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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the uk education system needs a complete overhaul and parents need to be more accountable ?

211 replies

Schoolscool · 27/02/2019 07:46

I mean teachers don’t have pencils for classrooms (and that’s the least of their worries!!) why not take a few leaves from Ireland’s book and do the following to save money!

  1. Each child needs to have their own resources! Yes! We do that. We have back up stuff in class but it’s not bought for “everyone”
  2. Families buy the school books and workbooks themselves from an independent school shop or the school themselves or use the school rental scheme (pay a minimal amount to rent the books)
  3. We pay photocopying/admin fees (varies per school) but it could be nominal 5 or 10 etc

These are just basic suggestions I suppose but surely it can’t be up to the school to provide everything!! Some of the onus must fall on parents!!

OP posts:
Cyberworrier · 27/02/2019 08:08

I agree with Teens that schools need to be properly funded and that shouldn’t be the parents responsibility- however I do feel the system needs an overhaul.

Helix1244 · 27/02/2019 08:13

I disagree in that reading 3 times a week is a lot when
Many families have multiple kids
Single parents
All parents work
Kids do breakfast/afterschool
They are 4.0yo
6+hr school day
Some kids resist doing certain things/mess about etc
They go to school to learn to read and ought to be practising 1-2-1 with a teacher at leadt once a week. So the teacher can then move them on as appropriate

Fazackerley · 27/02/2019 08:15

I read with my dd1 every day. She hated it. Basically ignored dd4 and let her get in with it, didn't really read once and she's the most academically successful of all!

AmIRightOrAMeringue · 27/02/2019 08:17

I think the whole education system needs an overhaul. It seems teachers teach the test and spend so much time justifying what they're doing and proving they are good that there is little time for teaching. There is no back up from parents who are often aggressive and refuse to follow through on punishments (let their kids go to detention for example) so kids can run wild with no consequences. And the lack of funding for things like TAs or help with kids with additional needs is getting worse every year. So I think providing pencils etc is a nice sentiment but probably a drop in the ocean of what needs to be done

StripeyChina · 27/02/2019 08:20

The problem is that if paying for books and pencils is parental responsibility then God help the child whose parents can't / won't pay.
As the poem above nicely illustrates, a child may have overcome many obstacles in order to be 'in a place of learning' as it is. To then 'fail' due to lack of a pencil (book, TA needed due to ASD etc) is futile.

Surely books can be generic and loaned.
Exercise books, pens and pencils can be provided?
Perhaps from some of the funds wasted by constant changes of exam / specialist books / absurd Uniform requirements for Academies?

corythatwas · 27/02/2019 08:20

parents who consider reading with their child three times a week to be an onerous task is unbelievable

and that goes for the parent in the last stages of terminal cancer? (happened to 2 of dc's friends during their primary years)

the parent whose time is taken up trying to manage the violent and completely helpless sibling with serious SN without support?

the parent with severe dyslexia?

the parent who is working 3 jobs to support the family but has just been made homeless because of low pay?

WilsonandNoodles · 27/02/2019 08:21

Schools (I am talking from a secondary point of view but I am sure it applies in some way to primary too) suffer from a simple lack of respect from students, often embedded at home.
Basic resources should be supplied or at least partly funded. It isn't o.k. for a child to receive a lower educational experience because their parent's can't afford the text books etc so covering these for all sgould be part of the budget. The problem however occurs from the need for children to draw penis's all over text books, write their names on desks, throw glue sticks at the ceiling, snap pens, pencils and rulers, rip up flooring, remove screws from stools... I could go on for a long time. When the culprets are found (a rare occasion) a common parent response is 'we can't afford to replace them but the school can'. Oh and before someone tells me that doesn't happen in good schools with good teachers, its a snap shot from multiple schools I have experience of all with Ofsted 'outstanding'or 'good' behaviour. I dread to thonk what gets drawn in the text books of a lower rated school!

VerbenaGirl · 27/02/2019 08:28

We pretty much do all this anyway...

Spudina · 27/02/2019 08:33

I have 2DDs on school and find it increasingly expensive. A new PTA has started and they are zealous in their fundraising efforts. Events happen all of the time which we are asked to contribute to. At Christmas I was encouraged to buy two horrible salt dough decorations for £5 each that must have cost 20p to make. I know the point was to make profit but I was miffed! I can afford it, but I feel for the parents that must struggle. I can't help but think of all the money that's being spent on Brexit and how that could have been used in schools.

BloggersNet · 27/02/2019 08:35

So bring in a system where you have to pay for everything?

Idonotlikeyoudonaldtrump · 27/02/2019 08:39

The cost of the school day campaign is only Scotland, there isn’t anything similar in England and Wales fooffighter.

I have four dc. So far this term I have needed to pay:

  • £300 residential
  • £100 music
  • £40 swimming
  • £30 school fruit
  • £200 nursery top up fees

Plus some extra uniform and shoes for those who have grown out of things

I’m on income support.
We do have to send pens and pencils too.

lyralalala · 27/02/2019 08:40

The problem is that the government need to actually allow teachers to teach. Not drown them in paperwork, monitoring, specific pen colours for marking and ever changing curriculums.

Teachers are, generally, intelligent people who know how to teach. We need to go back to a system that allows them the time and support to do that, and that means funding schools properly.

KitTheCat · 27/02/2019 08:44

Fine if you can afford it. What about parents on UC waiting 3 months for money and visiting food banks to survive?

x2boys · 27/02/2019 08:48

I think at primary school level,there is to much emphasis on whole class teaching, Ds1 has some mild learning difficulties and had some Sen support in primary school, is needs are not enough to trigger an assessment for an EHCP ,though, up until yr six the whole class got the same homework,and whilst I always tried to make sure he did often he wouldn't have a clue and I would be spoon feeding hi the answers in ten end I refused to do it with him until he got homework he could understand I didn't mind helping him but it benefited no one me doing it for him !Now he's at Secondary school he's in appropriate classes and is actually meeting his targets and even exceeding some .

IceRebel · 27/02/2019 08:53

though, up until yr six the whole class got the same homework

That shouldn't be the case. Confused Work should be differentiated, to ensure it's at the appropriate level for the child's ability. A topic may be taught to a class as a whole, but the work set should have been accessible for each child. The range in ability is a year 6 class (or any class) can be vast, so I don't understand why they would be set the same homework.

Kazzyhoward · 27/02/2019 08:54

The problem is that the government need to actually allow teachers to teach.

But you also have to have methods of properly monitoring teachers to ensure the crap ones are properly dealt with. It was failure to do that which led to where we are today with over-zealous monitoring.

We all remember our school days where there were lazy teachers who basically did bugger all, or weak teachers who couldn't get their classes to behave and listen, or incompetents who just couldn't teach.

There's no problem with the majority of genuinely professional teachers who do the job properly behind their closed classroom door. But what about the ones who aren't?

And before you say that things are different now. No, they're really not. My son is coming to the end of his secondary years and we're still seeing the same examples of crap teachers as when I was at school 40 years ago. He's had one year where his Maths teacher never sat a single piece of homework, another year where the Physics teacher never actually did any teaching - he just sat at the front each lesson and told the class to make notes and do the questions out of each chapter of the text book, a History teacher who set a huge project that took weeks but never bothered to mark any of it, the same history teacher a few years later teaching the wrong module in GCSE History.

This is happening in the last few years, during the so-called invasive Ofsted monitoring etc, so it's clearly not working, yet at the same time, the professional teachers are doing all the extra work at the same time as teaching properly! So, new the current supervision and monitoring isn't working, but we do need a way of monitoring and improving the crap teachers - you can't deny that some are still crap - every trade and profession will have some poor staff and every trade/profession has its own ways of monitoring. I wonder how teachers themselves would prefer their profession to be monitored?

Harebellsies · 27/02/2019 08:55

sshh thankyou for the poem. It is really moving and reflects a reality for many children. I have copies it to print and maybe read with my children in a few years or when an occasion arises and empathy is required.
Can you link to the poet?

CherryPavlova · 27/02/2019 08:59

I think we need to stop expecting schools to be all things, to provide all things and to teach all things. We need to acknowledge that parenting is key to positive outcomes and that, sadly, many parents fail their children.
Only when we acknowledge the parent factor fully and stop being quite so woolly - “ They’re trying their best” when their best isn’t good enough will we be working in the best interests of the next generation. Society needs to readjust norms whilst protecting children conceived through carelessness or inconsequential behaviour to parents without the wherewithal to nurture them.
Cooking a reasonable meal, healthy eating, morality, sex education, road safety, internet safety, political awareness, finances should all be parental responsibility not a schools.

We should have more, not less, Sure Start and children’s centers, youth clubs and libraries, funded extra curricular activities, early intervention restorative justice schemes, parenting classes, careers service.

GregoryPeckingDuck · 27/02/2019 09:05

Or funding could just be means tested. Middle class parents who buy expensive houses in catchment areas for outstanding schools should pay for the privilege.

cindersrella · 27/02/2019 09:07

Fazack being fined is all well and good to me... however it's where the money goes to which I find a problem!

cindersrella · 27/02/2019 09:11

Gregory some people literally skint themselves out to buy these homes in another area so there children can go to the batter schools. People in big houses still have to penny pinch and watch what they are spending..

cindersrella · 27/02/2019 09:11

Better'

Gazelda · 27/02/2019 09:16

I hope this doesn't come across as smug. But this seems to be a good thread to ask the question

My DD is Y6 and will leave her fantastic primary in July. I've been thinking about making a gift to the school, but waver between just bunging some cash (c£150) which will be swallowed up by the budget in seconds, or some crocus bulbs for Y1, or books, or cash which I specifically ask to be spent on stationery resources.

What do you think would be most beneficial to the children?

IceRebel · 27/02/2019 09:27

Gazelda

Not at all smug, and a lovely gesture. Others will probably have better ideas than me, but off the top of my head.

  • Art supplies (paintbrushes, rollers, aprons, not pencils or pens)
  • Outdoor toys
  • Resources like Unifix cubes, magnets or tangrams (which can be accessed by all year groups)
Rufusthebewilderedreindeer · 27/02/2019 09:33

gazelda

I did similar for a specific group for 2/3 years...not as generous as you though Grin

And i asked the helpers in that group and bought specific things as requested

It would be nice for the money to be spent as ice suggests. On tangible things

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