Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

Its good enough for mine if its good enough for yours

269 replies

educationforteachers · 31/12/2013 12:59

If the school is not good enough for the teachers kids, then should it be good enough for our kids?

Should this apply to primary and secondary?

Should this apply to the methods they are using in school?

Since teachers are after all the best people to ask!

OP posts:
teacherwith2kids · 31/12/2013 18:22

Education,

Do you really think it's what lots of parents think?

In RL, I have been asked the question ... um ... once. And that was by a child who I taught, not by a parent. When answered 'because we don't live in the school's catchment area', said child went away quite happy.

Never been asked by a parent, and I have been asked some VERY odd questions in my time so if it really was what they are all thinking, they are keeping it extremely well-huidden!

AntiJamDidi · 31/12/2013 18:25

My dd1 could have come to my school but I chose to send her to our catchment school. Her friends were going there and I wasn't willing to commit myself to working for the next 7 years at my current school without a break, which would have been the reality as the bus fares would be prohibitive if I wasn't driving there every day. While I like my current school I am still considering another maternity leave and also I will need to change schools if I want a promotion.

Dd1 would have a better education and be pushed harder at my school, but she is bright and will do well anywhere. My school is Outstanding, her school is Good, I'm not worried. I do feel like I have to justify my decision to everyone who asks though.

mrz · 31/12/2013 18:33

In RL I have never been asked by a parent why my children didn't attend the school where I taught perhaps because they had the sense to realise that it was 20 miles out of catchment!

I'm teaching a colleague's child next year and can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Original poster
educationforteachers · 31/12/2013 18:55

chibi
what a lame excuse that is

OP posts:
TheOriginalSteamingNit · 31/12/2013 18:59

I went to a primary where my dad taught for a bit, it was awkward and I didn't like it and I'd avoid it if I were a teacher, for my own children.

If a teacher works in the catchment his or her children should be in and then actively sends them out of catchment, though, yes I would think that a bit worrying. I think most teachers probably just try to teach a bit further away and avoid crapping in their own backyard or whatever the expression is.

EvilTwins · 31/12/2013 19:00

Why are "excuses" needed? Why shouldn't teachers have the same choices as everyone else? Should employees of Marks & Spencer not be allowed to shop at H&M if they want?

LizzieVereker · 31/12/2013 19:03

I don't send my child to the school which I teach in because he wouldn't get in - we live too far away. I would send him there like a shot if we lived in the catchment area. I wouldn't dream of bending the rules and asking for a place for him, my school is for the children who live locally to it.

KingRollo · 31/12/2013 19:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
educationforteachers · 31/12/2013 19:53

nice language kingrollo

OP posts:
chibi · 31/12/2013 20:19

i guess i could try to make my child present as belonging to another gender, or become independently wealthy, preferably both. you're right, it is a lame excuse

orrrrr

you could take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut

Grin
PointyChristmasFairyWand · 31/12/2013 21:00

There are only so many jobs to go round in a school at a given time. Why should teachers work way, way harder to ensure that they end up working in the same school as their child? There's nothing exceptional about having teachers and their children in different schools, nor anything sinister.

Have a Biscuit by way of a NYE snack, OP.

KingRollo · 31/12/2013 21:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AsBrightAsAJewel · 31/12/2013 21:20

What would be interesting is the % of children with parents who are teachers. Why teacher parents have chosen that particular school rather than another?

tinselkitty · 31/12/2013 21:30

My DD won't be going to the school I teach at.

I drive 20mins to work and start at 7.30. There is no way I can bring my DD with me.

My DM will take her to the school in our village.

Even if it was easy to get her my school I wouldn't, I want her to have friends that are local to us and that she will be able to walk to to go and see/meet at the park etc.

It's not as simple as 'if it's good enough for us...'

Most teachers I know don't teach in the village they live in. Seeing your pupils whenever you walk out the door...not fun!

Cathycat · 31/12/2013 21:32

Because it is out of their catchment area.
Because I work too far away.
Because I might change jobs.
Because before and after pupil time (ie before 9 and after 3:30) I need to work and concentrate and not be entertaining my own kids.
Because I want to keep work and home life separate.
Because the hours that I am at work in school are too long for my children (7:45 - 5:30).
Hope that answers!

mrz · 31/12/2013 21:41

I chose the school my children attended because it is the only one in the village where we live AsBrightAsAJewel before that they attended a nursery school in the nearest town on a sink estate because they had places

LizzieVereker · 31/12/2013 22:19

What's your view, OP? If you are, or if you were to become a teacher, would you want to send your own children to the school you work in? Or are there reasons why you couldn't or wouldn't?

Conversely, do you think you would like to work at your DCs school (assuming that you have DCs).

clam · 01/01/2014 02:54

if it is applicable then it will be what a lot of parents think

No, it would more likely give rise to the question, "how come all the places at this fab school are taken up with staff children? It's not fay-errr."

TeWiSavesTheDay · 01/01/2014 09:08

I really don't think it's what a lot of parents think. It's not come up in the playground so far.

I certainly don't care and I'm not a teacher.

mamapants · 01/01/2014 09:39

Numerous reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the teaching have been given.
My immediate assumption is that most children wouldn't want to go to school where their parents taught. Pupils like to get to moan about their teachers and interact with different adults. If I was a teacher I wouldn't want to teach my child.

whendidyoulast · 01/01/2014 09:40

I think it's an interesting point. I work at an independent school where a significant number of pupils are the children of parents who teach in the state sector. I'd be surprised if this goes down well with pupils, parents and colleagues at the school where they work actually and I wonder how they explain it especially those who are in senior management positions. I'm also interested in those teachers who work at the school and choose not to send their own children there esp given the very significant staff discount available to them.

Mary1972 · 01/01/2014 09:42

We knew one father whose daughter started at the private school he taught in (there was a very small discount only at that very academic school) and his daughter really struggled - she just was not bright enough - and left. Our son went to the prep school his father taught in and we only paid 15% of the fees (so in that case huge wonderful fee concession and we knew one couple of teachers where the father was at that prep school and their 3 sons all went there only paying 15% and then at 13 they went to one of the top boarding schools just about free where their mother worked with free housing too from the school. The benefits in kind must have been worth North of £100k including 3 sets of boarding fees plus free housing for a family of 5. Nice work if you can get it.

AntiJamDidi · 01/01/2014 09:47

I know a few teachers who send their dcs to an independent school even though they teach in the state sector. The reason is because they don't live in the catchment for their own school so their dcs can't get a place. Some of them live in catchment for quite poor schools and it's cheaper to pay school fees for primary than it is to move house into catchment for the better state primary schools.

I also know a teacher at an independent school who sends her dcs to state schools, even though there is s significant discount to send them to her school. The reason for that is because she still can't afford the school fees, even though they are reduced. She's the main earner in their family and has family childcare available to drop off/pick up from the state primary. There's nothing funny about it, but she shouldn't have to explain their finances to anybody.

pippitysqueakity · 01/01/2014 09:49

I taught at the school my Dcs go to as a supply for a while. It embarrassed my elder as everyone kept pointing it out to her. My younger loved it. There was no full time job available there and I then supplied elsewhere, at several different schools, such is the nature of supply. I really shouldn't have to move my DCs each time should I?

LaVolcan · 01/01/2014 11:11

I do understand teachers who want to send their children to a different school than the one they teach at, so that they don't cramp each other's style.

The example though that I gave was of a teacher who did have a choice of a couple of good comprehensives, neither of which needed a house move, besides the one she was teaching at, and yes, I was annoyed.