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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder if all schools do this

72 replies

woodenfences · 05/10/2018 19:39

Been teaching a while.

Every single school I’ve worked in has been adamant that it’s catchment area is deprived. I have worked in no less than five schools claiming to be in one of the most deprived areas of the country.

They aren’t. They are bog standard normal schools.

AIBU to wonder if all schools do this and why?

OP posts:
MardyArabella · 05/10/2018 19:40

Depends where you work I guess?

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 05/10/2018 19:41

I can't comment on the teachers talking in my kids school but they get £168k for pupil premium (school is around 420 kids I think) which is above the national average. So I guess ours is?

Fairyliz · 05/10/2018 19:42

Who is saying they are deprived and what is the purpose of saying it? Attempt to get more funding?

anitagreen · 05/10/2018 19:43

What is pupil premium?

Passmethecrisps · 05/10/2018 19:44

I think some staff/schools feel there is a certain kudos in being in an area of high deprivation. Fighting the good fight so to speak.

It is pretty easy to check. FSM enticement and SIMD in Scotland are easy to check in any school.

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 05/10/2018 19:44

Pupil premium is a top up for kids who are eligible for free school meals - not sure of the criteria but I think certain benefits and low family income?

SoyDora · 05/10/2018 19:44

I don’t think the school my DC go to claims to be in a deprived area. Never heard it suggested. The stats show it has less than the national average number of children on pupil premium.

Original poster
woodenfences · 05/10/2018 19:45

Yeah I think so passme

Pupil premium has a certain criteria so wanging on about the terrible poverty suffered by the kids isn’t the purpose, I don’t think.

OP posts:
Original poster
woodenfences · 05/10/2018 19:46

I don’t think they claim it to parents Dora. More to other teachers.

OP posts:
redexpat · 05/10/2018 19:46

I think it depends on your definition of deprived.

DieAntword · 05/10/2018 19:48

Do they mean regional deprivation, because if you live in a region that is say category 1 funded then I guess they could claim on that basis even if individually they’re not massively deprived schools.

SoyDora · 05/10/2018 19:48

Well DH is the Chair of Governors at the school and he says it’s not something he’s heard from them either, but who knows what the teachers are saying I guess!

Passmethecrisps · 05/10/2018 19:51

Back in the day my school was a big standard comprehensive. We had a huge number of really rather wealthy families who brought up the general sense of the school.

Other local schools were sneery and a bit unkind to be honest - Sometimes to our faces - about how we had no idea what “proper teaching” was like. It was easy street.

Then the economic crash made our middle end a bit poor and our poor end very poor. A decade on even our upper end are feeling the pinch as the area is industry and small businesses. Everyone has sunk and the effect is palpable. Now we find ourselves having genuinely one of the most deprived areas of Scotland in our catchment.

We could talk about it all we like though - the figures and statistics are what get the cash

Passmethecrisps · 05/10/2018 19:55

^bog

Homemenu1 · 05/10/2018 19:57

I don’t think they claim it to parents Dora. More to other teachers.
Statistically do children from deprived families have lower attainment?

Maybe they are trying to set up an excuse in case the children don’t do so well and they don’t want the blame.

BareBelliedSneetch · 05/10/2018 19:59

Ours doesn’t. Ours doesn’t even try. It’s clear from the stats that we have a low percentage of pupil premium pupils. It ha some, and has a reasonable mix, but there are a LOT of affluent families locally.

(Not us, mores the pity!)

PinkCalluna · 05/10/2018 20:02

I’m pretty sure if anyone tried to suggest our school was in a deprived area they’d be laughed out if the building.

That’s not to say there aren’t lower income families in the school but the area as a whole is very prosperous.

Passmethecrisps · 05/10/2018 20:03

But for that to work, home, they need actual data to back that up. You can’t just say “oh our kids are poor so we didn’t do as well”. I don’t know what the equivalent of the Scottish index of multiple deprivation is but there has to be one.

Coffeeisnecessary · 05/10/2018 20:04

My children's school said this, I was baffled as it seems like a totally normal catchment area to me!

Original poster
woodenfences · 05/10/2018 20:04

You might be surprised pink

I worked in a school in the middle of a very affluent area and they still insisted some children were deprived.

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SachaStark · 05/10/2018 20:06

I teach in Cornwall. Because it's the most deprived county, yes, most schools have high levels of pupil deprivation.

BIgBagofJelly · 05/10/2018 20:10

I volunteered in one school who made these claims. I would say they were accurate in that while the area itself was mixed - not entirely deprived by any means it was in a grammar area and so only the deprived portion of the population ended up there.

Tistheseason17 · 05/10/2018 20:10

More deprived areas get better pupil funding.
You can look up deprivation by postcode/council on Google - Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Original poster
woodenfences · 05/10/2018 20:11

Deprived, or not as academic?

FSM kids do sometimes end up in grammars.

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SuburbanRhonda · 05/10/2018 20:12

I work in a school in what most people would say is a leafy, privileged area.

However, two of the wards in our area have the highest national rates of suicide amongst adults, and receive extra government funding because of their high IDACI index. You wouldn’t believe it if you looked at the house prices.

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