Alternative schooling

I had very unconventional schooling.  Some of it was my fault, but I also put the blame on my parents.

My parents were white WWII immigrants who never learnt to understand English and spent their entire lives making excuses.

I started school very late when a neighbour noticed I wasn't in school and they registered me with the local school.  That was a disaster because I couldn't understand a word and I didn't attend for weeks at a time because I couldn't cope.  The school itself was a poorly maintained victorian building with temporary wooden huts which were falling apart.

After a couple of years I was sent to my first 'Special' school for children with language difficulties.   I was the only white kid, there was also one black boy and thirty Asians, all the teachers were Asian.  All I remember is everyone complaining about 'the English kid', what's he doing here?  After a month I got kicked out to another normal school.

This school was also a victorian building, with black Asphalt playing ground and outside toilets.  One afternoon a week we were bused to a playing field for sports.

Then I moved to a middle school, built in the 1950s and it had grass playing fields.  I found the change impossible to cope with.  I lasted a month then refused to go for around six months.  So I ended up at my second special school.

This special school was a sort of place you got sent when you didn't fit in anywhere else.  In the 1970s we had no SEND or EHC plans.  This school was in another awful building.  And as for eduction: I learnt basket weaving, looking after tomato plants in grow bags, playing table tennis.  There were no exams.  Children left that place illiterate.  The school head was a psychiatrist,  I saw his certificate on his office wall.  Other staff were, an ex policewoman, medical people, nurses trainee nurses.  Half the kids arrived by hospital transport.  Mornings were in the school, in the afternoon we were assigned singularly or in small groups to staff members and we went out.   I remember visiting Knaresborough,  Robin hoods Bay, lake district. Lots of local parks.  And often the staff took us to their home for a few hours.  A couple of us dig some intensive digging and gardening at one woman's home.

After a year I was sent back to the normal middle school.

Blimey. That's a saga. 

It sounds very stressful especially 

Robert124 said:

That was a disaster because I couldn't understand a word and I didn't attend for weeks at a time because I couldn't cope. 

This thread is titled alternative schooling.  And I certainly experienced 'alternative schooling' in my second special school.  Some memories really stick out.

On my first day, the staff discussed if I should be placed with big lads or the small boys.  I was decided that I was a big lad.  One boy ran up to me and asked how old I was,  I answered nine and a half, has started crying because he was ten and still with the small boys.  The whole year I was there he never spoke to me again.

Also on my first day I noticed a skinny girl hiding under the table tennis tables, while others played table tennis.  Again I never heard her speak and when I left she was still hiding under the tables with staff trying to get her out.  No progress.

The basket weaving,  I got good at it.  Many years later I read that basket weaving is a form of therapy in mental hospitals.

The oldest pupils left during the summer.  A few weeks later two boys came back.  The head of the school ordered them out, explaining that they were too old to come here.  They had tears in their eyes as they left.

Just before I left (Aged ten). I was interview by uniformed police about a former staff member.  They wanted to know if I had ever been to her house and explain in my own words exactly what went on there.

In the old days boys and girls were often separated,  the schools I was in had written in stone Boys and Girls on separate entrances. 

Google maps has come to my aid.  The special school buildings still exist.

At primary school, a teacher used to teach the boys to make baskets, but not the girls as he didn't like girls. 

At primary school, a teacher used to teach the boys to make baskets, but not the girls as he didn't like girls. 

In the old days boys and girls were often separated,  the schools I was in had written in stone Boys and Girls on separate entrances. 

Google maps has come to my aid.  The special school buildings still exist.