What's wrong with our schools? - In summary

[lovelearning]

This list is compiled from the thread What's wrong with our schools?

I would appreciate your input

Opinions, suggestions and corrections, please

Some schools lack funding for the basics e.g. building maintenance and stationary

Schools need more teachers and support staff, smaller class sizes and funding for ongoing teacher training

Children should start formal education later

Abolish league tables

Opt out of GERM

Schools should encourage a love of learning

Schools should focus less on exams and more on real life skills

Schools should offer a range of subjects, including humanities and vocational subjects

Vocational education should be encouraged; schools should work with employers to get young people into apprenticeships

Society needs to place a higher value on academic achievement

Teachers need to teach, rather than spending time on paperwork, targets, analysis, statistics etc

Schools need more funding for children with additional needs

Schools need to listen to the parents of children with additional needs

No child should be forced into home education

The full cost of home education should be borne by the State, including financial provision for parents

Bullying remains a problem in schools

Discipline is a widespread problem, not helped by parents

Effective sanctions need to be made available to schools and teachers

What's wrong with reform?

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-germ-is-infecting-schools-around-the-world/2012/06/29/gJQAVELZAW_blog.html?utm_term=.cbf86cc18c96

"I believe that educating parents is the key Parents need to understand how firm discipline will benefit their child's education and future"

ha! People don't follow diet advice. They break minor laws routinely. >50% don't take their medications as directed. The poor have other worries, the uneducated don't care or understand, the educated people think they know better than the official advice. Scratch that, everyone can claim any of those reasons. People do ^NOT do as they're told.

So what is your magic formula for making people do as they're told, and could you sell it to the NHS, please?

"Where are they based then? What's wrong with reform?" "the Global Education Reform Movement. Dedicated to seeking private ownership of the education system and backed by a number of multinational companies"

Well said Noblegiraffe!
My son would be deemed by some mumsnetters as badly behaved, disrespectful, challenging authority etc. The fact is he has additional needs but is academically very able. He doesn't fit main stream school or special school. There is simply no school for him so he and other kids are stuck in mainstream where they can't cope socially and disrupt the learning of others. Parents like me get blamed by stressed out teachers for our child's poor behaviour but I can't discipline the ASD or ADHD out of him anymore than they can, although they keep because they are not equipped to do anything else.

Are you kidding? The state should pay for home education? When at least some of the home educators on this site alone have poor literacy skills? Really?

http://www.standupforkids.org.nz/g-e-r-m/

Abolish league tables - definitely. Schools should not be run like businesses in competition with each other. They should share good practice and support each other.
Apparently in Finland everyone goes to their local school and there is practically no difference in educational outcomes between the 'best' and 'worst' schools.

The government and therefore senior management in schools are obsessed with using data to analyse what is going on in schools. This data, which is very time-consuming to produce, is useful in spotting general trends in whole cohorts or counties of kids, but is being used as a stick to beat teachers with by trusting it to predict results for individual pupils. It's a blunt instrument at best.

The sheer level of paperwork generated by demands for self-accountability from staff and data about pupils means that teachers do not have sufficient time to plan lessons and mark without risk of burnout. Teachers are leaving in their droves (or becoming cover supervisors instead because it's kind of teaching but without any planning, marking, paperwork or performance management).

Ofsted is a joke. Outstanding means you might not be a great school but you're shit-hot at data collection and box ticking. Lots of teachers don't want to teach at outstanding schools because the pressure is too much and anyway - how can you be expected to improve on outstanding?

All the onus for achieving progress and results is on the teachers. Loads of kids don't care, partly because they know full well that it's the teacher's arse on the line if they fail.

Are you kidding? The state should pay for home education?

The Department for Education is responsible for education, children’s services, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England, and equalities. We work to achieve a highly educated society in which opportunity is equal for all, no matter what their background or family circumstances.

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education

I would have more confidence in schools if there weren't so many posts on the Primary board clearly indicating how poorly some schools are teaching phonics (mainly by not actually teaching phonics). If schools can't even get the basics right it makes you wonder what else is getting messed up.

On the other hand, my DD's schools have been great. Good education (mainly), and very good pastoral support.

Agree with noble, keep politics out of education.
More or less job sorted, can cope with bigger classes ( not ideal) no textbooks etc etc but fed up to the back teeth of politicians whose only experience of education is the fact they went to school once randomly changing stuff on a whim.

Ofsted is a joke.

Parents of special needs children wonder whether higher grades are the result of lower Ofsted expectations

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/20/ofsted-sen-schools-outstanding

Thank you mrz

The state trains teachers and educators. They are qualified and monitored.

You can't expect the state to pay for someone unqualified, who refused monitoring, to stay at home and "educate".

If the state is responsible, the state has to have some measure of control and quality assurance.

I don't normally do this, but according to the related thread in Chat, the OP is the other half of our esteemed ex Education Secretary Mr Gove. At least that has been asserted by TalkinPeace and not denied. I think that is relevant to the discussion.

For what it's worth, I think encouraging kids able enough to do a range of academic GCSEs is one thing. Enforcing less able kids to attempt GCSEs out of their reach is another in my book.
As is making a pass for English Lang and Maths so flipping difficult that kids perfectly able to do day to day Maths and English end up with a fail at GCSE thus limiting what they can go on to do next.

Christ, if that is the case Tween then my opinion of the OP has just fallen through the floor. Ever heard of openness and honesty OP?

If the state is responsible, the state has to have some measure of control and quality assurance.

I was mistaken on the other thread: The Netherlands has yet to ban home schooling

Would there be any support for banning home education in this country?

www.hslda.org/hs/international/Netherlands/201309240.asp

I've seen Talkin accuse other posters of being Sarah Vine before. Not sure whether she has any inside info. However why Sarah Vine would be asking about education when her hubster is now besties with Trump is beyond me.

You missed the bit about it all being down to Gove your bloody husband

If it is Sarah Vine then why doesn't she just consult Gove, self-appointed expert of our education system?
Destructive, arrogant man. Too arrogant to recognise quite how limited and parochial he is. He's made an utter mess of our children's education and must bear a lot of the responsibility for the dishonest, appalling chaos of Brexit.
I don't know how someone like him can look at himself in the mirror.

Please don't ban homeschooling. I've had to resort to it, because my son's life was being destroyed by bullies. It is much harder for schools to tackle this effectively, as the Tories have cut so many Pupil Referral Units. Once again, thank you Mr Gove.

Take education out of the hands of fucking politicians. Please.

noblegiraffe gets it right as usual.

I taught for many years in many schools, good ones and bad ones, in good areas and rough ones. Generally, children with supportive parents, a good home life and god role models did well regardless of how good the school was. Similarly, children from dysfunctional homes did badly. Schools can only do so much. The major influence on the child's success is their home life. All this angst over ofsteds and league tables is pretty pointless and is a smokescreen for the real issue in our society.

Please don't ban homeschooling. I've had to resort to it, because my son's life was being destroyed by bullies.

SallyMcgally, it's appalling that your son has been forced into home education

Generally, children with supportive parents, a good home life and god role models did well regardless of how good the school was. Similarly, children from dysfunctional homes did badly.

Children from poor families underachieve, too: I have relatives who are prime examples

The children have done as well as expected

In my opinion, parenting classes could be part of the solution

All parents, regardless of circumstances, want what's best for their children

Parenting classes could also educate parents about bullying

I think encouraging kids able enough to do a range of academic GCSEs is one thing. Enforcing less able kids to attempt GCSEs out of their reach is another in my book.

TeenAndTween, I agree

Vocational, as well as academic, subjects should be encouraged

Let every child excel

Thank you to everyone who contributed

I've learned a lot

Some schools lack funding for the basics e.g. building maintenance and stationery

PhilODox, proofreader

Thanks, Phil

More support and parenting skills should be given to parents who are themselves undereducated. A lot of their children come into their nursery and infant school years already struggling with how to learn as their parents haven't understood the importance of teaching them new skills as toddlers.

There are parents who don't value education as they didn't gain enough from their own education to make it a priority. Babies using ipads and watching screens too much are a problem, they're spending that time learning how to use their bodies and improve their life-skills.

Toddlers who haven't learned that they can't have what they want if they tantrum, this leads onto older children who will resist authority and fail to follow instructions, despite being perfectly able to complete a task, they'll not agree to engage with it. In time they fall so far behind that catching up is too big a challenge and their school years become a struggle for all.

I work in schools and I don't think the schools are always the problem, many of the pupils are disadvantaged educationally before they set foot in school. Unfortunately you can fairly accurately predict the future for many children from the age of 3-4. The damage is done.