What annoys you about state schools?

[NormaJeanBaker]

Just in the interests of balance...

Phew, Was getting a bit confused there with my us-es and thems.

Well amen to that ahundred times.

And now to work, to earn the money that will allow my middle-class state-educated children to follow the numerous extra-curricular and life-enriching activities they choose to enjoy....

If planning your career was that easy, everyone would do it. My dad worked for the same company for 25 years and then lost his job. It took him a while to get back on his feet but he did, and set up in business as an independent IT consultant for the last few years of his working life. But it took a few months of uncertainty and living off savings. My mum had to go back to work when she thought she had finished.

If he had been counting on a certain level of income for private school fees, we'd have been screwed!

Also reading this thread, UQD I don't think you aremisunderstood, but I think you are phrasing your question badly (sorry).

Your question seems to be - 'what should we do to improve state schooling in this country?'

but what you ask is

'you go to private school, so you think we're all rubbish. What about the people who go to the school you don't?'

No, that's not "my question" exactly. If it is it's only part of my question.

No worries thinkingaboutdrinking I knew I had outed my school but it just felt a bit strange to be quoted things about my school back at me. Anyone who knows state schools in Dorset would know which school I teach in from my posts very quickly. For a moment it felt as if someone at work was posting on here or an angry parent and I felt uncomfortable as I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve on here.

I also felt you were being harsh and picking up on my one winge I have about my job which is not representative of my posts as a whole. While I agree my school is not perfect it is one I am incredibly proud to work in. Today I have taught delightful, polite, articulate motivated children all day and I do know that not all schools are like that. I have gone from being moved to tears by someones moving speech about their grandfathers funeral to a heated debate about american foriegn policy.

I agree that the money that is spent on my school should be spent on others as well ( until recently I taught at a school where staff were being made redundant as we could not afford to pay them) and in the long run we have benefitted from our arsonist! But it has been a long hard nine years and most of our school pupils have never known anything but to be in portacabins many of which are falling apart. As proud as I am off my school I recognise that if children are in crappy surroundings they will feel the same about themselves. I have noticed that our pupils act very differently in our new canteen than they did in the cramped room they were eating in before. They feel like they have to almost live up to their surroundings.

I have only just moved to Dorset but it would seem that lots of schoolsare spending money on buildings, my dd primary school has just moved into a new building which is fabulous.

cissy" there needs to be more male primary teachers and possible more male teachers full stop. In my previous school something like the last 16 appointments had all been women, there were only a handful of make staff and with a few exceptions they were jaded teachers waiting for their pensions.

The school I teach in now has a good balance of make and female teachers and it creates a more balanced ordered environment.

As much as I want to big up my school I do not want it to be immune from criticism, there are things we want and need to improve, importantly we are working on it and making progress.

And now to work, to earn the money that will allow my middle-class state-educated children to follow the numerous extra-curricular and life-enriching activities they choose to enjoy....

This working class mother spends her day educating your state educated children so her child can enjoy the same activities!

Yay! I love it when a thread comes back to bite you....

You mean you get paid, twinset? Gosh. I thought it was a vocation an' all.

In answer to the op, the thing which annoys me most is the the fact that the system is not consistent across the country. I am frequently amazed by how many people on here discuss grammar schools when the vast majority of the country has no access to them at all. I am also furious that Faith schools still exist, particularly at secondary level where they decrease the so-called choices available to those of us who do not go to church.

I agree idlingabout I hate the inconsistency, I spent the last three years teaching at what many people would call a "sink" school and although we all worked very hard we we as a whole staff ineffective. I now feel at my new school as if I am doing a completely different job

Some people teach in private schools cos they can't cope in state schools. So the better teachers teach in state schools

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I agree very different skills, I would imagine that the move I made from my very challenging school to a much easier one in terms of discipline is very similar to the move from state to independent. The job i do now is a completely different one to that in my previous school. I spent the first few weeks in my new school thinking I was the dogs bollocks as I could easily control them. I have had to improve my subject knowledge and really refine my craft in the classroom.

I think having done both I am now a better teacher.

Some people teach in state schools because they could not teach in an independent.

Yeh it was a bit of a sweeping statement!

I'm a teacher in a comp, quite a good comp in the sense that most kids are nice but we certainly have some potentially bad classes. Also we have 6th form so in our place you have to be good at both discipline and subject knowledge.

I just get a bit wound up when people start putting state education down when i know that i, along with most teachers at our school, work damned hard and do a good job, and i feel a bit peeved when people imply that by paying fees their kids will get a better education than me and many of my colleagues provide.

I guess i have a case in mind where a couple of all round weak teachers, in the sense of discipline and that they couldn't plan engaging lessons, ended up in the private sector.

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I am not saying it is the case in your school paddy but you can work hard and still be inefective,

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It annoys me that so many children are let down by the system

It annoys me that some schools that manage their own admissions abuse the system in orer to become socially selective. In fact they are more socially selective than state grammar schools

If I was in education the very first thing I would do would be to ban faith schools managing their own admissions.

This would be my pecking order for moral corruption:

Just go to your nearest school.
Apply for a school that is not your nearest but do not move to get in.
Pay for private school.
Pay to tutor your child through the entrance exam for a state funded grammar.
Buy a house in the catchment area of a good school.
Buy a house in the catchment area of an excellent school.
Lie about where you live in order to secure a better school place for your child.
Lie about your religion in order to get a place at a faith school.

I should add that applying for a state funded grammar and not tutoring your child is fine - corruption free.

Swedes - a very sensible list!

What do I dislike about state schools?

Polyester trousers for girls

Obsession with SATS

National Curriculum

Smug moral superiority of many - by no means all! - parents

Children being allowed to wear all kinds of odd accessories (hair things, funky shoes/bags etc etc). But I am very old-fashioned in these matters.

Lack of male teachers.

I dare say I am repeating points made by others, though!

Only your last 2 involve actual immorality though Swedes