Or does a state school using the term 'prep' make them sound like wankers?

[cheeseismydownfall]

Currently looking at local state sixth forms. One of them has a (self-seeded) reputation for being "the next best thing to a private school, without the price tag". Bold claims, glossy brochures and aggressive marketing, which makes me instantly suspicious.

One thing that jumped out at me from their website (for both the secondary and the sixth form) is that they use the term prep instead of homework. Is this not a very self-conscious, wanky move? This is a college that was only built ten years ago, so it is clearly a deliberate choice rather than a long-standing tradition.

It feels subtly exclusionary class signalling to me - like they don't want to attract the kind of families that don't know what prep means.

I don't understand why you think it would be exclusionary or wanky? If the school is as good as you say then the children attending will all live very locally and it's catchment area is likely to be very small.

They won't be excluding anyone who doesn't know that prep is homework most parents will probably think nothing more of it than it's just it's a quirk of the school.

Funnily enough I was talking to my friend who’s dd goes to the local state school and she also called her DD’s homework prep and she has a prep diary. This is not a wanky school or college, quite the opposite (a bit rough even) so maybe the term is becoming universal now.

Prep = preparation eg the work should contribute to the next lesson
Homework= any work you have to do at home including the above but also consolidation or self contained tasks.
Agree prep does have some class based connotations, but it shouldn't.

Do you mean because private primary schools are called prep schools?

Get a life OP. Some people literally moan and take offence to anything.
If you don’t want to send your kid there then don’t. Getting offended over copy on their website because you don’t think it sets the bar low enough is ridiculous.

My DD's secondary discussed this at a parents forum as they wanted to introduce on,y having homework that was valuable rather than just for the sake of it and calling it prep hammers home the fact that you are doing it in preparation for a lesson. Not just filling in a worksheet for no reason at all.

Tonight you must do this preparation for our lesson tomorrow.

Should add that our secondary is in a deprived area.

Why does it bother you?! if its a good school - does it really matter if they use the word prep? Is it that you associate the word prep, with prep school wankers, and therefore if your child is in this school also called prep, they will be a wanker, and therefore the extension to YOU as a wanker? What's the issue OP? Are you looking to be offended?

"homework" is not a term favoured by ofsted, and many schools have found an alternative way of saying it, such as prep, or preparation, or independent study (IS) or OOSL ( out of school learning) or many other things - no, not wanky, or exclusionary, or offensive in any way. Home work was called prep before it was called homework.

Sounds like you are looking for something to be offended about

As it’s a sixth form, presumably it aligns with the world of work (as the good ones try to do) to help transition students into the next stage etc. In my sector we use prep all the time eg meeting prep, site prep, project prep and so on; I agree with @QuillBill that it shows the work is relevant

BTW my DS’s school is a private school, with the price tag, and they call it homework

At my state school it was always called prep

Mine too

Prep- preparation
Prep school- preparatory school

Whatever you call it, it’s work done to consolidate learning and be ready for the next lesson.

When you’re in Sixth Form there’s homework (assignments set by the teacher) and prep (stuff like pre-reading for the next lesson and going over the last lesson in your own time )
At GCSE the school spoonfeed all the way but a good sixth form will help the transition to uni by forcing self study hours too.

yes the terms sound different to me too - prep is things you do to help yourself, get ready for lessons or exams, to understand the previous work so that you can do the next step, etc. Homework just sounds more like younger years in school, things that the teachers have made you do just because, more like a chore.

I'm sure the school has deliberately chosen the term, but it sounds more likely that they've done it as a positive choice to signal what they hope students will get out of doing it, rather than as an exclusionary class-based signifier.

I went to a very unpretentious (yet old) state boarding school that called homework prep. It still does. It’s just old fashioned.

You're right, but the boat has sailed - loads of schools call it prep now.

Why is it a race to the bottom for some people.

I went to a sixth form that you probably think it wanky for its glossy catalogues and advertising. They took everyone who got 5 A-C at GCSE. I think it’s number 3rd in the country rankings now.

Their aspiration gave me aspiration to get out of my northern mining village and see the world.

Why don’t ofsted like “homework”?

I have literally never heard the term prep referring to homework, I thought this was going to be about prep schools.

why does ofsted like or dislike anything? Honestly, don't bother to try and fathom out any of their motives or agendas. That way madness lies.

In private schools prep isn't used to refer to homework so I don't think they're trying to align themselves in that way.

I went to a sink comprehensive in the 1970s and even there and then some teachers called it prep.

Just goes to show how nurture informs our outlook on life. Long before I came to the UK and heard about "privilege," I attended a normal school where evening homework time was called "Prep".

But seeing how English people are so hung up on social class, elitism, and private education, I can see where the OP is coming from.