Seven Myths About Exams
I don’t know about you, but I have had enough of the hoo-ha about exam results day. When I got my O-level results and one token CSE – for this is how old I am - no one batted an…
Phasing out Private Schools
Our recent parent blog in support of comprehensive education garnered a huge amount of engagement from our followers. So we thought we would take the debate one step further, and report on growing calls for private schools to be phased…
Autism and isolation booths – a parent shares her story
My daughter is a school refuser. She was diagnosed with Autism in March 2018 having suffered a mental breakdown at the end of 2017. She attended an Academy which operated a “Positive Discipline” system and before she was diagnosed she…
School to close in South Shields – a parent tells the story
South Shields school was and is a brilliant school. That is why many of us, the parents, chose this school. But in 2017 the school was deemed inadequate by Ofsted. Leading up to this, the council brought in a new…
Heads need to come together to end SATs
Rescue Our Schools recently received an anonymous message from a parent whose son was about to sit SATS. His grandparent had sadly passed away during SATs week. The family told the school. What did the school say in response? Please…
I withdrew my 11 year old son from his SATs tests, and it was the best decision we could have made
Too much change and high levels of pressure can be so detrimental to our children's mental health. So I decided to look into things and see if we had any options. For weeks now I have seen a lot of…
Winners and losers: Off-rolled for the sake of Progress 8?
So, recently I became a tutor. I am probably one of very few who are doing this for free. I’ve never wanted to be a tutor, but I have been put in a position where I feel I can’t refuse.…
Halfon calls for the scrapping of GCSEs. Parents, is it time we push for bold yet beneficial reform?
For many years now I have been telling my long-suffering partner that if I was the Head of Education for the world - or at least England - I would scrap GCSEs. My reasoning has always been the stark difference…
Parents, Should our New Year Resolution be Revolution?
This may sound uncharacteristically heartless, but I was so pleased, though the context is horrific, to read Brian Walton in the TES expressing the prevalence of fear in his working life these days. It’s horrifying to learn it is the…
What makes a good teacher?
How devastating it was to read the comments written by followers of Rescue Our Schools on an article about age being no barrier to good teaching. Teachers in their fifties vulnerable to redundancy, teachers in their fifties working on zero…