At lunchtime the phone rang. Oh pants it school. What’s happened now? Bizarrely at the other end was a very official sounding Son
“Who am I speaking to”
Son, it’s me.
“Can you confirm that I am speaking to Mr XXXX XXXXXXXX”
Yes son, it’s me.
“Can you confirm that that is you.”
Yes this is your useless Dad.
I am going to ask you a question to confirm this. What did I have for breakfast”
Son you would be brilliant working in a call centre. You had 2 slices of toast, a waffle, raspberries and blueberries. Washed down with an orange juice.
“What colour plate did I use”
White and blue. (In the background I could hear the school teacher saying – come on lad it’s your dad)
“What colour cup”
Red
“Ok Dad the whole school has to spend an extra hour in school tonight to help set up the classes. Unbelievable. I am going to speak to my lawyer about this outrage. Bus will be late. Goodbye”
***********************************
The battle recommences.
So the hope of a new schooling approach didn’t last very long. Basically 6 hours. Son’s been kept down in the bottom set while a number of other kids got moved up. Some of the kids went up in all subjects, others went up in one or two subjects. No explanation from school just the Form Tutor handing out paper timetables with the sets on. His last Form Tutor (who has unfortunately left) confirmed his test and class performance merited moving up sets – at the very least in his three best subjects. We have kids with lower grades in higher sets than our son. Sadly the assumption has to be that he’s been kept down due to his dyslexia. The galling thing is that in today’s bottom set lessons he received again absolutely no help with his reading. So he’s marked down for dyslexia but then doesn’t receive any assistance. Setup to fail.
If that wasn’t enough his new Form Tutor and most of his new subject teachers appear to be the strictest in the school. So much for making learning fun. Plus the teachers he really connected with have either left or have been removed from his teaching programme.
If we are looking for an upside the best it gets is
“Well Dad at least I didn’t get a negative on the first day”
Nothing like positive reinforcement to encourage a bit of educational development….
Deep sigh.
Across all the lands how many other kids are being subjected to this crap. Too many. I heard a news item about another school where a 11 year old girl who had been excluded from class because her trousers did not quite cover her ankles.
Really.
After all these years how can we still get education so very wrong. Probably the same reason that with all the gifted and genuinely dedicated people we have in this country we end up being led by someone as awful as Boris Johnson.
Sucky news! Teachers are treated like crap and underpaid. Students aren’t learning. US and UK both need to make education a priority.
Looks like you’ll be doing a lot of tutoring.
Glad your son kept a positive outlook.
💌
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Thanks
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I agree with King Ben’s Grandma.
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Thank you
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Lost for words!
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It is staggering. What’s more staggering is that it’s not just a handful of kids going through this.
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So frustrating. The teachers, the system need to make amends so ALL kids are set up to succeed. I do have to say, I smiled at your son’s phone conversation with you this morning 🙂
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Thank you Robyn.
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Oh sh*t this makes me so *ucking angry I am in tears.
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It’s so frustrating
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That kid has the best sense of humor! I love him!
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He does but apparently as someone with Aspergers he should not have one.
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Gifted for sure!
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🙏
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No T.A. for my granddaughter for the first 2 weeks, and then when it happens, not the one she has had, who is still there. All new teachers and a new T.A. at some point. She is supposed to work with her, but ends up for the whole class.
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Your granddaughter deserves so much more than that. Same for son every teacher has changed. And the ones he connected with have all been changed.
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It’s a nightmare for them.
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It really is
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Just shit as usual Gary. I feel the anger with you, your son is ine helkuva guy thiugh. Full marks to him
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Yes blood pressure through the roof and it’s only been one day.
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I can imagine Gary xx
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Are you going shopping soon? Still waiting for my frozen peas. xxx
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Lol I wish I was, my mum is very sick in hospital aged 94 and had to be resuscitated twice on Tuesday. Hubby has bad chest infection, i am the only one who is akright lol 😀. And that’s not saying much is it. But as soon as we can we will be going shopping 😀
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Tough time for you. Thinking of you.
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Thanks Gary. Xx
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🙏
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This is a bummer.
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Such a bummer
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Oh no. Heartsick for you. I m so glad your son has you on his side. You will get him through. The best teacher doesn’t make up for a bad parent. If it has to be one or the other, it is great he has such a smart and understanding dad.
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That’s so kind of you
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I don’t understand your system of education, but I like his attitude and he sounds like a fun kid.
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He is thanks
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I cannot believe England is so backward. Is it the same education system in Scotland, and Wales? If not, think about emigrating to Canada, though not Quebec unless he knows French.
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Oh oh. “If yes, not if not.”
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🙏
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Emigrating would have been easier until Brexit.
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Brexit ain’t gonna happen, surely everyone can see that by now??
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Sadly I still think it will. The hope is that is done properly with ties maintained where necessary. Unlike Johnson whose car crash plan is sketched out in cartoon form on a tablecloth seen through a wine glass.
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Champagne flute you mean??
Would you care to make a small wager, Sir??
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I raise you a stick of rhubarb
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Clueless in Canada! Are you no longer allowed to leave?
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It’s harder now. We did have Europe which would have been easy. Now the borders are going up again.
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I thought our motherland was a constitutional monarchy. Now I find it is a totalitarian state with an invisible wall around it. Who could have known!
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Ta sneaked up on everyone
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Well, it is certainly not “sneaking up” on the Americans, Trump is only trying to hide some of his machinations. But everyone is afraid of the bully. He is one who needs a bigger bully to slay him.
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Sneaking up in terms of how quickly our system broke which nobody envisaged.
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Disgusting.What they dont realise is that they can cause such mental and emotional damage to the kid with their behaviour. Thank God your son has you on his side.
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Too many kids are treated badly by the system
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School always reminded me of Styx’s Caught In The Act “Roboto Scene”…conform & confirm. Individuality be damned.
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Yes that’s the perfect way to look at it.
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So not only do they give him less improved education than previous years they make him and his mates do the work the school is supposed to do on top of that??
I’m curious as to why it was necessary to bring your son to the office to telephone you and not have the secretary ring all the parents him/herself??? Less arguments from the parents perhaps?? Maybe the secretary does not get paid enough to handle that sort of crap??
Won’t be long before the 19th century workhouses return at this rate. 😦
I don’t know how you two retain your senses of humour – but i’m very glad that you do! 🙂
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Because school had not told parents about this. I guess lots of phone calls that afternoon.
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This really tears the heart. The world over, more and more schools are becoming battlegrounds.
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Sadly they are. It really shouldn’t be like this.
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That does seem an obvious conclusion, unfortunately.
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Still not been disproved.
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The most frustrating aspect is that you cannot just take him out without having the force of law coming down on you. No way should children be forced into this – being sent up chimneys must have been better
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The current government wants to tighten up further the rules concerning home schooling. Basically making it even harder to do.
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Your son sounds sooo delightful!!! I am so sorry Y’all are having to trudge though a system that truly doesn’t work. Sucks. And I realize that’s a huge understatement. ❤️
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Thank you. Your right the system does suck. x
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Really do wish he had a lawyer as he’s right, it’s unacceptable.
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I do as well. Like most things need money to access them.
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I absolutely cannot fathom how this happens. Tember is in the new middle school he started there last year. Very open concept. Hallways divided between 5’s have their own, 6’s have their own and 7 & 8 share. The goal is to teach how the child learns. No homework given. Really good with contacting parents. Always looking to help. I know last year Tember had difficulty settling and instead of making him go to school when he said he was not feeling well I allowed him to stay home. Let’s just say it happened too many times and I received an email asking if everything was alright at home and was there anything that they could do to help. Tember had an issue with one teacher who after I sent a note asking for an explanation that teacher called. She apologized to me. She apologized to Tember. And we had a really good talk about what could be done to make Tember more settled and comfortable. Granted it took until almost the end of the year for him to settle but it looks like this year is going to be better. School is still boring but he made a new friend. The other class clown apparently. And EA’s are huge here. Going into the classroom with them. We (work) provides those with different abilities to get work experience. Granted we have some morons but I know how to deal with those ones. In the most polite manner. Putting them into the hot seat. He He He. I cannot understand how Britain can be so ass backward in regards to education. Having some of the oldest and apparently best schools is no good to anyone if they do not pull themselves out of the dark ages and fall headlong into the year 2019. Sorry another book from me but grrrrrrrrrrrrr your school system drives me batty.
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It’s because the rich and those in power send their kids to private schools . State schools are thus underfunded and hamstrung with rules. The system is based on pigeonholing kids at the earliest opportunity
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Utter crapola!
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It really is
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It is a shame when good teachers leave. My daughter just got dropped two sets in maths, but she recognised this might actually help her in the long run. Boris will not last long, and will be remembered only as a buffoon and Cummings’ puppet.
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That’s the problem it’s often the good teachers who are moved. He could do some damage in that time and I do worry about the views of some my fellow citizens
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That’s so messed up!
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Argh! I’m so sorry. I hate seeing my profession behaving like that.
I do love his response though, your son sounds like an absolute dude.
It’s not much, but I have some resources that might help him in a couple of subjects if you wanted to drop me a message. If nothing else, perhaps I can convince him that there are teachers (albeit now tutors in my case) still rock up on the final day of half term with energy & love for all the kids… even if that is 95% coffee based.
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Thank you
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Education system really needs restructuring.
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It really does
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