I am feeling quite anxious about sending my child to school. My own experience was horrible and I really want better for my dc. I have been considering private, but with little experience of the private sector, I am not sure if this will resolve some of my worries or not. The available state schools around us are very average. I don't know if my own experience is perhaps clouding my judgement.
My own secondary school was in an area with a high level of deprivation. Quite a few of the children had emotional and behavioural difficulties, and this would effect the quality of teaching and the environment. The teachers would spend more time managing challenging behaviour and less time teaching. Bullying was common and it feels like it was often ignored, I also witnessed a few assaults. Looking back I feel there was an element of misogyny as there was a group of three boys in YR 7 & 8 who would target the girls; they would frequently hit, shove, slap, etc and I actually witnessed one of them force his hands down a YR 7 girl's trousers.
Some of the teachers were excellent, some were disinterested, but even the excellent teachers had their teaching dampened by challenging behaviours and an environment that did not support learning. There was no pushing the children to achieve their full potential, if you managed a C grade you were not encouraged to improve and you were instead left to get on with it, as other children needed the help more. Music, art and sport were unrepresented in the curriculum. I think when I left that school just under 20% of the children were achieving the 5 basic GCSE's. The school has since been transformed into an academy.