Help! Please tell me about state primaries where you are, are they so different to here?

[SSSandy2]

I have been very disatisfied with the primary schools/curriculum where I live(overseas) for the past two years but I wonder if I have unrealistic expectations and whether schools elsewhere are really so different that it is worth moving so dd can attend school elsewhere. I need to get it in perspective.

(I think private schools just have other facilties/options/freedoms with the curriculum etc and that's why I'm not asking for comparisons with those)

1. Do your dc hate school/hate their teacher? Is this just pretty normal do you think?
2. Are your teachers often nasty to the dc? (Sarcastic/ screaming at them / belittling them in front of the class). Does this happen regularly, say every week/2weeks?
3. Are the dc learning what they are being taught at school or are the dp having to do a great deal at home to supplement the school teaching of core subjects?

SSSandy: Try not to think about secondary just yet. It will do your head in. With luck you will no longer be in the land of Steaming at year 5...

I have a German friend who gives the impression that German schools are much better than the uk one her dd goes to (but then I think our school is also better than the one her dd goes to).

I would say that particular school is the problem maybe rather than the whole system.

DS is only 4 so not much help - for him the answers are No, No and Not at this stage.

I recently took part in some school visits in UK primary schools around Reading with a university course group, and I'm afraid to say they did come across a bit of 2-type behaviour in 2 teachers (out of perhaps 30). However, this was unusual and shocking enough to take up almost the whole of the follow-up lecture. Is it only one teacher who is behaving this way, or is it the culture of the school?

MadBad, I love your name! Yes, general disatisfaction amongst the dp, certainly amongst the English speaking ones but it is a matter of lack of alternative. Schools here generally are not very responsive to criticism IYAM, although it may well be like that everywhere for all I know.

Hmm cadmum, it doesn't sound good with the schooling. I do know exactly what you mean with the problems having looked into international, local state, church and private, Montessori all the rest of it and drawn a blank. Good thing you are able to home school in Switzerland. Here it's illegal.

Think the system is at fault here thee days THrockenholt, may have changed since your friend was at school. I don't know anyone, German or expat who is happy with the primary schools. But maybe I know the wrong people!

anyway I don't want to tear into German schools on this thread really, I just want to know if I have too rosey a view of schools elsewhere.

I've seen quite a few threads on bullying etc and dp who are having real problems getting this side of thing dealt with in UK schools. It's something German schools don't tackle much IME so I've been wondering if that's just soemthing I'm going to have to factor in and not think that because we're not in Germany, we won't have all the violence/bullying worries and so on.ANd then I'm wondering too how many of the problems schools have here are problems you'd encounter anywhere

Well you've given me food for thought. Will have to have a good think about it. Thanks everyone for your help

I have a friend who is home-schooling in Germany. She has a 9 yo and a 5 yo.

Are they officially registerd as living here Romy? You can get into big trouble with it.

No idea - she's been quite happily doing it for the last year though!

I'll ask her next time I speak!

Thing is we're already in the system so dd is registered wtih the police. If she didn't go to school, we'd have the police round, then the social services. THere have been a few links to articles on home-schooling in Germany and the measures the state has taken in various cases - and it isn't good. Car compounded, bank assets frozen, dc taken into care etc. Wouldn't want to risk it myself. Hope they come round at some stage to making it an acceptable alternative, perhaps with some kind of guidance, control, support system for the dp. All sounds a bit too risky and drastic for me atm

I do know some Americans who do this but they just never registered their dc as living in Germany so no one officially knows they are here IYSWIM. Would be tricky for us to wangle at this stage

yes please do if you remember Romy

sorry cadmum, just seen I forgot to answer your question! I'm in a bit of a dither this morning.

Yes, definitely looking at moving because of the schooling. Is there much chance of you moving back to Canada? I'm sure Geneva is a lovely place to live but it is very worrying with schooling, isn't it? If you feel the dc are falling behind (this is something I worry about to), there comes a point surely when even bright kids are going to be so far behind that they won't be able to catch up. (Actually that's another reason why I feel we should change school system before long).

Oh for a fairy godmother with a magic wand! What has happened to them all I wonder?

do you mean you are thinking of moving from Germany because of the schooling ?

TBH - I think primary in the UK is ok - but I am sceptical about the whole curriculum/exam approach current in uk secondaries. (I hasten to add it is not the teachers I have my concerns about - just the system they are bound by.

I guess you have to look at the whole picture - what sort of standard they get to at the end of schooling generally.

Specific issues of not liking the teacher - that can change from year to year - and you can get good and bad in all schools.

I personally like the idea of parents supplementing what their kids do at school because it gives the kids another perspective and maybe a broader outlook.

yes sorry I'm not being very clear, am I? I did mean moving out of Germany. Thanks for your thoughts Throckenholt. I suppose you're right I should consider secondary too (but my mind is sort of veering away from it atm)

well if you are thinking of moving country you need to consider the effect of moving cultures, languages etc, and consider if you would be willing to do it more than once.

If only once then make sure the long term looks at least as good as what is on offer in Germany. And I guess that is the whole picture, lifestyle, schooling, job prospects etc.

I don't mind SUPPLEMENTING school work but I am tired of having to TEACH from scratch at home every single thing after school IYSWIM and we (dp) are all having to do that. Either you do it and the dc move on, or you don't and they fall behind, maybe repeat a year, wind up in the sink schools for non-achievers at secondary level.

Dd is bright, she wants to learn and people tell me she's like a sponge, she'll soak up anything you throw at her and she picks up almost nothing from the teaching at school. When I teach her, she whizzes along. Why isn't it working at school? I don't mind overseeing h/w, helping with it, testing tables and going beyond school work, but I don't see why you have to teach your dc basic schoolwork outside of school IYSWIM.

Sigh, groan, will get some more coffee and think about it

yes, you're right of course at looking at the long-term prospects etc is obviously important but for the moment I'm really interested in finding out more specifically about schools, since that's the major problem for us here. One thing at a time THrockenholt!

hmm - can you go in and talk to the teachers about it. Try and work out what is different about the approach they take at school and why she doesn't respond to that.

It may not be the teaching per se - but more the environment - maybe she learns best one to one and gets distracted in a bigger group.

I think I would try to explore all of that before I considered moving countries because that is such a big thing for all of you.

Is it maybe a big city thing (your profile says Berlin)? Maybe a smaller place would have a different approach.

You profile also says you don't see Berlin as permanent - is your doubt caused by the schooling or by something else ? That may well be flavouring the way you are looking at the school problem.

It isn't just dd, seems to be every dc I know. Excuse me if I just don't go into the details of my dealingswith the 2 schools on this thread. If I do, it just becomes a kind of criticism of / rant about teh German system and I don't want to do that atm IYSWIM.

I really just want to find out more about schools in other countries to get an idea for how they compare. Don't want to be giving the impression this is a horrible country or the system is terrible or the people are awful or anything like that so that's really why I don't want to analyse our school experiences here too much right now (done it before!).

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1. no
2. no
3. learning lots, we read with them, help eg with fractions, spelling test learning, researching on internet or in books etc

Will answer from the pov of ds who is about to finish Y4.

1. No. There are some teachers he has preferred to others, but he has got on with all and positively LOVED others including one who changed schools 3 years ago and is still in email contact with some of the dc in ds's class.
2. No, never.
3. Yes. I am not always happy with the curriculum (feels a bit too restricted at times) but he has followed some interesting topics this year. In addition to literacy, numeracy, phse, music and PE he has done some great science experiments, fab in-depth geography projects on both Italy and The Lake District and great work on Romans and Vikings complete with trips and role play to really get 'in character'. The only work we do at home to supplement this is to help with homework and extra research if a topic has sparked his imagination (as the Vikings did)

Sorry you are having a bad time. I went to primary school in Germany but it was sooo long ago I can't really remember any details. But I do remember not liking it and not being happy, and I also remember that a lot of children were not happy. That is in stark contrast to ds's school where the vast majority of children are happy.

well I hope you can work things out.

I think the concensus to 1 & 2 is no - but 3 varies probably from school to school and even teacher to teacher as well as on a broader scale between countries and regions.

Children are taught science history geography art music technology RE PE ICT (computers etc) right from nursery