You’ve probably seen/read about the thousands of head teachers from around the country demonstrating in London recently…
You might be a parent who is seeing for yourself some of the scary issues schools are facing through lack of adequate funding.
You might well have shrugged your shoulders and thought: “well, we’re all struggling, what makes schools so special?”.
Well, I’d urge you to read this (please):
After retiring from my architectural
practice, I spent six years working in a secondary school in a mentoring
capacity. This morning, I received this from a friend/former work colleague
(she’s still working in education, but not at the same school):
“I'm so glad you are out of
education Steve it's heartbreaking where I work now, so many kids with
problems... they just can't get the mental health support need counselling.
Teachers are dealing with disruptive kids every lesson no TAs. One class has
2/3 kids with SEN no TA. When kids tell me they are cutting themselves I'm told
the waiting list for in school counsellor is over 6 months. They have no money
to buy in counselling support, they try to get trainee counsellors but there aren't
any just now. Schools are dealing with lack of special school provision for
those who need it. One boy in year9 genuinely doesn't think he's a human. Other
day was lying on the floor in class teacher couldn't get him up. We are failing
him as he is more anxious by an environment he shouldn't be in and the rest of the
class are learning lot less. That's one example of many. I'm seeing kids where
parents don't engage at all with them, complete neglect - and social services are
not on any of it as short staffed. I'm not even in a pastoral role and 4 kids
have confided in me this month with big problems who need and were getting no
support. The sad thing is I often can't get them that support. It's breaking my
heart you'd hate it. You can't run a society not looking after your mental
health, disabled, your kids and the poor as well as screwing over social
workers schools and hospitals. Why the hell are we letting this happen?”
Things were bad enough when I left education in 2011 (thank you Mr Gove and
welcome to the depressing world of Academy Schools!). Mental health issues were
rising at an alarming rate and waiting lists for counselling support for pupils
were in order of six weeks (they’re now six months and the numbers of children
needing support is increasing).
Disruptive pupils, lack of parental support (frankly, an alarming number of
parents who seem to think they have little or no responsibility for raising their
children once they’ve started school)(you might be shocked by this, but I can
assure you I came across many such situations). This is the next generation of adults we’re talking about, for goodness sake… and they’re going to be the parents of the generation after that. It MATTERS and this isn’t anything that the short-term, egotistical whims of education ministers will solve.
In my view, we’ve completely lost our way when it comes to education (some
of my teacher friends might disagree with certain aspects, but…?). Everything
seems to be focused on ‘league tables’ and ‘results’. Teachers are all under
ridiculous pressure to ensure that ‘attainment standards’ are met and for the 'curriculum'
to be rigidly adhered to. It also seems to me that it’s currently about ensuring
most children receive a university education (I personally think we need to
focus far more on apprenticeships and the like - a degree doesn’t need to be
for everyone), instead of educating future citizens of the adult world in the
broadest possible way - where the environment, the arts and humanities are
given far higher priority and where issues such as relationships, respect and kindness
play a fundamental part in teaching children about life and the world.
But I’m clearly living in cloud
cuckoo land and I’m old and I just don’t understand.
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