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?

It sounds as though the school are getting tougher on behaviour, and this is one of the strategies to impose discipline.
I cannot see why there would be any objection to the corridor system - it makes perfect sense in a busy building.

@MigGirl Are you a teacher?

In my case it was the transformation from state to academy, often brought in due to the school seen as 'failing'. Not sure what the real agenda was there but probably money.

At my children's school, the Ofsted report went from 'Good' when it was state ran, to requires improvement as an academy, then the latest in 2023 'Inadequate'.

Academies make their own rules and are ran like businesses, often to the detriment of pupils sadly.

It was only few years ago, schools had really had to adapt to different children's needs. You had kids sitting on balls, they had things to fiddle with if they had adhd or various things in place. It was inclusive for all and that was the ethos.
Suddenly, especially around here these really strict Academies have taken over. On the meet and greet evening with the head you had parents at their wits ends with their children literally spending everyday in isolation for various things and not even making it to lessons. You can barely figit in your seat without being sent out. I don't understand the sudden turnaround.
They're almost run like businesses not schools, did I read all schools have to become a MAT by 2025?

This is why lots of kids don't go to school. During the pandemic people didn't stop thinking school was worthwhile: they noticed their kids were a lot happier and less anxious.

Schools are generally toxic and stressful environments, for both adults and children, who pass their stress on to each other and create a vicious cycle. Our kids are growing up stressed, with high baseline cortisol levels that will remain with them for life.

I wish they weren't, but that's the truth.

This is from a local academy. I don't understand myself some of this. What do they mean by simplicity-complexity tightrope?

We believe in a world where all children get to
go to a great school, and we want to see all
trusts working together for all children. We
are against bad ideas and practices, including
the hornets that are: overstretch, disruption,
distractions, overload, forgetting, confusion,
demotivation, bullying, dogma, entitlement,
and school shamers. Our struggles and inner
demons include doing less better, anticipating
and preempting pitfalls and blind spots
simplicity-complexity tightrope, and
balancing alignment with autonomy

PE teachers probably interview well. Lots of easily measured 'achievements' to quote. They tend to present well physically (fit and active).

To an interview panel they look like the sort of person who will 'sort out the problems'. Especially if there is a perception that the school is slipping a bit.

Except they become the problem. Barking orders, draconian punishments for minor rule infractions. Basically trying to run the place like it's the army or rather their interpretation of the army.

All the nit-picking rules create an antagonistic culture. Teachers are the ones who have to enforce the rules whether they agree with them or not. Experienced teachers move on and are replaced by less experienced and cheaper teachers.

You can't run a school like it's the army because it isn't the army.

My sons school has gone the same way, this year (he has an older sibling at the school already) they seem to have really cracked down on behaviour to the point it's such silly things. My son who never has been in trouble before at school has been pulled up so many times on dress code etc that he feels like what is the point and feels completely negative about school now despite enjoying it before and being excited for secondary.

The most effective Head Teachers were found largely to be History graduates.

Not surprising because history is essentially the study of human behaviour and outcomes.

Yes this is exactly what happened to my ds. He was so enthusiastic about secondary but has ended up hating school.

13 years of the Tories. A fish rots from the head.

@GnomeDePlume
Very true about PE teachers. I was bullied by a female PE teacher in the 80s. Absolutely hated school because of her and couldn't wait to leave despite being in the top form and achieving academically.

I can't see the problem with a one way system. Many places have that. It's common knowledge on the London underground for instance that on the escalators you stand on the right so that anyone in a hurry can quickly get past on the left and on stairs you walk down the left side and walk up on the left side so you don't bump into each other.

I think we need to ask ourselves why schools have had to bring in a zero tolerance policy. In a town near me a few months ago the teachers were striking in protest of violence and threatening behaviour from pupils.

I don't think the issue is the rules, mostly they make sense, the issue is how they are being enforced.

The problem is schools jumping to punishment (after school detention and isolation) for minor infractions, often not even behaviour issues but honest mistakes and forgetfulness.

I find these comments quite funny,

I suspect that don't know how just blowing his nose can turn into a massive, noise creating disruption to the class.
The same with 'I was just drinking some water'.

You can have zero tolerance but fewer rules.

A simple, inexpensive, readily available, practical school uniform. No blazers, no rules about sock colours, trainers permitted.

Zero tolerance of bullying and disruptive behaviour.

As everyone who deals with teenagers says: pick your battles.

Once a school goes down a path of increasingly restrictive rules it is creating a situation where every interaction between the students and staff has the potential to be a battle.

In the short term the school wins but in the long term it loses.

Oh gosh this reminds me of my 1980s pe teacher at primary school....she was evil!

@GnomeDePlume agreed.

'Rules' make sense, even having lots of them but there need to be fewer 'red lines' that get punishment. These should be focussed on behaviour issues.

As it stands at DDs school a kid who forgot a couple of things ends up in isolation with the kid who swore at a teacher. Same punishment makes it meaningless.

This

Our school was like this in the early 2000s. I was a prefect in year 11 and it was our job to station ourselves at the end of the corridor and tell off the younger students for going "the wrong way" down the corridor. Bloody ridiculous.

ThinkAboutItTomorrow - So you have a child in a classroom of 30 who has forgotten their ruler. The teacher has a spare one that they can borrow. The next time 3 more children have forgotten their rulers but the teacher doesn't have enough spare, so then has to ask if any of the other students have spare rulers, thus delaying the start of the lesson. Then the next lesson a student has forgotten a book etc. Better that the children know that if they forget equipment they will get a detention so that hopefully they will only need one detention to focus their minds and make sure they have all the right stuff for each lesson.

I was at school over a decade ago and I’m trying to think what some of our rules were.

We couldn’t remove blazers without permission.
Skirts and ties had to be a certain length, not short.
Boys hair not too short and no bright colours for either sex. No make up.
Proper shoes, not trainers.

All of our corridors and staircases had a line down the middle for foot traffic in each direction.
We couldn’t put our coats on at the end of the day without the say so of our form teacher.
No running unless on the sports pitches.

I suppose it was quite strict but in retrospect it was mostly a civilised place to be. I was a very sensitive teen and didn’t feel traumatised by the rules. The strict rules on presentation taught me to take pride in my appearance and I still enjoy being well turned out now.

cyclamenqueen - I do think school uniform should be cheaper but then you need to get the balance between quality and price. It would be interesting to see if trainers were allowed how many students would turn up for school wearing really expensive ones when their parents had been moaning about the cost of school uniform.

But ultimately does that matter . If you give someone the same punishment for wearing the wrong trousers as you do for carrying a knife what message are you sending. We seem to have lost our sense of proportion.

it’s not the rules per se it’s the way in which they are enforced.

This assumes that it takes a detention to focus kids minds. I don't think it does. It's not for a lack of trying that most kids forget stuff. If a child is consistently not having the right kit then fair enough but detention for a one off is just counter productive. It's stressing kids out unnecessarily and focusing them on having kit not learning.

And honestly the ruler thing was for underlining the title, not actual work, so quite why the teacher got their knickers in a twist over it is beyond me. That must have been way more disruptive than a kid borrowing their neighbours' ruler.

It means I'm constant telling my daughter not to worry about getting a detention, that they are just silly inconveniences and not important. Now even the teachers are saying that in an effort to calm things down. It's just daft.