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?

Asking students to have only indoor clothes on when indoors, whatever next

But why does it matter? In what way does it "impact" teaching and learning?

Why create an environment where teachers are having to worry about this nonsense? Let the kids wear what they want if they are cold (or hot).

The one way system point is different and makes perfect sense (it could be replicated on pavements, too )

Massive schools with draconian measures as the only way to exert control on children. It's a race to the bottom. My child was totally traumatised in Y7.

I used to work in a town where a senior school decided to do away with uniforms. Behaviour in the town became terrible, kids fighting, damaging plants and trees, all sorts. I spoke to a group who were pulling branches off a tree, I said I was going to ring the school to report their behaviour and they replied that I didn't know where they went to school as they didn't have uniforms.

I explained that there was only one senior school in the town so I knew perfectly well where they went to school. They were speechless. Didn't give me a high opinion of their intelligence but I did laugh at them.

Worked at a school almost identical to this.
The building is too small for that many kids. They have to make it one way to prevent them all barging into eachother.
The coat thing is just strange.
Uniform checks are expected - as a lot of kids started wearing trainers.

Sometimes the non uniform is worse for those who aren't wearing the right designer items anyway

I agree. This is awful. And comes from detentions meaning nothing so they have to find harsher means. At my Dd's school, after school detention is for serious issues and so they don't have to resort to isolation. Her friend's at the schools like that are all struggling. It's heartbreaking. I regular have one of them bursting into tears when over at mine.

Made me laugh out loud. So true

And their behaviour is getting worse because they are giving up and just not caring anymore. All well behaved at Primary.

Very accurate

Don't push the well behaved pupils to the point that detention means nothing and they just don't care anymore. These are not just generally disobedient and disruptive pupils. These are 11 yo kids who aren't coping.

My DD has never had any type of detention. But if she was late for school (without exceptional reason) she would have a break time detention. Low level misbehaviour ' behaviour points', but she can also be rewarded with house points. Something more serious, a detention at lunchtime and for something really serious an after school detention. They have no need for isolation at her school. Disruption is almost nonexistent at her school and it has a reputation for being extremely well-behaved. With no need for a detention for being hot and taking your jumper off!

Dogsandchocolaterule I'm sorry but your response is everything that is wrong with why so many are struggling with mental health and everything that is wrong with this country.

Read the many posts that say what possible implication does it have if they wear a coat to stay warm if they are still learning or have a different coloured hairband. There are far too many generalisations on here that so many kids misbehave and it's the parents fault.

I have friends who teach at private schools and the kids are worse than public schools so I'm sorry but I'm aughing about this.

For those taking knifes to school, I agree that this is a major concern but punishing kids for wearing coats is ridiculous.

I dread to think what the future looks like with so many Mental Health issues already identified.

Do you we really need to resort to isolations and detentions for stupid reasons because I'm sorry but in the scheme of things, they are stupid reasons.

Clearly you support a dictatorship. I don't. I think as said by many others there are other ways of making a system work, the system clearly isn't working and perhaps it's time to start looking. If something isn't working at work, it gets fixed or changed until it does so why aren't we giving our kids the same benefit if so many are struggling with the current system?

As for my son, how rude. He is really behaved at school verified by his teachers all the time and is a A stream student. What is not accepted is making life impossible for no reason. I would love to see how you would cope if it were you in that situation but as always there is always one who thinks they are better than everyone else.

Well, the points you raise are exactly what needs changing. We can't just shrug our shoulders and except schools being so underfunded and no SEN school places. But isolation doesn't need to be used as a punishment. It has only got to that in the schools that give an after school detention for forgetting a ruler or being hot so needing to take your jumper off. Then where do they go with a serious infringement? Stop pushing well- behaved Y7s into not caring anymore.

Reasons might be:
Isolation room silent- has to be as it's got a group of poorly behaved kids all together in one room.
Detention for no equipment- I can't tell you how much of a lesson is lost to borrowing pencils- no responsibility for being ready.
One way system- so much safer.
Indoor coats off in classrooms - why have a uniform if it's covered with a jacket.

When you have huge numbers of pupils, rules have to be really pedantic and clear.

Perhaps it was our school ? Wouldn’t surprise me.
The SLT are horrible. All blokes in navy suits and tan shoes swinging their dicks about.

Pricks the lot of them.

I can honestly say my DD's friends from Primary were all very well behaved with parents who put boundaries in place and who value education. Now, I know the whole school population won't be like that. But surely there must be something wrong if well behaved 11 yos are getting so turned off education in Y7 that they just don't care anymore, that they regularly burst into tears at home, don't want to go into school, and their behaviour is deteriorating?

But yes, I agree with all your reasons schools are struggling. But this is not the answer!

Depends on where you place the importance…
‘higher academic outcomes’ means nothing these days.
Indoctrinated school learning with little emotion (at government level) and little out of the box thinking, mostly all forgotten by the following September.

I’m obviously generalising - these are just my own thoughts.

Agree.

My son got a detention the other day for....blowing nose on three occasions in class (after having nasal flu spray). Teachers note recorded...one blow would have been sufficient. Absolutely ludicrous. I no longer care if they get detentions as they are repeatedly for nonsense like this. Somewhere we seem to have forgotten that children and human, not robot

But that's the point - thes strict rules aren't helping - they're adding to the chaos!

Detention for blowing his nose??? Poor lad!
I bet if he had sat there and let it run over the desk, he’d have been given a detention for that too!

Where’s the compassion ? It’s like schools are being ran like boot camps/detention centres and prisons ……only prisons actually seem a bit more slack!

I don't blame the teachers atall. It's the government and the leadership of these schools that is the issue.

By getting the Tory influence off education, funding them properly and getting rid of the bad MATs.

That's the type of school I fought for, for my DD. It has rules and consequences. But sensible ones. The DC there thrive. It is the not so good schools with the extreme rules that DC are not thriving at and have bad results, disruptive lessons etc. Good kids go into those schools and behaviour, achievement and mental health deteriorates, ime.

Then it should be a priority to make the school's smaller. My Dd's school has 1200 (including sixth form) - it is not a dictatorship - they aim to run the school as a family. Consequently the DC thrive, no disruption in classes and excellent results.

Have you been into a school recently? This is no longer true.