Did you enjoy secondary school?

[May Kasahara]

Despite the usual teenage troubles (nobody understands me etc.) I really enjoyed secondary school. I argued with a lot of teachers but they mostly seemed to enjoy it; I found the work pretty easy and was able to sail through without putting much effort it; I was the English department's pet prodigy which was both gratifying and embarrassing in equal measure; I had nice friends and for some reason never really got bullied or picked on. My unhappinesses were largely inherent in me, rather than anything to do with school.

My A level years were extremely stressful but that was more to do with the fallout from my mum's death than anything else. I still got through with good grades, thanks in no small part to the school being quite understanding with regard to missing coursework and persistent lateness.

It was and I believe still is a very good school for supporting kids through education and bringing a lot of kids up to A level who might not otherwise have bothered.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I have very happy memories of secondary school, although I didn't enjoy every subject I was forced to study. But I had lots of friends, and was always in the middle, as it were. I didn't particularly shine, but neither was I one of the slow ones. I wasn't particularly attractive, so I didn't attract any bullies or sycophants, but was lucky/wise enough to choose some really good people as friends.

I went to a grammar school and, for some reason which I never worked out, took my 11 plus a year young. This meant that I was always a year younger than everyone else, which could have lead to some bullying, but I was also tall for my age, and I don't think anyone noticed. Besides, at least this meant that I wasn't one of the clever ones, as I had been in junior school until they put me up a year, so I wasn't picked on for that.

I do think kids' enjoyment of school goes a lot beyond simply whether the teaching is good - it's a major social gathering, and teaches children life skills like sharing and communicating etc. etc. which largely happens outside of the formal teaching. I was also lucky when my daughter was young, because we lived in Cambridge, and managed to stay in the catchment area of one of the best state schools, possibly in the country, but certainly in Cambridgeshire, so my daughter was happy at school, too, and well taught.

 

[ymu]

Well look here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7464842.stm

or any of the recent stories on the BBC education site. Lots of articles on the TES site.

In my borough with this wide-spread programme of closing community schools - we are all to be turned into academies or merged with existing acadamies - there will be (if current plans go ahead) - one community school. Academies are under no obligation to follow government policies on inclusion etc (although in practice, how they choose to run varies from academy to academy).. which means that they can accept who they like and exclude who they like at will. So, we could end up with a situation where one school in the borough takes in all the drop outs and low attainers whilst all the "good" kids go to the academies. In practice I don't think it will be this clear-cut but we've been having a LOT of union meetings and there is a LOT of community meetings happening at the moment about this.

But - even my union has said that they're not going to bother fighting the academies - they feel it's pretty much a done deal and we're better off fighting for which academy should become our sponsor.

Thanks.

This is about more than nu-Labour's fetish for targets. NHS targets are strictly adjusted for case-mix - many doctors routinely bump everyone up a grade or two of severity at diagnosis to make their results look better. They understand (some of) the statistical issues and they have exactly the same adjusted data available for schools - they're just not going to use it. Why "waste" money on good schools for brown people and chavs when it's the rich that run the businesses that bribe the fuckers into power every few years?

It was always obvious that they were trying to privatise (and subsidise) education for the rich ("education, education, education" actually referred to a 3 tier system of no choice, some choice and free choice), but this is an utterly blatant attempt to speed up the process.

 

[sojourner]

I absolutely loathed every single fucking second of it. I despised all schools, from playschool onwards. The day I left was one of the most joyous days of my life

I hated the teachers, the lessons, the other pupils, the building itself, everything. With an almighty passion

I hated sending my own daughter to secondary school.

 

[phildwyer]

I loved it, didn't learn a thing though.

 

[felixthecat]

My son and daughter went to the same secondary school - son hated it with a passion and couldn't wait to leave (but is thriving at the local college), daughter got on fine and is staying on to do a-levels.

Same school, same teachers but kids with different personalities and therefore different experiences.

 

[dolly's gal]

it gave me life-long eating issues. other than that, it was great

 

[_angel_]

I didn't like it much but it was still better than middle school where the last two years were hell.

 

[spanglechick]

i had a horrible time. I went to an 'excellent' school - massively academic, no real behaviour issues - but the only positive experiences in the whole of the first five years there were the school plays.

However, i wouldn't have changed what my parents / teachers did. It taught me to be resiliant, independant and resourceful.

I was bullied for most of the time (in that sly, nasty way of girls) and I just got on with that experience. It taught me that even wheen things are shit you have to keep going. There is no deus ex machina - it's how I dealt with things that counted.

That may seem a bit 'school of hard knocks' i don't really mean it to.

i was allowed to make my own mistakes, and cope with some of the injustices of life and then i dealt with the consequences.

 

[Madusa]

I loved secondary school. Had a small, close group of friends, myself and the girls I hung out with werent the pretty, popular girls that everyone wanted to get off with, nor the geeky lot so we were liked by all the 'factions' but everyone in our year were all pretty tight and were all friends.

No one got proper bullied, as everyone had ''cussnames'' -something about you that everyone could take the piss out of, luckily mine was a bit lame and just a play on my surname. If you had that, you got off lightly. Other ''cusses'' included things about people's physical appearance or something dumb they once said or whatever, but it was good cos no one was singled out, like.

I was a bit of a boffin, as I liked to study and not afraid to answer and talk up in class discussions and ask questions but what made things cooler/easier was that our teachers were great...youngish, sarcastic etc so I got on with them well... (used to talk about This Life and what's happening in their private life with a lot of them) and then you kinda stopped seeing them as detached teachers, but as a real person which helped you relate to them inside of the classroom as well as out, so they liked me and occasionally let me off for forgetting my homework and stupid shit like that. I got teased for that a bit, but fuck 'em.

Yeah, high school was fucking cool.

 

[Artie Fufkin]

arguably the worst years of my life, certainly my educational life. went to an all boys school where the curriculum consisted of fighting and boasting about your alleged sexual conquests. one person made it a particularly unpleasant experience and I'm still hunting him down.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Hated it. I was ttreated as if I wasnt very clever when I knew I was clever... not exceedingly so but sick of people saying things like "if she only tried harder"
It wasnt a surprise to find out I was Dyslexic years after I left.
I was tiny ( my uniform on the first day was from mothercare- aged 7-8)
So I was touted round the teachers as a bit of a freak, having to take notes all the time until theyd all had a good look.
I got bullied from about the 2nd year on by a group of girls, it was never sorted by 15 I was truanting regularly. I was told to toughen up, get my uniform back on if I wouldnt name them (which used to make them worse) eventually they battered me so badly the police were called and they were cautioned for ABH ( first offence alledgely blah blah) and my life got worse. I was just glad to leave. I failed most of my GCSE's.

I had a place at a decent independent school offered to me when I was about 13/14 after a teacher approached an education social worker/welfare officer about me but my mothers political opinions meant there was no chance she would let me go, she 'didnt believe in it' so basically tough shit kid, lump it so my political prinicpals are intact and I can feel good about it... She admits it was the worst mistake she ever madenow shes not quite so self righteous about things she realises your kids are more important.
Ironically they also now have a Dyslexic unit in that particular school since they realised the extent of the problem ( around the time Id have gone too)

 

[Ich bin ein Mod]

Enjoyed the classes, but hated the social aspect. I was the wee ugly geeky kid with specs, so didn't have many friends and was always getting into fights. Once I reached 5th year however it got much better, grew in confidence a bit and most of the nutters had gone by then.

 

[Cloo]

First three years - shite. Suddenly boys were off limits unless you fancied them, and I'd always been mates with boys and not girls. I had short hair, was into alternative music (not that I was sophisticated, just I had older siblings and was into what they were into) and really did not fit in to the very conformist world of 11-14 year-olds. I was also quite emotionally immature in many ways and also happy to be a kid rather than wanting to be a teenager. So I didn't have any mates, got a lot of low-level bullying (nothing truly dreadful, though) and was not happy. But I never gave up hope of some days being better, and sometimes they were.

In my fourth year, we began to mix form groups more, and I found the people who were to become my good mates. By the sixth form, I was very happy - I particularly enjoyed my last two years. And it was a really good school; I was lucky to be able to go to a state grammar, and one with a superb music department. I only wish this were an opportunity that could be offered to more kids in this country.

The first half may have been shite, but I really think that at any other school, the entire seven years would have been like that, as at least my school had an individualistic streak that suited me once I got into it.

I think overall the 'not losing hope that today could be better' really saw me through the rough bit, and if your kid has a tough time adjusting, that's the thought to stick with. It's an awful time to change schools - I mean, few groups of people are as judgemental and conformist as 11-12 year olds!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I hated secondary school. I now work in a secondary school and it's not the first I've worked in. Things have changed enormously. Schools didn't have anti-bullying strategies and policies. The teaching is much better quality and emotional well-being is considered and information is shared amongst staff in an effective way. eg I might well get an email, sent to all teaching & support staff saying something along the lines of "Jo in 8F's Gran is seriously ill, she's up the hospital every evening so be aware that she's likely to be tired, not done homework and may be feeling emotional. Let her leave the class with a friend for time out if she's upset'.

 

[poului]

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Disliked most of it quite intensely at the time (especially at the end) but in retrospect came to appreciate aspects of it a lot more.

 

[Annierak]

I absolutely loathed every single fucking second of it. I despised all schools, from playschool onwards. The day I left was one of the most joyous days of my life

I hated the teachers, the lessons, the other pupils, the building itself, everything. With an almighty passion

I hated sending my own daughter to secondary school.

Same here!!

 

[Meltingpot]

Not on the whole, though I had a couple of good years in the middle school and got a couple of prizes at "O" level (Physics and RI). I identify with David Baddiel's description of his own schooldays - a "theatre of pain and hatred."

 

[panpete]

Did you enjoy secondary school?
No.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I did not enjoy secondary school. However, I have never really enjoyed anything, so that doesn't prove very much.

 

[Stobart Stopper]

I liked junior high (11-14 years old) then went to the shittiest senior school in the borough, it's still a dump from what I can work out as my cousin's kids go there and she says it's awful.

We more or less did as we pleased, got our mark then fucked off over the local lido for the rest of the day in the summer. The teachers didn't really give a shit as long as they got an easy life. This was back in the late 70's and early 80's.
I remember walking down the road with my mate and waving at the truant officer, they fined my mum £30 but I still didn't go.
My mate was working in a bingo hall from the age of 15 and no one bothered to check her age and the school didn't check to find out where she was.

 

[fuBganger]

MY experience of secondary school was initially baffling. Over the summer everyone seemed to have learned the complicated semantics involved with 'going out' and 'fancying' and 'snogging' and there was me still playing with Lego. Academically I just continued the same as I ever did but it was a very sharp learning curve socially. Despite that, spent the first three years being a complete nerd but Amazonian and womanly compared to all of the other girls. It was not easy, but then it never is for anyone.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

no i fucking hated it, i was bullied for 4 years and it wasn't until i was 16 i realised that this wasn't how things should be.

 

[Annierak]

no i fucking hated it, i was bullied for 4 years and it wasn't until i was 16 i realised that this wasn't how things should be.

I was bullied too, took 3 years of suffering until i snapped and kicked shit out of the ringleader

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

I was bullied too, took 3 years of suffering until i snapped and kicked shit out of the ringleader

i had an incident with someone who was a couple of years younger than me, who then threatened that his brother was going to do me. his brother even came up and apologised afterwards, even tho i'd floored his younger sibling. and something changed in my brain that day, mostly for the better i think

 

[Mrs Magpie]

One thing I noticed when I went from working in primary schools to secondary schools is that the year 6 kids in primary schools look huge but the year 7 kids in secondary school look tiny....it's all relative, but it is a shock going from being the biggest kids to the littlest kids.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

i was kind of a big skinny kid in secondary school which is why i think i stood out a bit, as well as being ginger.

 

[Annierak]

i had an incident with someone who was a couple of years younger than me, who then threatened that his brother was going to do me. his brother even came up and apologised afterwards, even tho i'd floored his younger sibling. and something changed in my brain that day, mostly for the better i think

Shame neither of us couldn't do it sooner though eh? All those years dreading going to school when all it took was a few good punches. Yeh something changed in my brain that day too and it made the following 2 years bearable. Still couldn't wait to leave though.

 

[han]

I quite enjoyed my secondary school - mainly due to having a bunch of equally weird/freaky misfit mates that I hung out with and had absolutely loads of laughs with. Several of whom I am still friends with. We were all goths at the time. I still get caned with a few of them once in a while.

It just wouldn't have been the same without them!

Don't remember much about any w*rk, though. It was mainly the social element that I remember positively.

I was lucky though - I went to a (state) all-girls grammer school of only 400 people. So it was pretty positive and generally v easy.......virtually no bullying that I was aware of.

 

[Stigmata]

I thought it was ok at the time, but in hindsight it was the worst part of my life thus far (i'm 22). Still friends with some of the people I met there, so I gained something from it at least.