To think other cultures are far more invested in their DCs education than UK parents?

[Commentqueen]

Just an observation from our area... We live in a really diverse area & it's amazing. My dc go to state school with children with Eastern European, Chinese, German, Scandinavian, Bangladeshi, Nigerian & Japanese parents... The work ethic is unbelievable & the parents don't seem to trust the school to educate their kids, they do alot themselves outside school with the dc.. The UK parents in the class are alot more relaxed when it comes to education...
Aibu to think the UK just isn't as invested in education as other cultures?
The Ukranian refugee crisis also highlighted that the ukranian children joining British & Irish schools were away ahead in maths in comparison to their new counterparts & many also had excellent English... The UK really lag behind in foreign languages.. In years to come my dc who only speak English so far will be competing for jobs with dc who speak 4 or 5 languages fluently... I know come September I'll be doing my best to prepare my dc better!

www.statista.com/statistics/1267956/ukraine-pisa-results-by-category/

I’m surprised about the comment that Polish mum said this about year 1 as in Poland kids don’t go to school till they are 7 ye old so yr 1 aged children only play in Poland anyway.
i think it’s not just culture but being an immigrant. If you’re an immigrant you’ve worked really hard already and already have higher aspirations which you would then pass to your kids. You want them to do well and you don’t usually have a back up cushion of a family locally and what you know about your own childhood is irrelevant as you’re in a different reality and you’re disadvantaged and don’t want your kids to be.
plenty of parents in Poland don’t care about their kids education but these are not the people who would emigrate usually if that makes sense!

I think the French & Italian system is much better than ours & also more aspirational @Piggywaspushed especially the French system... So it really says something that the Ukranians are outperforming these nationalities... Also if you read the article 😉😉 you will find the UK reporting the same regarding the Ukranians hence why the times wrote an article on the subject 🙄👍

I was slightly bemused to find the ukrainian refugee in top set English in year 10 (above my son who is English). He was studying English in ukraine as a subject but had never been here. They obviously teach languages very well.

In my “home” country education is valued, so I don’t think it’s just about immigrants having a different attitude. My relatives who still live there, feel the same way about education as my parents who migrated.

Also not all foreign cultures value education more than the British. I was talking to a school mum who is Chinese. She has the same culture clashes about the value of education with her DH as I do with mine, and he’s also an immigrant but not from a country where education has the same priority status as it does for the Chinese.

This is largely true. I was friends with a lady in France who was aiming for a teaching career. It was extremely competitive. She even had to pass a swimming exam, where she had to swim a length in a ridiculous number of minutes.

You really need to stepaway from anecdote OP. Try data. What makes French and Italuan systems 'better'? There has to be some objectivity here.I think material, rather than cultural explanations about eg school funding might be more fruitful.

No comment on Scandinavian systems? Estonia does well. Canada too.

This is more likely down to research that says foreign children learn English faster in higher sets amongst children who have a strong command of the language.

my Gdcs recent school fair had - among many others - a stall where the children could throw wet sponges at teachers, 2 at a time. It was purely a fun thing, and must have raised a fair bit of cash for the school, which was the whole point of the fair.*

it certainly didn’t mean a lack of respect for the teachers - if anything they were more respected for being game enough!

I understand that this is how you see it (and lots of others, clearly!) but to me it goes against something fundamental about how I regard teachers and expect my children to regard them.

Gah, bold fail - sorry!

I don’t (can’t) have kids so no, I’m not. I do however have teacher friends and parent colleagues and have heard on many occasions school being described only in terms of getting the kids out from under the parents’ feet.

How interesting, do the teachers themselves teach the children to swim in France? I have a rough idea about what I think the requirements should be to teach, it includes playing an instrument such as the recorder but I hadn't thought about swimming. Wouldn't it be fantastic if teaching was a competitive career like it is in some other countries. I think we could benefit a lot by looking at those countries and transitioning to a similar system here. It is a great responsibility to educate the future generations, it is such a shame the bar is so low here.

I love this thread. It's a kick in the bum as I'm way too laissez faire with mine. Never did homework in primary but dc are doing very well. Thank you.

Mine are doing well too but up until now I've been very blasé & more focused on playdates & sleepovers 😂 I'm turning a little bit tiger in Sept!
On a serious note though I think if my children stand a chance of getting a decent, high paying job they'll need to keep up with their peers... As I said above we are in an ordinary state primary with a very diverse & not wealthy catchment, the immigrant parents are going well beyond the shools expectations.. They know their dc will be competing against the wealthy, immigrant & uk kids in private schools & want their kids equipped & with a fighting chance of success... They're leaving nothing to chance!

We had a Ukrainian boy aged exactly the same as one of mine staying with us for a few weeks (with his mum, of course). The mum was very anxious that he would be behind the British school curriculum and would need extra tutoring, so we got a very experienced private tutor/teacher to come in and do a full assessment to place him on the progress scale in main subjects.

The kid is working confidently at Y8 level in Maths.
Age wise he's Y3.

Yes, I think that is largely true. It's not just the UK though, I think it is the English speaking countries - not all but most.

I think there are a few things going on with it. Part is that parent's attitudes are different, to childhood and to education.

But we've also seen the education systems in most of these countries degraded over a number of generations, so that if you are to put a child from the public school system from the US, the UK, Canada against a child from Europe, Jamaica, many Asian countries, the English speaking child is likely to be far worse off. Not just on things like math and writing and science, but on general cultural and political topics, history, and so on.

It's hard to value your child's education when so much of what goes on at school is time wasting or faddish bollocks.

@IVFPrayingForBioChild the way the country & inflation is going, all this generation will need very well paying jobs (trades is where the money is) or a high paying profession if they want their own starter home, a holiday... basically not living hand to mouth... Competition is going to be fierce... Obviously the immigrant parents are alot more tuned in than I have been!

Why?

I went to uni in the UK with people doing degrees like Law with English as one of their other languages. I learnt to use a spell check really quickly when messaging people, as I would receive replies to my messages with my misspellings corrected.

I remember asking my foreign friends and course mates when they learnt English and the latest they started learning was about age 8.

I saw the piece on sky new yesterday about the 7 year old boy who was a figure skater in Ukraine... He was at the ice rink for 5 am six mornings a week!!! It's a struggle getting my kids out of bed for 8🙈 it's a different mentality.

@IVFPrayingForBioChild even the original Supernanny said something similar e.g. you need to go to school to ensure you aren't ripped off when you do your alternative career.

I actually know and met people who did their first undergraduate degrees and are qualified to do boring jobs e.g. accountant, dentist who are singers, musicans and artists.

The system here still draws o/s fee payers though so in terms of what that is offering it is still attractive to many

@Commentqueen that is an ignorant post. There are lots of cultures which have great literature and other art.

What is amazing is when you go around the world you find that certain art forms are similar, so there must have been some ancient migration to share this knowledge.

What is ignorant? I didn't comment on art or literature!