Anybody feel let down by their School

Reply 20

17

XxJaninexX

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.

I don't think I'd go as far as to say everyone else was ignored at my school, but I agree the main focus was definitely on the borderline C/D students. There was some kind of special programme for them where they were identified and given help to make sure they got Cs. The problem is that all that matters as far as league tables are concerned is the number of Cs and above, not the number of A*s, As and Bs as well, so that's what schools concentrate on.

Reply 21

mdmfsnfsfiosiq

kellywood_5

I don't think I'd go as far as to say everyone else was ignored at my school, but I agree the main focus was definitely on the borderline C/D students. There was some kind of special programme for them where they were identified and given help to make sure they got Cs. The problem is that all that matters as far as league tables are concerned is the number of Cs and above, not the number of A*s, As and Bs as well, so that's what schools concentrate on.

thats what happened in my school where like 30 people got chosen because they would make the difference between the school getting the magic 'Cs'. however, i was predicted all As/A*s so i didn't get any help which i felt was selfish from the school because just because i was predicted them doesn't mean i necessarily was going to get them (even though i did after working my guts out in the end). i felt kind of bad when the teacher said 'you'll do fine' even though i was totally stuck on some aspects of my work. Damn i'm so annoyed when all the schools thibk about are league tables.

Reply 22

kellywood_5

17

What would everyone think about schools having to show the percentage of pupils who achieved each grade rather than just A*-C? It would obviously be more data, but it would prevent schools just thinking 'oh well, she's definitely going to get a C, so she doesn't need my help' and would encourage them to get A*s and As out of those who were capable of getting them.

Reply 23

mdmfsnfsfiosiq

kellywood_5

What would everyone think about schools having to show the percentage of pupils who achieved each grade rather than just A*-C? It would obviously be more data, but it would prevent schools just thinking 'oh well, she's definitely going to get a C, so she doesn't need my help' and would encourage them to get A*s and As out of those who were capable of getting them.

It would certainly set the 'men from the boys' in terms of which schools actually ARE better. Knowing that, this will probably never happen because there would definitely be backlash from the schools who all just think about grants/fundings etc.
However, in an ideal world...

Reply 24

Elements

13

In answer to the title of this thread: yes, absolutely and in so many ways and extents too! :frown:

Reply 25

|irael

I don't feel let down by my school as such but rather a department within my school. I told the physics department that I wanted to apply to a joint honours degree in physics at a high ranking university that required entrance tests (I'll give you one guess at the name :P) and asked for any advice they could give me for how I could prepare. they did NOTHING. I've studied AS maths independantly to complete the whole A level in a year as I had initially chosen the wrong subjects and I've come out with a high A grade, but it's all too late now. What really makes me mad is they sat on their backsides whilst other departments were organising extra meetings and giving their students extra reading.

Reply 26

luckysmartie

I didn't feel let down by my high school. It is a very good school, which although it did not have the brightest intake of kids each year, consistently gets good results year on year. But it doesn't have a sixth form, so I had to move after year 11. Not that my sixth form is bad, far from it, but I do feel that it does not have the exam focus that my high school had. In one way this is not a bad thing, because schools should educate you, not just teach you to pass exams, but preferably, they should do both. I never feel the teachers are particularly control or organised as a unit (particularly where the lower school, which isn't quite as good as the sixth form, is concerned), which is probably why it doesn't do so well as my old school.

Reply 27

Epicurus

15

I too was let down by my secondary School. I was in the middle sets for the first three years, even though I had got quite high marks consistently and people who got less than me were "promoted" on 2 occasions. It was only till year 10, that I decided enough was enough and my parents came down to the school, kicked up a fuss until I was moved up for Science, maths and English. Though, in the top sets, I wasn't really given much help as I wasn't one of those vociferous kinds that the teachers liked and seemed to help more than anybody else. However, I still came out with the joint best gcse result in the School, in the end. THis was mainly because, I started working hard on my own, half the subjects I got good grades in were subjects that in the last few months i had stopped going to classes. The teachers thought I couldn't handle the higher tiers. LOL. How wrong they were

A levels at Sixth form were much much better. Some of the teachers I had really were gold. The English teacher for some reason was not. He didn't mark my work properly and on occasions sometimes skipped me out when asking questions to the whole of the class individually. I got a B at AS Level and dropped out in November of the A2 Level. And took the A2 English papers as well AS English retakes on my own at another centre by self study. I got an A :biggrin:

.
Another problem was that the sixth form would not let me take an AS Level in Critical Thinking in my A2 year. So I took it up myself independently at another centre and got an A as well in that with abt 5 days of revision.

The moral of the story is that it doesn't matter if you feel you've been let down by your school/teacher. Study on your own. I really can say that most of the results I've got in my academic career so far have been through my own hard work and I probably could have done equally as well if I hadn't gone to school at all but the poorness of my schools became the determination that I needed to work independently. So to all those moaning at their Schools, I say D.I.Y.

Reply 28

Igloo_cone

Leftite

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?[/QUOTE]

Omg , basically your description sounds exactly like my school. It was the exact same. WE had lots of mixed classes as well.. where everybody of all abilites were put together. Half the class didnt care. Some were in the top few.. like me. The rest didnt give a toss.
I hate the way i didnt achieve my potential. Had i gone to another school,, like a private or grammer i would have done soo much better. I went to a very bad state school you see.

Now my g.c.s.e grades have stunted alot of opportunites for me in any unis and stuff. Can you chnage school/college? Its worth thinking about.. especially if you have more potential.

Reply 29

louisedotcom

13

Yeah, my school sucked.
It got put onto special measures after and ofstead inspection and things went significantly downhill from there.
Often teachers wouldnt turn up to lesson, or lessons would be cancelled we didnt have very many facilities and most of the teachers had simply lost the enthusiasm and motivation to actually teach or to even care- I mean kids would smoke in the corridors and sometimes teachers would just walk by.

Stupidly I stayed on at sixth form, and it was only worse.
We didnt have a history teacher, so I felt It was in my best interests to drop that subject- it turned out that later in the year the history class had been taught the wrong module for the exam that they were doing too, we wernt allocated a room for psychology- which ment that the first 20 minutes of each (1hour) lesson was spent wandering around the school looking for a free classroom. On top of this my geography teacher neglected to turn up frequently, and the other one to be honest was absolutley useless, so I felt I had to drop that too-more or less everyone in the class at the end of the year got an E or and F.

The result was 2 B graded As-levels which is Ok, but I know I could have done alot better- but by the time it came to exams Id lost all motivation and couldnt be bothered anymore.

So I left to go to college and start a BTEC ND- unfortunatly my As levels were not compatible with my BTEC so I had to drop them although I would have really like to carry on with them as I loved the subjects.

But yeah overall I felt totally let down by my school they got to the point where they couldnt be bothered anymore and had all the wrong prorities- rather than trying to get help regarding a lack of staff and poor facilites, they put on a huge front everytime there were inspectors in, and we would all have to pretend that things were ok when the reality was far from it.

I could have done alot better at a school that attempted to motivate its pupils rather than surpressing them.

Reply 30

plopSDCSDC

14

anatomy

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.

O.M.G you know anatomy, if a teacher ever said something liek that to me i swear on my life i actually would have punched him/her straight in the face. Shouldn't say things like that becuase that must have been so demoralising. *grr things like that gets on my nerves big time. :mad:

Reply 31

badtothebone

8

my opinion is that schools are waste of time. but education is essential. schools teach you to pass tests, so that they meet targets and get a good reputation, and it looks good for the government if x % get A stars etc. If you dont believe me, then why do they have coursework and foundation and higher tears, and different exam boards. Its to up the grades, because you dont need a brain to work out the best way to test people is to give them one test paper, from one exam board with no coursework, where they can get help from the internet parents etc. schools are not there to help you learn they are there to help you pass tests, and thats the truth. and for this reason i feel terribley let down. I wasnt engaged in lesson, in fact not many were, hence disruptive behavior. the work was tedious and didnt cater for the individual needs of the students. part of the problem, is funding from governments. over crowded class rooms, poorly paid overworked teachers, so there stressed. its all really bad. You just have to put up with it, think positive and keep calm. also

NOTICE TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
every single person out there is capable of A stars. You really are. just believe in yourself, put the work in and you'll get them. Dont let teachers put you down and dont pay attention if they predict you an E, cos everyone can get an A star. depends if you put the work in. Its only about learnin facts. a straight memory test. and dont listen to any students who try and bring you down, there just jeaslous, or mis guided, and you'll be in a position to laugh at them if you get your results. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME LIKE I DID!

in fact, get hold of lyrics to Donnies Lament by Lowkey ft. Doc Brown. Sums is all up for me.

Reply 32

the_alba

12

I too was randomly thrust into the middle sets when I went to secondary school, mainly because it was a horrible private school where the top sets were reserved for kids whose parents paid the fees (I had government assistance).

Two years of being incredibly bored in easy lessons and the teacher treating me like I was stupid, and I left school to be homeschooled. I then skipped GCSEs, got 'A's in my A-levels, some of which which I took two years early, went to uni a year early and got a first, and am now a postgrad at Oxford.

If I'd stayed in that school, however, I'd probably be working in a shop by now, with 5 GCSEs to my name.

If anyone is being similarly ignored and let down by their school, I would definitely advise you to consider homeschooling. It might be the only way you can fulfill your potential.

Reply 33

x.beth.x

11

the_alba

I too was randomly thrust into the middle sets when I went to secondary school, mainly because it was a horrible private school where the top sets were reserved for kids whose parents paid the fees (I had government assistance).

Two years of being incredibly bored in easy lessons and the teacher treating me like I was stupid, and I left school to be homeschooled. I then skipped GCSEs, got 'A's in my A-levels, some of which which I took two years early, went to uni a year early and got a first, and am now a postgrad at Oxford.

If I'd stayed in that school, however, I'd probably be working in a shop by now, with 5 GCSEs to my name.

If anyone is being similarly ignored and let down by their school, I would definitely advise you to consider homeschooling. It might be the only way you can fulfill your potential.

I too have recently just dropped out of the majority of my lessons at school in favour of homeschooling. The main reasons were the fact that I was being bullied, but also the rubbish time wasting and pathetic teaching method. I don't like being taught by a photocopier or left to teach ourselves. Basically, what my english teacher did was just walk out of lessons when somebody started annoying her by talking, and told us to teach ourselves the lesson :rolleyes:

Then she started just giving us sheets and sheets of paper from revision guides and the internet, I think I counted that it one week I got 47 sheets :eek:

Thats per student in a class of 30. Rumour has it she used all the english department's budget up for the rest of the month lol! She went through everything so quick too that most of the class just gave up trying to understand in the end. Eventually I just thought stuff this. I can buy revision guides myself and I don't have to wait for her to tell the rest of the class to shut up or for her to decide not to turn up to a lesson. A tutor once a week is better than this.

I now only go in for the lessons where we actually have teachers that teach - German and History. The others are a waste of energy.

I must say though in response to the other posts I am actually quite glad for the A*-C things for the league tables, because that is one of the main reasons I managed to persuade the school to still let me take my exams, because they know from my mock grades and coursework grades that it would be highly unlikely for me to get lower than a C. Mind you, I haven't bothered to get my statement of entry from them yet, so I don't actually know how many exams they have entered me for :s-smilie:

Reply 34

quintsy

17

XxJaninexX

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.

Everyone assumes that because we're a grammar school, there would be a great emphasis on ensuring that everyone achieves high grades, but it's completely not like that at all. That would seem to be altogether not a bad thing, but it means that if your predicted grades are a B or above they assume that "you'll be fine" and they leave you to your own devices. If you're on a C, they make gentle suggestions about what you can do better to move up to a B; but only if you're getting a D then they actually step in to help- and then they go all out with advisors, meetings with teachers, monitoring reports and so on.

They just don't understand that the visible grades aren't everything; sometimes people still do feel unconfident in themselves and still do need assistance.

Reply 35

becky.fm

18

suuuuuuseh

Everyone assumes that because we're a grammar school, there would be a great emphasis on ensuring that everyone achieves high grades, but it's completely not like that at all. That would seem to be altogether not a bad thing, but it means that if your predicted grades are a B or above they assume that "you'll be fine" and they leave you to your own devices. If you're on a C, they make gentle suggestions about what you can do better to move up to a B; but only if you're getting a D then they actually step in to help- and then they go all out with advisors, meetings with teachers, monitoring reports and so on.

They just don't understand that the visible grades aren't everything; sometimes people still do feel unconfident in themselves and still do need assistance.

I agree.

Those who are soooo behind on coursework get pulled out of lessons, have continual meetings with other teachers, get reports and continual reports. :frown:

But those who do well are completely ignored and left to their own devices.

:dontknow:

Reply 36

Historiana

14

Bexiness!

I agree.

Those who are soooo behind on coursework get pulled out of lessons, have continual meetings with other teachers, get reports and continual reports. :frown:

But those who do well are completely ignored and left to their own devices.

:dontknow:

It's exactly like that at my school - I recieve next to no support form my teachers am I'm in the "upper" band of the year group. Those who are failing in upper they mentor etc and thety abandon other pupils to go all out for a select few. :confused:

I'm moving to a grammar school, should my GCSEs go well for 6th Form. So maybe I'll get more support there.

Reply 37

becky.fm

18

Choccielatte

It's exactly like that at my school - I recieve next to no support form my teachers am I'm in the "upper" band of the year group. Those who are failing in upper they mentor etc and thety abandon other pupils to go all out for a select few. :confused:

I'm moving to a grammar school, should my GCSEs go well for 6th Form. So maybe I'll get more support there.

My Head of Year doesn't even know my name :frown:

and many others for that matter...

Reply 38

713

2

I feel let down by my school with the university application; I was the only Oxbridge applicant and reminded my tutor and head of sixth form a few times of that. They were aware (should have been..) that the deadline was 16th october so a few days before I gave them my ps and asked if they had filled in that special paper stuff so I could send it off. 'you want to send it off so early, why that?
my tutor then rushed summarizing my teachers reports (which I did get in in time), put some spelling mistakes in and missed out complete sentences, probably through some word mistakes.
they didn't check my ps either, which i feel they should have done particularly since it's not unusual for foreign people to make some spelling mistakes :-)
well, the interview preparation was not great either.
I get on with teachers not turning up because the teaching is crap anyway but I hoped they had some aspiration to get a student into a good uni.
Apart from this rant I can just say that I agree with some statements earlier saying that some schools are only interested to get their students into certain grade bands and not the highest possible grade for them.

Reply 39

becky.fm

18

713

I feel let down by my school with the university application; I was the only Oxbridge applicant and remember tutor and head of sixth form a few times of that. They were aware (should have been..) that the deadline was 16th october so a few days before I gave them my ps and asked if they had filled in that special paper stuff so I could send it off. 'you want to send it off so early, why that?
my tutor then rushed summarizing my teachers reports (which I did get in in time), put some spelling mistakes in and missed out complete sentences, probably through some word mistakes.
they didn't check my ps either, which i feel they should have done particularly since it's not unusual for foreign people to make some spelling mistakes :-)
well, the interview preparation was not great either.
I get on with teachers not turning up because the teaching is crap anyway but I hoped they had some aspiration to get a student into a good uni.
Apart from this rant I can just say that I agree with some statements earlier saying that some schools are only interested to get their students into certain grade bands and not the highest possible grade for them.

Thats really bad... i feel for you there :hugs:

At my sixth form there was a lot of trouble about sending off PS on time too... but our Head of Sixth Form is one of the worst around, so it's what is expected really :frown:

Was this this year? or last year? :smile:

Anybody feel let down by their School

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