SCHOOL PLACEMENT
I'm currently at 'School A'. The first time I was supposed to meet my mentor she was distracted by cooing over a 16-year-old student's week-old baby. The second time I met her she had to leave to speak to the police who were chasing an errant teenager all over Wokingham. I looked up the school's results on Ofsted. Only 45% of students get 5 GCSEs at grade A-C. I know I don't need to make this point, it's clear to see, but this is less than half. I thought that was pretty poor, so looked up my old school to see how it compares. I had a bad experience of school, in that I didn't learn anything until I got into the sixth form (when things began to improve). My bog-standard comprehensive is not much better - only 46% get five A-Cs at GCSE! Thus, attending this particular school is like being back at school myself. It is proving to be a Proust-ian experience rich in sensation, atmosphere, memory. But also deeply depressing. I can see myself in some of the kids. The bright ones, streamed into the inappropriately low sets with both parents and teachers failing to notice their intelligence, they are compliant, passive, bored, switched off and withdrawn. They doodle and watch the clock. That was pretty-much my experience.
State schools are okay but they do fail a lot of brighter kids, I think. How is it possible to spend 12 years in compulsory education and come out knowing nothing about politics, languages or the World Wars?!? But knowing plenty about how to be invisible.
Not that I'm bitter, or anything...
I'm currently at 'School A'. The first time I was supposed to meet my mentor she was distracted by cooing over a 16-year-old student's week-old baby. The second time I met her she had to leave to speak to the police who were chasing an errant teenager all over Wokingham. I looked up the school's results on Ofsted. Only 45% of students get 5 GCSEs at grade A-C. I know I don't need to make this point, it's clear to see, but this is less than half. I thought that was pretty poor, so looked up my old school to see how it compares. I had a bad experience of school, in that I didn't learn anything until I got into the sixth form (when things began to improve). My bog-standard comprehensive is not much better - only 46% get five A-Cs at GCSE! Thus, attending this particular school is like being back at school myself. It is proving to be a Proust-ian experience rich in sensation, atmosphere, memory. But also deeply depressing. I can see myself in some of the kids. The bright ones, streamed into the inappropriately low sets with both parents and teachers failing to notice their intelligence, they are compliant, passive, bored, switched off and withdrawn. They doodle and watch the clock. That was pretty-much my experience.
State schools are okay but they do fail a lot of brighter kids, I think. How is it possible to spend 12 years in compulsory education and come out knowing nothing about politics, languages or the World Wars?!? But knowing plenty about how to be invisible.
Not that I'm bitter, or anything...
