What in your opinion is wrong with our education system..?

[HotBothered]

And what would you like to see done to correct it?

Too exam focused, too focused on league tables, too much direction and babying - very little space to allow kids to fail/self direct/use initiative.

But choice needs to be consistent. Within a five mile radius of my house are two primary schools and one secondary. Which doesn't give anyone much choice here. I'm thinking of lots of very small schools which is obviously more practical in less populated areas...

A lot of these suggestions already happen at our private school, and work. However, it’s not right that being able to access this is dependent on being able to afford it. Things that work are

• smaller class sizes. Teachers can see who needs help and tailor lessons
• discipline. Bad behaviour is not tolerated. I appreciate that independent schools can get rid of disruptive pupils more easily than the state system.
• streaming for most subjects. Tailored lessons work. Bottom sets can still get very good grades with different teaching methods.
• a big selection of academic and non academic subjects. It means children can find what they love.
• academic lessons in the morning. After lunch is sport/art/drama etc.
• compulsory cadet force for certain ages. I think all pupils should do cadets for at least a year. It teaches discipline. The vast majority do DofE. It’s expected rather than truly optional. Again, it teaches so many skills.
• a huge choice of extra curricular activities.

I think there are 2 main things wrong with the current state system. Firstly, the obsession with academic results. We need some children to have vocational
skills. I can’t see the point of forcing non academic children to do lots of academic subjects beyond a certain age. They’d be better focussing on vocational skills. They’d be more engaged which would likely improve behaviour, which is the second issue I think.

Discipline and behaviour is not acceptable in too many schools. Children are running wild and teachers are helpless to a certain extent. Discipline begins at home. Too many parents want to be friends with their children rather than actually parent them. Children need structure and boundaries. Some behaviour issues are caused by neurodiversity etc, but I don’t think that’s the cause in every case. I don’t know how you improve that though.

Get rid of the idea that everything needs to be quantifiable and assessed by comparison and in order to give a table of how things have improved. We teach just to be able to test and we test to be able to compare and no single aspect of this is to benefit the children, society or for any positive or joyful reason whatsoever. It’s purely to be able to say that our children are just as clever as those in, say, Singapore.

Standardisation is the thief of joy and curiosity and working to children’s interests. I live in a coastal community. Imagine the lovely learning environments available here. Imagine how knowing about tides, and sea creatures and rock formations could benefit the kids and help them understand their town. But there’s no time for that as it’s not in the curriculum and joy is not standardised and not quantifiable and so has no value in the Michael-Gove-curriculum.

I look at my two boys. Both been / at university. Both passed the exams they needed to but very little curiosity and understanding of learning for the sake of knowing things. They weren’t always like this but over the years they’ve learned that the only things worth knowing is what they’re going to be tested on. That’s tragic. Just terrible. Makes me so sad.

Prioritising attendance and petty uniform rules over children’s health during an extreme heatwave!

I agree that we have a cultural issue where too many families don’t value education. Too many parents raise their children to believe that going to school is a chore rather than something they should embrace and give their all to.

Petty uniform rules for sure!

A very wise school governor once said
You don't fatten a pig by keep weighing it.

Pity the government don't realise that.

And for every child who doesn't give a shit about the rules there is a child who is paralysed by them - terrified that they step out of line - because they have taken the draconian rules seriously so seriously that it impact their wellbeing. I use to try to encourage dd to get a detention - so she would relax a bit and realise the world didn't end.
She finally got one when she was 2 weeks away from doing her A Levels for bringing in the wrong homework - despite the teacher saying he would give everyone "one" chance - he decided not to on this occasion. He also didn't turn up for the detention - prick!

Heck! ... where to start!?
Too early, too rigid, too test ridden, too classroom oriented, too large, too lacking in arts and music, too academically obsessed, too little vocational emphasis, too lacking in funds, as well as being badly managed by academy trusts that rake in the dosh for career administrators/lawyers at the expense of the pupils.
The results of this mess can be seen drunk and drugged up on street corners, having absorbed the rejection of school and a sense of failure and dislocation from society.
Children who succeed do so in spite of the system.

The funding model of paying schools per pupil is having a devastating effect on primary schools now the birth rate is really falling (and in a few years' time this will hit secondaries). Lots of the costs like heating/maintenance stay the same but the funding is slashed through no fault of the schools.

All of the little, nurturing schools with small class sizes will very soon become financially unsustainable under the current model if they haven't already.

I think you mean Scottish parents pay considerably more tax which in turn funds university education. Which I think is fair enough.

I really, really don’t think America is the poster child for decent secondary education. They languish far behind us and the rest of Europe in international league tables. Even degree-educated Americans (I have spent much of my career at US companies) often don’t seem very bright or capable of much critical thinking, and have shockingly little knowledge of history/politics etc.

Yes yes, yes!

Fgs don’t privatise!

I think it would be good to ask teachers and parents, but not on here, because you’re going to get a lot of people who are politically motivated. In fairness, myself included. Surely there is plenty of data and metadata from research projects around.

It’s plain that many working class kids do less well, partly because of parents’ experience of education.

Many teachers aren’t happy at work.

Too much education is rote, and not relevant.

There is not enough focus on vocational education at the right time, or clarity on when is the right time.

The desperate resource situation means that creative solutions must be difficult to find at school level. Personally I’d spend less on defence, because I don’t see that we can gain by it, and I don’t believe the war hype.

SATs

My ds wasted the whole of year 6 bored, frustrated and angry, going over old stuff, while his teacher & TA focused on the 6 kids in the class who were below par.

The six children needed the support, but what a waste of time for the rest. And what a surefire way to put dcs off learning.

Targets. Final assessments. Expecting every child to fit into the same box. The loss of PE, Art, Music.

Class sizes are the first place to start IMO.

This is true but around 84% of the schoolchildren in the country are in England so it's a reasonable assumption the poster's in England if not stated.

Age related expectations
Pile of poo

Honestly I think poor parenting is the biggest crisis in schools right now.

First post nails it. Exactly this.
In year one they have to take a phonics test where they have to read 40 words some are real and some are made up. So all we focus on in year one is that. It doesn’t mean they understand what they are reading or that they know how to draw meaning from a story, just how to pass this test.
The school is judged on this test so we teach them to pass it.

Then in my school all children do 6 tests every term. They lose a week of learning to do this. The teacher is judged on the results.

In year 4 they have a times tables test which is used to judge the school.

So much time is spent doing pointless shit like writing and underlining the long date because OFSTED want to see it.

We need to teach children, not teach them to pass tests.

As someone else pointed out if you pick up the prospectus for a private school I guarantee it will have a picture of a child playing a cello, a child painting and a child playing sport. Why are these things seen as just for the rich?

I would offer functional skills in schools. I work in a further education college and have students who didn't receive a single qualification at school, due to learning difficulties etc, so nothing to show for 5 years of compulsory secondary education. We offer FS maths and English from entry level to level 2, and they can build on those as they improve and their confidence increases. Level 2 FS qualifications are equivalent to GCSE and in the case of English Language in particular, a much better fit for many students.

Two main problems. Firstly, suitability of the actual education. The curriculum is grossly overloaded for many students, particularly at primary. Essentially, the one size fits all system suits very few. When I was at primary, much of the learning was done at our own pace. Non-academic development is also squeezed out. At secondary, many students cannot access significant amounts of the curriculum. There needs to be a lot more setting (even streaming) as both the less and more able are very underserved. There needs to be way more separate provision for those who are still at KS1 level at secondary rather than letting them flounder in mainstream. Secondly, behaviour and attitudes need to improve significantly. A more suitable curriculum would obviously help this but mostly parents need to step up and start parenting and care about their children’s education. The ridiculous amount of disruption in many lessons is hugely unfair on those who are trying to learn.