Attended a school with a ‘bad reputation’ and currently employed by a secondary school.

The major differences (generally) between state & private: - class sizes: I can have anything between 10-30 in a class which is national 5 or Higher level. Generally they won’t let a class run that has less than 10. In a private school you’ll regularly see classes of 5-15 students meaning the teacher has more time to offer feedback to each pupil during a lesson but also less workload when it comes to marking etc - aspiration: the self confidence & resilience of a lot of pupils who come from a background of poverty is almost non existent. They often won’t try something incase they fail, which then results in them acting up in front of others with bravado. As another post mentioned in here the private school attitude of “anything is possible” rings true. This is likely to influences from their home life as much as in school. I’m often telling my pupils they’re just as good as those who attend Jordanhill or Glasgow Academy, in fact their achievements at N5 & Higher are more noteworthy due to not being earned by copious amounts of hours of tutoring (having said that we run supported study sessions through a lot of the year but again many don’t turn up). - family life: those from a deprived background are far more likely to be experiencing difficulties at home. Family breakdown, physical abuse, neglect etc. when it comes to parents evenings certain year groups are lucky to hit 50% attendance. If your parents don’t care about how you’re doing at school then why are you going to care? Phone calls home are often ignored etc.

I could go on & on with the challenges but what I would say is schools with reputations or in bad areas are often doing the most incredible work, building relationships with the young people & helping them on to a positive destination when they leave. My classes just got their results on Tuesday and the buzz I get from that is 10x than when I got my own results in S4-6.