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?

I went to a big city school and they brought in the one way system and lines otherwise it became a free for all on the stairs which seemed fun at the time but looking back really dangerous so that seems reasonable-the other does sounds a bit militant but then I can understand when you have larger classes of kids and no one listening etc

I agree with the one way system, it is definitely safer. At my school stairs were terrifying particularly for the year 7 and 8 kids. At my husbands school the had two staircases, one for up and one for down but I don't suppose all schools would have the option to do that. Mine could have done it but one staircase was just for teachers so they were nice and safe.

Some teachers are bullies

I hear Academies are taking over & are like Nazis. Controlling, Victorian style bullies. Something needs to be done to stop this.

These rules seem far-fetched. As a secondary school teacher of nearly 30 years, I wish my school would tackle the indiscipline.

@Abbimae so when you go to work you are happy to walk around all day with your coat (possibly wet if it's been raining) hanging over your arm?
Or shove it in your bag making all the contents wet and the bag ridiculously heavy?
It might be rules - but they are often stupid and impractical rules.

The fundametal issue is that behaviour has drastically deteriorated in school kids ie lack of respect for teachers etc. Many parents are highly critical of/don't support teachers (as evidenced by some of the comments on here) so schools have to resort to draconian rules in order to try and get control.
The issues start at home, too many entitled parents (how dare you criticise my perfect child) breed entitled children who think it is acceptable to shout and swear at teachers.

Night and day compared to DD private school: free access to toilets, respectful relations between.teachers/pupils/parents and quiet/happy learning environment.

The issue starts at home with parents. Teach your children to respect each other and teachers! In the worst schools teachers spend a majority of each lesson doing crowd control instead of teaching but parents won't accept that it is their previous child who is to blame OR they don't value education anyway.
This then results in ridiculous rules within schools as they attempt to assert some control over behaviour.

cannot see any need whatsoever for family style lunches with set discussion topics, affirmation chanting, and the 3,2.1 slant nonsense. It’s like a cult. Or the demon headmaster.

Wtaf

I agree with you that it's appalling behaviour that leads to them having to bring in these rules and my dc went state.

Good teachers can get respect from pupils without all the shouting and enforcement of petty rules

Other stupid rules include no boots despite them being great for winter. Girls only allowed a pencil skirt no matter what your shape or size. Tights must be worn with skirts no matter what the weather. They even dictate the colour of hair bobbles.

Have a look at SLT newbie on Facebook or twitter. It's supposed to be satire...

Whitsitabout79 This is what I was worried about. Thank you for sharing. I hope she's ok

Out of interest, do they have a rewards system as robust as the deterrents system?

When i was at secondary school, you came in wearing your coat in cold/wet weather, and hung it over the back of your chair, or on a peg in Science/HE.

Now my sons (at the same school!) are not allowed to do this - the coat has to be removed in Registration and either placed in a school locker or rolled up and kept in a schoolbag. I'd imagine a lot of it is to reduce the likelihood of tripping claims as far as possible?

One of my friends has reached the point that she gets really upset talking about her DD school. Ongoing debate with her DH because she wants to homeschool now, which a couple of mutual contacts are doing too. Their kids hit 13, 14 and just had no benefit from school and all stress over stupid things.
If this is getting more widespread, it's dreadful. Now I understand why I see so many young kids behaving like...well, like they do....in the street.

I've recently moved and the main local school is currently pretty normal, and those kids seem to behave fine.

I completely agree that detentions about socks makes a mockery of the whole thing. And in that situation, I too would go and have a vape in the loo to destress!

One way system is fine though.

but how can we be in 2023 with no boots or trainers?! And the coat rule. Jeez.

The coat rules sound stupid and impractical, especially having to put it in your bag. Who has space for that

Oh, sometimes I wish there was a ‘like’ button, and reading this comment made me think that again!

Schools are having to use a more strict approach because parents don't bother instilling discipline in their children. If parents taught their kids how to behave, this more draconian approach wouldn't be needed. Moan all you like about it, but sappy or lax parenting has resulted in kids who won't do as they are told and think they can do whatever they like, when they like, no matter how rude or anti-social.

@GnomeDePlume 100% this! I've been teaching since 2001 and now work internationally. It is very common here for men to be promoted to principal very quickly (NQT to Principal in less than 10 years is not uncommon) and they are almost without exception former PE teachers! I wonder if the lack of marking and easier lesson planning gave them more time for brown nosing or studying their NPQH or Masters in Educational Leadership. I'm not sure about the blue suits but...probably!

They have increased their numbers to bring in more money because schools are not adequately funded. Unfortunately there is a recruitment and retention crisis so I imagine the school potentially has less staff than when it had 750 pupils.

Add into this deteriorating behaviour and lack of parental support you may find a lot of schools are having to be very draconian just so learning can take place. If you worked in one for even just a day you would understand the sorry state they are in. As for mental health of the children, this is part of the issue too. We wrap them up in cotton wool so much instead of encouraging resilience and explaining why sometimes these measures are a necessity. We are told they are innocent children who need to be protected whilst at the same time encouraged to rationalise with them like they’re fully grown adults- it doesn’t work. They hear their parents voicing concern at home about teachers or the school and they repeat this back to staff leading to a lack of respect.

Twistyizzy I'm sorry but I think this is a massive generalisation. What you are saying is that Public School Children can't behave as well as private school children and it's down to the parents? So it's ok for kids to go to school feeling tearful or fearful because of the one or two or can't actually behave because this is the reality

OP, what's the problem with the one way system?

PurpleChrayne Yup new Head Teacher

Do your child a favour and change schools . No child shoos be treated that way .