To think this head teacher is off her rocker

[Atlantisen]

This was the newsletter. Inspiring? Or utter bollocks??

*"...All too often schools accept a gap between some students and other students. We can fall into a trap that comes to accept or simply gets used to some children dressing differently, missing more days of school, speaking to adults or one another incorrectly, being a few minutes late to everything, carelessly presenting their work, not completing homework, not giving 100% in their lessons, not reading any books for pleasure, not joining clubs at school, never seeking to play for a school team, never appearing in a school performance or never attending a revision booster.

Labelling such behaviours or choices is pointless or indeed stigmatising those students who display some or all of these characteristics. At CNS we have to regard these as symptoms of an underlying lack of ambition, expectation or aspiration. Whilst we have to be unrelenting in our demand for all students to be their best self, we also need to get to the very heart of why some students are more engaged than others – seeking to rekindle the fire within and not beneath.

Creating a school that expects and demands high expectations in all things of all students is a continuous quest and one that we shall be emphasising at all times. ..."*

I work in an inner city primary and we have a number of families where the kids never have a costume

My ds went to an inner city primary where (thankfully) kids were never expected to have a costume, because the head understood having a costume could mean the difference between eating and going hungry.

It could have been worded better but my reading of this is that the school should not just accept children being disengaged and not achieving but should try to do something about it by getting to the causes of problems. Seems very reasonable to me.

It'a badly pitched but I agree with the message and think that parents, and (sadly) teachers, need reminding if this. A lot of what is accepted as 'understanding our intake' is actually teachers and other adults saying it'a ok to have low expectations of kids because of where they come from or the fact they aren't grammar school top set ability.
E.g. 'None of he traveller kids make it to GCSE: she'all be gone by Y10' about a little girl in Y7!
'Our kids aren't going to go on a theatre trip!'
'His brother was the same - don't expect to see him at after school revision'
I could go on, but it's too depressing. Low ambition from the adults for the kids. Especially those with SEN.

Excuse typos - bf-ing a tiny one!

Goodness....I got a couple of lines in.

I think newsletters should contain news e.g. events, achievements, clubs, lunch menu.

There may be a place for all this winky, wanky, woo stuff but not in a newsletter. I would be reading between the lines to wonder what happened to warrant the speech.

I think it's a good message, but would be more effective in fewer words.

A meme maybe!

God, British schools' obsession with costumes is so weird to outsiders. Every British parent I know is fed up with being expected to produce costumes based on some extremely dubious pretext that often has very little to do with actual education.

Couldn’t agree more. The default to fancy dress for every topic no matter how abstract when my dc were at primary school was ridiculous.

It seemed to really be about creating a load of hoopla around a subject minus any real educational substance. Surely imaginative effective teaching does not involve the a blimmin costume every couple of weeks.

However, I don’t read that headteachers letter to be anything more than an overly wordy attempt to get the best out of everyone.

It’s too detailed though, and goes into specifics. Not good when addressing a wider audience. Rather than feeling inclusive to all, it has had the unfortunate opposite result, which I’m sure wasn’t the intention.

Labelling such behaviours or choices is pointless or indeed stigmatising those students who display some or all of these characteristics

But then she labels the behaviours as a lack of ambition etc...

At CNS we have to regard these as symptoms of an underlying lack of ambition, expectation or aspiration.

🤦🏻‍♀️

Was it from one of those terrible Michaela schools?

Ah, so people with disabilities are slackers, people like DD who had a reading age of 12 at 6 (according to school) but didn't read for pleasure until she was 7 are slackers, people who are too shy or tired to take part in clubs, or too shy to take part in performances are slackers...

Why do people look to be insulted? Do they genuinely believe that the head teacher is denying SEND etc?

I read it as trying to encourage every child to do well and not writing them off as lazy etc etc. Seeing past your first assumption.

I think that’s a good message to send. Shame that they’ve written it so badly!!!

Glad my kids don’t go to this school
Good to know that my Ds with adhd is just slacking
And how dare they slack off a bit when they saw/ heard domestic violence at home
Clearly this teacher thinks it’s not good enough to have other issues outside school that are totally outside the child’s control

And don’t get me started on dress up days ....

The wording reminds me of a Head in the Luton area, could be the very person - if so I think it's meant well, not a bash at SEND, but mostly OFSTED pleasing, rather than a committed approach...

You, OP, are the type of parent the letter is addressed to. It isn’t about SEN kids or bullied kids. It’s about the kids who are lazy or muck about or talk in class and make life miserable for others. It’s about the bullies, in fact. It aims to foster ambition and self-worth in a child. If that is that a terrible thing in your world, then you’re looking for things to be annoyed about.

To be honest she sounds like she doesn't really know what she wants to say or how to make an effective argument so is just writing a lot of waffle.

TheClaws why is it addressed to me???? My children aren’t lazy!

I read it but didn't process a word of it

I think that having high expectations of kids is A Good Thing, but the reason why this piece of writing is rubbing a lot of people up the wrong way, is because it does not really distinguish effectively between the reasons why some people engage in above activities less than others.

Like, OK, I have no doubt that a lot of people do not do school clubs and choose to spend shedloads of time watching shit YouTube videos on a loop and gaping at Playstation4.

But then, other people may not be interested in school clubs because they spend a lot of time reading, writing, drawing, baking, riding their bike and other things like that. Or if fencing and archery are my thing and my school does not offer those things, I am not going to waste my time with school clubs, am I? Or perhaps I want to do orchestra but have the opportunity to join an orchestra outside school which is better organized and more professional than the school one. Everyone has different ideas about how to spend their free time.

As for "seeking to join a sports team"---well, if you are no good at sport, what on earth would be the point in trying to join a sports team? All that is going to happen is that you will fail, waste everyone's time at the tryout, look like a dickhead and get laughed at. Perhaps by the same sporty popular people who already take the piss out of you during compulsory school PE lessons.

I wouldn't have bothered with a school revision session either because I preferred to study alone. My daughter has a private tutor so she already does extra study and I feel that things like that are likely to be more targeted and useful than a school-based initiative. And how does a school know if people are reading for pleasure or not--do they put surveillance cameras on pupils' houses?

As for attendence--there are people will poor attendence because they are taking term time holidays without making any efforts to catch up, there are people who take term time holidays because the parents' schedule means there is literally no other way to ever have a family holiday (and who are responsible about making up for any work missed) and then there are people who have ongoing health conditions and who would love to miss less school but do not have much choice in the matter.

Most of things she refers to are very general:

Not speaking nastily to teachers; (respect and courtesy.)
Not speaking nastily to each other, ie other students. (Bullying.)

How can you dispute those?

High attendance is important.
That's a fact really.
If you aren't attending, the reason why needs addressing (easier said that done, obviously!)Ideally those with medical conditions that prevent attendance should be getting the consultant/medical help they need.

Why are so many people upset at a school which wants every student to achieve their potential?

I'd much rather my kids had a head teacher who was trying to get the very best out of each one than one who aspired to mediocrity - do it if you want, don't do it if you don't feel like it, sloppy dress codes, poor standards of behaviour are fine.

Piperpublickoccurances have you actually read the thread?

piper
Because there is a trend in some schools of being very very strict to the point where kids with SEND are essentially put off considering the school.

The problem is now any school that has a statement about high expectations, pushing aspiration, not wanting kids to be quiet but learn nothing, plans lessons around great content rather than tagging onto trends like fidget spinner maths etc tends to get branded as some awful camp that seeks to ruin children's freedom.

God, no wonder people leave teaching in droves. Teachers can't do right for wrong, can they? And there are many people on this thread who seriously underestimate the amount of crappy parents who just don't see school as relevant or important. That is what this HT is trying to address.

The idea that she should just signpost the support services in school and parents will all of a sudden trip over themselves to sign Jimmy up to street dance? Ignorant as all get out.

I have read the thread - people getting upset about SEN kids when the teacher in the OP is referring to the majority who aren't, in my interpretation.

She's obviously heading up a school where standards have been allowed to slip in terms of engagement, dress standards and behaviour and she's making it clear she's not going to accept that any longer. Good for her.

@Atlantisen OK I can see that, but I don't feel this newsletter is aimed at you or your daughter at all. Your daughter desires to do things - she has aspiration and you as her parent want to help her. It's her SEN holding her back not lack of support from you - I'm sure if you could figure out a way for her to do after school tennis, you would do that for her.

The head is talking about kids who have no desire, no aspiration, because school/parents don't expect them to achieve and are dismissive of them.