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Would you send your child to this school?


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Old 30-12-2016, 21:42
claire2281
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Yeah id definitley would want to see the results first...
We'll have to wait a few years for that - I believe it's building up its cohorts naturally so only has Year 7 and 8 so far.

My biggest bugbear with the place is I think the start is far too early (7:55am) and that the school is vegetarian only (which is nothing to do with education standards at all).
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:05
benjamini
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i don`t think she is actually fit to run a school, i definitely would not send my kids anywhere that favours punishing children for the perceived sins of the parents.
So keep on compounding the problems or stop the rot ?
I wholeheartedly agree with her approach of cutting out bullying and indiscipline and concentrating instead on study.
I'm pretty bored with the whole " we need to encompass the societal problem of feral children" . It isn't working, it hasn't worked since its inception . Reducing a whole school to the lowest common denominator has been an utter disaster. Raising expectations is and always has been the way to bring everyone forward and upwards.
Of course we won't know how successful any of this has been until the Ofsted report. It I await that with interest.
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:09
Heatherbell
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i don`t think she is actually fit to run a school, i definitely would not send my kids anywhere that favours punishing children for the perceived sins of the parents.
I think she is spot on , but the exam results will speak for or against in time .
Fighting/chatting/bullying in the corridors and toilets cannot be blamed solely on the parents . Whatever they may see at home the children need to know that in the real world there are rules and they are in school to be educated , not as an extension of their home life or to be babysat daily while they socialise with their mates and do as they please .
I want my children educated and also prepared for a world where there are rules to be obeyed because that's real life . I can't be doing with all this "Saying 'no' to your child will damage their psyche." What a load of bull .
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:16
Heatherbell
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We'll have to wait a few years for that - I believe it's building up its cohorts naturally so only has Year 7 and 8 so far.

My biggest bugbear with the place is I think the start is far too early (7:55am) and that the school is vegetarian only (which is nothing to do with education standards at all).
Bib . Well it's only during the day in school hours . The children can feast on bacon butties for breakfast and roast dinners or sausage and mash in the evening at home for their meat/processed meat fix . I doubt veggie lunch meals will be too horrendous .
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:49
What name??
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No way and I am very pro-discipline in schools. But I also think children should be encouraged to have and share opinions and explore other viewpoints. We need people who are disciplined and also independent thinkers. But the school does have a place and would suit some kids I suppose.
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Old 30-12-2016, 23:03
benjamini
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Some of the most creative thinkers , imagative forward thinkers , engineers , scientists architects mathematicians exploded during the Strict Victorian period where disciple and education in children was essential. I'm not condoning cruelty , and I appreciate it was in many ways cruellly I equal but of those who were educated their potential was tapped and found. We should be doing that for every single child today.
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Old 30-12-2016, 23:27
netcurtains
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Some of the most creative thinkers , imagative forward thinkers , engineers , scientists architects mathematicians exploded during the Strict Victorian period where disciple and education in children was essential. I'm not condoning cruelty , and I appreciate it was in many ways cruellly I equal but of those who were educated their potential was tapped and found. We should be doing that for every single child today.
I guess like most people they succeeded despite their schooling rather than because of.
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Old 31-12-2016, 00:14
claire2281
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Bib . Well it's only during the day in school hours . The children can feast on bacon butties for breakfast and roast dinners or sausage and mash in the evening at home for their meat/processed meat fix . I doubt veggie lunch meals will be too horrendous .
Imo it's stretching the teachers' professional standards to impose such lifestyle choices on children. Since that isn't an education matter I think it should be left to the choice of the child - providing them with good meals for vegetarians and non - but saying all children MUST have a school lunch and then saying they are vegetarian only is over stepping the mark imo. As a teacher myself I would feel uncomfortable working in a place that insisted upon such things.
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Old 31-12-2016, 00:52
blueblade
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Probably not - sounds a bit stifling to me. I'm all for reasonable discipline, but that seems like overkill.
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Old 31-12-2016, 03:21
annette kurten
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I think she is spot on , but the exam results will speak for or against in time .
Fighting/chatting/bullying in the corridors and toilets cannot be blamed solely on the parents . Whatever they may see at home the children need to know that in the real world there are rules and they are in school to be educated, not as an extension of their home life or to be babysat daily while they socialise with their mates and do as they please .
I want my children educated and also prepared for a world where there are rules to be obeyed because that's real life . I can't be doing with all this "Saying 'no' to your child will damage their psyche." What a load of bull .
So keep on compounding the problems or stop the rot ?
I wholeheartedly agree with her approach of cutting out bullying and indiscipline and concentrating instead on study.
I'm pretty bored with the whole " we need to encompass the societal problem of feral children" . It isn't working, it hasn't worked since its inception . Reducing a whole school to the lowest common denominator has been an utter disaster. Raising expectations is and always has been the way to bring everyone forward and upwards.
Of course we won't know how successful any of this has been until the Ofsted report. It I await that with interest.
there are countless reasons that i wouldn`t send a child of mine there but probably the biggest is that such an over the top attitude to discipline is a hindrance to learning not an advantage. too much worrying about whether you`re breaking a rule or not is the route to a broken spirit and the annihilation of creativity and independence.

i`ve NEVER been a fan of the teacher telling method either, i think children [and adults] learn better by getting involved.


i suppose it might be tempting for some parents who are struggling with unruly behaviour in their child already and think it`s the answer [which it might be to a small number of kids].
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Old 31-12-2016, 03:41
RobinOfLoxley
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Sounds like Mugabe is running a school in Wembley.
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Old 31-12-2016, 08:25
Esensuelle
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Birbalsingh believes that the children and teachers all know pretty much the same stuff, which is why the children just need to be guided by the teacher as opposed to being taught by the teacher
This line in itself is quite bizarre, I'd be quite concerned if my child's head teacher thought that. And how insulting is this to all of the excellent teachers across country.
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Old 31-12-2016, 08:33
annette kurten
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This line in itself is quite bizarre, I'd be quite concerned if my child's head teacher thought that. And how insulting is this to all of the excellent teachers across country.

this is the full quote:
“We have the teacher standing at the front and imparting knowledge. We believe the teacher knows more than the children. Most teachers in Britain do not believe that. They believe that the children and teachers all know pretty much the same stuff, which is why the children just need to be guided by the teacher as opposed to being taught by the teacher.”
where was that? i couldn`t find it in the linked article.
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Old 31-12-2016, 08:47
Jewels501
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So keep on compounding the problems or stop the rot ?
I wholeheartedly agree with her approach of cutting out bullying and indiscipline and concentrating instead on study.
I'm pretty bored with the whole " we need to encompass the societal problem of feral children" . It isn't working, it hasn't worked since its inception . Reducing a whole school to the lowest common denominator has been an utter disaster. Raising expectations is and always has been the way to bring everyone forward and upwards.
Of course we won't know how successful any of this has been until the Ofsted report. It I await that with interest.
I tend to agree. I don't have children so this is really hypothetical for me however I interact with my different friends' children. One friend has children who are openly aggressive i.e hitting and punching me for no apparent reason and swearing like troopers.

She will, in the face of such behaviour, smile indulgently and say, 'welcome to my world, Steiner children are so feral aren't they'.... Erm, yes and it' s not good my dear!

Steiner schools are obviously a totally different story altogether but I don't see much wrong with this school's approach. Obvious caveat regarding academic results etc....
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Old 31-12-2016, 11:42
muggins14
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I think that the fact that a school with a no-bullying policy, well-behaved children and strict rules to be adhered to by all (parents and students) is now seen as unusual is rather sad and shows how much things have changed. These days people run to the press if their children are told off for not wearing the correct school uniform, if their kids are excluded from the school trip due to whatever reason, and so on.

Teachers are leaving the education system "79% of schools say they are struggling to recruit or retain teachers and 88% predict things are going to get worse and that this will severely affect students." Nearly half of teachers say they plan to leave in the next 5 years. Something has got to change. Successive governments seem to have no idea what they are doing to the schooling system and really seem to care very little.

"Bureaucratic systems to record pupil progress and staff performance, plus a heavier burden of written marking to please Ofsted inspectors, are taking a toll on the health of the school workforce and prompting more to escape to schools in the independent sector or overseas, the survey finds." https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...rkload-england

This is, though, the school that also separates the students over the school lunch situation - which I could never agree with. Perhaps there are some lessons that could be learned from them though - not by other schools, but by the powers-that-be.
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Old 31-12-2016, 13:47
Wong_Billabong
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One of the worst learning techniques.
I used to think so, but its how the majority of my A-level students like to learn and it does get results both at A-level and Univeristy

I'd love to have much more child centred learning and i imagine it ould be much more fun but in the high pressure learning environments such as sixth form and university, a lot of students don't want it, they want the facts and what they need to put in their essays and standing their teaching for the majority of the time, with independent essay practice and bursts of group discussion is often the best way to achieve this - flawed education system, definitley!:
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Old 31-12-2016, 13:49
Psychosis
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I think the head of this school is over egging how bad other schools are. Pretty certain that most kids would pick up a grape when asked by a teacher nicely! I'm not the biggest fan of teenagers, I've parented two, they can be completes arseholes at times but they really aren't as feral as some would have us believe. I'd wager that those too beligerant to pick up a bloody grape are in the minority.
Parents have no idea what their kids are like in school. I have kids who behave like they're the reincarnation of the devil itself and their parents look at me like I've grown a second head when I even hint at their child being slightly less than perfectly behaved.

If I had a class of 30 kids, I'd be lucky if there were two of them who would pick a grape up off the floor. I imagine most classes there wouldn't be one kid who would do it. Even the nice ones.
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Old 31-12-2016, 14:07
seventhwave
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On one hand: yes, I would like my children to go to a school with strict discipline.

On the other I do find some of her views and attitudes very strange. For instance religious discussion/practice aren't allowed at the school, yet they enforce vegetarianism (another form of ideology). And any head who claims their school has no bullying is either lying or delusional - bullying exists in all schools and even the strictest policy can't stop it.
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Old 31-12-2016, 14:08
Heatherbell
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Imo it's stretching the teachers' professional standards to impose such lifestyle choices on children. Since that isn't an education matter I think it should be left to the choice of the child - providing them with good meals for vegetarians and non - but saying all children MUST have a school lunch and then saying they are vegetarian only is over stepping the mark imo. As a teacher myself I would feel uncomfortable working in a place that insisted upon such things.
But the vegetarian lunch thing is not a "lifestyle choice" being made for them . It's one minor meal mid day during school term . Just 5 meals out of 21 in a school week , and not applicable (obv) at weekends and holidays . That's not enforcing a lifestyle choice on them , it's ensuring they eat healthily while in school . Outside school they can stuff themselves silly with takeaways and kebabs
I am not keen on little children opting to be 100% vegetarian . It feels wrong , but I am all for encouraging them to eat more vegetables within a non veggie lifestyle .
How can that be bad ?
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Old 31-12-2016, 14:12
GusGus
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If more schools were like this we wouldn't have so many kids leaving school illiterate and unemployable.

You mustn't point up this truth, there will be an army of teachers and educationalists jumping on your back
I went to such a school in the early 50s, a grammar. First year was a doddle, we did what we liked. Second hear however we gained a new headmaster who immediately put the school in mourning for it's lost reputation, black ties to be worn straight away
He was a former RAF wing commander and treated us as though we were his former erks, discipline was very tight
We hated it having been used to a slack regime, but he got the results. Mourning ceased just when I left, always thought it was all my fault
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Old 31-12-2016, 14:54
muggins14
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On one hand: yes, I would like my children to go to a school with strict discipline.

On the other I do find some of her views and attitudes very strange. For instance religious discussion/practice aren't allowed at the school, yet they enforce vegetarianism (another form of ideology). And any head who claims their school has no bullying is either lying or delusional - bullying exists in all schools and even the strictest policy can't stop it.
Yes, the general idea is a good one, somehow they are managing to maintain discipline, which is a good thing. Some of ideas are ridiculous - if only we could nitpick the best bits - which I suppose is what conferences are about, learning what's working in other schools and what's not and (supposedly) implementing new ideas and ways when you see what's working elsewhere.

ETA: What I would like to know is are the teachers happier there, is it working for them, and - if so - how they work out the other side of the job, the admin that's being heaped on them from the powers that be, the stupid amount of assessment, paperwork, etc. that teachers have to do these days.

Having better behaved kids is all well and good, but the system the teachers and staff have to work under is still the same as every other school, the constant changing of regulations and admin by those at the top.
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Old 31-12-2016, 15:04
RobinOfLoxley
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Replace the 'Vegetarian' with 'Halal' and see how many think that is acceptable.


- flawed education system, definitley!:
Oops
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Old 31-12-2016, 15:10
seventhwave
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Replace the 'Vegetarian' with 'Halal' and see how many think that is acceptable.
Why would Michaela do that when it is a secular school which does not have religious assemblies or practice etc. on school grounds?
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Old 31-12-2016, 15:13
RobinOfLoxley
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It's a Thought Experiment
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Old 31-12-2016, 15:27
seventhwave
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It's a Thought Experiment
I still think it would be pointless/hypocritical for a school that makes a point of not having any religious practice and insists on vegetarian food?
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