Published on 12, July, 2020
I didn't like school much espech secondary because it was a huge school and I was bullied a lot
Primary school was ok at first because I went to a really small school which was actually an old building
This was it
It's since been turned in to flats sadly :(
My secondary school was monstrous lol XD I hated it from start to finish.
I enjoyed learning but I would have preferred doing it from home :)
Sometimes I miss school but mostly its bad memories.
In the hall at my first school we did a Christmas show and sang silent night together my mum has it on video it's a strange video because I'm only small and don't really look like me now.
My primary school was a small one in a village in East Anglia. I had a fairly standard primary school experience I think, I was a bit odd but I was encouraged to push myself and I'd known everyone in my class since we started in reception class. The area had a three tier system at the time (primary, middle, upper school) so primary school finished well before the social stuff got too complicated.
Middle school and upper school were dreadful, especially middle school. I was there from year 5 to year 8 and the bullying was absolutely horrendous. The other kids could already tell that I was Different and once the popular girls decided I was a target, that was it. Upper school was similar but because the school was so much bigger it was easier to avoid the bullies. Sixth form was a big reduction in numbers though so once again I was The Weirdo, though I did at least have some other weird kids to be friends with by then.
I actually loved the routine of school and the learning. I think it's a real shame that other kids treated me the way they did and that the teachers let them do it, because I could have really thrived if I was allowed to just be myself.
I was fortunate in going to a good primary school and then on to a grammar school. In primary, we had a brilliant year six teacher - a retired teacher in the Army Education Corps. Never mind the kids, the Head Teacher was scared of him! He was eccentric - Friday afternoons he would write the clues from the Telegraph crossword for us to solve. Whoever got the most clues got a shilling (5p) which in those days was worth a Mars bar and stick of licorice. Another of his tricks was to get us to give him two five-digit numbers to multiply together ... we worked them out on paper, he did it in his head!
At grammar school we had a lot of geeks ... now I can recognise the kids with ADHD and autism. The teachers were mad as a box of frogs, but generally harmless, apart from a maths teacher who left suddenly after hitting a sixth-form student over the head with a blackboard - allegedly. I quite enjoyed school. I don't think some of the "characters" we had as teachers would fit in with modern assembly-line teaching, though.
My husband went to a Technical Secondary School.
Not that many were built.
It's an education that he really enjoyed as he learnt a lot of skills and crafts there.
I'd actually have loved to have gone to one and learnt all the boys things!
He uses some of the skills he learnt there still today.
My partner's school used to be a technical school- it was a grammar school by the time he got there in the late 90s. We didn't have either of those where I grew up- I think I probably would have got into grammar school if the opportunity had been there, but I don't think it would have made any difference to my abysmal social life!
Thanks. I decided to try teaching, imagining it would be like my experience. After teaching practice in "rough" inner-city school I decided that it was not for me, and joined the NHS instead. My own school experience certainly did not involve teachers being told to foxtrot oscar and kicked in the shins by a seven-year-old. Now I have more understanding and sympathy for these kids ...
Ian said:There are still good schools about!
That's good to know.
Schools shouldn't be traumatising, but often are.
It's was good to read your, what sounds like, largely positive experience of schooling too.
That was my second choice had I not got into grammar school. The technical school is now comprehensive, but has a brilliant repuation as an autism-friendly, dyslexia specialist school. My neighbour's kids love it. There are still good schools about!