to be horrified at the behaviour in bohunt school

[SEsofty]

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.

I liked maths taught the Chinese Way when I was at school. But then I am older and so it was. However I wouldn't have liked it in mixed ability classes.

I am very thankful that I am the age I am. There was no 'method' teachers had to adhere to. They taught to their own strengths. There was no disruption.
We walked to primary school, three miles a day in total. Once we got home we went out and called for friends. Most of the play after a school day was physical - bikes, roller skates etc. there were no clubs except Brownies. We just played- and I read for hours.

Secondary school was a case of buses. However we were home early enough
to have time to ourselves. My mother thought it best to do homework immediately and get it out of the way but it didn't suit me. I liked to chill out, eat and then do it. I could walk the dog- shut myself off and read.

It now seems to be getting worse since my children left and is very much a treadmill. I can't believe that people want them even longer in school!

I am known to say that I can't see the point of Home Education since school children have ample time at home as the school day is short. It suddenly has more appeal!

Only for other people's children BR.

Haven't watched the last episode. Will try and catch it sometime today. Fwiw I think setting is a great idea. It allows the students and teachers to work at whatever level they are and get to whatever the right level they should be within that time. Having said that, I don't really know how it works in terms of getting kids to be able to sit, for example, GCSE math. (Genuine question - my children are only 7 and 5...).

If say kid A is performing higher than average/expected, then it would mean that he will get to do math GCSE at aged 14 instead of 16? Then what does he do for the next two years? Kid B who's lagging behind, will he be only expected to get a C whereas kid A would get an A*?

Another honest question - what is the difference between streaming and setting? I'll google...

Oh let's please not pretend that all private school children don't play for local teams.

Virtually no lacrosse club could run without girls from private schools. Ditto, sailing, rowing, cricket, cross country, swimming etc. You'd be hard pushed to find county championship not populated by private schooled kids.

Footie is a bit different. My DS is one of the few private school boys who does play for a local football team. His choice. I'd rather he didn't; the dads are a bunch of idiots!!!

As for pets. Private school children don't have dogs? Really? This is just all absurd.

Yes, some ECs take place in school. And parents are grateful for it (who wants to spend their evenings driving their DC around if they can help it?)

Private school days are a bit a longer and a lot more intense. And yes they tend to have more prep. But they all still fit in oodles of other shizzle, including watching shit telly and eating crisps.

shebird that is simply not true about yr 6 and the top!
I should know- I spent years being employed for 'boosting'
for SATs.
Government money is to get the weaker ones through to level 4 to prove their initiatives work!
Level 4 is what counts.
There was pay for every school for these classes. Some paid the class teacher to do it before or after school and some paid an extra teacher like me.
In my last year there was actually pay for one to one tuition. I had pupils who were slightly weak in Literacy and a Maths and they got 10 hours. A lovely job for me but completely wrong IMO. No chance of money spent on the ones who couldn't make level 4!

So much nonsense is spoken on this thread- and that SATs comment is one of the ones that is completely wrong.

It is as I keep saying. OK for the average, or slightly above or below, but sacrifices the top and bottom.

And the teachers of private schools fit 'oodles of other shizzle' in too - let's not pretend they do much longer hours and still have marking etc on top!
They have more specialist teachers in primary and they have that time free to prepare etc.

mehit you sound so resistant to change in the state school system.

Any suggestion at all is immediately shot down! Any other system (be it foreign or independent) is raked for problems, rather than the positives. Why are teachers like this?

I should hope so mehit. Who wants their teachers knackered and over run with paper work?

That said, I wouldn't be a music, drama or sports teacher at private school. The poor buggers must barely go home!

"Oh let's please not pretend that all private school children don't play for local teams.

Virtually no lacrosse club could run without girls from private schools. Ditto, sailing, rowing, cricket, cross country, swimming etc. You'd be hard pushed to find county championship not populated by private schooled kids."

I wasn't pretending that- a private school parent told me!
Although your list of "local" sports teams did make me smile- I do think the lacrosse thing might be cause and effect! And not many towns, as far as I know, have sailing and rowing teams.

If my da did not get home from school on a regular basis until 6.30 or 7, he would not be able to own a dog.

I have a friend who used to supply in quite a prestigious private girls school, primary age classes. She told me her typical day and she had lots of time off as they went off to dance, music etc. She even had time for a lovely lunch in the school dining room. You are lucky to get 10 mins to grab you sandwich in state school supply and are likely to be in playground duty.

No bertrand one person (who admitted to having a non-sporty child) told you on MN!

And you seized on it because it supports your rather blinkered paradigm regarding private schools.

And if you don't like my list how about gymnastics, tennis, athletics, diving, netball, hockey?

Because I would bet that any championship in any region in any of these sports would have private schooled kids in them!

As for dogs. Most families own them together. They get walked in the mornings. Very rarely by children whatever their school situation.

mehit I don't know what a private school teacher's timetable looks like. But they never seemed harrassed to me, it's true.

And the turnover was small. People stayed if they could.

Lunch was excellent quality, cooked on site. But the teachers had to eat with the kids. Which I suspect was less than pleasant .

My friend's son is a sports teacher at a boy's private school- he will never go back to the state system life is much too cushy- and he gets to see his own small children enough to be very 'hands on'.

Vanillachocolate said "Personally I don't think such huge difference is results (68% vs 55%), achieved in such a short time, with such headwind and disruption in the first 2 weeks, could be explained away by longer hours."

Except there was no disruption to speak of. Everything you saw in the first 2 programs was completely taken out of context and artfully spliced to form a narrative which suited the programme makers. Those children just had 12 hour days for 4 weeks and worked hard throughout. What also isn't explained in the programme is the fact that the lessons covered by the Chinese School didn't include all that we would be expected to cover under the UK curriculum and the children had to have intensive classes each Friday to 'catch up' with lessons missed. Those subject not considered important were missed entirely for 4 weeks.

Of course they are not harassed! They don't worry that a parent's 5 min chat before school is going to stop them doing 6 things and you were there since 7.30am

"No bertrand one person (who admitted to having a non-sporty child) told you on MN!

And you seized on it because it supports your rather blinkered paradigm regarding private schools"

No I didn't. I said that I didn't see how kids could still play for local teams if they didn't get home from school til 6.30, and somewhat to my surprise, a poster said that privqte school kids get all their sport at school and weren't encouraged to play for anyone else. I'm glad that's not true- but I still don't see how they could possibly fit it in. My ds very busy in term time and his school finishes at 3.30. He plays an hour of sport most days and gets home about 5. Homework, dinner, dog (yes, it's his dog- he walks her) music and 3 activities a week. Completely impossible if the school day was longer. And I consider all those things incredibly valuable.

Well, again, good mehit. I don't want my DC's teachers harrassed.

You make it sound like a bad thing. As if teachers should expect to be racing around, wihout lunch etc. Surely that hardly makes for optimal lessons?

It was odd on School Swap last night that the head of the state school said that compliant children in private school made 'lazy teachers.' As if the mark of good teaching were a breathless round of dealing with awful behaviour!

Well many sports clubs train at 7pm. And/or saturdays/sundays. Swimming (of which I'm very glad we don't do) is before school .

And I know from your previous posts that you do music and drama outside school because your school doesn't really cover it. Well if it did, that would be good, surely?

But anyway, it's highly unlikely that the state school day will change in the UK. Or the methods. Or anything. The resistence is just too strong.

So we'll stay as we are .

So if you got home from school at 6.30 how would you get to sports training at 7.00?

Actually, some state schools are experimenting with longer days- my ds's school is considering adding half an hour at each end of the day. I am, as you might imagine, an outspoken opponent-particularly of the end of the day half an hour!

With regard to the idea that teenagers are currently overburdened by school work, it's worth remembering that over the course of a year, they only spend around 25% of their waking hours in school. And that in many schools (my daughter's, for instance) homework is fairly negligible, at least until GCSE starts (and it wasn't exactly overwhelming then, either). I'm not saying that they necessarily need to spend more time on schoolwork, just that we shoudn't exaggerate the present situation.

"With regard to the idea that teenagers are currently overburdened by school work"
I don't think anyone is suggesting that, are they?

Actually, one of the stand out children from last night for me was Phillippa- who flew academically in Chinese school, but just couldn't handle the idea of not passing the PE test and gave up rather than risk it. I was a bit concerned about the "parent tape" things she was saying about being a perfectionist, and being self critical and being under stress.....

Of course it isn't a good thing for teachers to be harassed! No teacher wants it. They would like to be able to get to school after 8am and be able to have a proper lunch break.

bertrand what do you suppose your DS' peers are doing in their free time?

Would their lives not be enhanced by greater academic achievement and/or some extra curricular stuff on site?

As for private schools. Most finish lessons around 4.30pm. Plenty of time to get home then on to sports practice at 7pm. Certainly we have always managed it and all DC's mates. If there are ECs after school these are always done and dusted by 6pm, so still enough time to get there. Lots of girls at DD's school do this on Tuesdays; orchestra at 4.45-6pm. Quick change and get the local bus to the lacrosse club for training at 7pm (calling in Burger King ). Or if they're super lucky the school lacrosse captain's mum might give them a lift.

And not all kids are great joiners of organised activites, are they? DS does little compared to his sister. More time spent on the play station and snuffling in the fridge.

Plus we have veeeeeeerrrrrry long holidays.

kesstrel I agree.

Teens seem to have inordinate amounts of time for social media, sleeping, parties, watching box sets .

Lots of 'Philippas' in the world and that is why you have the mental health problems- why a child who gets a B in maths feels a failure.
I would hate mixed class teaching - my DS who got his B would feel that it wasn't a good result , instead of the fact that it was a brilliant result for him and something to celebrate.
If every child were to get A there is something badly wrong with the exam system! It isn't testing the best- it isn't even stretching the best.

Of course if you go down the line that there isn't a best and every child is the same, given the right teaching, I don't suppose it bothers you.