What were you like at school........?

Hello, freda and welcome!

Welcome, Freda. I hope you enjoy GN as much as I do. We have a lot of frivolous fun but when it's necessary we are also supportive and sympathetic. Just what you'd want from a group of friends.

Just joined Gransnet - good chuckle already!
Primary school in Tanganyika (Tanzania) for me - loved it. At 9 went to boarding school in Co. Durham - hated it with a vengeance.
High school was awful too - took me ages to make friends: I was too well-spoken (bloomin' boarding school), and had the mickey royally taken and was bullied, and I was boring because I'd never been a "naughty" type...
But I loved English and languages, and my teachers in those subjects would be pleased with their efforts (I think): I've been a proofreader for well over 40 years and still love the work. Miss J, Miss P and Mr F - thank you!

Good job you didn't go to the High School em you might just have been there when I did my probation (1963 - 65). Were you at Grove, Morgan or Harris?

Annobel we do have fee-paying Dundee High and my dad was keen to see us sit the bursary exams. Without being arrogant we were all 'top of the class' at our excellent primary school and would have had a good chance, but felt very strongly that we wanted to go to the academy which had a good reputation and to which we'd always aspired (plus we actually liked the uniform). I honestly feel I'd have had the same results anyway and dad wasn't too upset when we said no!!

I think historically Scotland has always had a much more comprehensive approach to education than England has ever had. Might explain why there are so many Scots at Westminster!

Scottish schools are coming out of this rather well, aren't they, em? In our case, there was no competition from private day schools in the area and children from all backgrounds went to the same 'bog standard' academy. My school wasn't fussy about uniform either.

My experience echoes Annobel's. A good primary school (with class of 18) followed by a Scottish Academy - that's before the academy name was distorted in recent times - then on to St Andrews. Gracesmum I was at St A around the same time as you and never encountered those 'swot' nicknames! My son followed a similar pattern but clearly uni straight from school was not right for him and he dropped out after a year. However he has now decided (at 26) that he's ready to go back and get on with it. He has always worked, is buying a decent flat and has a lovely bright girlfriend who is encouraging him. I don't remember any traumatic events at school - good friends and teachers (apart from one). Loved PE but hated hockey. Was allowed to drop sciences in favour of languages which was good for me, but in hindsight my not have been the right decision. My 2 sisters did much the same and dad was proud as he'd often been told that it was a waste to educate girls. He supported us all the way through (as did Mum who went into teaching at 40). My school memories are pretty good.

Same with mine Bagitha. My best friend entered the order that ran our school. Since then she's been a teacher, a social worker, a factory worker, in ordinary clothes, (where she was summoned to the boss's office and accused of being a communist) and a flight attendant on Easy Jet. These days she does a heap of work for elderly (80+) people in her locality. Times change.

Religious organisations set up a lot of schools in the nineteenth century. That's why. Maybe that happened less in Scotland than in England.

Most of the teachers in my school were not nuns. The year I left my convent school the nuns left too as they were not needed any more. It's now an 'ordinary' co-ed comprehensive secondary school instead of being an ordinary girls' grammar school.

Why are there so many ex-convent girls on these forums? I seem to be in a minority, having gone to a normal Scottish secondary school where, in my opinion, I had an excellent education which I didn't appreciate until my own children were in the secondary phase themselves and I could make some comparisons.

I enjoyed my adult studying more than school too, though I was happy at school and breezed along merrily and a bit scattily for the most part. Mine wasn't a great school, but many of the nuns (the ones we had to deal with) were really 'human', which no doubt helped. Also I had an excellent bunch of friends who were at least as eccentric as I could ever be and I suppose we supported each other and buffered each other from a lot of teenage silliness, with the result that we hardly noticed it. We were academic in the sense that we realised the advantages of good exam results for getting to where we wanted to go. Maybe the fact that all our parents had come from poor working class homes but had got into grammar schools and university through determination and hard work and had landed good professions as a result taught us something. The difference between their parents' expectations and theirs was an education in itself. We were all from families that valued education for its own sake as well. My father always said he didn't mind what we ended up as, so long as we could think.

I think it has been said that education is too good for the young, or words to that effect. I know that I would take more advantage of a university education now than I did when I was young. I've taken three French courses with the OU and loved every minute, even the exams; the creative writing course had great materials but we had a dreadful tutor. I know about adult ed from the other side and it's such a pleasure to teach grown-ups who really want to learn as opposed to sullen and disruptive teenagers - a minority I know, but they make life miserable for their teachers and peers alike. Adults have so much life experience to bring to bear on their studies -literature in particular.

You are excused Jeni! No school for you. A recurring dream I have is that I am stood in a line waiting for my leaving certificate, and the history teacher (we loathed each other) keeps looking at me and sending signals - 'you won't be getting yours.' As I get nearer to him, I realise that I don't have to get the certificate to prove I have left, so I put two fingers up at him and walk out, never to return. There's no way I'd go back to those circumstances, but I would enjoy primary school.

I have the same kind of dream jeni I always seem to be sitting exams but the paper usually turns into a towel and I am trying to write with a fountain pen on a towel.
I went to a secondary modern school too and had to go to college to get qualifications because I left school at 15. I did succeed and never looked back after leaving school. I passed all my nursing exams and ended up top of my year in the finals and was awarded the gold medal.

Carol NO!!!!!!
my recurring nightmare when I'm stressed is that I've got exams next day and haven't revised. Worst when really stressed is that for some reason I'm retaking the medical course and can't cope. But I know I already have my degree!
Any freudeans or jungists out there who wish to comment? Please feel free!
(I'd like free psychiatric opinion)
It's gransnet, it's driving me mad,

Didn't have many friends at school for two reasons. One was that I went to three senior schools so there were already friendship groups (I made sure my DDs stayed at one school as a consequence) and also I was fat, and very old fashioned, so not popular, and was convinced that no one liked me anyway. Hey ho that is life. Made some wonderful friends whilst in London doing nurse training though, so that made up for it.
On another note, did any of you Scottish folk go to Forfar Academy?

Nsube - the first two adjectives were descriptive, the last two the reason why he should not be near children!

Small classes and also small institutions are what is needed - but they are hugely expensive per capita and this is why they do not happen - and where they do (like our village school) they are under threat of closure.

The ideal I think is home education, with families joining together some of the time for joint projects/outings.

Education needs above all else to be human scale.

Interesting point Carol. Being an independent learner is key to success, not just in academic terms but in enjoying learning for its own sake.

Yes, small classes do enable children to get specialised attention, but I don't agree with private schools - all children should have the best teachers. I've said in another thread - my grandson was sent through prep school but it hasn't advantaged him in the end - the culture shock of grammar school and being required to start taking some responsibility for his own learning has come as a bit of a blow for him, and his ability to concentrate has suffered. His peers from the local primary school are helping him now, even though the prep school curriculum was a year ahead before he left there.

Maybe that's the solution Nsube! And slightly off the subject, but it's something that we older ones often say - wouldn't it be great to have our childhood now instead of when we couldn't appreciate it? I would happily go to school now!

Carol, your key point is small classes. How privileged some children are. For those in the state system it's 30+ no wonder it's hard to learn - and to teach.

The OU has volunteers, not conscripts...

Ariadne and Petallus much respect!

It strikes me that many teachers do not understand the learning styles of children, but organisations like the OU do - there must be a happy medium somewhere. My grandson has only been at his grammar school since last September and already he hates it, yet loved his prep school, where he was pushed to his limits but had amazing support and was in tiny classes. I don't like private education - good teachers should be placed with needy children, not creamed off elsewhere. Can they not all talk to each other and share what works so well for children?

Failed 11 plus so went to grotty secondary modern school in rough area which only took pupils to age 15 and then sent them off, without any qualifications, to work in the local launderette! I did not like school but was well behaved and near the top of the class academically speaking (not hard in that environment) Hated P.E. Dreaded it every week. Like Carol studied with the Open University later in life and it was a wonderful experience.