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?

School rules just need to be justified.

So one-way systems to avoid congestion in the hallways is absolutely fine.

Having some draconian rule about coats being off etc is just stupid.

Its a reaction to how appalling behaviour is in some secondaries now.

Many children have no concept at all of obedient behaviour and simply doing as they are fucking told.

No that's not what I'm saying
My example was that as parents who pay for education, most of the parents are heavily invested in education and support the school/teachers. None of the teacher/school bashing you get on these types of threads for example.
You yourself are immediately blaming the school for these rules without stopping to think why they might be needed.
Children learn their behaviour from their parents. If a proportion of parents in each school don't value education/don't respect teachers then of course this will rub off on their DC.
It is never OK for a child to go to school feeling scared but that wasn't the premise of your OP!

School rules just need to be justified.

No, they dont. Part of why they are there is to teach kids to simply be obedient.

No coats is usually a security thing. Things can easily be hidden under coats and it covers the uniform/have hooda making it more difficult to identify those who shouldn't be there.

One way systems are often found in schools not designed for.the number of students they now have, and is for safety.

I can hardly bear to read all this. If it were happening in the workplace, employees would be on to their union pdq to complain about the conditions.

I am a primary CofG and we are fighting to keep our school out of the claws of MATs - everyone loves the school, children are happy, the national curriculum is served with a hefty dose of art/sport/music/forest school and a wonderful central ethos of kindness.

The bigger schools get and the more they become part of conglomerates, the stricter the discipline has to become, the more detached from the pupils the management become, the less human scale they become. This has a huge impact on the pupils and the staff, and thus the atmosphere in the school.

How is wearing your coat disruptive? 🙄 what’s disruptive is uniform checks that cause massive queues so kids can’t even get into the building.

Was similar when I was at school OP, absolutely ridiculous.

I don't see a massive issue with bothering coat thing, obviously getting detention for no removing it immediately they walk in the school is ott.

One way system makes sense in a large school and actually keeping them moving can help reduce the chance of bullying behaviour between classes.

I went to school in late 1970s and 1980s ..school wasn't fun ,the bullying was horrendous and no one picked up on my now diagnosed autism and ADHD ..
School days were the worst days of my life ...
Remember school as being enjoyable....I was just trying to survive it ,as I imagine most kids today are

Ex teacher here. I really wish this country would fall out of love with uniform. On the continent, in the US no one has it. It’s the cause of so much tension and petty aggressions between staff and students. But whenever we tried to address this, parents voted to retain it. They want to emulate private schools. And the enforcement goes onto teachers, not parents who seem happy to send their daughters to school in skirts that look like belts.

I can hardly bear to read all this. If it were happening in the workplace, employees would be on to their union pdq to complain about the conditions.

Balls. Loads of workplaces have careful security etc. At mine you must have your pass round your neck at all times, there are coat and bag checks, and a one way system around busy areas.

I assume you're not a teacher, then?

Holidayhell22 Thakk you. This was my point. I would rather they go to school with teachers they like and can then enjoy learning and school rather than dread going to school which ultimately is going to affect their learning.

In our classrooms we can. When you leave your classroom and have 1500 students running all over the school behaving in a herd mentality you can’t. You need wider behaviour policies and enforced standards so the students know what is expected of them. The policies may seem “petty” to people who don’t work in schools but believe me they are needed.

Well behaved kids don't dread going to school and abiding by a few rules, because they are used to it at home

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but the issue is with the hoods not coats themselves. The small minority of pupils that push/shove/trip younger children in the corridors are nearly impossible to identify by staff (or even CCTV) when their hoods are up. The difficulty in asking them to just remove their hoods is that they wait until they’re around the corner and then put them up again. It’s more effective just to tell them to remove their coats on entry to the building.

This sounds minor. I am sure that your son and the rest of the kids have sufficient grit to cope with being told to take their coats off in school and follow a one way system. Life will throw much worse shit at them than this.

🤣 my mind went to The Demon Headmaster too!

I really wish this country would fall out of love with uniform. On the continent, in the US no one has it. It’s the cause of so much tension and petty aggressions between staff and students.

It isnt when children just abide by the rules and don't fight against authority. School uniform is the norm & works well in many many countries in the world.

But if you have a % of kids in each class/year who are continually disrupting lessons/bullying in break times or in school corridors then no-one is going to learn.
I think you are completely unaware of what is happening in many schools in terms of pupil behaviour/lack of teachers etc.
By getting rid of the rules you hate you won't magically create a golden utopia where everyone behaves and kids are happy at school.

My DD started year 7 this year and it's been a nightmare. Detention for tiny things - missing ruler, top button undone etc. two detentions in a day ends up in. 'Reflection room' where they're isolated for a day.

Some of the stories are crazy. 11 year olds who packed their bag for the wrong day so didn't have books end up with multiple detentions and so day of isolation!

It's destroying my DDs mental health, she's a good kid who is scared of detention and being in trouble. Crying at bedtime, packing and unpacking her bag doing homework online 3 times because she's not sure it's logged as complete. Total disaster and the school isn't listening.

Not sure what to do next.

How is wearing your coat disruptive? 🙄 what’s disruptive is uniform checks that cause massive queues so kids can’t even get into the building.

Whats disruptive is pupils bringing weapons, drugs etc into school under their coats, forcing schools to introduce checks. Or pupils refusing to follow uniform codes.

The underlying cause of this is worsening behaviour. Children aren't learning to behave well at home, sadly.

I think parents are absolutely terrified to tell their children off due to the threat of ss so schools are left picking up the pieces.

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. Can't see that has changed much. It is a bit of a right of passage and honestly for anyone who heads for an institutional or corporate environment after school it is probably good training.

I think if kids have such bad mental health they cannot cope with being told to take their coats off they are going to continue to struggle beyond the school environment. Society is full of endless rules to follow. If we want to live in a society we follow the rules - if we don't then we opt out.... and many of those ultimately end up in prison - where there are even more rules!!

Bollocks. As a parent I'm not afraid of telling DD off in case SS are called! Who the hell would call SS for a parent telling their child off?
What I do agree with is that a lot of kids have no boundaries or discipline at home so they then can't cope with those things at school