To think school doesn’t care reg my child education

[Boleboo]

looking for opinions from parents and teachers. I feel state schools in the UK are underfunded, teachers overstrached, many don’t really like/enjoy what they do; have to deal with lots of other admin and care little about children progress and their education,

I think majority of schools are only interested in the kids that are in the top sets and can raise their results.

I only hear from school once a year when they send the school report. Half way 5 min meeting with the teachers

Are you happy with the education your children are receiving? Or do feel you have to be involved on it/suplement it.

I think the teachers care very much, believe me there would be no point on doing that job if you didn't care. I was a teacher who left a couple of years ago, the children were the only thing that kept me in in last 5 years at the job.

I found it became the opposite, the low ability/SEN became the only important ones in terms of making progress. The poor top group, such as it was were left to get on with it. That's primary though, don't know about secondary.

I think it is the responsibility of parents to be on top of their child's education whether the school is good or not. It is also the role of parents to enhance learning/education eg link what they do in History to day trips out etc. Schools are responsible for delivering the National Curriculum. Parents are responsible for everything else.
YANBU to say schools are under funded, under resourced.
YANBU to say the NC is crap and so limiting that it fails to engage a high % of kids
YABU to say teachers don't care
Many parents don't care which then creates children who don't care.

All of my child’s teachers have cared very much apart from one and he left. I have come to realise though that teachers can’t possibly meet the needs of all of the children in the class and so do at least 30 mins of focussed work, broken down into 10 minute chunks, one to one at home every day as my child needs that input to keep up.

@Boleboo - have you contacted the school to discuss your concerns about your DC?

I didn't find that teachers didn't care. Top sets are usually a lot larger than bottom sets so the bottom sets get more individual attention.
I do think public services in general have gone to pot over the last 14 years. No doubt with an election looming we will be told about the wonderful reforms that will be made to improve everything. Despite this not being done in the last 14 years.

I agree with @Beryls - it's the kids in the top sets who get the least attention as they're above the (low) bar that has to be met. Not because the teachers don't care though- because one teacher to 30 kids of hugely mixed ability simply can't do it.

My eldest daughter was being asked repeatedly to help the lower ability kids when she had finished her work- as were the other bright kids. She was demoralised and saw no point to doing well- this was in an Ofsted "outstanding"school. We took her out several years ago now.
The system just can't cope.

No, that has not been my experience. I feel that my childrens primary school has done a much better job of supporting a child who needed more help (no SEN) than pushing the high achieving academic one. If they are doing well there is no need to push them further or set extra stuff to stop them getting bored. Meanwhile the one struggling has had all kinds of extra sessions offered for support. And SEN support has been amazing too.

I now have one in secondary and the SEN support from them has been amazing - way beyond my expectations. Although I am not sure this school is necessarily representative of most secondary schools

Are you happy with the education your children are receiving? Or do feel you have to be involved on it/suplement it.

There’s plenty of improvement I’d like to see, but even if all that improvement were there, I’d expect to be involved and supplementing it. Parents’ attitudes to their children’s education have more of an impact on outcomes than schools do.

I think you are wrong, especially about only caring about those in tops sets. My experience is that the more able can go under the radar as the focus is getting the less able up to a basic standard of passing GCSEs etc. And this isn't something that I disagree with.

Teachers are individuals and some care more than others and some are better than others, but I think in general standards are much better than when I was at school.

I think as your DC get older there is less interaction with the parents and in many ways this is good as it teaches the children to take responsibility for their own education. I get a report each term and parents evening twice a year and to be honest that is enough. I speak to my DC and they can update me on issues if needed.

I worry myself sick about children in my class. I supplement their diet and resources in my class with my own money.
I work tirelessly in my own time to make things better for the children. I give up my lunch time to support them at lunch time. I run after school clubs to help enhance their experiences .
Every single day I personally make a difference to the unwanted, unloved and uncared for children who sit in front of me. How DARE you suggest that most of us don’t care! I HATE teacher bashing. Give teaching a go yourself if you think you can do any better.

My experience is that the borderline students get the most attention because getting a student from D to C will benefit the school statistics more than someone getting A rather than A (statistics are often grouped A/A and A*-C )
Top sets are bigger but probably easier to teach because the spread of abilities is smaller. It might just be my experience but the most experienced teachers seem to teach set 2 or 3 because those classes have individuals that could make most progress and progress statistics are one of the collected figures.
Bottom sets are often smallest and most likely to have TA help. As with the middle sets, the school looks good statistically if get can get some of the kids to pass rather than fail

I think majority of schools are only interested in the kids that are in the top sets and can raise their results.

I don’t think that at all. I think teachers care deeply about the children in their class and reading posts like this are going to be one more reason for them to question why the hell they should bother.

I would say I have always been aware of the limitations on resources and staff time. I try and support dc education in the best way possible and try to forge positive relationships with their teachers. Maybe we have been lucky but I have had very few issues and believe that the teachers in the main are always trying to do their best.

I think my childrens teachers do care.

Unfortunately its the government that doesn't. So funding is too low, wages are too low, everything is overstretched.

My 12yo is in a class of 33 for maths/science. The lab is built for 30... they have to squeeze up to share basic equipment. That is just one example.

The teachers simply don't have time to have regular contact.

care little about children progress and their education

Honestly, teachers talk about little else. Really, they’re obsessed with it. It’s honestly quite weird how much teachers care. They may hate policy changes, staff meetings, the new head, the old head, they may grumble about certain groups they teach but they just can’t help but really care about children’s progress.

Incidentally, you mention all of this is relation to state schools. I taught in state sector for years before moving to a private school. I left the private school after a year - it was awful and one of the main reasons was that in state schools, the teachers talked about the children and learning; in private school, the talk was about parents and retention.

I'm a secondary school teacher who has taught in a challenging school for 20+.years.

Most of our subjects aren't taught in sets, and all results contribute as the school is measured on the progress they've made since KS2 regardless of whether they get a grade 2 or 9 (it's called progress 8) not the % of A*-C which is the old measure.

The communication you receive about progress isn't the same as the quality of education the students get. I care very much about all my students.

Please feedback to the school itself about communication as we do more than one progress data drop per year , which is communicated home, plus tutor contact every term.

YANBU to say schools are under funded, under resourced.
YANBU to say the NC is crap and so limiting that it fails to engage a high % of kids
YABU to say teachers don't care
Many parents don't care which then creates children who don't care.
I'd agree with this.

I know a lot of teachers who've left because they DO care, but they can't keep sacrificing their health and their family time to plug gaps in a struggling system that's falling apart.

That said, the squeaky wheel gets the oils and in the current situation I understand any parent having to strongly advocate for their children if they feel there's something not right.

@Boleboo how often would you like to hear from the school?

@Shinyandnew1 has it right. It’s so exasperating to read daily about how schools don’t care. If teachers didn’t care about their pupils they wouldn’t do the job, because there is far more involved in teaching than working with children and if you didn’t care about those children, you absolutely wouldn’t do it. The rest of it is crap.

YABU to say teachers don't care
Many parents don't care which then creates children who don't care.

This, 100%. I’m a TA. I care tremendously about the kids in my class, as does their class teacher. And we are lucky in that most of the parents care, too, and when we say ‘x needs to practice phonics or counting or whatever’ at home, the parents engage with it, and that child’s attainment improves. But there are some who will never do the reading or engage their child in numeracy games at home, there are some who will say ‘oh school is boring, you don’t need school, etc etc’ and we only have them for 30 hours of 38 weeks a year - so who do you think has the bigger influence, in general?

As for my own DC - I’m delighted with the education they’re getting and I’m grateful to every single one of their teachers and support staff.

Well I can categorically say that’s not true, buuuuuut I will say I think the children who are struggling or have SEN are definitely helped by having a very vocal advocate behind them.

Very simplistic view, if you want to check in more you can. I think teachers totally care and have had some amazing teachers over the year who went above and beyond to help. There are some true heroes out there

Thank you all. It is good to hear other people’s views. Probably the school do more than I am aware of; I just don’t hear much and feel the few emails I sent just get ignored.

I told the school this anyway but I stated that I felt the History department could not have done more to ensure that every child in that class would pass History GCSE, from colour coded exemplar answers to questions showing all the elements needed for a fully rounded answer, to booklets literally walking them through key events. And then the after school revision sessions for all subjects, moving their forms in year 11 to utilise the 25 minute form time to focus on the child's weakest subject, the Saturday mornings a couple of teachers gave up to help students. The open evenings they had for parents where they spelled it out to us how to help them and pointing us to the resources available.

This is a school who if you don't hand your homework in doesn't repeatedly punish but instead tries to understand why and supports those students any way they can. The teachers really do care. In their primary where I volunteered the teachers really cared too, they tried to engage parents which is the biggest key to success, parental support is essential.

I think schools are desperately underfunded. However I also strongly believe that the teachers care a great deal.

Schools are desperately underfunded. In addition to that, local services have been slashed meaning that where there used to be external agencies (youth services, parent drop in centres etc) now a lot of that also falls back on the school.

It definitely isn’t true that top sets are the focus. Safeguarding and looking after SEN children within a society that is cutting all resources for the most vulnerable is what takes up most time.

It’s unfortunate, but teachers and leaders don’t have time for lots of communication with families of stable, achieving children who don’t need much support.