Crunch raises state school demand

robin_banks

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

That is totally not true. At my sons' school teachers marked the work again and again and again even telling the students what they needed to put in!

Regardless of sector (i.e. private or state) this is simply not a good thing. At some point the piece of work concerned ceases to be the students original work.

It's been tinkered with so many times, how can this demonstrate how bright the individual student is?

But as long as this leads to a student getting good grades the parents will be happy, and the school will be deemed to be performing.

shirlgirl2004

I know my son was most miffed because he wasn't one of the children needing it to be rechecked and extra "help" given. It makes a mockery of exam results.

joshiesaunt

we dont feel we have much choice but to go private even though on principle I am opposed to it and feel every child should have a good state option.

our local primary school is on one of the most polluted roads in london, has a small concrete playground and although it is improving (mainly due to the middle class kids moving into the area I think), the turnover of staff and kids is still high - in such an environment it is going to take a long time to 'turn around' - unfortunately the fact is we dont want to take a chance with ds education even though he will get support at home.
our other excellent state primary has a catchment area of 0.2 miles - about 10 streets in a concentric circle. rents in this area are so high - £1750 to £2000 per month to rent a 3 bed victorian house (usual price would be £1100) - many of my ds nursery friends parents have bagged anything going (renting out their own homes) causing a local furore as the nearby estate kids have been pushed out by the number of families moving into these roads.
surely this is selective education of sorts! we feel at least by paying privately we are being 'honest'. (although dont get me started on the 'assessment' my 2.8 year old had to go through to get in!!)

shirlgirl2004

My DD didn't have to have any assessment to get in and gets very little homework (in Reception) maybe 5 minutes a day max. She does have fairly long days though 8.30 til 3.15 4 days a week and finish at 12.15 on the other day. I guess it totals the same as your average state primary school.

I did have the choice of some very good state schools nearby but my DD is reasonably bright (reading age of 7 at almost 4) so I wanted a school that had the time to meet her needs.

mumps

michaels wrote: »

Best performing education system in Europe is in Finland - where the school starting age is the highest...any correlation?

I'm no expert but seems an interesting point. When my daughter got to senior school at 11 she had done three years of formal education, some of her friends had done 9, having gone to a private nursery school before starting primary. I think she still saw education with the sort of enthusiasm that lots of kids have lost by that age. Don't know how it would apply to everyone. Her primary was very anti when she started, amateurs teaching their own kids, how dare we!!!!! Within the first week her class teacher was converted and by the end of term it wasn't an issue. One of the key stage 1 teachers told me that I had made her feel her entire career had been a waste of time as the kids would have been better off playing at home! I was quite shocked by that.

joshiesaunt

mumps- just out of interest, did you have an education career background or home school with other parents? i like the idea of home ed but not personally confident that i could 'teach' reading, writing etc. in the required way.

before_hollywood

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Really? My DD mixes with plenty of state educated children and a couple of the children she goes to school with live in ex-council houses so not big posh houses!

how many of the others in her school do the same?

ex council houses arent exactly cheap to anyone but the original council tenant, unless they are in an absolute tip of an area, the ones in nicer places are bought because of large proportions, thick walls and in a lot of cases off street parking.

there are two types of child and parent at private school, the ones to whom education is everything, and those to whom snobbery and one upmanship are everything

poet123

To be fair, those two types and others exist in the state sector too!

mumps

joshiesaunt wrote: »

mumps- just out of interest, did you have an education career background or home school with other parents? i like the idea of home ed but not personally confident that i could 'teach' reading, writing etc. in the required way.

No background in education, I left school without any qualifications. I met a couple of families who were home educating and we would meet up, maybe once a week and go to a park or indoor play centre if the weather wasn't good. We used to log these get togethers as evidence of contact with other children in case we were ever inspected. We were told the LA were big on socialising for home schooled kids. We also did some of the typical "after school" activities e.g. swimming class, rainbows/brownies, again I was advised this would go down well. We also kept things like drawings she did or photos of "educational visits" e.g. trip to the beach, zoo or a museum. To be honest we didn't "teach" reading and when she was assessed on starting school she was top of her year, amazing what they pick up when not pressured. To be fair there is some great educational stuff on tv and computer games that are also excellent. There is a group, Education Otherwise, who will help with advice. Can't remember their contact details but I'm sure it would come up if you google it. I can recommend home schooling (or starting school late if I am honest ) My daughter is 18 now and at university, she says her only regret is that I didn't send her to school for a term so that she would have realised what a great time she was having. Good luck if you decide to give it a go, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

The other advantage is schools seem keen to take home educated children, think they want to "save" them so you get your pick of schools when you decide to opt back in, well that was my experience anyway.

natalie1974

mumps wrote: »

The other advantage is schools seem keen to take home educated children, think they want to "save" them so you get your pick of schools when you decide to opt back in, well that was my experience anyway.

:rotfl:The kids need saving ! Makes you laugh , is it really that bad