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Schools Today

jimbojetset said:
For at least the past ten years children in schools have been the subject of a vast and doomed series of social experiments.

Social experimentation in schooling has been happening since we have had schooling and every generation has complained about the type of system in place. As Ex Reme says, I agree with most of what you say, but it is so complex no matter what system or process is used, people will get left behind.

I'll not quibble with that, but it's interesting that in ten years we've gone through a series of edicts as to how things should be taught - and ended up with a complete return to the systems of a decade ago. What I'm angered about is those poor sods who've been in 'the system' in the interim. If it was OK ten years ago, what the hell have we been doing since then - and why?

The reality is that it takes an extraordinarily brave (or stupid) Minister to say 'No, things are working reasonably well, we will leave them alone'.
 
I don't understand your original post. You described the school as being "one of the better ones", yet the article you posted quotes that the school is below the LEA average. It also does not state which LEA - what is to say it is one of the top ones?

Also, if the school is in special measures then there is a reason for this. It could be pupil attainment, pupil behaviour, financing or even the leadership, but there is always a reason for a school being in special measures (I should know, two of the feeder schools to where I work are in special measures, some of the kids are mental).

A school should have no worries in being clear and honest about the challenges facing their school. Many teachers choose to work in challenging schools - it's nothing to do with being forced because they can't find work elsewhere, but many of us relish the challenge and actually seeing genuine changes in the pupils.

You may also have noticed that the main sources of the problems are not actually with the school perhaps? The pupils at the school have to come from somewhere. When a school is struggling to appoint people to a PTA then there is serious disaffection or apathy towards education.

It sounds to me as though the school is actually working damn hard to rectify its faults and to try and improve the educational standards and the later quality of life of the pupils passing through its gates. I think they should be commended for being open about their problems, as I have worked at a school where issues were swept under the carpet and it was NOT a healthy atmosphere.
 

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