To ask what your dream school would have/be?

[pippiL0ngstocking]

It can be either what you'd dreamt of, or what your DC would love.

I was always desperate to board somewhere on the coast or on a little Scottish island. Somewhere dreamy with lots of swimming, playing outside, a tiny village shop to visit.... in school you only learn History, Textiles and English :)

Oh! And also Ballet and Music lessons, plus a big school musical once a year (I played Tallulah in Bugsy Malone when I was in year 5 and had decided I would be a famous actor on the West End).

Ah I wish someone would open some tiny dreamy schools.

The Chalet School.

I desperately wanted to go there as a kid.

I love DDs school all normal subjects like maths, English, science etc but also ballet, languages (she can count to 10 in French already) and drama are introduced from day one. They have small enough classes of 20 pupils per class. They also have a brilliant choice of extra curricular activities. Only downside is it cost a bloody fortune but so worth it in my and dhs opinion.

No homework;
No assessments;
No data / constant progress checking;
Relaxed, comfortable and practical uniform;
Small class sizes;

5- 6 GCSEs max;
Teachers who are kind, emotionally intelligent and actually like kids;
Lots of exposure to nature;
Relaxed about attendance;
and most importantly NO OFSTED.

All of this makes me so sad for the state of education now. How wonderful would those childhoods be?

I see nothing in the schools I’ve visited that make me think ‘yeah I want to spend 40 hours a week there’

As a teacher - enough money and support to actually meet the needs of our children.

A shift away from the ofsted regime which does nothing for children.

Fictional - hogwarts of course.

Real - one of the boarding schools that has horse riding facilities.

@Andonandonan what age range do you teach?

Do you think that the education kids receive is adequate?

I’ve got real misgivings from everything from a draconian uniform for 4 year olds to homework and expected targets for under 5’s. The long hours (because they are long for a small child) and just about everything doesn’t seem to inspire a life long love of learning.

I love the state school my child will (hopefully) go to as it’s basically got lots of land, nice buildings and they get outside lots but compared to the local preps, it’s music offering is rubbish.

My ideal would be a prep with lovely facilities but that’s not going to happen. What i’d like in fantasyland is

• swimming pool, playgrounds, kitchens for baking etc
• lots of playtime
• learning through play for as long as possible
• small classes
• reading for fun rather than crappy schemes that suck the joy out of learning (also no boring worksheets that go ott on niche grammatical concepts that no 7 year old cares about)
• sport every day but sport that is inclusive for the kids that are rubbish at it.
• everyone to learn an instrument
• no uniform for the little ones
• lots of school trips and events
• a school day they works for working parents but also builds in downtime and fun for the children.

DMum always used to say that I wouid be perfectly suited to St Trinians.

But I always fancied the Chalet School (in either Tyrolean or Swiss location). There seemed to be next to no actual school work, but everyone who wanted to go to university just sailed in with no angst

@pallisers how much was that?

Another vote for The Chalet School here. I'd probably choose the Tyrolean location but the Swiss one would have been good too.

DD’s school is said to be the inspiration for Malory Towers as Blyton sent her kids there. Her school actually is dreamy, or so I think. Beautiful old building, Headteacher has a Labrador which trots around the grounds, overstuffed sofas and pianos in the boarding houses (DD is a day girl but has stayed over at her request and hangs out there before breakfast club) and just generally bloody lovely.

My dream school as a kid would’ve been a secret school for assassins or spies where we learnt to use gadgets and poisons. When I was 8 I told my mum I wanted to be a bald hit woman!!

I'd have schools where lessons/exams/subjects weren't based on age. Where you have "houses" instead of forms/years.

I'd make it so that pupils progressed according to ability, not age, so that the weaker students could go at a slower pace, and maybe leave aged 16/18 with some kind of literacy/numeracy certificate plus awards for other subjects, whereas the stronger students can take GCSEs and A levels early to allow them to leave school earlier or take additional exams.

I'd go for a "modular" system like Unis do rather than a strict subject system. That would allow a student to take a "module" again if they didn't perform well at it, or for stronger students to do more modules for a greater breadth of knowledge/skills.

The system would also allow for pupils to re-take a year if they had family issues, moved home during the year etc. I'd also make provision for the move from primary to secondary to be variable too, i.e. to move up a year early or delay for a year.

I think the "move up year by year" system doesn't give students the best options/opportunities. A more flexible/modular system would allow far greater "fine tuning" to suit a pupil's abilities.

The usual argument against being held back a year etc is the stigma which may lead to bullying etc. That is easily avoided if we can get away from the year/form structure and it could become the norm for, say, the "introduction to trigonometry" module to have pupils of different ages, maybe 2, 3, or even 4 years of difference. For togetherness and cohesion, you'd concentrate on "houses" rather than year forms.

Hogwarts would be a terrible place for muggles to study. You would be bottom of every class, get badly bullied and quite possibly be killed by either monsters in the toilets or by biggots and fascists.

You'd miss the sorting hat because you'd lying concussed in King's Cross station.

Quiddich would be shit if you couldn't fly.

And, you'd never get a job when you left because you wouldn't have your English and ICT GCSEs

@pallisers how much was that?

a lot!

My dream school as a kid would’ve been a secret school for assassins or spies where we learnt to use gadgets and poisons. When I was 8 I told my mum I wanted to be a bald hit woman!!

That's Cherub for you! Only sad part about them is that they had to be orphans

My dream school is simple - any school where bullying was properly policed by teachers and action taken by schools to stop it dead. It does more harm than anything else and has the potential to ruin lives. Forget the private/grammar/comp debate - bullying does far more harm than type of school could ever do.

Definitely Mallory towers with its natural swimming pool carved out in the rocks filled with sea water (or was that St Claire’s?)

I hated school but - despite this being very pre internet days - by the age of 10 I had taught myself to knit, crochet, play the recorder and read music and by 16 to play the flute, saxophone and to repair an old motorbike - so I think I would have really flourished if Home Educated.

But if I had to go to school it would be one where every child was assessed to devise a curriculum based on their own individual skills and attributes and tailored to things they love doing.

Mmmm - actually sounds like Home Education

Kazzy I'm with you. And not just the bullying. But a school where mean/sly comments were magically recognised and stopped, so the quieter / less confident / less cool children can get on with their day in peace without having digs made at them.

A laid back school that doesn’t have any exams for little ones, and focuses a lot on learning through play

My prep school was a bit like some that you described. In the middle of the New Forest, next to a lake. Chapel on Sunday in kilts and matching sweaters, open fires in the dining room, lots of music and art and an outdoor pool where we had a ‘free swim’ on sunny afternoons instead of lessons.

The academic teaching was terrible, though, and it’s now been knocked down!