to think that all UK secondary schools are like army camps?

[Ceci03]

So I'm trying to re-locate to the uk and have another job interview tomorrow. Looking at schools in the area though, I'm a bit concerned about all the rules and regulations they seem to have. They all seem to be extremely strict, what with uniform regulations, detentions, and a huge amount of rules. My ds /dd have been attending a fairly progressive (state) school in Ireland and I'm worried how they are going to cope with it all. Are all (state) schools in the uk like this. It sounds scary.

Hardly.

It's not scary.

It's just crowd control. 1500 teens 70 staff.

As long as your kids turn up, do the work and are polite (mostly, they're teens!!) They'll be just fine. Promise.

Ive been teaching nearly 20 years now and army camp isn't how I'd describe school. There's some basic rules for easy lives for everyone but it's not scary in the slightest.

ROFL...no, they are nothing like Army camps.
They’ll cope just fine.

Ds state schools- Catholic, strict on uniform (I’m glad!), don’t get much homework, detentions if they misbehave (I’m glad), top performing school in the county, over subscribed. I’m happy with that!

I think you'll generally find them to be all bark and no bite, unfortunately.

If you don’t like rules, yes, you’ll probably find you don’t like the average secondary school. Hence your decision to educate your child in a progressive school. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I should say with regards to strict uniform. That means blazer and tie (tie for girls in y7-9 only), no shirt hanging out, and girls to wear a decent length black skirt, not a tube skirt that shows their arse cheeks after two steps, and no trainers except PE.
I’m so happy they have uniform. It’s bad enough kitting ds14 out in North Face etc for out of school- I don’t want to do it five days a week too! I hate no uniform days🤷🏻‍♀️

At first they are going to bitterly complain about it but they get used to it especially if they behave themselves.
They have to be strict to control 1500 of them.
Our son has had about 5-6 detentions in 2 years. Nothing big most of them were for minor things like not having his PE kit or homework.
Discipline does them good.

Agree totally with Brittany.

Have you ever been to an Army camp?? Makes school look like playtime. Pardon the pun.

As a pp said, it’s largely crowd control.

I work in a secondary school. What we see is people bend over backward to get their kids in, knowing full well the rules in advance; they’re on the website, they’re stated at open evenings; they’re mailed with prospectus and to primary schools.

Then, there will always be the few that despite all this will devote themselves to squaring up against the school whenever their DC is pulled on non-compliance.

No.

Our school has a stated uniform then do not enforce it.

Very little homework.

Ive never heard of any British high school being like an army camp.

The school my children go to is strict on uniform(I’m happy with that, it means they are all the same, one less thing to be bullied over) and there are rules and regulation just the same as many work places have but if you stick to the rules and behave then there are no problems. My children have a fantastic head teacher who knows her place , the children all respect her but she also makes their time at high school fun.

Nothing like them. I'm a teacher. Schools are better at seeing kids as individuals than ever before.

Sorry - I really had to laugh out loud!

The little darlings rule the roost and know their human rights, to a tee!

All girls school for my teens. Strict uniform but it’s not weird or anything . Fair bit of homework which is good. Reasonable rules- no phones out in school, respect for each other, detentions for bad behaviour etc. As a pp said large schools need some control.

Schools can be very obsessed with things like uniform, heels on shoes, stripes on ties, skirt length, make up, hair etc.

I remember at the start of each term all the natural blondes being interogated about whether they had bleached their hair

It must be difficult to get used to if it's not the norm for you.

They all seem to be extremely strict, what with uniform regulations, detentions, and a huge amount of rules.

Are the rules unreasonable? Schools have to list all the rules because they are dealing with stroppy teenagers. They will claim that eating a pork pie in lessons is fine because no one told them it wasn't against the rules.

What's obviously unacceptable behaviour to us, isn't necessarily to children.

ROFL-rules are needed!

If more parents knew that I’m sure some senior schools would be better!

Ex-army here. They're nothing like Army camps 🤷‍♀️

I think you and your kids will be fine tbh

Although i do find the list of rules ott, I've never really understood the English (uk?) f8xation on uniform, and the amount of homework they are given these days is way too much. They are supposed to do 1.5 to 2 hours a night. My friends argue that the clever children don't take that long, but what of the children who are less clever, or just less quick, or have parents who take the instructions of the school v seriously and don't think 'oh they can't really mean it'. Ours has detention for low marks as well.

Obviously loads of good stuff and dd is happy but some of it is a bit, wow. Talking to friends these rules are all standard for this area.

Come to Scotland. There's no obsession over uniform or being fined for having a term-time holiday here (well, in my area at least).

I get the fear sometimes reading threads on here about the culture in some schools in England.

Yy Scotland much better bet all round not just schools!

What you just want kids to go to a rule free school be treated like snowflakes unable to join the workforce because they won’t be told what to do or mummy will come and tell them off?...
Army camps? Funniest thing I’ve heard all year. My sons are/were both at high school and it’s firm and fair uniforms are worn and they have rules there is no one treating them like army recruits and if you’re looking at schools where the discipline is strict then it’s clearly needed. If your kid behaves at school then clearly it won’t apply?...

I think most parents want a healthy medium between anarchy and rules for the sake of it.