other countries. Unfortunately, users of grammars & privates are in absolute denial about the issues their DC face ... because it's uncomfortable for them to face the facts of the matter as you describe them !

Well living in Essex my DD and I love watching Educating Essex, its so funny. Too much make-up and short skirts, it could but isn't filmed in daughter's school. Very true to life. I daren't tell what goes on in DD school some of you Daily Mail readers sensitive souls .

He staff are caring and its good to see their human side laughing in the staffroom. The Duputy Head thinks himself too funny though.

Wet - thanks, and sorry your son had to learn the hard way. This should not happen, but is in fact getting worse.

maypole1 I am glad you said that but very, very sadly, the governments over the years have reduced hugely the amount of provision available to children who cannot cope in mainstream. There are nowhere near enough places in specialist settings for all the children who need them and therefore they have to remain in their mainstream schools.

'The Unit' at our school, which always full, was closed due to withdrawal of funding. Some pupils were put on twilight hours (start after others, finish after) to keep them out of circulation, others got bussed out to external centres. Neither particularly successful.

Xenia.

Re French lessons.

I was amazed when I saw my children's A level papers in 1984/85. It was what I had done at O level years before so I knew that passing exams was easier than it had been in my day. For a start, there is no French literature in French courses these days. God, I could quote from Balzac, Voltaire, Racine and others but can they these days? No - because they know nothing about French writers or history. Perhaps I was just lucky.

bigTillyMint You are so right about the lack of specialist places for some pupils. I think this has a massive effect and pupils are not well served by this policy. Some pupils need specialist provision, smaller classes, higher pupil to teacher ratios etc. And some pupils clearly have mental health issues. This is difficult for teachers to deal with in a large and busy secondary school. I would like to see this provision expanded and made more flexible so that pupils can move back and forth between settings (as need arises) without any fuss and stigma being attached to it.

Unfortunately, users of grammars & privates are in absolute denial about the issues their DC face

Well, my eldest went to an abysmal comp school. Pastoral brilliant - but in reality the kids ran the school, still do.

Middle is grammar - they may try their hand with new teachers but the reality is they know they have privilege to be there and toe the line accordingly. They have their little moments but basically he knows his nuts are in a vice and there is no way he (or indeed any of his mates) would risk the horror of a perm exclusion and having to mix with ""riff-raff"". The big plus of grammar schools is the fact none of them give a shit about each others back grounds - they all truely mix in be it race, creed, colour, wealth. They do value thair education above all else and the paths they will be on.

Youngest will go (fingers crossed) to a different comp, much smaller with excellent, no actually, outstanding pastoral care.

I have worked in three other state comps in the same borough.

I 'know' exactly what behaviour goes on in each, mainly because I've either worked in them or have had a child in them. Far and away the worst schools are (a) all boys faith, followed by (b) non-selective all girls (c) large mixed comps.

The size of the school is usually a factor. If you have 300 kids in a year group, 2,000+ pupils milling round, as opposed to the smaller, family-like schools where everyone knows everyone, it lays down a bed for trouble. To be successful at a single sex school you must be 'alpha' type or you will be bullied or isolated - and the girls are far worse for this social exclusion.