[Closed] If I could change anything fundamental in British Society

Your the next PM aren't you.

My change would be much more fundamental. I'd do away with Britain.

Just one.

I want to get people to realise that society is a thing. Society needs to work to help everyone get what they need. We need to look after each other instead of competing and fighting. Government therefore needs to support this aim. To be honest, I think most people feel this way (look at opinions on higher taxes for 'fat cats') but somehow since the 80s the public has been conned into voting against their own interests. This is what I would change.

And you could start to change it with something as simple as PR.

scotroutes

Member
My change would be much more fundamental. I’d do away with Britain.

Like, sink it? The whole island? 😆 A tad harsh!

I’d make it legal to taser your own children*

The cheeky little  blighters.

*not other  peoples. I’m not a monster.

a) comment on my proposals, or

For the love of God, wont you think of all the middle class homeowners who would instantly loose %50 of the value of their homes?

I'd ban ready salted crisps.

It's not that I hate them. It's just it's a core part of British Society and so boring. So much so that a lot of shops will only stock boring crisps because few are adventurous enough to try decent flavours.

I'd add - the state not funding private school places for SEN pupils.

Locally it costs £80,000 + £20,000 transportation to send a pupil to a private school 12 miles away as a day pupil and £250,000 residential. A state school woudl receive approx £20k for a day pupil. Unsurprisingly, the state provision is not as well resourced.

3. Gather all schools in a region under a single board of publically-elected trustees

I'd rather not politicise the running of schools any more than it is.

4. Resources to be allotted to the whole educational region instead of to individual schools

Where are you putting your boundaries? You'll still end up with inequality for communities straddling the boundary...

5. All school estates to be equally provisioned in terms of facilities

Not feasible? An secondary school in a city likely won't have room for 5 (or maybe even 1) football pitches.

It actually makes sense (to me) to concentrate your (very) SEN provision in a few centres of excellence. That way kids with those needs can get the help they deserve, not a half-arsed go from their local school.

As for my ideas to shake things up a bit...

Remove NI + a flat rate of tax on all income/capital gains, no matter how derived.

Base local taxation on income instead of the value of your house 25 years ago

Create a federal UK government (based somewhere in the north), with assemblies/existing arrangements for all the nations.

Everybody gets a taser. One shot a month. Use it wisely

Locally it costs £80,000 + £20,000 transportation to send a pupil to a private school 12 miles away as a day pupil and £250,000 residential.

What schools that? Not seen any annual rates anywhere near that, unless you mean total but then that figures too low.

I agree though- education needs and overhaul.
It's failing kids and knock on effect on our society is evident.
The failure will keep trickling down effecting generations to come.
There is so much missing from the curriculum that could easily be slotted in by replacing the pointless parts.

I think the way a pupil is assess also needs to change. This emphasis on a few crucial exams and limited coursework is no reflection of the real world or somebodies intelligence.

As someone who used to work for a pretty major player in the provision of private schools for ASD / SEBD pupils I couldn't agree more. When I started I was very enthusiastic about the opportunities we were providing for very vulnerable people and don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic people at the front line. However, as I started to ask for more IT provision in the schools I soon came to realise that the bottom line is the prime factor by some way. I now have a completely different view of state funding for private SEN education.

In line with the responses since wwasw's post I should add that I did see the charges for day pupils and residential and they are eye watering. If you go to the school's website and download the Ofsted report it will contain the fees. For day pupils the rate for one school was £45,000 to £85,000 per annum and £50,000 to £90,000 per annum at another.

I'm sure education is the right place to start. Providing it's the right kind of education. I have no kids though. What would STW parents like to see?

Robust behavioural standards, applied nationally (not per school), with consistent reinforcement which holds children and ultimately parents accountable.

My partner is a high school teacher, the levels of daily abuse she puts up with is very troubling to me. It's not tolerated in many other places such as the NHS etc. So why schools?

What schools that? Not seen any annual rates anywhere near that, unless you mean total but then that figures too low.

I think it best not to say but they're genuine figures used in cases at the High Court when parents have appealed the LA school's suitability for their child.

Can I add a 2a please? Remove [u]all[/u] religious education from schools. If the parents want to go down that path they can but there's no place for it within the state education system. Other than that, I'd be voting for you OP.

I suppose the removal of religious education within schools may also remove christmas as an annual source of landfill.

My partner is a high school teacher, the levels of daily abuse she puts up with is very troubling to me.

Wouldn’t be a problem if she had a taser.

Provide educational region-wide mass transport

One of the things the USA gets right.

Back in the 60s, schools did better at sharing facilities. e.g. there was a south london education board rowing club on the thames where students would row, in place of school based sports.
I'd be surprised if (m)any state schools do rowing now. The point being that one school can;t be expected to pay for a rowing club - but per county it probably is manageable. Pooling resources on a location base makes sense.

Remove charitable status of private schools

Are you aware that this applies to the great many language schools in the country. Here in Brighton they bring in a great deal of overseas income. Not only that having met a great many students studying here they like to spend when they are here. It's also a good source of income for a great many host families and many kids here then get to meet and build relationships with people from all over the world. If they are a charitable trust then all surpluses are reinvested.

While I find the apparent subsidy of private schools highly unpalatable it's important to realise that it might not be as simple and beneficial to remove charitable status as you think.

My change would be much more fundamental. I’d do away with Britain

If only the English had been able to vote on Scottish independence `:-)

I think the issue with charitable status is that a lot of private schools are just run as not for profit businesses. They undertake very little 'charitable' work in their communities and purely use their charitable status to avoid taxation.

If they genuinely were workign to widen education opportunities for all or had clear charitable goals that they were meeting it might be different.

'being a school' is insufficient grounds for being a charity, imo.

I'd be really tempted to ban social media and restrict internet access . I think the detrimental impact of these on society and mental health is quite large these days.

In education:
I'd make pay and funding come from central government to remove the burden from local council finances.
Also publish the truth about behaviour, so it's not anecdotal. Have free morning sessions to try and engage whole families and estranged parents (obvious exceptions apply)
I'd also drag parents in to watch CCTV of their children, we had a feral pack hunt a single child earlier this week. 90% of those kids a nice kids but in a mob they would have seriously damages the lone child.

a lot of shops will only stock boring crisps

Have you bought crisps abroad? God help you if you don't like paprika whatever the **** that is. Britain is the crisp capital of the world and it's important to recognise the role of ready salted as a cornerstone of that.

I think the issue with charitable status is that

People misunderstand what it means, it doesn't mean you are a charity but a not for profit organisation given the same tax rules as a charity. It does need sorting out but it needs to be done in a way not detrimental to those schools like language schools who do bring a benefit to the wider community.

The Charities Act defines a charity as an institution that’s established for a charitable purpose and “provides benefit to the public”. While the remit of the “advancement of education” means private schools fall into this category, you would be forgiven for balking at it. Rather than providing “benefit to the public”, modern private schools too often actively harm it, giving a tiny minority of already advantaged offspring a further leg up at the expense of already disadvantaged children.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/16/private-schools-charitable-status-strip-benefits

Probably says all that I would on this subject.

In line with the responses since wwasw’s post I should add that I did see the charges for day pupils and residential and they are eye watering. If you go to the school’s website and download the Ofsted report it will contain the fees. For day pupils the rate for one school was £45,000 to £85,000 per annum and £50,000 to £90,000 per annum at another.

Quick look at the infamous boarding schools (Harrow, Eton, Rugby, Wellington, Marlborough, Cheltenham, etc.), none of their boarding fees are above £85,000 per annum. That's a far cry from £250,000. Not arguing at all, I just can't find any schools with these fees and curios to see what sort of school it is.

For what it's worth, our local boarding school does a huge amount in the community. They saved a local youth club that was about to shut down. Refurbished it and bought lots of new kit, plus saving some jobs. The local council had given up on it years ago. They also provided resources to a local failing state school that was in urgent need. They didn't print their name across either and both happened behind the scenes. There's also a few other large projects they've been working, including running a couple schools in Africa.

Probably says all that I would on this subject.

I agree totally but if you want to change things it has to be done in away that protects similar institutions that do provide a benefit to the wider community.

A written constitution would be nice.

I'd want it to be possible to pay for private health care and opt out of the NHS. *runs and hides*

After the war, there was a real sense of hope and optimism for many people. Partly that was a reaction to the preceding deprivations, but there was also a collective spirit to improve things for everyone.
I'd like that to come back, as I don't think you can achieve much from an atomised culture of pessimism.

cokie - I made the point these were Special Needs schools - costs are far higher.

LA's fund SEN schools at twice to three times a standard per pupil rate and the same is true for the private sector.

(so your £80k for a private boarder would multiply up as I said)

What would STW parents like to see?

I saw it and took my two kids to Sweden, and I don't mean on holiday 🙂

I’d do away with Britain.

Won't be long before that happens anyway.

cokie – I made the point these were Special Needs schools – costs are far higher.

LA’s fund SEN schools at twice to three times a standard per pupil rate and the same is true for the private sector.

(so your £80k for a private boarder would multiply up as I said)

Posted 3 seconds ago

Ah, got you- thanks.
Didn't know what SEN stood for.

On another note, I think we need culture shift to put family and community at the heart of society. I spend a fair bit of time in Switzerland and it just works so well. People don't spend the day with smartphones glued to their hands. Families spend lots of time together. Through taxation your local community gets to visit and decide where it get's spent. People take pride in where they live. Most retail shops shut sundays. They fund out door related activities. It's lovely!
I would have moved there already had it not been for my other half.

The UK seems to be really egocentric and revolving around an instant gratification society. It's amazing how much poverty there is in the UK, considering it's the 5th largest economy. The divide seems to be growing.

The BBC was used after WW11 to spread ideas about modern farming through The Archers so I would use the media to educate citizens about their rights and responsibilities equally. A fair chunk of the education would be produced for new arrivals in Britain, for which I would even commission programme makers from the Middle east and the sub-continent to ensure relevance.

scuttler

Britain is the crisp capital of the world and it’s important to recognise the role of ready salted as a cornerstone of that.

Mr Tayto would like a word.

My own change would be to modernise and overhaul parliament and our voting system. I am forced to tactically vote for labour if I don't want a tory MP. There is precisely zero percent chance anybody else could get in.

6. Provide educational region-wide mass transport, and so eliminate parents taking their children to school

So we can't walk or cycle our children to school any more?? In what weird world is this a good idea???

I'd go further than just removing charitable status from private schools and and instead make it illegal to charge for providing education to under-18s.

6. Provide educational region-wide mass transport, and so eliminate parents taking their children to school

So we can’t walk or cycle our children to school any more?? In what weird world is this a good idea???

I assume the OP meant eliminate the need for parents to take their children to school? You'd still be free to walk/cycle/drive your child to school, but there'd be another (free) option.

Alot of the education stuff seems to be quite English?

I'd change foreigners coming over here and making sweeping assumptions that England represents the whole of the Britain...

All that and you suggest a board if trustees as some kind of solution...

Get rid of those subsidy junky whinging Scots.

Cut them loose into the wide world and the embrace of the EU.

And if we can persuade those pesky northerners to join them, so much the better. Then we could use the existing border wall. Hard border? No problem, here's one we prepared earlier...

That'll teach them to mess with the empire.

England represents the whole of the Britain

By population, it pretty much does. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are just a rounding error.

*runs*

Get rid of those subsidy junky whinging Scots.

Cut them loose into the wide world and the embrace of the EU.

And if we can persuade those pesky northerners to join them, so much the better.

As a pesky northerner, I'm up for that.

I'd make it law that the first drink you buy in a pub has to be a nice pint of bitter, and that you have to drink it before you can order anything else.

It sorts out the 'Carling' pubs and the 'trendy' wine bars at the same time.