If you could change one thing at your child's school (money no object) what would it be? Teachers views welcomed too.

[bummer]

Imagine you have a fairy wand that actually works if it helps!

one you say? this is one big one.

maths english science on monday tuesday and wednesday - a day for each. then maths english and science on thursday and history geography on friday. and history wouldn't do kings and queens - thats for junior school - in senior school it will do modern history, the world wars, the political back ground, vietnam, falklands etc.

religous instruction for religous schools would take place at sunday school not in school itself and would be compulsory for those actually attending a religous school.

there would be after school clubs for the other nondescript arty farty shit - like drama, art, PE, tech ( woodwork, metal work, tech drawing yawn)cooking and languages.

maths and english GCSE would then be taken in year 9. and would then only be taught mnday and tuesday allowing capable students to study A-level and non capable students to get a GCSE grade c or aboce before they leave.

this gives us another day. this day can now entertain two arty farty subjects which the children have been learning in the after school club and they can then learn them to GCSE standard. alternatively those students wishing to opt out can do so and will then be on work placement 3 days a week ( mon & tue eng and maths remember) thsi work placement would pay the student £50 pw in credits. credits deducted for shoddy work lateness or down right fuckwittedness. the work placement will then have a practical test ( none of this one day at college NVQ pile of old crap) you can either do the fecking job - or you cant.

subjects like PSE would be binned becuase its a pile of old shite.

each child would get a nutritional meal at school with no shit being sold out of vending machines or in the canteen. no food would be sold at break time allowing children to spend their fecking dinner money at 11 am and remain hungry for the rest of the fecking day. In fact no money will be allowed ( as in some schools already) there will be a top up system - only instead of a card each student will have their student badge and a pin number.

the army wouldnt be allowed into school to tell young boys how they go quad biking and mountain climbing and forget to mention they get fecking shot at and could die.

no videos. no fecking videos. no i'll take it easy and show a fecking cartoon or film today to illustrate my point in class and kids go home and tell their parents they have watched videos all feckng day.

there would be no need for inset days on this system becuase MTW teachers can train on Friday.

the after school teachers will be properly qualified and can train during the day. they can make their hours up by helping in the english science or maths class. thereby reducing class sizes.

there would be no special status schools ( ours is special status in drama - make me vomit)

and crucially marking would be fecking
a
b
c
FAIL
not that 4a, 3c shit that goes on that you have to have a key to look it up.

IF YOU FAIL the student remains behind a year and continues to do so until he or she catches up and for these students they will not be able to leave or work until they have english and maths GCSE until the age of 18.

this last point would instil an educational ethic. nothing like wanting to stay with your peers - or being called thick as shit for studying harder.

forgot to add the work placement credits can then be exchanged for tavel and food via a card system

and

chilodren who are pregnant - remain at school and there will be special classes - to enable them to get qualifications and social advice.

Shade in the playground - like sails.

I don't live in the UK BUT my dd has been to both an Italian and UK and school and I have taught in both the UK and Italian systems.

Before I start I like to say I understand the reasoning behind the rule but I don't think it works.

The rules that stops children from being cudled and kissed by their teachers. Where we live now the children are always being kissed and cuddled by teachers and parents and friends. The statistics on child abuse is lower here than in the UK and the rate of teenage pregnancies is much much lower. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a link between lack of affection as a child and teenage pregnancy. Further the children I see are much more confident individuals who KNOW they are loved and cared for and are not afraid of their own envionments.

There are many other things I'd change but that would be the one for me. It's deeply upsetting to me when I have had a child who is sad or who has done something really great and I can't just give them a big cuddle and kiss to reward them or make them feel better. Which is the quickest way to solve both the bad and the good.

if we are talking about all schools and not just ours, then getting rid of SATS
I like Yorkie girl's suggestions too.

anyone else?

Didn't expect such a good response and so glad to see it's not just me who wants these things.

like others, reduce class sizes, that's it! Easily most important IMHO!

More classroom assistants to allow teachers to do more exciting lessons and more trips (IME children learn better through experience than by being told things).
I agree about cutting the crap with reports. I am sure that parents would prefer shorter ones with a personal comment rather than the pages of complete bollocks that we art expected to produce.
Abolish KS1 SATs and league tables.
Abolish Ofsted inspections and use local advisors to assess a school's progress and support them rather than slating schools and destroying confidence. Reward and share good practice and support weaknesses through local networks.
More freedom to teach rather than weighing teachers down with paperwork.

you make a lot of sense custy

I would give ds1's school a new building so it was easier to move wheelchairs round, and a hall big enough for the whole school to meet in. I would keep the sensory room (white and dark) and the sand and splash and hydro pool and soft play (all paid for by the PTA anyway), but make the dark room a bit bigger. Staff ratio is pretty good (1 to 2 or 1 to 3 most of the time I think), but I suspect they could do with a few more hands. I would give them an OT. Communication is excellent anyway. Reports are brilliant- very useful.

One thing wasn't it? New building then- designed from scratch.

Or if 1 smaller thing then a sensory garden, they want to renew the memorial garden, so would perhaps be nice to combine the 2 in some way (I would think it could be done appropriately).

marypop- I like that-the teachers cuddle the kids in ds1's school (the young ones at least) and I've always thought that to be lovely.

I think being cuddled by the adults who look after them, is a basic human need for a young child and god knows what damage we are doing our children by forbidding it.

I would change the headteacher as DD's primary school. The previous head was brilliant - lots of innovation, all the poor quality teachers left within a year of him starting, greater commitment to the community, more parent and PTA involvement, fund raising for specific projects, and he managed to find money from all sorts of sources for the school. The curent head (who was his deputy) is letting many things slide. For example, the PTA has more money than they know what to do with - wtf! The head failed to attend the main PTA event of the year (fireworks). School clubs fade away. etc. However she is still much better than the head before last.

If I can't have a new head, then I would like playing fields attached to the school.

Proper funding and provision for behavioural, social and educational special needs. No more dumping them in the mainstream, unsupported, where they run riot and affect not only their own education, but the education of all those who come into contact with them.

Real funding for SEN. These are our most vulnerable children and they are being shortchanged. more SEN trained teachers

A special unit for children with EBT, in every school, so they can be gradualy re intoduced to a full time table. This unit would be staffed by full time, trained teachers and have a councellor/psyciatric support worker.

Reducation in all class sizes to a maximum of 20 per class

All teacher to teach their specialsm....so not more French techers having to teach german etc, unless they are properly qualified

All chilren to have a text book in every subject (trust me I'm working in a school where this doesn't happen)

Breakfast clubs, so that children eat proper food before school, not sweets.

Here comes the one that will never happen. A drastic reduction in what we have to teach them, to give us time to teach them how to learn and think for themselves.

The ability for teacher to write real, meaningful, reports, not educobblers.

ds is in Yr1. I would like him to have his proper teacher 5 days a week but she has one day to do planning or whatever and he has to have a stand in teacher.
Every week.

But the planning is for your son's lessons, may involve liason with other teachers, she may need to put up all those loveley displays etc etc. As it is most teachers work way beyond 9 to 5. Some time was ring fenced to help teachers with their already large work load.

Lessons don't just happen, they take a lot of planning.

id get rid of all the teachers and get new ones in that are actually bothered about giving children an education.

I knew teachers wouldn't like that comment.

But I don't particularly like knowing that he only gets his teacher 4 days out of 5. She leaves work but it's often not carried out to her instructions and the children end up confused.
And it's rarely the same supply teacher. It takes ds a while to trust a new teacher and he has wet his pants on the days when she is not there.
I know planning is important (obviously) but then so is consistency.

wow, thanks heaps buffy. That will be why I gave up my time this afternoon to plan next weeks lessons then, because I can't give a shit about kids education.

Makes me feel really great at the end of a long hard week to know that I don't really care about the kids I teach. Thanks.

I didn't say you didn't care! My best friend was a teacher and I know she needed all the time she could find to plan properly.
I just wish there was a better way.

cupcakes, the problem for junior school taecher in particular is that they don't get any 'free' time as we do in secondary. I've seen classes doubled up for science and RE so that teacher can get some time to plan and mark.

I would say that I spend about 15-20 minutes planning for every 70 minute lesson that I teach. I have to plan the lesson, prepare appropriate materials, differentiate for different learning needs (for example I translate key words into arabic for one child) take into account prefered learning styles, VAKI, equal ops, citezenship....this wek I had to encorporate foregn languages into my science lessons, as the school was doing a special week.

Next week I hacve to encorporate disability awareness.

And I get 'free' lessons. Most Primary teachers get none.

Until I went into teaching I never realised how much planning goes into a lesson, I though tit just happened LOL