To wonder what has happened to my Son's school

[k2493]

Just posting for thoughts

Both my kids have gone through the same secondary school. When my daughter started, the school was lovely and new with around 750 kids.

Fast forward to 2024 and there is now 1500 kids and it's become like a dictatorship.

Due to the number of kids, the school has put lines either side of the hallway that they have to walk within otherwise they get detention.

Every hallway is a one way system.

The minute they arrive in school, they have to remove their coats or it's detention even with no heating in the middle of winter. The other day my son arrived back to school to find that there were long queues outside while they did two uniform checks at the door. By the time he got in, he was frozen. Immediately he got shouted at for still having his coat on even though he had just stepped in from the cold.

He then went around the corner and got shouted at again even though he tried to explain it's really difficult to be expected to stay warm, keep moving and remove your coat all at the same time. Nope. Threaten with detention again.

AIBU to wonder what has happened to our education system? I'm lucky in that my son is quite strong minded and just brushes it off but what about the kids who's mental health this is impacting? Surely we want our kids to remember school as being enjoyable for their education and friendships rather than for being shouted at every two minutes for not walking between lines or not taking their coats off the minute they arrive in school?

This is an example of a school which has, in my view, extreme (/bonkers) rules. I have no idea at all why they need to run the place like this, or how pupils go on to function in a society which is a lot less controlled!

Progress results seem to be strong, absolutely no way would my child attend such a school.

Be ready for more of it. New OFSTED Chief - zero tolerance. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ogat-threatened-with-academy-rebroker-over-high-suspensions/

Yes it's interesting. My ds is clever with the potential to do well academically but he has no interest in school. He gets his head down and does what he needs to but he is not happy there. I often think he'd probably be happier working in some sort of manual job.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/16/outwood-grange-academy-trust-accused-assemblies-intimidate-students-discipline

New Ofsted Chief, Sir Martyn Oliver, was the CEO of a large Academy trust (OGAT)

Does this school start with a W in the name. Interested?

In one breath you have overly controlling secondary schools and in the next you get university lecturers/employers complaining young people these days are clueless about everything and can't do or work out simple things by themselves. It's almost like they could be linked....

I don't think it is, I was a clueless university student and I couldn't even make a piece of toast. Had had no incentive to learn because my parents did everything for me. As soon as I had to do things myself I learned how to do them. Some didn't, of course, and took their clothes home to be washed every weekend. Definitely wasn't the school's fault, just my laziness. School for me was usually the opposite, no mollycoddling and if they told me to do something I did.

Exactly! Or even just cold.

perhaps parents should consider why some teachers care.

Because some people have loads of different knives thrown into drawers and they don`t do regular checks like they might do in a secure mental health unit or similar, and as there are millions of knives out in the world the chances of getting one from somewhere else is pretty high.

But the weapon can still be hidden even if they are carrying their coat. And same for the phone. Which could also be 'hidden' or just 'in' their bag?

Same here, I went to an independent and there were rules but they were mostly sensible in comparison to the military-style breathe-too-quick-and-you're-in-isolation route a lot of schools near me are going down. Detentions were really unusual. Isolation wasn't used. If you had the wrong colour hairband you'd get told to take it out, if you had nail varnish on you'd be sent for nail varnish remover and have to make up missed work in your own time - not shouted at and isolated. The toilets were always open. If you talked in the corridors or in assembly you'd be told to stop. And this was considered pretty strict at the time!

Possibly what Newuser means is that this is how people who have never stepped foot in a private or grammar school and would profess to hate everything they stand for think that private and grammar schools work.

Also in reality. How many of us have happy memories of school. Most people I know remember it as pointless rules and petty minded teachers.

If I'd been asked at the time if I was happy at school, the answer would have been a resounding "no". I resented the rules about uniform, hated having to do sport, thought that at least a third of the teachers were miserable old bats and was generally a rebellious pain in the arse.

But the rules we had were nothing like the things I've read about in this thread. The coat thing: we wore our coats until we got to the cloakrooms if we wanted to, and then hung them on hangers, where they stayed until we wanted them again. We were trusted to use corridors and staircases in a civilised manner, and no one-way systems were necessary. And this was at a school with a reputation for being strict!

If my young self was at school now, I'd would absolutely hate it.

In my DDs school coats must be taken off & put in bags before entering the building. They can't even carry coats inside.

Put in bags?? That's absolutely batshit. My winter coat is a nice warm knee length one and would need a large bag. Add in school stuff and I assume any scarf/gloves/hat I'd need a massive bag.

I don’t really understand the coats thing. Just take them off for lessons surely.

one way system makes sense if a busy place tbh.

No, no cloakrooms. I think the issue is the schools having to fit more students and hence classrooms in so there's no room for cloakrooms or lockers anymore.

It's the trend in secondary schools at the moment, zero tolerance Michaela type discipline.
Meanwhile the trend in primary is a Dix-type nurture and attachment style ethos.
Which leads to a massive disconnect for pupils who are launched from one to another then excluded if they fail to cope.
Plus, all these detentions for wearing coats and dropping pencils. What is the consequence for really serious behaviour then because surely detentions lose all their power if over-used.

Sounds like my DC insane school re coats. So on the parents FB page we all made a 'pact' that we'd tell our kids to decline to attend any detentions related to coat wearing in freezing weather. That rule lasted all of 2 weeks before they rolled back. One of my DC who is freezing constantly got about 4 detentions in a week that they didn't do 😬

Where I live (South East London) many primary schools have closed or are closing due to falling birth rates etc for the younger age group.
I wonder why some of the larger secondaries don't take up the empty buildings to make secondaries smaller. I frequently feel Years 7 and 8 might benefit from being separated from those massive 6th Formers.
(obviously not that simple I know....costs, staff etc 🙁)

Exactly. I really worry about youngest dgc going to secondary in September , I think she’ll live in constant fear.
I went to a strict grammar school but nothing like stories I hear now.
If a boarding kennels was run like a UK school, I wouldn’t leave my DDog there.

I’m in Scandinavia and I’m horrified reading what it is like in the UK. Poor children.

Agree. Sons started yr 7 in September and schools seem an awful awful place to be now.
He's generally a really good, calm kid. Got a detention for his pen running out. Another for holding a stick outside.

Also can't wear a coat as they have to remove before going in.

It's run like a detention centre and I think it's no wonder attendance is so poor now. I dint blame him one bit for not wanting to go and I'm an ex teacher!

One of the biggest differences in Scandinavia is that education and teachers are respected.

Very similar to my child's school in Devon.
Although they greeted with the leadership team shouting through Tanoys for them to get in lines. Headteacher always sending videos through of how amazing its all going but I think alot of unhappy kids, it's like they've stripped them of their personalities. There is less disruption in class though so learning is better.

Kids with knives should be tried and sent to borstal. Year 7s who still have their coats on 10 seconds after entering the door should be treated with kindness and patience.

Of course for a certain type of cowardly, bullying adult it's easier to punish the second sort of offence overly harshly in lieu of having a robust approach to the first type.

And yet we call them by their first names, have no school uniforms and my childrens head master was always dressed in ripped jeans and an old t-shirt.