What would make your school better?

[whendidyoulast]

I am a teacher but this is purely for interest. Your suggestions have to be realistic simple things that don't involve millions of pounds or hours e.g. do you think more frequent contact about progress via email or meetings about how you can support your child in specific subjects would be useful? Parents online chat?

Oh and more teachers, I help out at the school and am amazed the teachers cope at all when you see the huge variation in ability in just one class. He anyone can teach at a level for all of them is beyond me.

Also, more funding for days out, and more art and 'soft' skills being taught. Cookery, budgeting, etc.

I have DS in year 5 and DD in reception at different schools.

DS's school could do with a homework timetable so I know what days to empty his bag out looking for homework.

Better communication between staff, DS has a medical problem which affects his eating, so if an adult tells him he can't go out to play til he's eaten his fruit or whatever he will force it down and then vomit, the school know not to force him to eat and not to empty his lunch box as I need to see how much he's left, but every time a new member of staff starts/they move the lunchtime staff round, the school forgets to tell them this.

DD's school are brilliant and already do most of the things people have listed, Parent online chat would be nice though and less communication from the PTA, I'm quite happy to send money in for whatever fundraising activity and maybe even make the odd cake but unless there's something I need to do, I don't want the minutes from every meeting and various bits of crap information they send out.

Good/Outstanding secondary which I am generally very happy with:

• more willingness to let exercise books come home to aid homework and also so interested parents can see what is going on
• more info on website regarding what kind of help is permitted in preparing for controlled assessments, and timing of these

secondary. more frequent feedback to parents. we only get 1 parents evening a year. a report that says what can be done to help reach targets. we only get a comuter sheet of data. more early intervention. trips for everyone not just the wealthy. i know china is great but only in you can afford it . what happened to chesil beach! a real push to get everyone involved in school activities not just team players and music stars. at least 1 school play for a whole year group 1 year.
really push for good behaviour so low grade disruption isn't the norm

Primary. ban teachers from suggesting tutoring. they should be indentifying issues themselves and putting in intervention that works. Get behaviour under control early so it carrys on to secondary. my son says which primaries the badly behaved kids came from.

A requirement for teachers to run an extra-curricular activity (could be lunchtimes) and at the very least accept involvement in school productions.

For the last two years at dd's primary school there have been no Christmas plays etc of any kind because an insufficient number of staff are willing to put in extra time. This is one area where I think such an attitude should go on their record and be reflected in pay levels.

Agree with senua above. As a FT working parent with children in breakfast and after school, anything that includes us more - we miss all the school gate chat and getting to speak to a teacher can be impossible. Website coms is vital as is a way to find out what is going on ...

lainiekazan that's a real shame, both my DDs love plays etc. However, as long as Gove&ofsted keep introducing initiatives, fiddling with the curriculum and moving the goal posts, teachers snowed under with progress reports and multicoloured marking aren't going to have much spare energy.

Our secondary are great at Email, all teachers have addresses and IME bother to answer concerns really promptly.

having a bomb dropped on it (over the weekend of course)

No major complaints about DS's primary (apart from large classes and not enough teachers but I don't see that being solved anytime soon).

More online communication would be good. Our school has a website but the most recent newsletter displayed is from October and absolutely no info on training days etc.

A dedicated page for each class would be even better. Twice this month I've had to rely on my 5 year old to tell me (at the last minute) that he has to bring a specific item in to school. Not neccessarily the teacher's fault if there's no proper way for them to give the info to the parents.

musical instrument lessons offered to everyone as standard, rather than just those special children recommended from their local primary schools.
Some kind of communication between parents and subject teachers.
all children feeling valued.
school trips that are not to America.

Training in setting up and running a school web site, would be invaluable to many primaries.

If the IT savy parent or teacher leaves, they very quickly become useless.

That teachers would stop telling children to only do 30 mins of homework per subject....in my day you spent whatever it took until the homework was completed to the best of your ability.
Also please stop telling children "you don't need to know that" or "you dont need to read that bit"err yes they do they need to know everything.
Also it would make much more sense to have daily maths homework covering all previous topics instead of homework related to what they have done that day.
The same goes for English, homework should be daily. All other homework should be done as topics so they learn independent study.
Lessons should include mini plays for History, the children should write the play and act them out.
Science should be taken more seriously with lots more experiments starting in year 1....science is fun. We were once a great nation thanks to our great inventions, we need to get that back.
I dont know what has happened to our education system but I seem to be the only one teaching my children.

More staff, and more thought to go into behavior policies to stop the use of working through break times/lunchtimes/lessons which a DC may excel in due to lack of support to differentiate the lesson to begin with.

As far as I am concerned this is detrimental to a growing child's physical/social/emotional development. e.g. Dc unable to process information and unable to sit still due to a hidden disability. Has spent the past 3 years doing all of the above and now has to go to physio due to joint pain purely because inevitable growth spurts and the muscles not stretching along with it from being in a sitting position with very little exercise all day.

sobbingmummy I agree with you about science, DD (reception) does lots of science at school and she loves it, they are doing beans in a jam jar at the moment (one kept in the dark, one grown normally) where as DS's school do hardly any science at all. What age are you suggesting that much homework for though? I think it sounds like far too much for most children.

No ideas how, but a way of including working parents.

"A requirement for teachers to run an extra-curricular activity (could be lunchtimes) and at the very least accept involvement in school productions......This is one area where I think such an attitude should go on their record and be reflected in pay levels."

lainiekazan what other professions would you expect people to not have a lunch break? What other professions do you expect that they work over and above what they are already doing (and not just standing in the classroom but also the amount of time spent outside of the actual teaching time to plan, assess, write reports, do the million and other things that teachers have to do) as well as having their own families to look after?

I am a teacher who does give time after school on a regular basis to work with students in order that they can gain those extra marks which can the make the difference between grades - but I am also a human that needs a break, needs time away from the students and most importantly a mum and DW whose family need me....

Wow sobbing mummy I have had two kids go through indie preps and they didn't have that much homework

One is now predicted 10 a's at gcse so clearly lack of homework wasn't an issue

I have a year 3 at state primary, she has spellings and times tables once a week plus one piece of homework to be done weekly. Plenty imo.

Cricket balls I do think one after school activity once a week from teachers would be great. I know it seems a bit of a cheek, but now there's very little sport or cookery in schools it's a real problem

I used to run two after school clubs a week. Now I have one SLT meeting, one staff meeting and one team planning meeting a week, each that starts straight after school and finishes at 5.30pm if I'm lucky. I then return to and tidy my classroom, collect my marking and planning and take it home to do at least three more hours when I get home. The other two evenings are ear-marked for classroom prep, filing, displays, etc. (all the stuff I can't do at home).

I'm afraid I gave up clubs not just due to time pressure, but because of the rude and entitled attitude of some (unfortunately in our school's case many) parents! In the third year of not one parent or child saying thank you I thought "that's it, why should I?" Club finishes at 4.30pm, a regular group of parents were always late collecting (gone 5pm), I then have the school hall to tidy and put all the equipment away and then head back to my classroom to actually start my evening's work. Children were signed up who didn't want to attend gymnastics as it was free childcare, so I had to work twice as hard on behaviour management. Parents complained about what day it was as it was the same night as an out of school activity, and as they all did different activities suggested to the head I should run two or three evenings of gymnastics then they could attend either all of them or the ones that fitted in with their life. I am not paid to run a club; the admin workload means anything I don't do in the two hours I am running the club still needs doing that night and parents just moan because they want more.

As far as lunch time clubs. We can't use the hall as it is where we eat lunch, the field and playground are too small for a club and the rest of the school. I spend some of lunchtime clearing up from the morning sessions, finding lost lunchboxes, doing first aid, supervising some children, setting up for the afternoon sessions, phone parents, the speech therapist, educational psychologist, etc. I'm not sure how I can do all that, and run a club?

And to say my pay should be docked or I should have something formal put on my record for not having the time to add extra to a 60+ hour working week in the run up to Christmas, is actually insulting! I earn my salary because of the quality of teaching and learning, how much progress children make in my class!

craggy, I have 4 children in Independent schools (all at different schools)
I am teaching my children more than the school (younger ones)because as soon as a topic in maths is covered they don't do it again until the end of term/year exams.Also the other subjects seem to be rushed its like teachers are ticking boxes instead of instilling a love of learning.

I dont think a bond book style homework covering all areas of maths a night is a lot, neither is English thats only two homeworks per night.
The topics can be done over a term or school holiday.

My DD has just got her mock GCSE results back she got A in every subject because SHE worked all her Christmas holiday. She went from a C in one subject up to an A because she taught herself what had not been covered in school.

I find its the younger children that need most work once the basics are drilled in the rest should be easy.

TheGruffalo2 has said it perfectly.

Dare I say I wouldn't be paying for that level of education sobbing mummy

Yes I can see how it must be really hard.
Parents often do clubs at our school. Dd is doing a sewing club at the moment run by a lovely mum. I, and Dd, ALWAYS say thank you

Better communication between school and parents with a good school website. No homework except reading. Frequent group music lessons and individual instrumental tuition for all who want it. Better training for class teachers and TA's in recognising and teaching children with special needs.