Not that I'm crowing or anything...

[chocclare]

... but I'd just like to record a couple of factoids about my DS, Tom, who has just had his AS results. (For those of you unfamiliar with the English school system, AS Level comes AFTER GCSEs (which are taken at about age 16) and are the first year of A levels, so become BEFORE A2s (which are taken at 18). Or, in Harry Potter terms, after OWLs and

Comments

[chocclare]

Yes, Tom was exactly the same - very competitive and then ran out of people to be competitive with. He went to the local Catholic comprehensive and he did sweet f.a. in the first two years - and the teachers kept moving him down sets because he wasn't doing the work - and they thought it was because it was too hard for him. *Rolls eyes* Luckily, in the third year, they realised that they were making things even worse by doing that because it was all too easy for him, so they moved him back up to the top sets and suddenly he did well again.

Zaz and I both went to private schools and they tend to be super-competitive so push children to do well - mainly because in this country you get into university depending on your A level results, not on your ability to pay (in our day, no-one paid anything, and even now, it's a standard price of about £3 grand per year), so good grades = best choice of universities. Remember that this country is only about 600 miles long and 300 wide at its widest, so people don't tend to go to the local college, because even the one furthest away isn't that far!

It always horrifies me when I watch American kids' programmes about school life and they all seem to have horrible levels of cliques and bullying as a way of life. Is that actually true? At my kids' school there are many, many chavs, and there are also tarty girls who need a good slap, but the school comes down on any bullying like a ton of bricks, and all the kids are supportive and friendly to each other. Surely ALL American schools can't be as bad as they make out on the telly?!!

[callme_al01]

I'll PM you with my saga/sermon on this!