My placement school is a shit tip

[AuroraFloyd]

I'm starting teacher training in September and I've been visiting my placement school to get to know people, learn the routines etc.

Unfortunately, the state of the school is horrific. It is badly in need of a lick of paint, the corridors near the pupil toilets stink of piss, the carpets are covered in old chewing gum, threadbare and literally have holes in them. There are holes in doors (presumably where they have been kicked), basic maintenance like missing door handles needs doing, the windows and sills are filthy, the staff toilets are in disrepair (with one being used as a store cupboard for broken furniture). None of the tables/desks and chairs match and are clearly ancient and shabby.

I'm genuinely shocked and appalled at the state of the school. It is currently "good" but has been "needs improvement" for many years. I would love to ask if they actually have a caretaker or any cleaners but obviously I wouldn't!

Furthermore, I'm uneasy about the lax procedures I've witnessed. As a visitor to the school I would have expected a quick fire safety briefing, maybe a quick tour of the school to help me get my bearings - here's the staffroom/canteen/toilets etc but there was nothing. No one has checked my ID or DBS certificate and after 1 visit I'm now told to make my way down to the department I'm visiting on my own. At break and lunch I'm left to wander the corridors alone to find the staffroom and toilets.

This is all in stark contrast to other schools I've visited and my own high school. I'm not happy with what I've seen but I don't think there is anything I can do.

It's an improving school if it was RU for many years but is now Good

Er no, it got good at its previous OFSTED inspection. If they came out today it may be put into SM who knows?

I am by the responses to this thread. Forget about anything other than No one has checked my ID or DBS certificate and after 1 visit I'm now told to make my way down to the department I'm visiting on my own. And all of this toxic 'there's no money' well it may not be the school's fault but it's shocking, the UK is not a third world country but the years of Austerity have got many people thinking like one.

It won't be put into SM for mismatched furniture anyway.

I agree with you OP. It's wrong that children are expected to learn in an environment that is broken down and uncared for, in a country where there is enough money to fix it. I have seen what a new building can do for pride, behaviour and aspiration, when my kids were lucky enough to be at a school that got the last of the building future schools money. The way state education is being neglected by govt is disgraceful.

But I also agree that, when resources are limited, teachers take precedence over buildings.

I think people laying into the op are part of the reason we are in this message. It's the 'well what do you expect, there's no money you judgypants, suck it up buttercup'. We shouldn't have to accept our kids being taught in these conditions. Get angry, this is down to political choices about school budgets. Caretakers are being cut because the Tories are not giving schools enough money for the basics.

Mess not message, bloody autocorrect!

If this thread does get picked up, there's a point I'd like to make.

In my local area, there was a secondary school pretty much in the state the OP describes (anecdotally - it's the one local school I've never been inside, but it looked awful from outside).

It was taken over by an academy chain, who moved it into a mix of brand new and refurbished accommodation. It was shiny and amazing - all the kids came back from open evening ooh-ing and aah-ing about the cinema and the thick-pile carpets and the individual iPads. As a result, a lot of them went there, although it wasn't the closest school, or the best-rated.

Three years later, it's in special measures, the governors have broken links with the academy chain, it's in horrific debt and has just cut a number of GCSE courses halfway through!

Pupils are leaving in droves for the only local school with spare capacity - a 1950s 'Requires Improvement' school that isn't too pretty inside (I've been to that one). But at least it gets them through their GCSEs!

I hope your school does too, OP. Best of luck with the TP.

Perhaps you should apply for Northern Ireland OP?
I hear they're measuring up for the jacuzzis in every school as we speak.

Sounds like my 90s secondary comprehensive school. Holes in floors, rain pouring in through ceilings, classrooms out of bounds due to ceilings coming down/broken windows/dangerous walls, peeling paint everywhere, five students sharing a textbook... You get the idea. I honestly don't think it affected the teaching quality that much though. The poverty and desperate home lives of some of the students would have had far more of an impact.

I've looked round several shiny, well equipped, secondaries with brand new buildings, computing suites, sports halls etc. when applying for DS's secondary place last year. It didn't seem to have improved the behaviour of the students or the GCSE results much. He is off to one of the best state schools in the country, which is more of the 'peeling paint and holes in carpets' variety.

Oh I get what the OP is saying, they are upset at the conditions. It doesn't come across as judgemental it comes across as someone who cares and believes that its not right kids have to go to school in these conditions. There really is only one answer, vote out the Tories. Sadly cuts mean that schools really have no budget for even basic cosmetic upgrades when they are losing thousands in funding, the OP isn't asking that the school installs a jacuzzi, just that the corridors don't smell of wee.

Sorry, I should have added that I don't think that schools stinking of urine or being filthy are acceptable though. Clearly more money is needed to improve schools, we shouldn't be wasting money on fancy new buildings which then turn out to be shoddily built or even dangerous and then require even more spending on them.

It won't be put into SM for mismatched furniture anyway.

Well no, but it will be if their safeguarding procedures aren't up to scratch.

I think the OP is right to question it - though not use the phrase 'shit tip' - how can we expect children to be motivated and aspire to achieve great things when this is the environment we give them? OP brings fresh eyes...

I work in a decrepit building and it does have an effect on your morale.

Having said that, I taught in various school buildings and the things that 'made' a school were always the level of support from parents and the calibre of the headteacher.

It is absolutely outrageous that teachers and children are expcted to work in such appalling conditions. My issue is with blaming the school for it. And with describing it as a "shit tip".

My issue is with blaming the school for it. And with describing it as a "shit tip".

I read far worse every day on MN than 'Shit tip'. And some of what is described is the fault of the school

Bertrand I agree, the phrasing is the problem. OP, as a previous poster said you have valuable fresh eyes. Beware though! Going in with an attitude of How Dreadful! will not go down well.

Don't vote Tory.

My school is in a similar state. We were next up to get a new build under the Building Schools for the Future fund. It was one of the first things the Tories scrapped when they came in in 2010. We limp on in our asbesto-ridden buildings which freeze in the winter, boil in the summer and always look a state. We can't even afford new textbooks for the new GCSEs.

We get good results though.

What training route are you doing?

I think you have become, as the kids would say, 'woke'. It's shocking. It isn't good enough. Yet it is the norm for many, many pupils and staff across the country.

There isn't any money.

So now do something about it. Throw yourself into your training year and become the best possible teacher that you can. Make your classroom the best possible learning environment in the circumstances. Write to your MP. Stand as staff governor if a vacancy comes up.

Good luck with your training.

And don't ever, ever call the school a shit tip in the staff room!

Of course I would never say the school is a shit tip to anyone else. The focus on my choice of wording is strange. I would have thought the state of the school is more shocking than the words I used to describe it. When writing the thread title I couldn't think of anything else which would get my point across in so few words.

I hope you're not training to be an English teacher then! Seriously you need to write to your MP to complain about the cuts to education. Or be active in your union. This is the reality of state education under a Tory government.

Actually OP, I think you've had a lot of very constructive comments and advice.

I'm not saying I haven't Leanne?

Really quite bemused about the "shit tip" pearl-clutching though. Wondering if it means something else in other parts of the country because where I'm from it's just an informal way of saying something is a complete mess.

Perhaps not, but you also haven't engaged with any of it. Your thread and your prerogative of course.

I hope that today was more positive. It is worth mentioning the lax safeguarding practices to your training provider, however. It would be an instant Ofsted fail.

You are right to notice these things. It does make a difference to how staff, students and parents feel about the place. I think a lot of people maybe haven't seen these schools and perhaps feel it's ok for other people's kids. There are plenty of shiny new academies that deflect attention from the terrible state of some of our school buildings. We should be making a noise about this with the government. I agree about the pearl clutching by the way.