To ask teachers in the state sector what it’s really like at the moment?

[Unifgo]

Is private better?

we’ve been saving towards private and have a chunk there but it’s very depressing living so frugally when we work almost every waking hour! I know parents have various views on state and private but i just want to know the reality from the actual teachers! Is it as bad as the press would have you believe? Is there violence, not much learning due to managing classes? Dd is 3 soon and due to go to school next year.

Well we don’t know because we work in state. I expect it varies anyway.

The difference is greater at secondary, mainly in behaviour and attitudes, parental engagement and extra curricular opportunities.

Every area is different, I would look at some local schools and speak with your friends who have children at school to get an idea of their experiences. I'm not a teacher but am a governor so have some insight into the workings if the school.

My daughters state school used to be absolutely brilliant. Oldest in year 4, youngest in year 2. However this year has been challenging, the same dedicated head and teachers, most parents engaged and polite - this hadn't changed. However, there has been a significant drop in funding due to

• teachers (well deserved) pay rise not being fully funded
• NI increase
• SEN crisis meaning funding and staffing is being diverted into supporting children with SEN. The school used to have 2 TA's in every class to support small group learning, interventions etc. Now all TA's are needed in ARP or as 1 to 1's.
• stretched council budgets meaning they are not providing as much funding.

I had high hopes that the change of government would improve education, but it's done the opposite. We are tutoring our year 4 for grammar, but if she doesn't get in we will be looking at private, which will require me moving out of nhs into private practice to fund it, something I never wanted to do, but our children are our priority.

No one can answer this question as it varies from school to school even in the same town.

I work in a state secondary school and have done for over 10 years. In lessons behaviour is good as we have a good behaviour policy for learning. I remove any child that disrupts the learning of others.

Outside of lessons the behaviour is awful. Weak management not willing to stand up to poorly parented kids. Violence, toilet doors kicked off and toilets trashed, vaping, general defiance with insufficient consequences.

My son's state school however seems to be much better in terms of behaviour outside of lessons. They seem less tolerant of poor behaviour and a friends son was asked to leave after a series of incidents!

I’d do state primary and private secondary.

If private isn’t better than state then I would wonder what the hell they are spending all that money on.

Not a teacher but a parent of many child school years and my children haven't experienced any violence and have learnt well enough to go on to/be going on to professional careers

I can only echo everyone else, a state school isn't an homogeneous entity,no one can tell you what your child will encounter in the next 15 year

@MesmerisingMuonI’m not trying to be facetious, but surely there are kids at your school who are scared to go to the toilets/ come
into school? Does this not impact their learning in the classroom?

By default, doesn’t the fact children are being removed mean that the learning environment is being disrupted?

We have opted for a private prep school as our local state school is oversubscribed and the others in the area present as having more challenges.

if you are struggling to save fees though, it may be worth at looking at grammar / better state schools as there are other ancillary costs attached to being in private school which add to the costs.

I'm happy with our decision. My daughter loves school and is thriving. She’s quite sensitive so it’s definitely the right option for her. My youngest is tougher and would probably thrive anywhere! They are giving opportunities to develop their confidence that they wouldn’t have in a state school and if our finances became tighter, I would really try to keep them in their private school for the time being.

State really depends on the area too.

Why the snarky response? All OP was asking for was a view. Do you have one?

There are some decent toilets in reception so the kids queue for those. We also have to have staff duties outside toilets to try and minimise vandalism so kids can actually use them. Nice kids we generally let go to the toilet in lessons. I always advice kids to take their own toilet roll to school.

We have some kids that are on register but have their lessons in a different area or refuse to come to school. Kids with anxiety. Their anxiety is generally not due to the issues around school but due to other issues long before they came to secondary.

Removing kids from lesson doesn't really disrupt the lesson too much. The rules are very clear. All the kids know the rules and the consequences. We have an isolation room where they then have to sit in silence. If they fail to behave in there they get a suspension.

My only wish is that management would grow some balls and deal with the kids behaviour outside of lessons properly. They need to call parents in more regularly to collect their kids who won't behave, or call social services if the parents refuse to come.

My children have been much happier in their state schools, than I was in private. They have found their tribe of lovely quirky funny children, and haven't been bullied. I was terribly bullied in the private sector and had no confidence from the experience.

Yes they tell me some horror stories but they are just watchers/ gossip followers rather than taking part. They mange to keep out of any drama.

They have both had private tutors at different times, and do lots of extra curricular activities outside of school. No regrets.

This is what we would have done if we could have.

In reply to state primary and private secondary.

I have many views on the state of state education which are pretty well documented on here. Underfunded, under-resourced and understaffed. Teachers are overworked and underpaid with ever increasing expectations to solve all society’s ills, and to fill the gap of collapsing SEN and mental health services.

So I repeat, if private schools aren’t better then that, what the hell are they spending all that money on?

I was bullied in state because I did my homework and got good grades. Sent my ds to private for secondary and I'm so happy : all kids study so it's normal. No bullying whatsoever because everything is taken very seriously. Lots of quirky kids that would have been bullied in state.

Takes a certain amount of arrogance to assume that I should know the views of some random MNer. “Don’t you know whom I am” etc etc.

Anyway, I infer from your (still snarky) answer that (a) you think private schools are better or (b) you don’t have experience of private schools so you don’t know?

Depends on the school - funding is poor but some schools are good at raising extra cash through good business plans.

Depends on the behaviour policy too - strongly echo pp who said a good removal system works - we have this and yes, there is disruption (they're kids after all) but persistent disruption which impacts learning (as opposed to one incident of shouting out) is dealt with outside of the classroom so the teacher/rest of the students can carry on learning.

Save money for tutoring as state secondary find it difficult to recruit specialists and tutoring can be a good top up for this.

State schools vary massively.

primaries tend to have fewer issues regarding behaviour than secondaries just because teens are intrinsically much more difficult.

state schools have less funding than they did and are running with fewer bells and whistles (extra curricular and trips etc) than before but some are very good and others are not.

Depends on schools. I have been doing supply on and off and I find state schools are going down, money is tighter and tighter each year, no money o replace resources, government push more kids with SEN into mainstream, classes are bigger, behaviour is worse. I guess in private you get a lot of the same problems, but you definitely have smaller classes for kids and more 1:1, better resources, etc. I do love the state sector and would not want to work in an independent school as a teacher for a number of reasons, but it seems amuch better deal for the kids.

I teach Year 6 in a very socially deprived area. We are an Ofsted-rated ‘Good’ school. Our children are gorgeous and yes, we have occasional problems with parents, but nothing regular. My class are mixed ability with a high ratio of SEND children. I teach children working ‘below’ age related expectations, children working ‘towards’, children working ‘at’ and children capable of Greater Depth. I push my Greater Depth hard, keep tabs on filling gaps in learning for my borderlines and working towards, and ensure basic skills are prioritised for my working belows.

My class are an absolute joy. Yes we have behaviour issues but what class doesn’t?! I love teaching them and rarely have to interrupt my lessons for poor behaviour. I have taught classes where behaviour is more of an issue and barrier to progress, but some classes are like that and some aren’t.

In our school, the children largely are ready to learn, happy to be there and are pushed by capable and committed staff. I’d happily put my own children there if I lived nearer!

Well primary is nearly always fine. Myself I left secondary less than ten years ago and it was fine then although it will vary with secondaries some are shit.

A lot of people on here will be familiar with my views on state education. 🤷‍♀️

You should be able to infer from my post that I think that private schools should be better than state schools because they have lots more money.

I have taught in two beautiful private schools and two big state secondary schools. The first state one was in special measures and I would rather die than send my children there. Sex, drugs, abuse everywhere. Very little learning able to go on because of behaviour - lots of assaults and exclusions and despite changes in leadership every few years no progress has been made. The second state school is also tough but there are some lovely children here who do well. There are also some very badly behaved children who bring drugs and weapons into school and who disrupt learning whenever they can, but there is a chance for the others to learn and progress well. It depends whether your own children will behave regardless or will be led by others.

It also depends where you live. Anything less than ‘good’ at Ofsted and in my opinion private is worth the sacrifice. The differences are stark, mostly in terms of the environment, the children are not exposed to such terrible things (lots of children here with sexual exploitation, county lines, violence etc), and they can learn well because there’s very little going on in terms of behaviour. There are also more options for them subject wise at GCSE (many children in both state schools only get two ‘options’ on top of the usual subjects, and even then it’s often dependent on budgets and numbers so they end up too often with something they don’t want), and more opportunities in terms of clubs and trips.

I’m currently trying to move back into private so we can send our children private rather than state. It’s expensive but it’s also a completely different world.

My daughter goes to a state school, she’s in y1 and is happy but I don’t feel she is pushed (differentiation seems very limited, her reading books are so easy she could have read them 12-18 months ago, the work in her maths book is stuff she knew how to do in preschool). Behaviour is good at that school.

i am doing supply at the moment. Behaviour varies from mostly ok to absolutely atrocious. I’ve not seen any violence but behaviour which massively disrupts the class and prevents those who want to learn from learning is fairly common. Even in classes where behaviour is good, there’s limited challenge for the most able. They finish the work quickly and then read a book, help their peers or just mess around. Support for the less able is better, with TAs taking kids for intervention and so on, but some are so far behind. No TAs in lessons generally, so some kids are just lost in every lesson.

A year ago I worked in a private school and the difference is stark. If i could afford it I would put my daughter in in a heartbeat. Though, 2 have closed/are closing so that would concern me, particularly with smaller cheaper ones.

Agree. If you can comfortably afford both private then great, but state secondaries are more noticeably different to private than at primary.
It obviously varies with each school but beware of hothouse secondaries - more a risk in grammars and private schools, and state schools that are just too big to be manageable for kids. Such a shame to be one of thousands of students where no one knows who anyone is. I wish all schools could be smaller and more personal - reckon it would sort out loads of the issues.

Thanks for the feedback! We really do want to do private but it’s not looking realistic at least for primary. I really wish we didn’t have to consider this though