Jingsamichty

Yes.

Cape Blue

If in the UK you were poor, fat, living in a hovel with neither of you working and in your future country of choice you would not be poor, fat, unemployed and living in a hovel, then yes, it might be a good idea to move.

I suspect that the average BE member does not fit into the category of UK underclass, both in situation or attitude, so they are not likely to improve their kids chances by moving, based upon this report.

Perhaps other reports examining issues more relevant to those not in the underclass might indicate that moving would be beneficial for the kids, but I don't really see that this one does.

earlytobed

Yes, absolutely.

earlytobed

Some really good points raised by all. I suspect that all of us as parents have concerns about our children's education, wherever we reside, and rightly so. The fact that we want the best for our offspring shows that we care. We've all got to wrangle with these issues everyday.

But surely we in the UK still have a world-class education system overall. I have friends whose children went to bog-standard schools and ended up at Cambridge. This is possible if one is so disposed and bright enough. This doesn't make us special, just illustrates that the opportunities, compared to most of the world, are available.

I don't know anything about the Canadian system, so can't really comment. I'm guessing, like here, it can vary from one area to another, especially with some communities so spread out. Must be difficult to attract top teaching talent to some remote communities, aswell as offering the full range of educational facilities.

Most of the issues raised in this report are concerned with the edges of society - as already stated- and of course there are issues that need addressing. With enough of us bothering about it, they surely will be.

rae

well, if this report really is that inaccurate, as it appears some contend all reports are biased, inaccurate, false and misleading, i wonder how we are to assess anything in life.

i take it none of the persons currently with children in schools in england pay any attention to the school league/performance tables.

earlytobed

Not at the mo, mine go to the nearest school (400m) and nursery. It happens to be a reasonably good school as far as I can tell. Prob will pay more attention at senior school level. I will admit that I would happily move area if I only had the option of a poor school locally.

I'd far rather there weren't league tables and everybody had to go to their local school. That way you'd get a fairer distribution of brainboxes/dullards and hopefully a greater spread of social groupings. Teachers could then get on with teaching as they, their pupils/parents desired.

Again the stats have to be looked at with a big pinch of salt. They only measure certain aspects, and one has to be prepared to read between the lines. Schools have various ways of skewing results to meet certain criteria -your in the old-bill so you should understand that at least- I'm sure I am capable of judging performance myself, by visiting the school and speaking to and observing teachers and pupils alike, aswell as assessing my own children's standards of behavior and progress. Parents of other children will soon tell you if anything is wrong, you don't have to wait for some government quango to tell you about your own local school.

I'm sure that parents of children at 'top of the table' schools feel vindicated by their choice/luck of their situation etc. However what are children at lower performing schools supposed to feel? If your told your crap at an early age, you can be fairly sure to achieve a higher level of crappiness. Cannot see what good it does to have that sort of info out in the open. The matter should be addressed by the Ed Auth concerned.

Joe_Sleepy

My kids (10 & 11) have only been in school in Canada since last September but the differences are palpable. The U.K. is continuing down a path of more and more testing and exams resulting in the whole system gearing up for the next hurdle rather than consistent education. Friends and family who teach at all grades agree that this is the fundamental problem. The kids are hothoused for the next round of testing, tested & then the process begins all over again. My 10 year old would do her 30 word spelling test and receive her new word list with her results, no time to go back and work on the ones she missed. Same with Math & most other subjects. We've found, so far, that here in NS the girls are encouraged to engage with the subjects much more. It's true that the kids in the U.K. are cynical but I would be, put in their position..

iaink

Probably in the moving back to the Uk forum, as it concerns the UK

3rd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...elopment_Index

or alternatively last out of 25...
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/na...e26611&k=74978


or 12th out of 21 (with the UK last)
http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Ch...ertyReport.pdf

See how usefull these studies can be

joydot

hugely entertaining, eye-opening disparity... would make a great article but unlikely anyone would publish it as they rely on all those 'researchers' for regular fodder.

Cape Blue

I wasn't suggesting it was inacurate, more that it is not measuring issues that would reflect upon the lives of the average BE members kid. Its more of a poverty/economic disparity report.

rae

others did though. i never endorsed it, i simply found it interesting and a little disturbing. i have no idea whether it is accurate or not nor do i have any idea about the average expat. i am certain though that there will be something to it, whether close or miles off, and even if it is miles off, the country, government and citizens, of whatever standing, should be concerned by it.

joydot

when we yanked our 13 yr old from holland park the best 'local' school that would take her was christs in richmond. 5 mins by car along one road non-peak, 1-1.5 hrs peak traffic (1 train, 2 buses). religious - wasnt happy. uniforms - wasnt thrilled. buildings - about 4,000,000 miles below anything norman foster has done for the french govt. league tables - could do better. didnt pretend to be exceptional. surrounded by posh privates who picked off anyone able/ affluent. yet it was a good, low-key but well-led mixed school with some ambition for its students. my daughter was happy, motivated and learning. incidently, it had been closed for its exceptional probs a couple years prior to our arrival and 'superhead' brought in. they were into a building program by the time we left. i would recommend it as a parental check-out. but you'd never pick it out of the tables. we checked out lots of higher 'performers' but wouldnt have touched them with a 10' pole.

Jingsamichty

I must have gone to a terrible school because I couldn't understand any of that.

Settlers_Unlimited

That report referenced by BBC, as well as that of Unicef are, to my mind, all b.s.

I must admit that I've never been to UK but I traveled a lot in Western and Eastern Europe, living in "both", plus now in Canada.

I'll never ever believe that any Western European country including UK can be overtaken by any East European country. But some new EU members are ranked higher.

And btw, I can't understand now can Canada surpass so many Western Europe countries in "material well being", as is in that Unicef report. Wages are clearly lower here, plus life is significantly more expensive, minus strong social system, heathcare and free higher education.

So, forget those ratings, just live.

montreal mike

My thoughts exactly. Any information provided, and I have to assume it is not pure gibberish but there is a valid message there somewhere, it is all lost as it is simply too hard to understand or decipher.

Whatever happened to the concept of proper sentence structure, and a minimal level of spelling and punctuation?

Is that too much to ask?