Private school teachers - would you stay on and work for Corbyn?

[noblegiraffe]

So Labour has decided that it will strip private schools of their assets (I assume this means ‘we own Eton now’) and integrate them into the state sector.

As a private school teacher what do you and your colleagues reckon? Would you be happy to become a state school teacher?

Or would you say ‘fuck this’ and go and do something else?

I don’t think it would happen but if it did I’m not sure I’d go back to working in a state school, particularly in a role as senior as the one I’m in now.

JimmyGrimble should we all be told we have to live in the same houses, eat the same foods, and spend out leisure time in the same way? If not, why not? These things all contribute to children's life chances.

I would also support a lottery system for places in all schools

Live in London, get allocated a place in Manchester. I can totally see this policy working

And the trouble with a lottery system is that it doesn't allow for schools being different from one another (not better/worse). Schools are different, have a different ethos from each other, specialise in different subjects from each other. What suits one child does not suit another. A lottery would take away any ability to send your child to the school that would suit them best.

@Teachermaths you’re just being silly, of course that wouldn’t happen. @quissum you’re being silly - I’d like to see everyone in secure housing with the means of putting quality food on the table and the chance if actually having some leisure time.
The thing about ‘choice’ is that it’s always hojacked by the privileged. Grammar schools? Tutor your kid to within an inch of its life from Y1.
Outstanding school? Buy an expensive house in catchment.
My system would take the sharp elbowed out of the equation. I may allow appeals for exceptional cases.

How would the lottery work then?

In a densely populated area it might make for more "equal" schools. But schools near me are 20 miles apart. Would you want to travel further than this for school because the lottery allocated a place?
Would you expect parents to pay for the extra travel?

Even in areas where schools are 2/3 miles apart that can mean a lot of extra travel if you didn't get allocated the school on your doorstep and instead one 6miles away?

Your policy is I'll thought out and postcodes would still count. More affluent areas would have better schools. As was ever thus.

Schools differences are mainly their intake. There was some interesting research about levels of deprivation and school ofsted gradings. Society can't act as a leveller for a crap upbringing unfortunately. The vocabulary gap at 3 between deprived and middle class children is 30 million words. How can schools get close to levelling this?

No, I'm not being silly. Take housing as an analogy. Basically everyone left of centre believes that everyone should have a house to live in. Most people believe that the housing provided by the state should be of good quality. Most people believe that the wealthy should be taxed to pay for this. Many people believe social housing is not currently good enough, and that taxation should be increased to fund this. But very few people (even Corbyn) believe that all private housing should be confiscated by the state and then sold to provide an equal quality of housing for everyone. Why should education be so different?

How is it any more illegal, or immoral, thatnthe removing from public ownership of all the land and school buildings handed over to academy trusts? To quote Angela Mason of Camden council “I feel quite strongly it’s our land. It’s the people’s land. It’s quite wrong that this enormously valuable asset goes to government and then on to unelected, unaccountable organisations.” I don't remember much of a fuss being made, certainly nobody suggesting the government were operating the politics of envy by taking land and property from the plebs to give to their mates.

It’s more illegal because in your example the government was giving away public land it already had control of (via councils) not someone else’s.

Both are immoral.

Academies can have schools removed from them and given to other trusts, so is it actually their land?

Good question. As ever you are probably right Noble!

I don't think I would, no, because I liked the state schools I worked in but couldn't handle the workload, so I wouldn't change back as this policy would inevitably increase class sizes even more. In case anyone thinks I am a wimp, in the last state school I worked in we were supposed to mark one piece of work per student per week and I had approx 170 students. All sixth form, essay subject. That was on top of teaching a full timetable and my commute was about 15 hours per week. We had to formally test all of them against three criteria 6 X a year (plus all the normal mocks and public exams, which we had to invigilate). I also had to clean my classroom at the end of every lunchtime as the kids were allowed to eat there. I now earn the same, roughly, but have about a quarter the number of students (and very few issues with behaviour). I just wouldn't have the energy. Fortunately I have kept up the skills from my previous career.