http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8094009/Teachers-work-harder-for-the-children-of-pushy-parents-study-finds.htmlAccording to this piece of research, published in the above article and elsewhere, if you are pushy parents your children do better at school as the teachers recognise your efforts in listening to your children read and the help you give them with homework and thus the teachers will in turn try harder to help your child.
This is not entirely true. Obviously supporting your children will help them but in my experience those parents who pour money into the school, give the school more than just time on the PTA by adding in gifts of prizes to be awarded to the children, pay for new equipment, donate money to various school projects and so on can guarantee that their child will be favoured by the staff. Ability counts for little in many schools. Having parents prepared to unquestioningly arse lick the staff and throw money in the direction of the school will see some children receive better results than their classmates because the teachers will mark their child's work more favourably. At the local primary a boy was universally known as "The Thickest Child in the World" but despite polling the lowest number of votes (of his fellow pupils) out of all the candidates the head decided that he should be made head boy. He won prizes year on year, he was made captain of football etc BUT his father was the owner of a local company and paid for an extension to the library in the first year the kid attended. In the second year father paid for a computer suite to be installed, in the third year it was new curtains for the school hall, in the fourth a new playground surface was laid. The child in question moved on to high school where even the staff privately call him "The Thickest Child in the World" and placed him in the lowest set. He is a bully, he can barely read and write, was already into "soft" drugs by the time he was in year 8 and is a thoroughly bad lot but Father was still looking for an advantage and got himself elected Chair of Governors displacing the grandmother (how she get to be a Parent Governor?) of the previous head girl who had now left school ..... having achieved passes in 3 GCSEs at the lowest possible grades in Art, Drama and PE she was advised that A levels were beyond her and is busy learning "Floristry" on day release at the local college.
Don't let anyone say that his parents haven't done their best (by their standards) for the kid but a damned good hiding would have served him far better.
The High School children rejoiced when he was led away by the police a couple of weeks ago, their sniffer dog having detected drugs (which he was found to have enough on his person to supply half of Rhyl with). Wonder who his father will have to bribe this time?
Just thought I would add my five penn'orth to the researchers little "story"
