LIVERPOOL primary schools

[FreshCop]

Question I overheard being discussed yesterday in a Liverpool cafe (city centre)... are white working-class parents less aspirational and value their children's education less as, say, immigrant parents?

There is an issue with underachievement and low expectations... it is not as simple as society ignoring them.

There's a complicated backstory of low expectations, low self-esteem, peer pressure to underperform in school, the disappearance of traditional jobs, a lack of role models, and so on.

So, would you choose a more diverse primary school on purpose for this reason? Are there expectations about parents' attitudes for a reason? Is anyone familiar with this?

I assume that the parents would be more supportive if they've made every effort to bring their children from across the world here?

Would you send your children to a school in a low-income area of Liverpool for this reason? For example it is the norm for generations of the same family to be unemployed and also menial jobs are seems as totally normal also. Nothing wrong with any work but the fact it's not expected you'd go onto more is pretty bad.

Or travel everyday to put them in a more diverse school outside of the area in the hopes of finding parents with a better attitude to education.

WWYD?

I live in Liverpool and have experienced the exact situation you describe with parents in my area. The local primary schools are lovely, with amazing staff and excellent resources. But a large proportion of the parents are not aspirational with their children and it shows very early on - I've had some eye opening conversations with year 1 and year 2 teachers over the years.

My partner does a bit of supply work, so we are aware of snapshots of school life across the city. The schools around here are quite deprived in general, behaviour is poor, and aspirations are low. It starts in primary and certainly moves into secondary and college.

It's one of the main reasons we are moving out before our primary aged children move into secondary. We are just managing to keep them engaged with learning now, but we worry it won't last when they have year upon year of disinterested classmates.

I live in Liverpool and have experienced the exact situation you describe with parents in my area. The local primary schools are lovely, with amazing staff and excellent resources. But a large proportion of the parents are not aspirational with their children and it shows very early on - I've had some eye opening conversations with year 1 and year 2 teachers over the years.

Thank you for sharing; I am experiencing the same thing. I'd say the teachers and teaching assistants are excellent; I can't fault them, but they're mostly not from the local community and I can tell they're passionate about their work. However, I don't believe the parents care or are involved in any way.

I'm beginning to question whether exposing my children to families with low aspirations or who view unemployment or criminality as the norm will have a negative impact on the kids attitude as they grow up.

Sad, because the school and teachers work so hard and are likely the only source of stability for many of these children.

I worked all over Liverpool for years and in certain areas that mentality was prevelent but not all. But I've also worked in some deprived areas of Birtmingham & Wolves & Manchester and seen exactly the same. There are pockets of it everywhere. Suspect areas of places like Blackpool are the same

I agree that mentality exists but I would say it’s typical of many inner city areas across the country. Not all working class families have that mentality either, for context I grew up in Liverpool, my mum left school with no qualifications, she always pushed us academically and took us to lots of extra curricular activities. Myself and my siblings all have science degrees and have well paid jobs.

That being said, if I moved back to Liverpool, I would be quite selective on which area I lived and send my children to school and would probably focus on the south part of the city around Allerton.