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We had quite a cool common room when i was back in 6th form. We even brought a little black and white TV in for the world cup
Then they chucked us out into a portacabin, which at first was horrible, and it got very cold in the winter, but it did get us futher away from the meddling teachers/kids and we had our own fitted kitchen with all mod cons (well, a kettle and toaster etc, and supply of coffee etc). And theyre was a Tescos just down the hill that we used to go buy stuff from to make use of the facilities.
And at christmas we hung fairylights (
Those were the days
xxx
ooo my mum wants me to do that is it hard?
You take 6 subjects but u can pass the IB by getting Ds for everything. Each grade is in points instead of letters, so A= 7, B=6 and so on. You need 24 points to pass the IB, which equates to Ds in everything. You can take subjects at highet or standard. Standard is about the same difficulty as AS-levels.
Worse schools or worse organized?
Erm..both really I guess.. Like I say, it's only in my experience, and I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything
I suppose it's just that (the ones I know of) rely more on their reputation and good grades rather than being better all round..
I don't really know what I'm talking about, or what relevance it has to anything. Like I say, I'm no expert, and it's only in my (somewhat limited) experience. I'm not suggesting your school is crap or anything. Ignore me
Yes. And some of them are "better" in that they produce students with higher average grades, but I think that the social experience is lacking or at least different in the grammar / private school environment.
ive got bloomin GCSEs as well this year!:mad: oh well only 28 school weeks left then i leave FOREVER
But there's a lot more to life than getting good grades.
Read Mist's post.
It is. I went to a state junior school and a private secondary school and the atmosphere is totally different. For one thing most of these schools are single-sex so in my case we missed out on the feminine influence and all the school dating things. Also you had a much smaller range of people there, all there were at least reasonably well off and so, especially for those who has only been in the private system, there was a view that most people lived like that and there were no poor people and those that were poor were poor because they were too lazy to find a job. :rolleyes: Also because it's a private school there's no catchment area so we had people from miles around in all different directions who'd commute to school and because of the large distances between us all it was hard to just go out because most of the time we couldn't be bothered to spend an hour going halfway across London. Yes, so I do think that private schools suffer socially.
Academically however, we did benefit from small class sizes and excellent teaching, not that this doesn't exist in the state sector it's just a lot harder to find. A point about private/grammar schools' positions in the league tables - most of these schools have entrance exams at 11 so regardless of whether you have the money, if you don't have the brains you don't get in. This benefits the schools positions in two ways, firstly they don't have less able pupils dragging down the schools results because they automatically pick the best, secondly because they don't have less able pupils they can move through topics more quickly and cover topics in more depth than an ordinary comprehensive could. Also the schools then have another weeding out process after GCSEs where they set a level needed to continue at the school - when I was there it was 5Bs and I think it's been increased since then, this means they continue with the best which benefits them again as outlined as above.
So I wouldn't say that private/grammar schools are necessarily any better than comprehensives but I would say they have less handicaps.
hmm i went the best comprehensive in my area,which by way only gets around 45% 5 A*-C grades!
then for college i applied to good 6thforms in normal schools and grammar schools further away,and landed up going to 6th form college far away in london/essex but best decision of my life!
now going to uni
I went to what is apparently 'the most oversubscribed school in the country' (according to the school). I had a good time, but it was very high achieving, particularly for a non fee paying school - if you didn't get ABB and didn't get into a top 10 university, you were considered a faliure, and weren't given a huge amount of support to do anything else.
As it happens, i didn't get ABB, or get into a top 10 uni, and my school gave me sod all support or help, but i did get in to my first choice uni, which is 14th in the country for what i want to do.
And i start in 12 days. Eek!
Sorry, what was the point of this thread again?
No idea
Interestingly, I got some English AS homework today, where I have to prepare something for a discussion tomorrow on paying for education up to the age of 18, and also my opinions of university fees.
I may have to reread this thread for some ideas..
Sa-ra-ra-ra - it's that idea of not supporting students that I don't like with private/grammar schools (though you didn't mention if yours was a grammar or comprehensive). Sure, people might get good grades, but if you don't get the grades to make you a 'success' in the school's eyes, you still need as much support for whatever you are going on to do next. And like has been said before, I'm almost certain that the social experiences are lacking a great deal in more selective schools.
Blah. I'm rambling.
Good luck in uni btw!
My school didn't really come under either of those - it was a City Technology College, but it was independently selective, in that it interviewed and tested outside the london reading test or yr5 sat's or whatever they do now. Frankly, it really *really* wanted to be a private school, with the results, uniform and ethos to match. And it did generally achieve, but it was the same attitude as many private schools - if you weren't going to achieve, you weren't considered one of the 'good' students. One of my friends was having problems at home, and wasn't made a prefect cos her grades slipped. Surely there's more to life than grades? Apparently not, according to our school.
Thanks for the good luck, i'm so bored at the moment, i can't wait to go!