To tell you how schools changed within 15-10 years

[HerNeighbourTotoro]

I have been a teacher (on off, contracts and lots of supply) for almost 15 years now with some other work in between. If you have a child going through the system now and no older kids, you would not know how different things were even a few years ago.
15 years ago I did my PGCE in a fantastic school, I sadly missed out on the job they had at the end of that year and moved to a different location.

The staffroom was vibrant, lots of people always working, talking, exchanging ideas, they had a core team of teachers who were in charge of teaching and learning and each specialised in a different area, and were happy to pop in and observe or be observed. So many things were just amazing. They were also able to offer both more academic and vocational subjets.The department I worked in was wonderfuly resourced and they had a budget to buy into a few subscriptions offering students additional learning opportunities, they did trips, clubs, there were cross curricular days where departments collaborated to do projects. A dream place to work.

Over the years I worked in a few different schools and each year I have been noticing a change for worse, especially if I had a break from teaching/supply.

As it happens, last year we moved back closer to town with my PGCE school and an opportunity to do supply came up. No one I remember works there anymore, which was a shame, but what was really striking to me is how many things got lost in between. The staff rotation is however huge, and some departments have failed to recruit teachers for the vacancies and have either long term or daily supply to cover for the shortage (bear in mind when I applied, there were 50 applications for the job I ended up not getting and it was a norm to have over 30 applications in most schools in the area, and a lot more for shortage subject).

My subject lost a technician who was vital and it massively increased the workload. The department is half the size (as are many others). The classes are much bigger and some have 33-34 students. They run far fewer trips because a) the cost for the school to book suply is too big b) the workload increased so much that there is little time to organise these c) they lost office staff who used to help with the admin and now the team is smaller and can't help anymore.

The Language department used to have 3 language assistants (one for each language hey offered)- they now only offer one language and have no language assistants. The amount of subjects the school offers is much smaller and there apparently have been talks of closing down their 6th form.

All of the TAs are now mostly inexperienced agency staff that come and go and the SEN team is probably half of what it used to be as well. I have not seen a TA in any of my classes so far despite quite a few students desperately needing support.
The staffroom looks like a graveyard. Most people spend their lunches in their classrooms, eating as they prepare/mark. Forget about things like replacing damaged textbooks or other resources, so many people have to bring in their own pens and glues they buy in bulk because there is no budget.

I won't even mention the behaviour, 'teaching' a class of 30 or 30+ instead of 26 feels more like controlling chaos. There used to be a behaviour team supporting teachers, but now this is also gone because the school could not afford keeping 3-4 support staff on the team.

I genuinely feel sorry for children who are getting such different experience compared to before, with a small choice of subjects, supervised by supply teachers (I won't say taught) in the absence of teachers the school didn't manage to recruit, with few resources and few extracurricural opportunities.

For the record, the school is in a relatively well of area, I can tell you I have seen much worse elsewhere. But it is such a shame to see what was once a thriving school community in such a sorry state. All as the government is saying how supposedly schools are getting so much more money than at any given point in the past.

we're not anywhere near the low levels of funding of the 80s when I went to school.

Really-what couldn't schools afford to buy in the 80s? We had pencils, books, experienced teachers-schools can't afford any of those things now.

95% of our school's budget goes on staffing. The only way to get more money in it is to buy less 'stuff' or try to get rid of expensive teachers and replace them with cheap ones (or TAs). In the 80s, wages were paid directly by the county, weren't they? So heads could hire the best person for the position, whether they were an NQT or someone who had been teaching 30 years and county would pay them. Now, heads breathe a sigh of relief when anyone leaves as it gives them the opportunity to free up some money.

We had virtually no equipment other than what we bought ourselves. No textbooks, no revision guides, nothing up to date in the library, few computers (to be fair those weren't really considered an essential part of teaching at that stage), teachers working to rule, barely any sports equipment, ancient leaky unheated huts etc.

That was in a girls' grammar in a relatively affluent part of the SE.

The same school is transformed nowadays: they've squashed in about 30% more students, applied for every grant going and raised millions from parents and former students.

The teachers ranged from excellent to really poor. Of the 7 I had at A-level, 4 were excellent, 1 was okay, and 2 were wildly beyond their capacity.

That was in a girls' grammar in a relatively affluent part of the SE.

Me too-that wasn't my experience of school at all though.

I guess it shows anecdote isn't data! And maybe that your school cottoned on to the need to raise funds earlier? My school had a head at the end of a long teaching career so maybe it took a change of personnel to improve the budget situation (and political changes of course).

You will find in the data though significant real terms increases in per pupil funding throughout the late 1990s up to 2010 and then real terms falls from around 2010 onwards. This was partly because of population growth (the total number of £ rise but the real terms amount per pupil falls and real terms salaries in teaching in England fall also).

I’m not sure how much you get for a pupil with no pupil premium - £6-7k a year? It was £5.5k when I taught but that was around ten years ago. That barely pays for a week all inclusive in Europe these days for a family or a month of care home fees for an elderly relative. It’s not much to educate to GCSE in any subjects that require specialised equipment or materials and experienced teachers. If it’s £7k a year it’s £36 a day the state pays to educate your high school aged child or £6 a lesson. It’s not very much money at all.

I disagree with your assertion that having to look things up is a bad thing. Who walks around with reams and reams of information about all topics in their heads? We all look things up. We all use AI and the internet day in day out. School though is based on a method of learning from a bygone era where kids are passive recipients of information adults have decided it’s important to know (which causes the disinterest and boredom we see today in so many kids). It also assumes we must cram kids heads full of facts and information before the age of 16 or 18 and misses the fact that we all carry on learning through life every day until we die. Most of the information I know was absolutely not learned in school! Most people forget Pythagoras and fronted adverbials as they walk out of the exam hall and crack in with learning what is useful and important to them.

Yes I do think beyond a basic level of numeracy and literacy pretty much everything can be looked up in seconds. Kids know this so it makes the whole thing seem pointless to them. The whole set up of school (30 in a class with one teacher) is not conducive to deep real learning and the way it’s all based on assessment means teachers have to drill (and kill) the learning. It is very theoretical in nature and always has been which is boring and dry. There is no real-world learning going on. It’s just all very contrived and unnatural.

The whole system is also too one-size-fits-all and singularly focused on academics. Life is about so much more than that. As you know most people aren’t academic (some are sure but a small percentage) but school forces everyone to be. It’s really unfair and leaves the non-academic students disenfranchised and knocks their self esteem.

Kids need a more modern method of education; more experiential learning, more projects that matter to them, more technology based education, more community and business opportunities. Not only the academic diet that school provides.

I’m honestly amazed that you’re a teacher and you can’t see any of this. Most teachers I know, know that it’s outdated and wish it all could be overhauled. You seem very wedded to it all.

I didn't say looking things up is bad. I said that deciding that children don't need to learn anything because they can always look things up is bad.

And I don't think you can actually just 'look stuff up in seconds' to make up for not e.g. studying Romeo and Juliet and having a good understanding of the text.

Baffling that you think kids can.

The history exam for GCSE and A-level is a lot more than memorising facts.

I'm teaching a child at the moment who thinks looking things up is a substitute for attending my lessons. It's not going well for them...

And yet many children with sen aren't being taught a broad and balance curriculum. They are stuck in mainstream and coming out of education not literate or numerate.every child is entitled to an education but not every child is getting an education.

I have to disagree through that children are incapable of being productive. Children are more capable than given credit for (even children with SEN can achieve much more given the right support)

Good economies of scale though with 30 or so in a class. And the expense of equipping e.g. science, art etc can be offset against not needing much special equipment for humanities, maths etc.

I mean I like having a smart board but I can do a perfectly decent job with my voice, a pen, a whiteboard, some mini whiteboards and some photocopies. Most of what I actually need is in my head.

“The idea that children will explore and self-direct their learning in a way that is actually productive is pretty funny though. Kids are kids.” and “pander to kids interests.”

What a sad and low opinion you have of kids! I can’t believe you’re a teacher and saying that. Or perhaps it is because you are a teacher you are saying that. As a home educator I can absolutely assure you children WILL direct their own learning left to their own devices. My three children all do exactly that. I don’t teach them. I facilitate their learning but their learning comes from their own intrinsic motivation as they are not under any obligation to learn what others deem to be of importance. And shock horror they can add up, read, write, deal with money, understand interest rates, have an amazing general knowledge, and have passions and interests that they learn through. All willingly. And all their friends are the same. They all have varied interests ranging from coding to reading to cooking/baking to learning guitar/drums/keyboards, to equine hobbies to learning languages, to environmental science to skateboarding to the American Civil War to astronomy and on and on.

And as for “we know better than kids” again sad. That is such a Victorian view of children and one which causes a lot of the issues you have in school today. Yes they need some guidance and some information to make good choices but I know from experience that given some freedom and trust most kids make good choices and are smarter than you seem to think they are.

Ah yes, those swathes of children who successfully directed their own learning during lockdown when schools were closed

I can absolutely assure you children WILL direct their own learning left to their own devices. My three children all do exactly that

All you've assured me of there is that your children have done some learning. Not that all children will, and we know they didn't.

You've also just told me that your kids and their friends have hobbies. So do kids who go to school.

I think it's kind of sad you have such a low opinion of schools and teachers @picturethispatsy

I've got a ND child and she learnt almost nothing academic during the first lockdown despite DH and I both being teachers, our home being rich in books and materials etc. She got really depressed too. She's learnt loads at school and made lots of friends too.

As a teacher, I love watching other teachers in action. My choir director is so fantastic. He manages to get great results out of amateurs (children and adults) of varying ability and never loses his cool or talks down to them.

Lockdown when school teachers were meant to provide work during this period is hardly self directed learning. School work provided during this time was pretty useless from a learning perspective and also pretty time wasting.

The work that I produced during this time and the live lessons that I taught online were emphatically not a waste of time. I'm sorry if your dcs were not well served during lockdown.

But we're supposed to believe that a kid put in the same bedroom with the same access to FIFA who didn't even bother logging in to see what the schoolwork was will instead, when left to their own devices, launch into a wonderful voyage of discovery which will educate them in a useful and coherent way, using both academic and accurate resources.

I was teaching at an independent school during lockdown and by the second go round I was teaching the A-level syllabus as normal, just remotely, with rather better attendance than usual (as the students had nothing much else to do and no commute) and learnt some new methods, some of which I still use.

Experiences vary but you absolutely can teach effectively remotely IF the equipment works, you have parental buy in and the students are of secondary age. Probably not practical subjects so easily, admittedly.

There are some successful online schools these days and of course the Open University etc has existed for a long time.

I disagree. I pay £5 for an hour of after school club with no teaching or £7 for an hour of sport with a coach. I pay £12-15 for 30 mins with a music teacher. £11 for 30 mins swimming. Nursery was £50+ a day when my dc were in there. I don’t think £6 per child per hour is enough at secondary. I don’t want them copying off a blackboard 35 to a class because it’s cheap, I want them being taught with the latest technology and resources, with qualified and experienced teachers, TAs and technicians as required.

During Lockdown we had a small community and properly socially distanced event where we were close enough to speak to eachother.
There were 4 DC the same age as my DD and all 4 were in Y8 at Secondary and all 4 Mums ended up discussing what provision was being provided by school. There were stark differences
DD - full online timetable taught via TEAMS by her usual teachers on a school laptop
DC1 - work set by teachers once a week and a once a week check in by a subject teacher that was "compulsory"
DC2 - Online work set weekly with a vague "let us know if you need anything"
DC3 - Direction towards work they should be doing and very little support.

DS who was Y6 at primary at this point also had nothing sent home but we could request it if we needed to. I was WFH PT so had both time and resources to help him.
Provision varied so much and The parents were key to it

The parents of the kids whose schools set nothing or very little should have been delighted as it freed up their kids to teach themselves a full and varied curriculum.

Better a good teacher than the latest technology in my opinion.

This is such a lovely post. As the mum and auntie of children with SEn needs I really appreciates this. Like many of us who were at school in the 80s and 90s i recall the difficulties, violence and disruption of having SEn children whose needs weren’t recognised or met. Including teacher on child violence.

however I do worry about the tsunami of cost, process and structural change needed to support the situation we have now.
10 children in my daughters yr1 class of 30 have recognised or diagnosed SEn.

I’ve just been through the secondary school allocations in my county and 5-10% of spaces are going to SEN priority, seriously disrupting the system in all sorts of ways.

the system isn’t funded to support this- but can it be? I don’t know the answers, and it just seems overwhelming

Time wasting? What else were students going to do when they could only leave the house once a day for exercise? During the second lockdown I taught online all day.