School places

I'm a school governor. Until recently, that school was rated as 'satisfactory' and has now been uprated to good. I'm not a particularly good school governor, but I've been doing it for a while and have given up a significant amount of my free time to a local school. I haven't made a major contribution, to be sure, but I have been along for the ride and I hope I've made some small contribution.


Looks like lots of places.

I put Buddy's name down on the list to go to that school. School governors don't get preferential places, but the school had never been oversubscribed before, so I felt pretty assured of a place. I wasn't thrilled about him going there. He's a smart kid, but he's not a good kid. From having observed classes there, I could see that it maybe didn't serve smart, not-very-good and high-energy boys well. He would have been an ethnic minority in the school - and whatever you may think about that, it can certainly make you more obvious, more vulnerable. Despite the school's improvement, I know they still face a lot of challenges. A school population of high churn. Kids entering every year who don't speak English at all, never mind as a first language. But it wasn't really a bad deal overall. I know the headteacher and deputy head and a lot of the staff. I know they're actually doing a pretty good job. I'm a school governor, so although the boy wouldn't get any special favours...you know, they'd look out for him, let me know if there was a problem.

School governors don't get preferential treatment when it comes to school places. And my boy didn't get a place at the school where I'm a governor.

Instead he was offered a place at the worst school within reasonable walking distance. A school which receives low ratings on outcome and on kids perceptions of their own safety. It's next to a housing estate that I know has some significant problems, because my husband sits on the local Safer Neighbourhood Panel. It's a school which, until last year, was in 'special measures'. It's a school that parents sometimes flee from to attend the one where I'm a governor. Sometimes mid-year.

I can't help feel a little cheesed off that I didn't get some good karma for my work, however just about ok it was.

And I can't help but feel a bit desperate. The school must be within walking distance or easy to reach by public transport. There's a nice looking private school that's not too inconvenient for us. But, of course, it's expensive. But I will pay. It doesn't help that I've just taken voluntary redundancy. Fortunately, we can pay at least for a little while - even in my reduced circumstances. And fortunately, my political principles mean that I don't worry about sending my child to a private school. I would prefer to send him to a state school, even if it's perhaps not the best option. But I won't send him if it's the worst option. I just hope the local private school still has places.

Two minus what equals one

I don't know much about pedagogy. Don't know much about the science books. But I do know one and one is two.

Well, yes and no.

I was visiting a local school today as a school Governor. And it was a lovely day. The kids were, for the most part, well behaved. I dipped in and out of a number of lessons. I was invited to color. I was complemented on my coloring ability. I told them I'd had a lot of practice over the years.

But they were teaching kids using some kind of new fangled method of math teaching. It looked like algebra. But it wasn't. For addition it was like algebra, but for subtraction I didn't have a freakin' clue what they were doing. And I feel pretty confident about my math ability.

I witnessed one of the kids getting the right answer but using the subtraction method incorrectly. I could see what she was doing. And she was getting the right answer. The teacher told her she didn't care about the answer, only that she was doing it the right way. She wasn't doing the method.

The child looked sad and perplexed.

And I felt sad and perplexed.

During a number of our evening meetings the teachers have talked about teaching the parents how to help the kids with their maths homework, because of the new way. Now I understand why that's necessary. Necessary, I guess.

Designer jeans

When I was being educated at the expense of Metro Nashville taxpayers it was the early 80s. Designer jeans were all the rage. I didn't have any.

Now maybe my parents could have afforded some designer jeans, but I was given to believe - that we were suffering financial difficulties as a family. And I guess we were. I was young, in sixth grade, and I took this on myself. I did want the designer jeans. But I didn't want to ask for them. Even though I was being bullied for my lack of "proper attire". Like seriously bullied - like during outdoor play periods kids took time out of what they might have been doing to ask me questions - pointed, unpleasant questions - about my wardrobe. Or lack thereof.

So I borrowed my mom's one pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and her New Balance branded shoes - yes, I still remember them. Of course, they didn't really fit very well - me being pre-teen and her not. And I wore them pretty much every day. I'm not sure my mom knew this because she left for work early and middle school started late. And now the kids had something else to pick on me for - wearing pretty much the same thing to school every day.

Now fortunately, I changed schools the following year, and this designer bullying wasn't part of the culture. But I still remember it.

And so - Metro schools has passed a "Standard School Attire" rule - a kind of quasi uniform rule. And most folks don't seem to think it's such a hot shot idea. But I do.

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On the bright side, ever since then I've absolutely hated anything with designer labels on the outside, especially anything that had big or overt branding on it. I'm sure this has saved me a lot of money over the years.