April 2013
1 post
This is it (again)
Everything has taken off.
At the begining of year ten, and consistently throughout, I have been told that this year is serious, full of hardwork, GCSE courses ect. But only now, two thirds into the year has this started to happen.
Sure, we have had a few English controlled assessments, and a couple in Spanish, but on the whole, it seems we have just been going through the normal lessons, albeit...
March 2013
1 post
12 tags
Why we should challenge the leadership. And...
OFSTED came. We did well, but not too well. We got a good, but it’s not official. All we’ve been told is that we’re not outstanding but the school is ‘pleased with the result’. Good. That was a bit of a thing for the teachers but not really for anyone else.
I did hear, however, that at least one of the inspectors came into the school with a bias view against us....
February 2013
1 post
7 tags
I wasn't late miss, I was early for tomorrow
Yesterday ministateschoolboy was late to school. To be fair on him, it was snowing so everything took a bit longer. He arrived, well before the start of lessons at 8:30, to find the gates barred shut and his name on the late list.
This is because of a new attempt by the school to reduce lateness - the school gate now closes at 8:25 instead of 8:30 as usual. This, they hope, will encourage people...
January 2013
1 post
8 tags
PEEZ and some Romeo and Juliet spoilers
As promised, here is a post about the PEEZ. Language analysis. Point, Evidence, Explanation and Zoom are what our lovely acronym stands for. To put that in a bit of context, here is a model answer using the PEEZ taken from an essay of mine on Romeo and Juliet:
Point/Evidence - The word ‘saint’ in act 2 scene 2 portrays a pureness and honesty, furthering Juliets appearance as an...
December 2012
1 post
6 tags
Coal
Once a year Santa comes to give presents to the good children, and coal lumps to the naughty children. (An interesting answer to where this coal for naughty children idea originated can be found here.) Also once a year, teachers inform children’s parents whether or not their little miss precious has been naughty or nice this year.
I was fortunate enough to have to face this afternoon of...
November 2012
1 post
5 tags
It's a double, roll again.
Our school canteen has a monopoly.
It can effectively charge what it likes and have low quality products, and we can’t do anything about it. We will buy their dinners no matter what because, well, we want lunch, and we’re not allowed out into ‘the free market’.
Of course, the school dinner provider is required to do certain things, for example keep the basic meals...
October 2012
2 posts
7 tags
Controlled Assessments
Yet another parasite is feeding off my life, but this one lurks in halls and silent classrooms. Yes, today I am talking about controlled assessments (for those who didn’t read the title).
One of the recent governments (could be this one, could be the last one, not too sure) decided that instead of trusting kids to go away and write essays at home, they would have to do everything under exam...
5 tags
Socks
It seems that the whole uniform thing gets less strict as you move up the school. It makes sense. As a young year seven, they try to mould you into the model student, but now in year ten, I never tuck in my shirt and almost never get picked up on it. But miniStateSchoolBoy seems to have had a different experience.
He has been repeatedly checked to make sure he is wearing the right coloured socks....
September 2012
5 posts
10 tags
I know it's a Sunday, but I wanted to tell you...
Ok. Two weeks in.
Lessons are mostly good. History teacher’s nice, and we’ve got a new teacher for science which is great. In Science we are going through Physics 2, which is about all things radiation. That’s electromagnetic radiation like radio waves and X-rays (this is how we learnt the order http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjOGNVH3D4Y), but also the greenhouse effect, and...
4 Reasons why Gove's proposals for GCSEs favour... →
Hello Everyone
I’ve got a post coming your way soon, but for now, you have probably heard Gove’s new proposals for GCSEs… To scrap them.
So here is a link to another blogger explaining why these proposals favour the rich over the poor massively. Thanks, bye!
10 tags
The Tenth Year
I started my tenth year of school on Friday. Here is what happened.
I arrived, and went straight into tutor. We have a new student entrance, apparently for security reasons, meaning that we can no longer use the main entrance. I don’t know what they’re worried about though. We’ve been able to go through the main entrance for years and nothing seems to have occurred. Either way,...
14 tags
What's it like to be a year seven starting big...
Today was MiniStateSchoolBoy’s first day at school. It was the induction day for year sevens so I questioned him on the ins and outs of the day and what he feels about the step into secondary school.
What did you do on the induction day?
First we spent ages doing tutor group and we did a tour of the school in our tutor groups. Then we had break and then we had two periods of science and...
12 tags
I finally learned how to tie a tie.
Actually, I knew how to tie a tie before now, but trying on my uniform to make sure it’s all good for when I head off into school in 2 days time still felt like a benchmark.
It felt like some kind of a defeat for progression. Progression in the sense of freedom in the workplace to be a little more relaxed, and also progression in terms of sexism, because unless boys start taking up blouses,...
July 2012
4 posts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/27/gov... →
I know this is the holidays, but I just wanted to draw your attention to something (if you have time that is, between watching the Olympics). Gove will say that academies can hire staff that havn’t had the proper training. Wont this just lead to more teachers who can’t control the class properly? More teachers who can’t teach? More problems like some of the ones I have been...
11 tags
The end of term
So, it’s the end of the year. We have had our last lessons and left the building for six and a half whole weeks. I’ve got mixed feelings about the end of this year. It’s the summer (woohoo), which is great, but there is also some great teachers leaving who I will miss.
Everything happens at end of term. If trips are going to happen, this is the time. And there are lots of assemblies and...
11 tags
Cove Gove
Gove has gone and said some really horrid stuff about governors. Have a read.
Firstly, governors are volunteers! Isn’t this exactly what big society is all about? The community coming together to do good things for local education and the neighbourhood (and all the rest of that jazz). It’s effort being on a governing body, they don’t see it as ‘badge of status’. If...
13 tags
Year nine is the time
Year seven - you’re thrown in at the deep end and you have no idea what you’re doing or who are going to be your friends.
Year eight - ok, so you’re starting to settle in but you suddenly realise that you aren’t friends with the people that you thought were back in year seven.
Year nine - particularly towards the end everyone (well…) is becoming more mature and you...
June 2012
1 post
15 tags
Tech, Art, Geography
Just a quick post about how normal lessons are like. My day to today was technology, art and geography.
I really enjoyed technology, but since module six has started, we have had a string of supply teachers in which we have consistently done nothing. This could be because they don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing and they just let us chat, or because they weren’t strong...
May 2012
2 posts
14 tags
Trust
Trust is the most important thing in a ‘teacher student’ relationship or whatever they’re calling it now. If the kids don’t trust the teacher, then they wont believe what they are teaching and the students will not listen to what they have to say.
At the same time, the teacher needs to teach; it isn’t their job to be pleasing the kids. The kids are there to learn,...
16 tags
Ties...
The new head teacher, Mr Smith, is trying to introduce a new uniform to start next year. The current designs are different for boys and girls, and both feature ties. Our school hasn’t had to wear ties but the new head seems to want to change that.
I am going to write all my thoughts down about this in no particular order so this might be a bit bitty. But here goes…
I find this...
April 2012
2 posts
Incidents
Today three major fights around break time dominated the feeling in the school.
The first was a massive brawl outside involving quite a few year nines and various year eights. I don’t know many of the details about this one because most of the people who would know what happened have been sent home; the staff who do know what happened are all senior people who would never tell me anything,...
20 tags
Early GCSE's
Year nine (apart from those students doing an NVQ qualifacation) took language controlled assessment (an exam) a few weeks ago. Taking exams this early has both advantages and dis-advantages.
For Taking exams early leaves extra time to retake it later, and if the school aren’t sure if th kid will still be with them when they would normally take it then it provides a chance to give the kid a...
March 2012
2 posts
15 tags
We Love Strikes
Newspapers all over the country today are reporting on the strike that is affecting drivers and school kids most. The NUT, Unite and a few other unions are striking over their pension agreement with the government.
A day off for us is great! One day of school isn’t going to make that much difference to our education, and it’s a great way to end the term. Our school is keeping the year...
11 tags
Poems
I was sceptical, initially, about the poems term which we are now learning in English, but I have really come to like it. The poems we have been doing have been all quite depressing, take November, or Song of an old Mother, but I really enjoy picking apart the bits and trying to work out the meaning behind the words.
Poems take up a GCSE module in English which is quite a bit if you are just...
February 2012
2 posts
13 tags
Rwanda: an update
[Note: This is a continuation from my previous post ‘History and other things’]
Following last weeks lesson, we continued on Rwanda this time looking at the ETO school.
We went from no mention of a civil war to the gruesome details of a massacre. Many Tutsis hid in the ETO and for a while, the UN peace keeping troops there at the time defended it. But at some point, someone in the...
19 tags
History and other things
This term in history, we are learning about Rwanda. First let me just say what a lovely topic it is. First the Holocaust and then this… Genocide is a big part of this years history syllabus.
We have had only one history lesson since we’ve been back from half term 3 days ago and it wasn’t what you could call interesting. At the start of the class, he gave each table 3 sheets each...
January 2012
3 posts
15 tags
Science: New teacher. Same problems
Over Christmas our science teacher left and we now have a new teacher. But so far, it seems that she is no better at controlling the class. We are learning about stem cells… Again, which I think is one of the reasons why we don’t listen to her.
We are writing GCSE coursework style reports on given questions about stem cells but she doesnt really teach us how to write them properly....
14 tags
The Prowlers
During lessons, members of the schools leadership team (ie the Principle, head of year, head of house ect.) stroll the corridors in search of any student out of lessons and popping into the lessons. Some teachers like these interruptions because they provide support to a teacher who may not be controlling the class well. But many teachers dislike their managers interrupting their lesson to ask...
7 tags
And we're back, live, in 5, 4, 3, ... "Welcome...
It feels as if I’ve been back for a year already. Having said this, the new year brings a lot of change to my school, the biggest change being a new Principle, Mr Smith. To introduce himself properly, the new head gave assemblies to the kids talking about what he will expect from us and showing us what we can expect from him.
It was mostly what you would expect with kids being able to...
December 2011
1 post
26 tags
X Factor and its... Evils?
So the X factor finals are tonight and I for one will be watching, but the interesting thing about the X factor for me is what other people think about it. The tabloid press follows every twist and turn, exaggerating all the drama in their articles creating rumors and generally stirring things up. For example, this year Misha B was portrayed as a bully for no apparent reason. But I’m more...
November 2011
4 posts
Day before the Day of Action
Teaching is a heavily unionised job so I was surprised to find, when asking people if they would be striking on Wednesday, that many teachers said they wouldn’t.
The pension cuts are unbelievable. Public sector workers will get a very reduced amount of pension when they retire compared to what they were expecting. This affectively means that the government won’t just be slashing...
Tech, art, science
Over the last term we have been designing t shirts. I am doing design and graphics, a sub part of technology which means over the year I will be creating products which I can create on a computer. For example next term we will be putting together a magazine.
Art is better this year opposed to in year 8. We have a better teacher who can actually control the class. We just finished making coiled...
Science
Science lessons are becoming one of my worst lessons. We are set for science and although all of my other set subjects are fine, in science the class just messes around and chats a lot. The teacher can be very patronising which maybe is why some students push her to the limit with ‘constant low level disruption’ as it is described by the head. We are learning about evolution which is a...
13 tags
100 minute lessons?
I have mostly 100 minute lessons, or two 40 minute periods but the double period system is being debated throughout the school with strong feelings on both sides. For a subject like maths, 100 minutes is really long and kids start to switch off halfway through the lesson. There is a simular problem in subject like languages and humanities as they are often less practical. In language classes,...
October 2011
2 posts
8 tags
Teacher, Bully. Are they always so different?
Today, our PE teacher wasn’t in because he was having an operation and we got a cover teacher who took the lesson. He started off by having a long chat in the changing rooms about who he was and how he wasn’t from the school and how he ‘did what he wanted, within reason’. What this basically included was swearing a lot and generally trying to impress us. And it worked, lots...
6 tags
Open days
Over the past few days, year sixes have been coming round secondary schools to try to decide which one will suit them best. And now it was my school’s turn to try to convince the year sixes and their parents that it is the best.
What’s interesting for me is that the open events are like shows. The students are hand picked and the teachers are displaying the best and funnest activities...
September 2011
7 posts
13 tags
The Shakespeare schools festival.
Like last year, the school took part in the shakespeare for schools festival and it was incredibly successful and so, this year they have decided to take part in it again. It is where thousands of school kids get to perform half hour versions of Shakespeare plays to audiences in professional, working theaters.
Unfortunately the charity who runs the festival charge just under £1000 for a schools...
8 tags
Today I woke up and thought god-damn-it, why don't...
All the research shows that teenagers need more sleep. So why do most secondary schools start at 8:30? Even an extra half hour of sleep would help and I don’t think that many teenagers would mind a 4:00 finish if they didn’t have to drag themselves from their beds every morning.
Studies show that even 15 minutes more sleep can improve exam results but no one seems to be listening....
Technology, finally...
And so after a 2 week wait I had my technology lesson. It was graphics and the teacher wasn’t there due to a football injury. So we had a supply teacher who gave us the booklet and didn’t do much else. It was in an ICT suite and most of us just played on Internet websites. (If we could find any, after yesterday’s, mistakes the IT team blocked almost everything. An example: BBC...
6 tags
Sorry, your organisation has blocked this website...
Over the summer the school has changed their web block system which allows them to control which sites we use. This came as good news to the kids because whenever they introduce a new system, there are always some gaping holes.
This time, the school’s computer geeks quickly realised that pages which have been ‘cached’ (the same webpage but restructured with a different web...
10 tags
Right, so it's the first Saturday in and already I...
I have been at my school for over 2 years now but this year the school has changed a lot.
Firstly, the whole school has had a makeover. The doors have been painted (a rather distasteful) green, and the corridors have new floors. I am pretty sure that this is some sort of celebration. For the first time since the school’s opening, it has achieved good exam results, which is really good...
7 tags
First day back
My first day back was just as I expected it to be. I have a new tutor although my tutor group is the same. She seems quite nice but I guess I will get to know her more over the next few weeks. My next lesson was Spanish where I have the same teacher as last year. After a little pep talk about how the GCSE course will affect my life, we started the lesson. It seemed surprisingly similar to what we...
9 tags
Good news, and Bad news...
All the GCSE results came in over the summer. The school’s results have shot up. Our wikipedia page says “… is the most improved school in London”. In other words, that’s good news.
The bad news is that it’s my last day of the summer holidays. I, like most kids my age, am dreading tomorrow, but it isn’t so bad. We’ll have a new set of teachers, a...
August 2011
4 posts
Problems...
Unfortunately there has been a problem with tumblr and 4 of my posts have the wrong date. ‘So that was it’; ‘The park of Thorpe’; and ‘Surprise inspections’ all appear to have been posted on the 10th of August. ‘The actual day’ appears to have been posted on the 20th of July. But really, ‘So that was it’ was posted on the 20th of July, ‘The park of Thorpe’ was posted on the 19th of July,...
So that was it...
And here we go again - I am now officially a year nine! Despite the summer holidays to look forward to, year nine still feels surprisingly daunting.
For our school, GCSE’s in English, maths, science, and languages start in year nine. This has it’s benefits, but there is still doubt in my mind around the general idea of having less time to actually learn in the years before the exams.
...
17 tags
The park of Thorpe
If you have done well in the year then you get to go to Thorpe park with 80 other kids. The number of points that represent achievement and good behaviour, directly effects if you get to go. This meant that some friends of mine who probably did deserve to go didn’t because at the point where all the points were counted up, they were having a bad week.
Having said this, those who did go (who did...
9 tags
Surprise inspections →
I was just reading this article about surprise ofsted inspections on the Guardian website
Very interesting that people think this is an issue. As with anything, people responsible will always try to cover up mistakes. However it does seem apparent that some of the stuff going on is extremely dodgy.
July 2011
7 posts
17 tags
The actual day
So, today was sports day. For those who didn’t go, there were other lessons not related to any school work. We did a day on the olympics. Starting the day with a quiz and ending by designing the coolsville Olympic bid for 2020. Not a bad day at all but being hot and sunny, I would much rather watch other people sweat as get try to secure the sports day cup for their house team.
Also good is the...
18 tags
Sports day? What sports day?
Unlike other schools, my school didn’t allow everybody to go to sports day. It only allows the year sevens and the athletes taking part to go. Apparently this is because of transport money. When we (the year sevens of the time) went last year, we took about six massive coaches to some far away sports ground which had a running track and a sandpit. It must have cost a fortune.
I don’t understand...
11 tags
Chess
Chess is often seen as a game that only posh people and criminals play. However there seems to be a relatively big group of people who regularly join the chess club at lunch. Chess club is an informal club held every lunchtime by two year eight students vaguely overseen by a teacher.
This daily gathering has attracted many different people to the technology classroom used but there has always...
