Postby Bookymummy » Mon Feb 03, 2020 1:30 pm
I am very interested to hear your positive experience of Emanuel. Might I ask, is your son in the Lower years of the School (Y6-Y8)?
There have been a significant number of changes to Emanuel in recent years, which to be honest, have not, IMHO, enhanced the experience for existing pupils.
Certainly, the homework has increased massively, taking up most of every evening in the middle school years. There seems to be vast quantities of work which pupils are expected to ‘teach themselves’ via online resources, which is fine if you have ‘pro-active’ kids but not so great if your child relies on classroom teaching. I also have personal experience of having to repeatedly email a teacher to get almost half a terms worth of unmarked assignments marked and returned to the pupil.
A significant amount of weekday sport has been curtailed in favour of academic work, disappointing for any child who chose Emanuel for the extra-curricula activities, rather than the ‘Hot-House’ mentality which can be found at many other institutions, particularly frustrating when teaching styles & results don’t necessarily correlate with the increased pupil & parent input required.
Discussion with the School about this is not entirely straightforward as parental concerns are managed by a ‘Senior Management’ team rather than through the traditional process of liaison with Teachers and Head Teachers, which almost has the feel of a ‘barrier’ presented to discourage discourse and feedback from parents.
It’s a difficult situation, if you have children already ensconced in a system, as whilst it’s easy to say ‘move them’ this is not really a viable option when GCSEs/A Levels are approaching. On the opposite side it becomes hard to keep disappointed children engaged with an environment they don’t necessarily feel is working for them.
I’m sure there are other varying views and experiences on this, it would interesting to hear what other parents think?