Welcome to School Gate - your guide to Britain's education system

We all know how much education matters, but it can still be frustrating, upsetting, exciting, and often, as much of a learning experience for parents as children. That's where we come in.

We'll be commenting on education in the news, explaining how things work in the classroom, and, above all, talking about what you're discussing at the school gate. We also want to help you with the kind of information you really want to know, but aren't sure where to find. We'll be using Parent Power and the experts from the Good University Guide, as well as trying our best to help you find out the best ways to get into the right school or university. So let us know what you're talking about, and what you're looking for.

If you want to talk about your own school gate, read my thoughts on how scary these places can be!

(picture from Iwona Kellie on flickr.com) 

Comments

[Nikki]

Mrs S
Having had my son at a state school then moved into the private sector I can say that I would be extremely reluctant to move him back. For my, now that he has experienced the smaller classes and better facilities it would be unfair to put him back into classes of 30+ students where he won't get the same level of 1-2-1 from the teacher. Let's face it there is also the likelihood that he would be bullied for coming from the private sector. Let me also say that both my husband and I were state educated and both did very well from the system so I have nothing against the state sector per se. Things are financially tough at the moment and many private schools are putting up their fees, but I would move to a cheaper house, sell my car, take in ironing, whatever it took to keep my son in his current school, for me moving back to the state sector would be a last resort.

[s]

hi, i would like some advice on whether to move my girls (both in year 8 of high school) from Private school to state school. Private schools are getting too expensive and hence the thought of moving them now as financial strain is apparent in the current climate. Both girls got scholarship into high school (pays just 10% per year towards the fees ). They are both extremely bright and achieve outstanding results in school. We would like some advice on which state school to move them in leicestershire so that they still prosper in the environment and flourish as they are at the moment.we are looking for a school which is more for science subjects. please advice how to go about with this transition.
regards Mrs S

[Alan Share]

Scrap Special Educational Needs Tribunals. They are loaded against parents of children with special needs. It is time to rebalance power between Citizen and State, as 2004 Power Inquiry urged. Visit Post 21 "An Abattoir for Sacred Cows" at www.deathofanightingale.com/blog.html
for an explanation.
Alan Share

[Alan Share]

If you have a child with special educational needs and you have a choice between a mainstream and a special school, http://www.deathofanightingale.com/blog.html is essential reading. While it may be right for more children with special needs to go to a mainstream school, they are not certainly not "wronged" if they go to a good special school. It can be a very good option for a good start in life.

[Thomas Schmidt]

I relocated from SA to the USA in 1995 having 2 pre-schoolers. We had trepidation having heard so many bad things about the USA education system.

In 2000 we moved to the UK, Reigate to be precise. Here I saw a need for either parochial school or private schooling.

Not so in the USA. I have been in education all my life and visited schools in all but 2 states. Regular government schools are of the highest standard.

In the USA it is all about where you live. In the better suburbs the schools are fantastic.

If you are relocating ,education can be the least of your problems.
You will however end up with American kids, and that is a totally different kettle of fish.

[Kay]

Here in the states, we have public schools that fill the teaching time with social, cultural teachings, sex education and fad values. This drives most parents crazy. Our kids lose the RRRs (reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic) and our fail rate is extremely high - up 50-70% in some cities.

Many parents are opting for home schooling because Christian schools are so expensive. A voucher system, where parents can choose the type of education the children are receiving, worked very well as a pilot program in Washington DC. Obama ended the program, which many many of those people angry.

Schools in the states are pretty worthless unless you can get to a private (usually a Christian) school. Those schools also give a good values based education instead of visiting a gay wedding for a field trip (not RRR, is it?) and leave the rest for parents to teach.

[Steve C from Dover]

My wife works as a cover supervisor.
1. Supply teachers are qualified teachers but are not necessarily qualified in the subject where the teacher is unavailable. In my wifes experience supply teachers only ever sit in front of a class and tell them to get on with it. At least the support staff try to assist and frequently supply work with no preparation time factored in.
2. Teachers should leave proper cover lessons for when they are unavailable. Many of the work sheets are poor or not even left.
3. The amount of sick leave taken by some teachers is pathetic. They have the resilience of a chocolate fireguard.
4. Cover supervisors are paid pro rata. Take home pay is less than £900 per month. Too many teachers arrange meetings during the working day when they are paid to be in the classroom.
5. It never seems to be the good teachers that are not available but the worst ones and the cover teachers inherit a badly motivated and undisciplined class. Cover often lasts for weeks at a time. This should never be the case.
6. Cover supervisors are expected to work a full day every day of the week and cover for tutor time. Supply teachers would never be expected to last all day as they would probably get puffed out.
7. Parents honestly believe their little darlings behave well in school. I would equip all teachers with a webcam linked to a CCTV system and for those that dont behave I would take away child benefit and child tax credit.
8. If todays children are our future then I am afraid that " we have had it!!!"

[David Brown]

First Fact of Life: Life is unfair. there are bad schools in the public and private sectors. there are good schools in both sectors but the private sector has proportionaly far more good and fewer bad schools.
My daughter was injured in the playground of a state school whilst talking to a teacher; the school ordered that she be removed from the school. We took her back the next day and by lunchtime her removal for a second time had been ordered even though she had done nothing wrong.
Later she sustained an injury unconnected with the school; I told the school that in consequence she mustn't do anything likely to bend or twist her spine - no sports, no gymnastics. The school decided to ignore the instructions and in consequence she was paralysed from the waist down. The school's answer; they had decided not to tell the sports master and if I kicked up a fuss then the other children wouldf be barred from the school.
Worse still; hearing that the injury was sports related the local A & E refused to treat jher on policy grounds.
OK so my son went to that school and did badly. Tersdting was refused and the headmasyter told us that because he would never amount to anything the school would not waste resources on him.
10 years later we discovered that he is dyslexic.
State schools - !!!!

[Distressed Mum]

My three kids attend our local catholic primary school - It is not all it is cracked up to be! The ofsted results are fabulous each year.

What does that mean? Absolutely nothing, most average kids in the class have reached Level 4 by the end of year 3, unless they are then labelled as gifted and talented they then sit in the back of the class and coast along until year 6, when they practice Sats papers from September til May. As a result the juniors are very rebellious with a bad attitute and lots of bullying.

The teacher has explained that they have to focus on getting all the class to the required standard - they do not have time to set extention work for the other kids who hit target.

If you have money - go outside the state system - I wish I could!!

[Whimsey]

Sue, I know where you're coming from. My son was able to read before staring in Reception (he had a brilliant nanny, and a brilliant nursery, and a keen mum!), and so were several other children.

The first reading book he brought home had one word in it.

Bascially, the teacher treated all the children as though none of them could read, and everyone had to go at that pace. (Except, of course, at home...).

Trouble is - this wasn't a state school.

So a school/teacher, that believes in pacing the class to the slowest reader is not going to be good for fluent readers, whether it's state or private.

What actually gets my goat, though, is not mixed ability classes, but a teacher who can't be a**sed simply to give the more fluent readers more to read/do....

A bored child is an 'intellectually abused' child in that context, and brings this discussion into the point made in the ADHD debate, that it's not the slighest use labelling a bored and restless child as attention deficit, when what they are supposed to be paying attention to is way, way beneath them intellectually!!!

[Sue. FCCA]

We had to choose between private and state schools recently(our daughter is now in year1) and we decided a normal state school not too far from where we live(so I did not have to return to work)..

Our experience is that as long as the school hits its ofsted targets the teachers are happy! For instance our daughter finished the READING AND MATHS syalbus by December last year, so we asked whats next...the teacher reply 'she is bright' but no further work until YR1.
At parents evening YR1 teachers comments 'she is very bright but has started day dreaming' we ask do you think she is bored??...answer "we have not got the time to spend with her to advance her there are 24 other people in the class, some are very slow!!)
What sort of message is this giving a bright child???
WE ARE NOW REVIEWING OUR DECISION

[Diana]

Toby -In the UK parents who choose to go private (or Home educate) still pay taxes. But the fee paying schools can and do register as charities to remain affordable. And rich parents' accountants know how to avoid taxes.

[Toby]

After reading the story and comments, I am surprised at how different the British school systems are from those here in the USA. Here in America: Most children go to public school, except the very wealthy. The main reason - you have to pay public school tax whether you send your children to public school or not. A few go to Catholic schools but not many. The quality of the school is the same as the quality of the neighborhood. The government makes sure that spending per student is fairly evenly distributed except skewed somewhat to cities to fund added security etc. that is not implemented in rural schools. The quality of the public schools has increased in the last few years after the president made teacher's bonuses dependent on student test scores. A student traveling 10 miles to school is normal except in the city. The talk of getting 'religion' to get into school is incredible. Here, the Dems have made it unthinkable to even utter the words religion and school in the same breath (maybe one reason even Catholic schools are few). Very interesting contrasts, I plan to read more from this web site.

[Mrs R Wilson]

Really interested to know what other teachers think about the Harkness method lessons. Just about to implement action research regarding this. Would be grateful for any commments. Thanks

[Mark Harris]

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regards
Mark.

[Kasia]

If you are catholic and want to get religion, don't feel bad about it - perhaps the values you support and admire in your choice of school may be found in the local church as well. Religion is often demonised as a place only for nutters but you may meet perfectly nice people who are quite similar to you and your family. I know I did.

[Delilah]

Mrs. L,

Alex Frean's advice is useful - but here are a few other tips.

Although a lot of CofE schools are secular in outlook and practice, their codes of admission (on which their funding and status is based) require them to give priority to children with religious credentials (baptism, church attendance). This requirement trumps proximity. Any popular school will have turned away children with good religious qualifications; and many parents will be monitoring the school for a place falling empty and will happily move their children if a place comes up. The religious and non-religious schools have seperate admissions systems so people can get their kids into the non-religous school but keep trying for the religious one. Their mid-term application will trump yours even if you live next door to the school.

If you're not catholic, forget about the catholic schools; they are usually even more oversubscribed than the CofE schools. Unless they have a dodgy OFSTED report, it sometimes happens.

So that leaves the non-religious schools. Here Alex failed to mention that proximity of your residence to the school is the main criteria for admission. This pushes up the price of housing near popular schools. You can check which good schools have places coming up, and househunt accordingly; but as you can't apply for the place until you have a verifiable address to base that application on, there's the risk that someone else will bag the place while you're filling in your rent agreement (and again, you have desperate parents who are homeschooling or paying private school fees while phoning every week to see if a place has come up). In which case you could end up saddled with an inflated rent/mortgage and your child still attending a school 10 miles away with a dismal OFSTED report.

Appeals sometimes work, but only if you have secured a home very close to the school and only if they can cram another person in the class without breaking the rules (still, I've heard of up to 40 kids per class in some popular schools, covered by one teacher and one aide). Believe me, in oversubscribed districts, the classrooms at good schools are already crammed through appeals which started when the first rejection letters came through in the summer.

If you happen to be baptised, now would be a good time to get religion. Especially if you were baptised Catholic. Don't feel bad about doing it cynically - we have an education crisis on our hands. Is it worse than having to pay private school fees, or homeschool? Lots of quite moral parents do it, for their children. It's your best chance as a migrant of getting your child into a decent state school.

[Mrs L]

Dear Alex and Sarah - thank you very much for this advice, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to me.

[Sarah Ebner]

Dear Mrs L,

I hope that this reply from Alex Frean, Education Editor of The Times will help you.

She says:

"Every local authority in England has a website with a list of all the state primary schools and secondary schools in their area. The websites will also have a section on how to apply for a place at local schools. The list will make clear which schools are faith schools and what their entrance procedures are. Some faith schools (i.e. Church of England ones) do take children who are not religious, and it's quite possible that there will be a number of good non-faith schools in the area that you wish to move to, or a Church of England school, that is willing to take your child.

The system is not really that complicated. Generally, you are supposed to apply for a school place via the local authority. But if you are starting in the middle of a school year or at times other than age five (for reception year) or age 11 or 16 (for secondary school/sixth form college), you can, as a parent, ring individual schools that you like the look of and ask them if they have any empty places in your child's relevant year group. For the most part, schools are really pleased to fill all places that fall empty during the school year (because a good deal of their funding depends on a head count of pupils). You cannot, however, leave your name and number with a school and then expect them to call you back when or if a place comes free. Some schools will do this, but they are not really supposed to operate 'waiting lists'. This is not because schools are being unhelpful. Instead, it's a general rule that applies to prevent schools from poaching pupils from rival establishments. If you really like a school and they don't have a place, keep calling them on a regular basis to see if a place becomes free.

The best thing that you can do is to decide the general area where you want to live and then take a look at all the schools in that area. You should take a look at their most recent Ofsted report (on the Ofsted website) and also at their national curriculum test or GCSE results (these are all available on the DCSF website). But these will only tell part of the story. There is no substitute for visiting a school. A visit and a chat with the head will tell you more than anything Ofsted can say. Most heads are very welcoming to prospective parents."

[Mrs L]

We are relocating from Scotland, where the school system is very straightforward, to England where apparently it isn't. Where can we find a list of community primary schools in England? We are not religious and are therefore apparently barred entry from nearly one-third of primary schools in England - how do we find out where the other two-thirds are? I am not interested in muscling my way into a faith school or whatever, I just want my kids to go to their local school. I will be devastated if we move to a village and then discover our children are not welcome at the village school, in spite of the fact that we pay our taxes like everyone else.
Any advice would be welcome on this. I feel I have been utterly naive about all this - until recently I had no idea that taxpayer-funded schools could refuse entry to local children.

[jane]

I was supposed to be relocating after a job offer which I accepted. However in the new town (Cheltenham) I find I can not get my eldest child into the school yards from her home. She will have to travel 10 miles to school if we are to live there. Therefore I can not move, therefore I am now out of work. How does this happen in 21st Century Britain? We no longer have the infrastructure to support our citiens. I just can not afford private school fees, especially with the credit crisis too! What an intolerable government.

[A mother]

If this blog is indeed intended to be our "guide to Britain's education system", then may I suggest that you regularly post about Home Education too? It's a growing community, with a big online presence (you might enjoy exploring the Early Years HE blogring at http://codeplacidly.com/ringmaker.php or the Home Ed UK blogring http://www.notsheep.net/ringmaker.php as starting points for exploration.

I'd say the absolute must-read in the HE blogging world is Carlotta's http://www.daretoknowblog.blogspot.com/ This is a bit of a Reddit-style news accumulator for UK home edders.

Not all education in Britain is happening in schools, and you'll almost certainly find Home Education topics provocative and comment-inducing, if you are looking for a blog with active traffic.