I came and found this website because it was mentioned in the Tonight program as the source for its poll results. I have no issue with that,at all, I think they are correct. I too want my children to do well, of course I do, but I also want them to be happy and grow up and enjoy life.
I do feel the program did not address the issue fully and focused on the wrong sort of parents. They were all middle class or higher with big houses cars, stay at mums who had nothing better to do each day with a high proportion of those being immigrant and asian, even though the program clearly stated that putting children through extra tuition was a very common practice in the far east and asia. And that has what do with UK education? The program failed to mention the reason its an issue here is because most of the families doing this are in fact from those regions and are immigrants or immigrant descendent. Ok I have no problem with that either, only with the implication and not the statement the program made. If they are going to cover a complex subject as education and top up tuition they need to do it properly and all aspects of life in the UK and not just cherry pick the families who actually do not represent normal families here. I mean does that mean poor people dont care about their childrens education as much as rich ones do?!
As I am not a researcher or program maker I can only comment on local area and local experiences.
My children until recently went to a very good primary school, the best in the area. We moved and so they changed schools. The difference is astonishing, but well, we knew it would be. In their old school academic genius's were held in high regard, they ignored special needs children or turned a blind eye to any issue that needed help. There was an attitude of oh we dont deal with that until next year. That followed a child through four academic years before the parents screamed loud enough and wrote to the education department when the boy was 9, suddenly the teacher became very interested at getting him tested for dyslexia and dyscalculia.
The school became one of the first academies in the area, suddenly everything is focused on big tv touch screens for reception classes and a sports stand.
My children loved their old school very much and were very happy there, my eldest is above average in the new school in everything whereas at the old one, was below. Clearly there is a disparity here. The government improvements mentioned in the program are not across the board and some schools are being left behind if they dont want to be academies. This is especially true of our new school, a small village primary affiliated to a church who doenst want to be an academy. Therefore funding has been cut and more is coming from PTAs instead.
The real issue though that the program failed to address is why so many middle class families are topping up tuition. Previously those families would have had their children in private education. Now they are saving money by putting their kids into good state schools (like our old one) and paying for tuition. Whilst I wouldnt normally have a problem with this I do know that our old school cherry picked the children it wanted and the ones they didnt ended up a different school.
We could have kept our children at this school after we moved, but personally I dont like the academy status the government is forcing out with sweeties attached, and secondly my children were being pushed, and pushed too hard to be able to read and write at 4 when clearly they werent ready for it. Unlike those oh so wonderful domestic goddesses on the program, I dont have infinate patience and when faced with 3 lots of homework to help with, plugging away night after night on the same thing when the child is tired and bored just to get the schools ofsted reports top of the tables and make the headteacher look like some sort of God worthy of an MBE doesnt inspire me and makes me question what the school is actually about.