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Original poster

to be horrified at the behaviour in bohunt school

999 replies

SEsofty · 04/08/2015 22:13

Just watched the programme about Chinese teachers in uk. Whilst I appreciate that it is reality tv and thus exaggeration for effect I was still horrified with the apparent number of children who were talking in class.

I'm not that accident and went to a very normal school but talking whilst teacher did simply didn't happen. I don't agree with the Chinese methods but talking whilst someone is trying to teach you is simply rude.

OP posts:
Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 07:59

It was a pretty appalling programme. You throw teachers from a different culture into a class that has been hand picked for not meekly accepting it, with no back up, and then try and say it proves something.
It proves to people who are anti comprehensives that they are poor schools- it feeds prejudices - I can't think it proves anything else.
A shame the cameras don't go back and show the same pupils with their normal, experienced staff.

hookedonamoonagedaydream · 05/08/2015 08:02

Odd program, of course the Chinese teaches will be used to kids conforming, that's how China works. Fortunately we have slightly better human rights in our country and our DCs can grow up knowing that its safe to question authority occasionally.

Lookingforwardtoholiday · 05/08/2015 08:02

I went to a top private school and there were plenty of lessons where we behaved like that, usually in classes where the teacher had no control. We spent a considerable amount if time passing notes around the class and whispering and there were also a small number if disruptive pupils but they were usually also extremely clever and were going to talk A*'s or were really good at sport so the school was never going to let them go

BertrandRussell · 05/08/2015 08:03

"I wonder how much of the Bohunt students' difficulties in the subject areas was due to previous classroom disruption?""

They don't have "difficulties in the subject areas" - have you seen the school's results?

They had difficulties with 12 hours of note taking. Even though most just got on with it.

mathanxiety · 05/08/2015 08:05

All of the allegedly hand picked disruptive students would be capable of disrupting a class outside of the Chinese teaching experiment. A student who is good at disruption can single handedly cause a lot of problems. It might be interesting to see how the rest of the school functioned without the alleged trouble makers present in class for a month.

Seriouslyffs · 05/08/2015 08:10

It was cleverly edited and that's the reason I would never allow my dcs to appear on TV.
They watched it btw and they were horrified by the behaviour. Interestingly 2 of them would have loved a Chinese 'chalk and talk' education.
It was an interesting school to choose- high results and I'd imagine thart the cohort have the double safety net of welfare state (the Chinese teachers explanation for English bad behaviour) and private tuition/ retakes/ tutorial colleges.

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:13

It would be interesting to see them with the Chinese teachers if they had said 'you will be on camera and afterwards we shall be applying the normal consequences for any poor behaviour that we see'. Or they had told the Chinese teachers 'you are not on your own - if a child is disruptive this is the procedure ...............'

southeastastra · 05/08/2015 08:13

i think it may be interesting in other ways, the group exercises should be done in all schools in the morning, also agree the editing was obvious but they are making a tv show.

i do think a perfect system would be one where both cultures meet in the middle. It's a bit grim that children all have to conform to one level or just have to give up.

BertrandRussell · 05/08/2015 08:15

" be interesting to see how the rest of the school functioned without the alleged trouble makers present in class for a month."

It's hard to see how the school could perform much better, actually. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story?

Because of course our children would behave like little angels if expected to spend 12 hours a day taking notes........Hmm

Lookingforwardtoholiday · 05/08/2015 08:16

I expect they saw it as a bit if a laugh and were bored. It was clearly a quite affluent middle class school and the GCSE results are fantastic. Year 9 is a hard year and ultimately I suspect that almost all of them pull their fingers out when push comes to shove and knuckle down.

mathanxiety · 05/08/2015 08:17

By the nature of maths in particular, teaching often involves a progression, building on material that is assumed to have been previously mastered. Since the students had opinions about Pythagoras' theorem, to the effect that they didn't need to prove it, just to be able to apply it, I gathered that they had not been taught or expected to prove it, and I wondered why. Perhaps a previous teacher gave up in the face of groans and uproar?

(I wondered how students got to the point where they thought they could essentially tell a maths teacher how to do his or her job too, but I have my suspicions on that score, mentioned upthread.)

I don't think the long day was really the problem here. I suspect many of these students are capable of devoting entire weekends to xbox, for many hours at a stretch. The beauty of a very quiet classroom and the lecture format is that students get the chance to concentrate and think as they write, and if they have adequate academic foundations they should have been able to absorb accurate information imparted in the lectures and follow the reasoning.

BertrandRussell · 05/08/2015 08:20

"and private tuition/ retakes/ tutorial colleges."

Yep- there we go. It's a comprehensive school, so it can't possibly Be getting good results off its own bat. Hmm

BertrandRussell · 05/08/2015 08:27

" I gathered that they had not been taught or expected to prove it, and I wondered why. Perhaps a previous teacher gave up in the face of groans and uproar? "

No. Two kids did the "but miss why do we have to learn this- when are we ever going to use it in life" line that I am sure we have all heard from our own kids. Did you miss the much larger group who went to talk to their maths teacher at lunchtime because they didn't understand something and were worried about being left behind? Or did that not fit with your prejudices?

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:28

As I said- feeds into prejudices of comprehensives.

janetandroysdaughter · 05/08/2015 08:28

I'm amazed at how shocked some parents on this thread are at the behaviour. It is very normal. Bohunt has a great reputation and is n excellent school by UK standards. I don't think it was cherry-picked for having poor behaviour in class but for the opposite. The Chinese teachers wouldn't last two minutes at the Educating Yorkshire school. Any child at a state secondary will experience some low level disruption all the time in some classes. My school was like that and all the schools I've visited are also like that. Not bad behaviour necessarily but an inability to concentrate for the full lesson.

Children in UK aren't taught to respect teachers, they expect to be entertained by teachers. Imho we need a massive shake up. Teachers deserve a huge amount more respect in class so they can get on with teaching, not crowd control.

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:33

A top private school wouldn't have just meekly taken it either - but that wouldn't be the agenda.

CookieDoughKid · 05/08/2015 08:35

No that long ago children were expected to respect teachers and behave in the UK and there were strong sanctions supported by parents. And that seemes to have greatly reduced with vast affects on our children in just a few decades.

80sMum · 05/08/2015 08:36

It would be interesting to know which particular backdoor selection method Bohunt uses.

It's not selective, but its cohort is drawn from a predominantly affluent, middle class area with a stable population of mostly indigenous Brits. So it doesn't have the challenges of large numbers of pupils whose first language is not English or large numbers of pupils from deprived or chaotic backgrounds.

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:37

They were cherry picked. They needed a lively programme. No one would ever have chosen my children because they would have kept a low profile.
I imagine the parents had to give permission- some don't even allow their DC to be photographed.. I would never have allowed mine to be on national TV for a documentary.

Lookingforwardtoholiday · 05/08/2015 08:40

I don't know why people think that there's no low level pissing about in private schools, of course there is and as none of us generally sit in on classes with our kids we only have their word. Bohunt's results are as good as most 2nd tier private school results. I asked my DS about behaviour in his school and he said most lessons behaviour is good but the moment a weaker teacher walks in then the chatting and note passing etc starts. There's always someone who is the class clown who is quick with the quips too, it is how the teachers handle it and there are weak teachers in private school as well as state

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:40

Which decade was this,CookieDough?

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:42

Weak teachers are always in trouble- same in grammar schools.

RedDaisyRed · 05/08/2015 08:42

Makes you glad you earn enough to pay school fees.

I don't agree behaviour is as bad in fee paying schools. My children's father taught in both sectors so although I don't sit in my teenagers' classrooms I do know. He said he was a policeman in the state school and could teach in the private schools such as were the behavioural differences.

RedDaisyRed · 05/08/2015 08:42

..such were...

Mehitabel6 · 05/08/2015 08:46

If the pupils had been told 'the purpose of the programme is to understand the Chinese system and we want you to behave like Chinese pupils and then you will get a chance to speak and give your opinion at the end' - the results would have been different.
They had an agenda and made the programme that fitted it.