To feel we are all a little bit too obsessed with education and school?

[TheOddity]

I've seen threads recently about people remortgaging their house for private education, teachers publicly shamed in front of their peers for results beyond their control, people moving house to be nearer a good nursery, and on and on.
I recently moved to another country in Europe. I asked my new neighbour what the local nursery was like as that's where we intended to send our son. They said "it's very close and convenient". My spidey senses were tingling, did this mean it was a failing nursery? Next I go to the first parents' meeting. Not a word was spoken about targets, the curriculum etc. it was all about food and naps. In the end section for questions, the questions parents asked were about.....food and naps! He is there now for half a year, it's fine, And hopefully sometimes he is learning. There is one secondary school nearby so everyone goes there and again, it's fine. I am not overly worried my son will fail, because he is bright and I will help him.
I just think, are we all insane in the UK? Is it worth the stress? At the end of the day, if you are worried enough about them to remortgage your house, surely you could just do a bit of homework with them each night and it will all turn out ok? AIBU to think that school is all a bit out of proportion and life is pretty unpredictable unless your parents already own a fortune?

Streaming is less physically disruptive during the school day: DC stay put and teachers move between classrooms as opposed to "all change" between every lesson. Some schools are better equipped than others for managing a lot of movement and younger DC (early years of secondary) can find moving for ever class very difficult.

But there comes a point where they physically may not be able to understand the work set or help with homework.

I can barely keep up with the Maths and Grammar now thanks to my own shite very MC state primary with a brilliant in take and my dd is in primary. There is no way I can help through secondary with those subjects. She has to be in a good school.

That's a very sound reason, KnittedJimmyChoos. And I cannot pretend that DP and I are very grateful that our own combined educations allow us to help our DC as needed right through school and into university!

Are not

My DS did a degree in chemistry -a subject that I dropped as early as possible!
You do not need to understand the work to be supportive.
(and he did it at a RG university -his first choice and the one he would have chosen from a grammar or private school -but equally obtainable through his comprehensive)

If this thread was a dinner party, I'd have feigned a migraine and left a long time ago.

Living in an area that is fully comprehensive (and good ones) means that you don't have to have that sort of discussion at dinner parties!

Well that's great meh

you and mini and others can take the places at my local schools. might mean there's a place for dd somewhere decent.

gotta love the irony.

so many people against tutoring a d hot housing and pushing their kids as "kids need to be kids" yet it's some how oj for their children to be used as sone experiment to help raise attainment in other kids. that's hardly allowing them. yo be kids is it. It's alot of responsibility also and one hell of a sacrifice to make for kids that will be complete strangers I'm a few short years.

don't get it. either they are kids or they are substitute parents and teachers. what is it?

pictish, yes

but then we have to ask ourselves why cannot stop ourselves tom clicking on this sort of thread/sitting through these boring dinner parties ;)

I went to a party last night and nobody talked about schools. bliss.

Very few schools stream - streaming is a nasty system.
Setting is a different method

So I am guessing that setting does not split students up for Maths, English into different rooms, setting must have them all in same class?

Otherwise that's what streaming is separating pupils.

Talkin local school, below average FSM, minority ethnic slightly above National average slightly smaller than average on whole. quality of teaching too variable, not supporting students to do well, marking crap and not clear etc etc etc etc.

Failing in teaching, stretching pupils, below average gsce below a levels. Pupils sparking up second left school doors, scruffy, one told me " Dont fucking touch me" as I put my hand out to stop him falling onto my baby in her push chair, he was walking backwards into us. Fights, chucking bins from pavement into cars, playing footy in street - busy road, chucking ball at cars, littering, no modification of language use with small children present, just your average day of kids leaving school I used to walk to get my DD from school and run the gauntlet of this lot every single day.

Now I drive and shield us from it in a bubble.

I dont speak German yet I have been able to help ds1 by testing his vocab (I got him to make me flashcards) and teaching him some memory techniques that I find helpful.

I couldnt help with computer science when he didnt have a teacher but I have a friend who is a programmer.

I cant do a lot of the math he is set. Thankfully he understands it but there are websites out there that will teach me enough to help when I need it.

Sometimes just listening is enough for it to click into place.

If ds2 needs help and I cant then I outsource it to ds1

I also encourage my dc to ask the teachers for help/support when they need it.

Streaming doesn't have to be "absolute", sorting DC into eg top 20%, second 20%, third 20%, fourth 20% and a bottom 20% of really fragile pupils. You can make up classes with a range of abilities but avoiding mixing the very cleverest and the very slowest. My DD's school does this and it works well IMO.

bonsoir
Streaming is less physically disruptive during the school day: DC stay put and teachers move between classrooms as opposed to "all change" between every lesson.
How on earth could moving the teachers work when one of the subjects is PE and another is Chemistry?

jimmychoo
So I am guessing that setting does not split students up for Maths, English into different rooms, setting must have them all in same class? Otherwise that's what streaming is separating pupils.
No. Not at all.
Setting in no way involves mixed ability classes
Streaming means setting identically for all subjects.
Hence why people like wordfactory and myself who have rather different experiences of education are equally opposed to it

Obviously you don't move teachers for lessons that require specialist facilities. But for subjects that only require a laptop connection (and there are plenty of them) it can work fine.

Knitted - you judge a whole school on the behaviour of one rude child?

A boy at my private school raped another pupil. Does that say anything about the school?

Bonsoir, my Ds is top set for maths and bottom for literacy. Where would you put him?

Mini, one child told me not to fucking touch him, but his peers were all throwing bins into the road, kicking footballs into cars, sparking up outside school, fighting, not modifying language with dd 7 in tow, general loutish ness, coupled with crap ofsted report...it was loads of the children behaving like this.

I can go on and give more examples but I can't be bothered. I have given a broader view of general out of school behaviour moments from schools ground, and one specific comment made to me.

BTW that school thanks to a new head is now improving, obv the head is able to work with the MC catchment

In secondary don't most lessons take place in dedicated rooms/sections of the school?

The sciences in the labs. The languages in the suites with all those headphone thingies etc

"Anyone who has spent any time in schools will know that what makes a school good or bad is not just down to intake"

Of course, but it contributes in a very significant way to the atmosphere and the ethos of a school.

I still think some parents will always judge schools as 'rough' and 'shit' on the basis of intake and raw results, regardless of how good the teaching is and how well a school is managed.

Best you and your children stay in your little bubble then knitted ;-)

mini schools that are well managed , have committed staff who are not constrained, effective discipline etc will generally have decent results whatever the intake.

Schools where none of this is in place will always be avoided by parents including working class parents !

"mini by all emasculated send your kids somewhere crap to prove a point or to tell yourself your doing something noble on supporting your local school and having principles."

I'm sending my children to schools where there are great teachers, inspiring heads, and where hard working and bright children achieve highly.

They just happen to be schools which a good few m/c parents think of as 'shit' and 'rough' because they have small intakes of high achieving children, and high intakes of poor children, children with special needs, and children who don't have English as a first language.

I don't believe that social, religious, economic or academic segregation of children in education is good for society or for the majority of children. I appreciate that other people don't share these values.

Best you and your children stay in your little bubble then knitted ;-)

Yes indeed, its dangerous trying to navigate them. You literally have to have wits about you and dodge. I just want to get to pick up safely.

A school that is properly equipped with modern technology definitely doesn't require dedicated physical spaces for most subjects.