State education system, is it broken?

[minimathsmouse]

I believe the wheels have fallen off the state education system. You might not agree but I have read so many posts here from parents who have had and are still having huge problems with their child's school. Many people seem to have worries about standards of teaching, clashes of ideology and problems with making up the deficit with tutors and home study. Horrendous SEN provission, huge class sizes, lack of provision for able pupils, the list goes on. It is truely depressing to think so many children are not receiving the education they deserve.

How many people believe the whole system has failed? Are falling standards only due to poor teaching or wider problems that are not being addressed within the system?

Only in my head, though. In reality, I couldn't vote directly for him, I had to vote someone into my local constituency, and I only liked Gordon, not the rest of them any more, and a Labour vote wouldn't have made any difference where I lived, anyway. I'd always been rather interested in the idea of seeing what the Lib Dems could do, but they seem to be rather ineffectual at the moment.

I don't trust Vinnie the weasle. He seems rather sharky to me. He is so focused on his mission as business secretary that he can't see the bigger picture.

minimathsmouse - you are right. He recognised it, too. He might have been the right man at the right time if Tony Blair hadn't hung around like a bad smell for quite so long as he did. But then Blair was good at the politics and publicity. Just poor on the principles and policies. And the most grotesque hypocrite I've ever had to suffer under.

Oh, refering to your previous comment, by the way, not the Vinnie one... Not sure about the sharky weasel. I hadn't particularly considered him.

I switched off, day one after the Des O'conor show. Never before had a politician made such a prat of himself. My main bug bear was his hypocracy on education. Sending his children half way across london to one of the best performing state schools and using his wife's catholic faith as the excuse he needed.

Choices, choices. (Well, you have to admit, he had choices and he exercised them, as is his democratic right).

I mention Vinnie because he wants to keep the door open. If we want to reduce poverty and inequality we need to start with education. Educate and train people to take up jobs as when they are created.

I have to admit, when Vince Cable has appeared on my radar, I thought he was at least questioning some of the more radical Tory ideas, rather than sheepishly going along with all of them. But maybe that's all show. I haven't heard from him for a while! He doesn't seem to have a regular slot on Radio 4... or if he does, then he isn't very distinctive.

I agree in choice but one of the failings in the allocation of schools places is the lack of choice for certain sections of society. If choice was a democratic right for all and catchment areas were not an issue, then fine.

I think this is my main problem with Free schools, faith schools, academies and grammer schools. Choice for all or non, I don't mind which! as long as every parent in every area/borough has the same options.

At the moment I can apply for my sons to sit entry exams but the nearest grammar school is in the next county! I could opt to send them to a steiner school, ah, but we don't have a state funded option here. I could send them to the nearest specialist academy but that is over 15 miles away, alternatively I have several under performing comps on my door step. Choices that are not really viable are not choices.

Actually I have a plan but that is irrelevant.

I have a plan, too. We should stage a military coup. I just need to work out how to gain control of the army.

And no, I haven't been drinking - just wait until you see what I'm like when I have (not that I often do, tbh).

I really don't know what is for the best. I know that I like what I've got at the moment and that when there was less choice, there was apparently slightly less inequality, but maybe that's rose tinted specs. However, one of the things I really like about what I've got is that it is in my local community and part of my local community, supported and loved by many of those immediately around it - I really do not want to drive my children across the countryside to avoid my local school. I think I want to be forced to get involved in improving my local school if it isn't very good, rather than dumping everyone else in it. I think being forced into your local school is more likely to make you want to get actively involved and therefore more likely to make things better. Some people will still be able to move house, though, of course - if the market picks up (tee, hee). We will never achieve total equality, I just wish more people were willing to aspire to it, because it's the only way to avoid total inequality.

ps I do not want to improve my local school by taking it over, thank you very much. I'd rather try to support and encourage the Headteacher and staff in their attempts at improvement, with the backing of taxpayers' funding.

Or there's the Brighton policy of running a lottery to force people out of their nice schools just because they are in nice areas. It may increase the will of people to improve schools in areas where the local community around them is not set up to help with their improvement, but it loses the benefit for children of being in their local school and would probably not be acceptable to many voters, thus by its very attempts at equalising, encouraging more people out of the State sector altogether and therefore ultimately not necessarily succeeding in its aims. Maybe we should ban private schools, too, and go back to my military dictatorship to stop the riots.

Sorry, sit ins, as this wouldn't upset the "working classes."

Agreed, shame more people will not aspire to equality for all. Equality though in educational terms should relate to opportunity rather than outcome.

I used to be involved in the dcs school, infact I still am. It just wasn't a good "fit" for DS1 who is advanced in maths and DS2 who is quite a creative livewire.

There is a syphoning off of talent into private via scholarships, grammar via entrance exams and of course some people can move house. Where does this leave your average local school? A good school can quickly become a struggling one when parents make their feelings known and get on the march.

I won't be sending mine into school just yet but (shhh) when I do I will be swallowing my principles and exersising my right to choice. The irony is that I have no choice! if I want the best opportunities for my dcs.

If only Dave believed in equality, the single most radical thing this government could do is to accept that education IS their responsibilty rather than giving more choice to less people.

Huge numbers of Home educators in Brighton.

At least a lottery is fair in a random way (or equally potentially unfair to everyone), permitting less manipulation. I don't think Brighton has a complete lottery - they weren't allowed to be that radical.

And that's the problem. We are not willing to make too many sacrifices with our own children - even politicians would rather get egg on their faces than sacrifice their children to an ideal.

If you manage to pull off your military coo, can I be in charge of the disolution of private schools.

Better still keep them open, stack them to the rafters with children from disadvantaged backgrounds, ten to a desk, 33 to a class and no TA, just see what the super teachers can do then LOL. Many teachers in the private sector wouldn't cope.

Ah, but teachers in the private sector have a different skill set. They are good with clever, well behaved children. Our state school teachers aren't clever enough to cope with that sort - they are better focussing on behaviour management and crowd control. Actually, they're no good at that, either. Or so I'm told.

It is probably more pleasant being a teacher in a school with good resources and no barbed wire and broken glass shards stuck on the walls surrounding the school.

Although I've been into several schools with barbed wire around them and a policy of keeping parents out of the school playground to stop them fighting in there, and once inside they were rather lovely. Quite an achievement, I think.

Crowd control, yes is a huge problem in my experience. Noise and chaos and teachers stretched in all directions, but most are there however bumpy the ride and patchy the results because they believe they can make a difference.

More needs to be done to stop the inequality between schools and between state and private.

In Mini-land head teachers would not have their own budgets, teachers salaries would be set centrally, staff to child ratios would be set and adhered to across the board and class sizes would be manageable. NC would remain in place with a few changes. Children would start school at 3 (play based) and move up according to ability and readiness. Maths and English, languages and music taught by specialists and children would be set according to ability.

I'm off to LaLa land to have happy dreams,

I'm off to dream of a day when more people are willing to pay more tax and accept that the State can and should be capable of being as efficient as the private sector if run properly, rather than threatening to live in the US if anyone dares mention it. Our borders are just so damn leaky and we're all so scared of the nasty little bullies with sharp elbows and the most unbelievably self-centred view of the world. But then that's how we have to behave to be Top Dog in this world, it seems, and if the Top Dogs want to remain Top Dogs, then we should submit like the good little puppies we are and have to be. And we think we live in a democracy - I would call it a partial democracy, run on the belief that inequality is actually what makes us successful, because it encourages us all to fight for a slice of the pie.

Maybe we should call their bluff. Might be fun to see how we do without them.

Although having said all these cynical things, I do love being English and living here and being free to make the comments I do, even though they don't make any actual difference and this country is deeply flawed in so many ways. Maybe that's why I find comments along the lines of "accept our terms or we'll b*gger off altogether" so offensive. Why do we have to bow to such infidelity? Because the market which nearly ruined us all is stronger than the nations which gave it shelter?