to want my dd's school to be forcibly turned into an academy

[ReallyTired]

Dd's school is offically inadequate. All fun including school plays, sports days, end of term parties and her class outing have been cancelled. It is vital that these four/five year old reception children have their nose to the grind stone and learn their phonics and numeracy. Improvement is slow. Bullying is rife and most parents are unhappy.

I have seen another local school really improved by academisation. With the right sponsor academisation can work. I would like parents to be allowed to vote on an academy sponsor so that we could avoid Harris or Barnfield or some religious weirdo taking over dd's school.

Dd is trapped at her school because of lack of places in the area. Othewise I would take her out in a heartbeat. I don't want to do home education as I think the social isolation is bad for chidlren.

In my opinion an Ofsted report is a very small part of the ways you can judge a school. In my opinion if the children and staff are happy says a lot more about a school than what Ofsted think.

er Yes pipkin tend to agree in a lot of ways but is your child's school in sm?

No children, but I am a teacher.

I think it is different. I also know what you are saying but sm without issues....really? I don't want to say too much tbh about the actual situ so it's difficult. 'watch and wait' is not an option though

I don't mean that anyone gets into sm without issues, but an Ofsed report is only part of the picture.

Hahaha to not home educating because 'social isolation is harmful.' I took DD2 out of school 3 days ago and she has socialised with upwards of 40 people in three days, all of varying ages. We went to a home Ed group yesterday -20 or so children.

Erm yes so clearly its the fault of the teachers and the building that is based on what evidence exactly? Leaving the thread, its very frustrating cant share more and people can't judge without knowing the facts so all utterly pointless.

nennypops
Richmond is one of the wealthiest parts of the UK. It has a high proportion of graduates which means that Richmond children have the genetics to be intelligent.

My children's school is royally fucked up. It has issues that caused to fail its OFSTED, but its a thousand times worst than it was under the old management. I feel that my children's school needs new management.

lougle I'm glad that home works for you, but dd and I would end up killing each other if we home educated.

Richmond is one of the wealthiest parts of the UK. It has a high proportion of graduates which means that Richmond children have the genetics to be intelligent.

What the actual fuck?

Why do people insist on leaving their children at places where they are clearly given a second rate education in some cases. Our children are Unschooled so I wouldn't sneeze on a school let alone let my kids in one but everyday that passes when your child is in a poor performing school is a day were their education is harmed. You can't waste time hoping it'll all change, action must be taken immediately.

The cost of buying property in Richmond is higher than most of the UK. If you look on rightmove the cost of buying property is truely eye watering. Unless you live in social housing you have to be rich to afford to live in Richmond. I expect this will get more extreme when caps on housing benefits force people to move to cheaper parts of the country.

I expect that the inhabitants of Richmond feel poor once they have paid their mortgage/ rent. However to earn the kind of money needed to live in Richmond requires hard work and intelligence. Such people tend to value education more than lazy chavs who expect to live on benefits for life.

DS1's school is an academy. It is the most joyless place you can imagine. It gets the best exam results in the city, but that's only because it has the most middle class intake in the city. It would get those results whether it was a horrendous place of misery or not.

ReallyTired, I can't claim it works for us yet -it's only day 3. But I can say that school was slowly destroying her. I have one in special school, one in the school I've removed dd2 from and one at home.

pipbin actually genetics is the Elephant in the education room. I know several primaries and a couple of secondaries that's results are boosted nicely by the biggest local employer being staffed by maths and science graduates who bred clever children.

But is it the genetics or is it people taking an interest in their children? Is it nature or nurture?
What happens if two clever people have an average or below average child? Is that a faliure of their genes? And what about two average parents who make a real effort? Should they not bother because their genes mean their child will never achieve?

TheoneFKAMNwidowed

The blunt truth is that I think that home education is worse than an OFSTED inadequate school. I only met one or two home educating families that in my opinon did a decent job. I met a child who could not read at the age of nine because his mother allowed him to do as he pleased.

My daughter is making progress wtih her reading and maths even if I am fed up with other aspects of her school. Thankfully she is not being bullied, but she tells me tells of other children getting bullied. Luckily she has a lot of friends.

I don't agree with unschooling. I feel that the risk of the child ending up illiterate and unemployable is simply too high. I also feel the social aspect of going to school is vital. Most home educated children only mix with people that they get on with. Often we have to mix with difficult people in the work place.

Throne, I will leave my child there because it's a good school. The kids have a lovely time. The way they have changed inspecting has meant a lot of good schools suddenly been found wanting over things that got them a Good in previous years. I now see ofsted as the government sponsored arm of Goves siege on maintained schools.

Pipbin
What is your definition of achievement? No amount of hot housing will turn an average child into einstein. Success and happiness in life is more than passing exams.

I think that intelligence is a bit like sporting ablity in that both enviroment and genes plays a role. No one understands how different genes for intelligence interact. Those genes need to be switched on with suitable stimulation. Clever parents know instinctive how best to interact and talk to their children. A middle class child will hear more words before school than a child from a low income back ground.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140306/Middle-class-children-hear-23MILLION-words-poorer-children-start-school.html

If two parents are Olympicans then their child stands a higher chance of being good at sport. However it takes intense training to become an Olympican. If someone spends their life eating burgers on the sofa then they will never become a top sports person whatever their genetic make up.

I believe that children in Richmond are at a genetic advantage to the rest of the UK. Prehaps there needs to be more research on how IQ varies between rich and poor areas.

And thousands of children leave school every year illiterate. If you know of any families who have children that don't go to school and they can't read by the school leaving age comes, then you will most likely find that they have been suppressed in some way. A child has a natural want to learn and that goes with reading. My 5 yr old daughter can read and all we've done is shown her phonics on three occasions. All depends on their atmosphere. But saying all that, Education is a philosophy, you either believe in the system or don't.

But concerning your OP, I have seen the significant improvement an Academy makes to a school.

OFSTED can come out with amazingly bizarre judgements and it can depend on the experience of the inspector looking at Early Years and also personal preference. I heard this week of a Reception Unit that was graded as Good, but were told they would have achieved Outstanding if they'd had a mud kitchen!!!! Now, I'm pretty sure that you won't find mud kitchens in the 'Inspectors' Manual Of Early Years Essentials' !!!!!

OP, the borough of Richmond stretches much further than Richmond itself, and includes, for instance, Twickenham and Whitton. A lot of the primary schools are near the borders so they take in children from neighbouring boroughs like Hounslow. There are a number of areas which are at least as rich and, or course, the rich don't tend to put their children in maintained schools. You simply can't avoid the fact that there are many, many excellent maintained schools, whereas an uncomfortable proportion of academies have a poor record.

Of course genetics plays a part, as does environment. As for home/unschooling, well that's very naice if you can afford to stay at home, and if you are good at getting kids educated. However, I have seen lots of kids come into secondary schools who have previously been 'homeschooled' who are practically illiterate, as well as others who are obviously very, very bright and have been taught very well at home. The problem with home schooling is it isn't really well regulated. There are fabulous homeschoolers and there are parents who use it as an excuse not to work, or to avoid scrutiny over abuse, or simply who like the idea of it but lack the wherewithal and motivation to deliver it well.

I took mine out of school at the end of year 4 to home ed as he couldn't read. Statistically 40% of kids leave school at 16 functionally illiterate and innumerate. No way was my child going to be part of THAT cohort!!!!!

I'm constantly shocked by the numbers of naice middle-class parents at my home ed groups who are doing so because their child has SN's. It's led me to conclude that any analysis of home ed outcomes MUST take into account the % of SN's in the cohort and the average number of school years wasted.

When he was at school I was constantly shocked at the numbers of children in the lower years of primary for whom private tuition was a normal thing at so-called "outstanding" state schools. In my eyes if you are having to pay for additional tuition for a child in years 1- 4 then the learning taking place at school must by definition be inadequate. (I take 11+ tuition out of the equation as it's a political football).

Mumsnet posters tend to be the highly motivated parents, who do join PTA's, listen to their kids read, buy books for the home etc. We forget that awful school leaving functional literacy and innumeracy rate as a national figure. This is despite the onslaught of homework in primary schools and the attendance nazi's, obsession with fairly meaningless targets etc that was not in evidence during my far less pressured 1970's primary education.

If a child has not hit a certain academic level by the time secondary starts, in practical terms it's too late, and they are unlikely ever to catch up. My DS was left needing to cram 7 years of educational content into just 2 because I left him in school too long. What's interesting is that he is on target to do just that through home ed.

Prehaps with the exception of Hounslow all the areas that nennypops have name you still need an income well above the national average to live there. Hounslow certain has more than its fair share of challenging kids, but Hounslow is not in the borough of Richmond. I expect that most the children with social problems in Hounslow go to Hounslow schools.

I suspect that if you were to do a basic IQ test on children in Richmond schools at the age of that their intelligence would be higher than children in Nottingham, Manchester, Hull or Liverpool.

bochead I am glad that your son is doing well with home ed. I agree with missymarmite that home ed needs to be better regulated.

"Of course genetics plays a part, as does environment. As for home/unschooling, well that's very naice if you can afford to stay at home, and if you are good at getting kids educated."

I also could add that you need naturally compliant children who are prepared to work without too much nagging. I think that if dd was unschooled that she would spend her life doing Art.