Educating Essex - anyone watching?

[NormanTebbit]

Well I see schoolhasn't changed...

[southeastastra]

i guess what bugs me is that these kids will be competing in the workplace with children who have been to schools where the discipline is sorted out straight away and the kids have more respect for teachers equalling kids being willing to actually learn something rather than just enjoy being at schools

they seem way too pally and i imagine lots of kids just get ignored there.

he seemed more suited to primary school

i know nothing though it's just my opinion

[Georgimama]

Yes, I can imagine if you aren't one of their little projects you get overlooked.

[SlackSally]

Surely that's been the case for a very long time? In the order or 20-30 years?

Really don't think it's that pally!

My students (sixth form college) call me by my first name!

[littleducks]

C&P from channel 4 website:

Update since filming:

Carmelita acheived six GCSEs A* to G a year early. Watching the programme 'was good because I got to see myself and how other people see my behaviour. I've learned from that'.

Carmelita regrets the incident with Mr Drew and admits that she got a bit carried away, explaining that she wasn't in a good mood that day.

Mr Drew managed to secure her a place on an equestrian course, so she now spends three days a week out of school at the stables, which she loves.

She and Mr Drew still have moments when they don't see eye-to-eye, but she understands why she was excluded and plans to keep her head down next year - although she says she'll still find time to be a bit cheeky.


I would like to know her actual grades as she took her GCSEs a yr early

[cyb]

Dont think you would get overlooked- but it doesnt make for such exciting telly watching students sitting quietly and learning, does it

[Georgimama]

I left school in 1997 and never called a teacher by their first name. Lecturers, it depended, but never at school.

[bruffin]

My DD knows Sam the boy featured next week. She did rock school with him.
My friend is more than happy with the school

[Georgimama]

Hmm, why be allowed to take GCSEs a year early if you are only going to get six A to G? Doesn't make much sense to me.

[needanewname]

Really can't believe some of the comments on here

[cyb]

Also a strict school uniform code is fundamental to its ethos. Yes teachers should pick their battles but if no hoodies is the rule, the children need to abide by it

[Georgimama]

Which ones?

[NormanTebbit]

Ah so a happy resolution for Carmelita - good for her

[malinois]

SS well as I said, I haven't been in a school for years. We also called our teachers by first names in 6th form and had no uniform either (school not college). However 5th form and lower was all surnames, occasionally preceded with a Miss or Mr.

[southeastastra]

teachers weren't pally at my comp in the 80s, we feared some of them and learnt in their lessons. cause we were all quiet!

am thinking my ds(17)'s school is very similar to the one shown tonight. there is less of a divide between teachers and students. of course kids love it but i think more boundaries isn't a bad thing

there is such a difference between my son and kids who have been to more academic schools, respect wise i mean. it's kind of hard to explain

[KittyWalker]

Unless she's lying

No seriously good for her and well done Mr Drew! Mr Drew rocks!

[littleducks]

That is what I was thinking Georgimama-although she could presumerably be retaking this year alongside her equestrian course?

My nieces school did this, from yr 9 she was taking GCSE modules twice a year...I think that kind of stress is no good for them but it does prevent them leaving with no qualifications I suppose

[malinois]

cyb strict uniform codes are a distraction from proper discipline. The majority of European countries (and the US) don't have uniforms yet have rather better educational attainment than the UK does.

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

I'm genuinely not seeing whaat anyone has seen to be shocked by. Didn't you have any cocky, gobby little arses in your year at school? I did (and no, it wasn't me ). I thought the deputy head dealt with them very well, and he was a million times more patient than me.

[needanewname]

Georgimama, am on phone so can't quote but some of the comments about the uniform. I'm sure that the rules weren't invented for the tv cameras, these are the rules, if you don't like them o to a different school.

I know many parents don't give two hoots about uniforms and think the rules are
Stupid, send your hold to a school without uniform then.

[Anotherchance]

This school is the best performing non church state school in Harlow. This is because of the approach the teachers take.

I attended school in Harlow 25 years ago, where a school tried tough discipline and it didn't work (mainly because we were made to feel like rubbish). The children don't seem to have changed much.

Reality is that some children in some areas need the approach that Passmores takes. If you expelled all the children who refuse to respect authority there'd only be a handful left! I was impressed and wish that the teachers at my challenging school had given the impression that they thought that we stood a cat in hells chance of achieving anything. One of the few memories of my HT was when he stood there and told us that we were nothing more than dust. Another abiding memory were the Cambridge students who'd come and tell us that "even children like us" could go to university (but not Cambridge, because we came from the sink of Essex).

Me? I went to university and studied a very competitive subject to post-grad level, which has now been my source of income for the past 20 years, but this was in spite of school, not because of.

[malinois]

needanewname rules can be changed. State schools are accountable to democratic pressure not just Thatcherite 'vote with your feet' consumerist pressure.

25 years ago it was common for children to be beaten in schools. Would you have said the same to a parent who objected to that too?

For the record I find school uniforms utterly ridiculous. They're a relatively modern invention that serves no obvious purpose, turns teachers into nit-picking enforcers, and the fact that most proper countries don't have them should be a big hint.

[needanewname]

Corporal punishment / school uniform. Is that the best you can do?

[cyb]

malinois IMO wearing ones own clothes is an even bigger distraction from studies

[auntpetunia]

Malinois - lots of schools in this country in particular find that uniform is a way of keeping every one the same, without going to school being a fashion show.
How many of those year 11's would be tango'd and eyelashed to the hilt every day if they didn't have to wear uniform. Uniform gives a school an identity and helps children from poor families mix with children from more well off families without having to compete in the fashion stakes.

[malinois]

auntpetunia when I'm working in Stockholm or Munich or Montpellier or Boston I frequently see schoolchildren walking to school. They are certainly not 'tangoed and eyelashed' and they are not wearing uniforms.

Are British children a different species?