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!!

Surely it would not be that hard to employ someone as children arrive in the morning to frisk them for phones

that would be everso slightly illegal

You can search students, searching 1500 would be a rather stupid waste of time . If rules are enforced most students keep the right side of them.

Xenia most state schools do ban phones , most state schools are not like educating Essex.

my friend's 13-yr-old daughter who goes to a ridiculously-middle-clarse 'Outstanding' oversubscribed faith school has recently tried to kill herself after bullies made her life a misery for 18 months, unchallenegd by the school.

Another friend's daughter is getting help from counsellours at a special teen mental health unit after the first year at the most oversubscribed school in our county traumatised her badly.

the same school is locally acknowledged as the place the drug dealers favourt becausre the pupils are the wealthiest and the parents are the most niave...''it couldn't happen here....''

Sorry haven't had time to read whole thread.

But if Educating Essex is a "typical" English secondary school, then no wonder our education system is going down the pan.

my friend's dd goes to a girl's grammar with top rate results... when she took an OD the friend went into school to talk to the pastoral staff - to be told that at least one girl a year attempted suicide and was she also self harming? because that was epidemic amongst the girls :(

we really haven't got education right in this country

Well... I was back home for the weekend today and drove past Passmores. I went to a similar school about 1/2 a mile away 20 years ago. Out of the whole (then) 5th year only 3 of us went to university, and some kids were near feral.

But, but but...give those kids some credit. My friends from school are now variously teachers, a police woman, a riding instructor, a psychiatrist and me, who earns more than my Radley educated DP.

Perhaps schools like that are character building :)

I think they are saying other state schools are not like that and children don't text in lessons and phones are not allowed in lessons.

It would not be illegal to frisk chidlren. It's that sort of silly overly PC stuff which has made the state sector so much worse than the private sector. You may not need to frisk them but you might want in some rougher areas to have them walk through an airline type security device to check for knives and you could have a dog there which can sniff for drugs.

Is there an example on television of a good non selective state school? I suppose people think no one would watch that but they have often watched programmes showing the life of Harrow School etc etc. I think there would be interest in a top comp showing the good behaviour and the like.

Agree with AllFall etc. If you actually watch this programme it is clear this is a fantastic school where the staff really care and take time with their troubled pupils. Of course it focuses on these pupils rather than the majority who just get on with their work, its telly ffs. But the insight it gives into what teachers go through every day is so valuable for those of us not too blinkered to see it for what it is.

The Head and Deputy and most of the staff featured are clearly doing an amazing job. There are some people on this thread talking unbelievable nonsense, wtf have eaton and harrow got to do with it?? - they are just two examples of children being educated in a rarified bubble so far removed from the real world its ridiculous! Sadly these children will probably run the country one day and THATs what is wrong with our education system.

Xenia- I don't doubt for a minute that there's reels of film of Good Behaviour at Passmore's on the cutting room floors at C4

who would want to watch that? I wouldn't- it would be yaaawnsome

I rarely post on these threads and havent read all of the responses but bloody hell some of you sound like you've walked out the pages of the DM.

Firstly this is snapshot of a school for the purposes of public entertainment; of course it is going to concentrate on the tough classes, the tough kids and the tough days.

My mum is a teacher, my dp is a deputy head and my stepdad is a retired head, I have worked in schools as part of the family support unit we al;l agree that the absolute overriding message is that the staff actually care about the children; the head for example chatting openly to the lad who was going to be a young dad, it was heartwarming I thought.

From my limited knowledge of the school it is in a fairly deprived area with high SEN needs. Maybe they dont get it all right and yes I've watched some of it with a raised eyebrow but it is a hard job these people do.

As Mr Drew put it in one of the earlier programme these kids are a product of the society WE have created so before we go round pointing the finger of blame at bloody hard working teachers and their pupils maybe we should look to ourselves????

Oh and fwiw I went out with a Harrow master and its not without its issues there either.

The 'Pi' girl is really quite sweet. And its true....what is is, where did it come from?

YY, I know its value and its usefulness in equations etc, but really, HOW did anyone discover it? It IS baffling.

I think the head, deputy and PE lady are brilliant, and wilst they are 'chummy', I dont think its to the detriment of their seniority.

I watch it and see a normal, mainstream, city state school.

I wouldn't do the PE lady's job for all the cash in the world

she's amaaaazing

I love the way all the DMers are focusing on the supposed 'ignorance' (double ) of the Pi girl- and ignoring the boy, also in the title sequence, banging on enthusiastically about black holes

...have to say, tho, the one I enjoyed the most this week was the boy waiting for a detention for drawing a knob on his desk

"why dontcha say it was there already?"
"yeah, I will, I'll just say I was just filling in the pubes and that"

If this is an outstanding school I would hate to see the sink one

I have only seen snippets of it but there is a really thick blond girl who wanted to know where PI came from and really needed to wash that panda eye make up off,

jeez nice thread

Oh god, I just came back and see Xenia is joining in. Well, that's us hideous parents who went to private school but don't earn £stupid enough to send our kids to decent schools told then. My son is at a state secondary. I posted on the bullying thread about some issues he is having with bullying and got some fab advice which I followed. the little so and so who has been bullying him has been discplined (which I was surprised about as the response I got didn't seem to suggest that would happen); the issues that caused the bullying have been dealt with very quickly and he just achieved the highest mark in his English work out of the whole year 7. This has pleased me greatly. One of his primary school friends who goes to the boys equivalent of my old school has just been round and is as miserable as sin as he feels horribly left out as most of the boys in his class went to the prep school. I don't know what the answer is but I am a firm believer in the power of parenting and knowing what is right for your child. DD5 is super bright - we went to parents evening and were strongly advised to out her in for a prep school bursary at age 7. Horses for courses. Maybe OT a bit here but all schools are different. I stand by the mobile phone issue though. Appalling that they are allowed in class!

I know, some people are so dismissive towards children, perhaps forgetting that that is exactly what they are. Asking where Pi came from isn't a dumb question, as has been pointed out so many times.

Some of the posters on here need to come up with constructive suggestions beyond the obvious. Do they not think most schools try? There are many issues, mist of which come from outside the school gates and as such responsibility also lies there

troisgracons, it sounds like you try to have the full United Colours of B. collection.

Do you have an ethnic/class chart which you tick?

I don´t get this obsession with mixing with children from lots of different backgrounds being the ideal. I have never taken stock of the race/religion/class of my friends and DC friends . Maybe as I am not British and my kids are "mixed-whatever" (I loathe having to tick boxes about our ethnicity everywhere). I just like nice, polite people, and I find you can find those with any kind of background, so why the need to "brag" about how diverse your circle of friends is, I mean, that`s just normal, right?

Yes, there is a school in London from a tough area, a state school, where the results have been brought up to much bet ter than comps in leafy Sussex by adopting fairly obvious disciplinary rules. I think it was run by a teacher who just got put into some Government teaching job . I can't remember the name or school. They have zero tolerance in lots of areas and it seemed to work.

I notice no one has commented on the parents that allow their daughter to go to school coated in make-up either.

At my school it would be parents kicking up a fuss about a total ban on mobile phones. Little Johnny needs to be able to phone them to pick him up after rugby and what if he misses the bus etc.

Yep, they'd be the same ones who complain about detention, won't let them stay, won't buy the right uniform etc etc...and these are the ones who play any role at all sometimes.

actually kreepyinmind she's not thick - her question is actually a very very good one, showing more depth of thought than the people on here who think her question was thick - who don't have the intelligence to realise why it's such a good question!

and yes I taught maths at one point in my career, I would have loved to have taught her!

Jeez this thread.

Its the sort that gives MN a bad name.

Good luck to all of you with a grip on reality. Keep up the good work, I am afraid I dont have the energy. I am off.