Anyone else watching Educating Essex?

[Greensleeves]

I am addicted to it! Partly because I am in week 3 of a PGCE and am school-obsessed, but it really is compulsive viewing

Does anyone know anything about the school it's set in? Is it a fairly well-t-do area? Does anyone have personal knowledge it? I find Mr Drew fascinating!

Hocus at ds2 school skirt lenths are full lenth to ankles which be fun when dd goes she is tiny and yes they can wear trousers .Schools here are very hot on correct uniform especially secondary .With 6th formers having to wear suits the latter I disagree with

I get the train to harlow regularly full of children going to the various schools on herts/Essex border.
The worst behaviour and manners by far is from the well respected catholic school in bishops stortford

I know which one you mean bruffin the all girls schoolhas a interesting local nick name to

Though to be fair I get train regulary and never really had any problems with any school kids ghat a exacuse me can not sort

I think we are talking about same school Flamingo as the girls wear the long kilts.

Through me when you said Catholic school as far as am aware it's comp but single sexed .But yes I would agree worse behaved and I live locally enough to see it around town

Locally known as Herts and tarts

No the school I am talking about is mixed. I had to split some boys punching each other one morning.
The girls parade up and down the carriages, never shutting the doors , shouting at each other. The other schools just get on sit down and chat among themselves.

I just googled it now know which school you mean never really on radar and all the senior schools here wear long skirts kilt style

Unfortunately H & E changed it's skirt length from ankle to knee length 3 years ago. And now they have the old-age problem with girls rolling up the waistbands. All manner of brown/black socks and shoes are worn and it looks dreadful! Much better to have kept ankle length like St M's and B/W, looks smarter.

BTW dd3 is one of the H & E train catchers to Stortford - I'll tell her to watch out because some MNers are judging!

H&E (brown uniform?) behaviour fine, as is Ha-e, Hocus, Tell her to relax
Just the StMs
Do you really think the long skirts look smarter?

Hocus

I thought HandE were long brown skirts with the stripey blouse . . ds2 goes to B/W .I'm always telling him that word get about if misbehaves .Seems there is a few of us that live/ work this way

I do as it does stop the skirt being rolled up but do laugh at some of the smaller ones as skirts drown them .That be dd in few years time Y4 now and she just into age 5-6

HandE have short skirts now, although I have seen some of the older girls still wearing the longs ones.

I had to laugh- One of the boys I caught fighting said to me -

"Miss I know you"

I didn't recognise him, but it turned out he was at my dcs' primary school the year below DD. I used to help out there as dinner lady sometimes.

Years 10 and 11 can still wear the long one, although you can't buy a new one. You can only buy short ones now. The year 9s were the first year to have compulsory short ones.
I prefer the long ones because the length is always the same so they look smarter. In winter you can wear trackie or pyjama bottoms underneath to
keep warm! The short ones are all over the place and some girls, like dd3, feel uncomfortable wearing wearing short skirts. Apparently you can get brown trousers from the outfitters but they are so untrendy no girls would be seen dead in them .
And yes, it sounds like some of us are neighbours!

Yua can imagine the looks at Brown trousers .Dd talks about following Ds 2 to B/H . Especially since we will be living across the road from it very soon

I teach in an Academy in a deprived area of London and this school seemed pretty tame to me. I thought it seemed positively lovely! I thought the relationship the teachers have with the staff and each other seemed really good and being able to call kids 'scumbags' and have proper banter, shows the level of trust between staff and pupils.

What I absolutely hated was the complacency the school seems to have towards what they probably consider to be unimportant, little stuff as is often the case when a school has nailed an 'outstanding.' Make up, scarves on in lessons and mobile phones all over the shop. That would never happen in my school although we deal with what seems like far more serious issues such as gangs and knife crime.

I think its an excellent programme. DS4 (14 years old in year 10) and I watch it together and he roars laughing at it. He goes to a school with almost 2,500 kids in it. I think its a 'rough' school and I am constantly worried about him. I just asked him and he thinks the school on the programme is much rougher than his and the kids behaviour is worse I was really shocked to hear him say that. I just think that being a teenager these days is so, so difficult.

Without being really horrible I loved seeing the sisters in massive trouble because of the texting incident. I wanted to see them both crying and in even more trouble LOL

......I also, take my hat off to High school teachers. Its a job I could not do and wouldn't even like to attempt to do.

I agree aramass that was exactly what I think gives the impression that the school is out of control. It is very easy to deal with phones , make up and scarves and yet it still happened.

I thought many of the staff appeared to be tired and worn down.

TT: Actually dealing with phones is the hardest thing I have to deal with. We are expected to confiscate phones on the spot but they get hugely confrontational about it. Any teacher will tell you that the availability of mobile phones is the worst thing to happen to education in this country for so many reasons.

No make-up and no scarves won't make it better. It might SEEM to be better. Although I hate seeing make-up on schoolgirls I can't see what harm it does really. Plus, teenagers LOVE to break rules. If you let them get away with the make-up one you could probably strike a bargain on something more serious.
And schools where there ARE more serious crimes, as in aramass's school, it doesn't sound like it has worked by sweating the small stuff.

Regards mobile phones, dd3's girls' school has recently decided that phones have to be kept in lockers during the day as some girls have been texting during the day. So instead of punishing the guilty, all the girls are treated with suspicion as spot checks are frequent apparently. A shame as the school has a good reputation for treating its students with respect and not as potential delinquents. What could happen is that more serious crime could develop as lockers may prove to be a big temptation to break into (like dd2's school).

I have had a problem with phones in the past, in schools that felt out of control. Now in an ordered school I rarely seem them because they know they will be confiscated on the spot and a parent will have to collect. They are kept in lockers during the school day. I am quite a stickler for rules so if I see one I will confiscate it, I must confiscate one a year.

Twinkly, I think that says a lot about where you work. I work in a reasonable area not middle class though. We are a good school, rather than outstanding. However I have been threatened for trying to confiscate a phone and we have loads of uniform problems. Yes it is important to.enforce rules, but I much prefer teaching on non-uniform days.

I call my students derogatory things, but only with groups I know and as a joke.

And I am a stickler for rules.

I was most surprised by the fact that Mr Drew knew so many of the students' names! At my DCs' schools their deputy head wouldn't be able to pick them out of a line up

DH and I watched this.

I was quite upset at how little learning seemed to be going on when classes were filmed (in an outstanding school) and am now worried for DD who is in Y8 (not in this school or in Harlow though!) I am going to get her to watch the next one to compare what happens in her classes.