This is great to read about, school bags with needed items to help P1 go easier for children has to help, and cost minimally. It may not solve everything, but little will - so let’s give it a shot at least
As much as I appreciate the intend, I suspect that for the kids themselves this things will be the worst kind of social stigmata imaginable to start school with. Unless it is mandatory for all, which it doesn’t seem to be.
Interested question: Are learning materials (like school books) generally free in Scotland already?Nah, that social stigma isn’t there in P1 from what I can see. High school, yup, for sure. But these bags won’t last that long either
Nah, that social stigma isn’t there in P1 from what I can see. High school, yup, for sure.
Interesting. Might be a regional difference, I am speaking from my experiences in Germany.
I have two kids, the first one now being 14, the second one just finished 4th grade.
We encountered quite a bit of bullying based on superficial things like looks, style and possessions during early years of elementary school already.
And it started already during 1st grade, which might be connected a little bit to the fact that 1st and 2nd grade are taught together at our school.This kind of bullying still was going strong well into High School also, but not as much as I expected (but we might have just been lucky with our really self-confident oldest).
And starting from 8th or 9th grade, I would expect pupils here to wear such free backpacks deliberately as an edgy personal style statement.Sorry to hear that. Mine go to a nicer school if that helps. And I try to make then look nicer, but alas - scruffs by nature
Here we can’t choose which primary school our kids go to, but they are assigned based on the address you live (apart from some exceptions that come with other drawbacks).
And I am also not sure if selecting a different school would help much.
Especially with our younger one, a girl, I saw a lot of social pressure regarding looks coming especially from what I would consider “upper middle class” peers in her primary school class.Same in Scotland for the most. There are private schools though. And I chose where to live, just a street over is £100k less
While there are private schools in Germany, they are by far not as common as in the UK, I think.
And they typically come with special alternative pedagogic concepts (and often also a slightly fringe belief system behind it), which you have to be ok with.
We considered a “humanistic” private primary school, but decided against it.
Primary reason was that we wanted our children to have their school friends from their direct neighbourhood, ant not scattered across a 50km radius that would have come with the private school.
How common are private schools in Scotland, and what’s their typical catch area?
Related: How do kids typically travel to school in the morning?Edinburgh has a massive private intake. I read 25%. The rest of Scotland is probably closer to 5%, or less. And travel varies, city center like me: mostly on foot - but there are too many Chelsea Tractors complimenting that. And high schools see mostly bus travel in my experience
Yes, the school provides reading materials, which are returned at the end of term
the school provides reading materials, which are returned at the end of term
That’s good to hear. We also have a similar system (but it is unfortunately not done so in all states afaik).
It is a major financial relief for all families and should be standard everywhere.
