The Student Room Group

Anybody feel let down by their School

Well at GCSE level i was just thrust into middle groups where half the people were stupid, 1/4 messed about and the 1/4 cared, and the 'brightest' students were put into a top set to aim for As and A*. In middle sets there was no teacher pushing me to aim high, no teachers giving me any extra help, i just had to sit in boring non challenging lessons only being taught enough techniques and knowlege to get me a B grade while all the students who were in my group and stuggling got all the help.
I came out of my GCSEs with 1A and 9Bs, which by the way was signifcantly better than many of the top set students.
Now we are doing AS levels, my results were around the 5th or 6th best in the whole year, and i just feel annoyed that i never had the chance to acheive my full potential at GCSE level.

Anybody else feel this way?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Yes, but for different reasons.

My school is pretty bad, infact come the next ofsted inspection, which will be in the next few weeks, it is expected that we will be put into special measures. Granted it's not entirely down to poor teaching, general student attitude and a budget deficit play a large part in it too. But still, a 16 year old shouldn't be expected to teach themselves a considerable amount of their courses just because a teacher can't be bothered to do the same.

I guess what frustrates me the most is there are so many really intelligent people at my school and its them who are being let down the most. They get messed about, put into lower sets and then spend 2 years learning absolutely nothing. Now how is that fair?

I can empathise with your situation, I really can, and I hope you achieve your true potential in your A-levels :smile:
Reply 2
I know exactly how you feel. I achieved a "B" in English Language when i was capable of soo much better, if i was in the top set where the best teacher was teaching and preparing the pupils for the top grades. I tried my absolute best to somehow change sets for about 3/4 months constantly by achieving the very best marks in class and also answering all the questions my teacher asked. I was literally the only person that tried the hardest.

However, i wasn't "promoted". Moreover, i was predicted a C by this teacher as he was preparing all the pupils in his class for a C grade pass. But, i didn't give up as I tried to revise english language by myself, brought book etc to study. But still i couldn't reach the "A" grades, because english is one of those subjects that require constant good teaching.

What i found really disgusting about this teacher, was the fact that he didn't like academic people, and always had something to say about oxford and cambridge in his lessons. Even when it was completely random.

Another aspect was the fact that i belong to an ethnic minority, and the school being largely white, thought that english wasn't a subject i could excel on. Now you may think im going too far here, but i have enough evidence to prove this.
Reply 3
Totally. Thats all I'm going to say as I will be here all day if I explain every single reason why I hate my school.

Luckily I only have to go in for 5 periods a week for the next 6 weeks and I have tutors that actually teach me for the rest of the time. Its still hell going in for that time though. I get about 100 times more work done at home. The school don't actually even care that I'm not going in. They basically said do what you want and yes she has still been entered for all her exams. Fine by me.

I can't wait until next year when I will be free from that prison :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: .
No, I loved my school :biggrin: It definitely wasn't anything special in terms of results and I had my fair share of rubbish teachers, especially in the lower years, but I also had several excellent teachers, especially for GCSEs and A-levels. We had sets for all academic subjects, and even though most of the top sets still came out with Bs and Cs, everyone was encouraged to get the best grade they were capable of. As with any comprehensive school, the emphasis is largely on you to make sure you meet your potential. Forgive the natural cynic in me (I blame my dad- it's inherited) but if your school also had sets and you worked hard and did well, surely you would have been in the top sets? Or surely you could have arranged to be moved up once you realised you weren't being challenged? But anyway, your GCSE grades are still quite good and your AS results so far, which are much more important, are excellent.
I did -- I was disappointed with the science department - had 2 teachers for biology - first year, she got engaged half way through and pretty much ignored us -- second year - he decided that we were already graduates in bio and didn't need his help
Chemistry - he thought that we could handle stuff by ourselves really - but he was better than bio in that he gave us the past papers - the bio guy had to ask us what we didn't have and provide him with a list - and even then - he didn't order all of them! :mad:

other than that i luved math and Art :biggrin:
Reply 6
That's happening to me at the moment. When eyeryone got their SATS results in yr 9 those who got level 6+ were put into the 4 top sets. Eveyone who got below was but in the lower sets. I got 3 6's but when they were organising the lists for the GCSE sets, I was one of the students left out so they just dumped me with people aiming to get D's and C's.

I spent all of yr 10 havingto prove myself to the teachers that i was capable of doing the higher paper. Fortunately, i am doing the higher paper in all my subjects but it has been a real struggle. I am determined to get into medical school and when i asked my bio teacher (who discriminates against higher students) about the grades required she said to me "some people get A's and A*'s and other don't. Do you think that you are capable of getting 12 A*'s. You just have to deal with the fact that you're not one of those people. There's no point in applying to medical school because you won't ger in." i think she's a complete idiot and a senial old hag and i don't think she even has a bio degree. It's annoying because i spend all lessons answering their questions in science.

Maths is the other subject as well. I could rant on about this for ages but basically i was put in the intermediate set and i have got either 98% or 100% in all of the exams without revising. I think that i should have done the higher paper because i was more than capable of it. I'm really annoyed and bittter about the situation and i am going to do AS maths next year so i will not have covered a lot of the material. The school have predicted me C's in the maths, science and eng but i know that i can do a lot better and i think they will be shell-shocked in August when the results are published.
Reply 7
Well at least you have some setting, mine is mixed ability for everything apart from maths!

It does annoy me sometimes. In the lower years you get the rubbish teachers that are still training, or something, and everyone is so naughty they don't give you any work. GCSE is pretty much the same but you have different people in most of your classes so the class spends less time together, so they don't mess about so much together; the teachers are also the better ones, unless you do single science or foundation maths, and then you still get a handful of wallys whatever hapens!
Reply 8
I felt I done better when I was at the top of a lower set than the bottom of a top set, for example for Maths in Yr 8 I was put in the top set but felt intimidated by all the other clever students so didn't do as well as I did when I was in Yr 9 in the second set and at the top of it. But then in Yr 10 for GCSEs they put me back in the top set and after being predicted A* I ended up with a B :frown:
always hated predicted grades :mad:
Reply 10
I do feel a tad let down lol. To cut a long story short: in yr 7 i had no english teach, in yr 8 i had no english teach and no science teech and i am really annoyed at the mo with my skule cos my head of year who just happens 2 be my art teacher 2 realised at the beginning of this week that he has been following the wrong syllabus!!!!!! Also, my history teacher leaves a bit to be desired, same for my science teacher who we had to correct the other day on how to do half life and she then started teaching us a module that we had already done so after arguing with us 20 mins later she agreed she was wrong and changed and FINALLY, we had a maths exam on thursday and my maths teacher had a free period lesson 4 which was when I had re and me and about ten other people asked if we could go to him and revise (our whole class went apart from us), she would not let us - she said we were only allowed to revise in her classroom. Consequently, the last question on the non calc i could not do and it turns out that he went over that exact question in period 4 so if my grade suffers due to this i am going to give my re teacher a piece of my mind. LOL.

Rant over - apart from that I quite like my skule :smile:
Reply 11
i feel let down in a bit of a different way..in like most of my lessons the teachers have no control over the class, and arond 95% of the class muck around. and the 5% that WANT to learn aren't able to..because when the naughty kids "Play up" they get loads of attention and help from the teachers.
Laura2712
I do feel a tad let down lol. To cut a long story short: in yr 7 i had no english teach, in yr 8 i had no english teach and no science teech and i am really annoyed at the mo with my skule cos my head of year who just happens 2 be my art teacher 2 realised at the beginning of this week that he has been following the wrong syllabus!!!!!! Also, my history teacher leaves a bit to be desired, same for my science teacher who we had to correct the other day on how to do half life and she then started teaching us a module that we had already done so after arguing with us 20 mins later she agreed she was wrong and changed and FINALLY, we had a maths exam on thursday and my maths teacher had a free period lesson 4 which was when I had re and me and about ten other people asked if we could go to him and revise (our whole class went apart from us), she would not let us - she said we were only allowed to revise in her classroom. Consequently, the last question on the non calc i could not do and it turns out that he went over that exact question in period 4 so if my grade suffers due to this i am going to give my re teacher a piece of my mind. LOL.

Rant over - apart from that I quite like my skule :smile:


Are you messing?
every day i feel let down. Main example is in english where i was put in second bottom set for the whole of GCSE. I begged for them to let me do the higher paper just before the exams and they gave in. I ended up with an A in lit and B lang which would have easilly given me a place in set 1 at GCSE. How i resent my teachers :frown:.
Reply 14
except for maths and science EVERY SINGLE class is mixed ability. that annoys me because theres like 4 people who want to work..and 26 that dont give a stuff.
I feel let down by the education system as a whole. My school claims to be one of the best in the area. I can't help but laugh when I hear them say it for the billionth time.

They can't seem to grasp that each person is different, we can't all be put in the same environment and react in the same way. My predicted grades were lower than they should be because, 'I don't participate enough.' I'm not sure what the hell that has to do with examinations. Year after year I get a rollicking at parents evening and inevitably go on to prove them wrong.

Now they have as good as told me that I will never amount to nothing for having the audacity not to be pushed into university. Bunch of tossers on a powertrip is the best way to describe them.

I thought school was meant to prepare you for the real world. My school has done absolutely nothing to help me in the future yet I should feel honoured to go there. LOL.
Reply 16
Yep - no Oxbridge assistance at all :frown:
Yeah. Our head of music was off school from september-february due to illness and there was no replacement, meaning we're so ridiculously behind on the AS syllabus and are pretty much having to do two of the modules between now and june.

There are plenty of other things I could mention, but that's the most recent.
Reply 18
General Mullet
I feel let down by the education system as a whole. My school claims to be one of the best in the area. I can't help but laugh when I hear them say it for the billionth time.

They can't seem to grasp that each person is different, we can't all be put in the same environment and react in the same way. My predicted grades were lower than they should be because, 'I don't participate enough.' I'm not sure what the hell that has to do with examinations. Year after year I get a rollicking at parents evening and inevitably go on to prove them wrong.

Now they have as good as told me that I will never amount to nothing for having the audacity not to be pushed into university. Bunch of tossers on a powertrip is the best way to describe them.

I thought school was meant to prepare you for the real world. My school has done absolutely nothing to help me in the future yet I should feel honoured to go there. LOL.


i 10000% agree with the bit in bold.
My schools attitude kind of went along the lines of you are going to get a C or above, they ignored you. If you are borderline C or a D grade pupil, and/or they think they can boost you up to a C they would work very hard for you. Otherwise you were ignored.