Life Update!

[lauren3210]

Okay, so I'm meant to be writing, but I'm just so wound up that I feel like I could explode at any moment, so instead I'm coming on here to vent my frustrations. Um, sorry in advance?


Do you ever get so angry that you literally start shaking, and you can't work out if that lump in your stomach means you're going to start bawling your eyes out or projectile vomiting? Because that's where I am right now.

My daughter doesn't go to a very good school, okay. We know this, but our options are limited (by societal design, because they make damn sure that any good schools are well beyond the possible financial scope of anyone not included in the top 1% of the country), and we do our best with what we've got. We're fairly lucky, really, because our collective families have a lot of advanced education: she can come to me for any English questions; her dad for science stuff, my stepdad for maths, my mum for history - between us all, we've got it covered for if she needs support that the school can't give. Not everyone has that, especially where we are currently living, so yeah, all things considered, she's pretty damn fortunate. What we can't do, however, is affect what they teach her while she's actually there.

So first of all, two weeks ago, my daughter was told that all of her Spanish GCSE coursework that she has been doing over the 15 MONTHS cannot be sent to the governing body, because her teacher gave them all the wrong syllabus. We complained, as did many other parents, but there really wasn't anything that could be done to rectify the situation, except for Eryn to rewrite everything according to the correct syllabus so that it could be submitted. Which she had to do within 2 DAYS. Yep, she had to write the equivalent of 15 months worth of work in just 48 hours. My daughter, being the trooper she is, managed to get it in just under the deadline, although many of her classmates have had to settle for half a grade drop.

Then, as if that wasn't enough of a fuck-up for them, today she had a History mock exam. These exams are important, because if she wants to carry on to do A levels (which she does), she has to submit her mock exam results into the schools and colleges she's applying to. These results are supposed to reflect what she is likely to get in her actual GCSE exams, which are coming up in 6 months' time. But when she got into the exam, she found out that everything her teacher has been teaching her and everything she's been told to revise was the WRONG FUCKING THING. She was taught all about the Treaty of Versailles and the war, and the exam was all about the League of Nations - not a fucking treaty to be seen. Which means that she's going to get a failing mock grade, and she will have no choice but to submit that to her chosen colleges.

I mean, what the actual fuck? Do these teachers even have degrees? Have they just been dragged in off the street and given a job? It just boggles the mind, really, because there are like a dozen different people who would have had to sign off on these lesson plans, so it's not just one person fucking up, but a whole host of them. Seriously, I am so angry I just want to rip their faces off. I just... I don't know what to do, with either this situation OR the amount of rage I have currently running through my veins.


On a slightly happier note, let me tell you something that Ben did over the weekend. He's a bit of a weirdo, okay, and there are times when I wonder who thought it was a good idea to give this overgrown child an actual medical licence. But anyway, on Sunday he decided to play a prank on our two youngest, by filling the water filter jug with weak lemon squash and insisting that it was in fact his own pee and then drinking it in front of them. Cue screams of disgust from everyone close by, followed by my 5y/o running off to find me, where she says, "Mama! Quick, take your [engagement] ring off, he's a very weird man!" Like, she was SO CONCERNED for me that I might actually marry a man who drinks his own pee, and desperately wanted to save me from the 'weird man'. I think I cracked a rib laughing.

Okay, venting over, and back to your usual viewing schedule.

Comments

[capitu]

Oh, darling. I'm sorry about your daughter. :( So effing frustrating after how hard she's worked. No wonder you're so upset! Ugh!

You know what I do? I grab a pillow and scream at it at the top of my lungs. Sometimes my throat itches afterwards, and it doesn't really help in any factual way, but one lets off some steam.

*hugs*

In other news, Ben is crazy. Oh my god! LOL I wish you had record it. ^^

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I called my mum, and yelled about it down the phone, because she gets it, probably because I get my rage from her, haha! And then once I calmed down, I got really tired, so I went to bed for about 10 hours, and now I'm ready to start calling people and getting them to fix this!

And lol yeah, my Ben is a complete nutter, I have no idea why I like him so much! ;)

Thanks darling! *hugs*

[besamislabios]

I'm so sorry for what's happening with your daughter and her school, it all sounds really frustrating and stressful, I'd be angry too!! It's hard to believe that they can be so incompetent. Sending you love and hugs!

Aw, your Ben sounds crazy weird, but total fun! :D

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Thanks sweets! I'm now gearing myself up for a day spent on the phone trying to work out how to fix it; hopefully they'll be able to do something.

Yeah Ben's a nutbar, but the kids seem to like that about him, haha!

*hugs*

[snowgall]

Wow. Just...what the buggering fuck, really? I can barely comprehend that level of incompetence.

Here in the US, most parents complain that teachers spend *too much* time "teaching to the test" instead of engaging students in critical thinking. But even so, if a teacher had screwed up the entire syllabus like that, parents would be on them like a pack of wolves. Especially in this town, where everybody is over-educated and over-involved. It would be a lynch mob.

I am so sorry that you and your daughter have had to deal with this. It's awful.

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Tbh, I know very little about the US education system, even though Ben grew up there - I still have issues workng out the age ranges in 'grades', and what the hell is a sophomore? But here, all kids get taught with broad strokes about each subject, but should be told in advance a selection of things they should be concentrating on for the actual exam. But in Eryn's case, the mock exam was on something they hadn't even begun to teach them yet - she had never even heard of the 1923 Corfu incident until she sat down in front of that paper. Had that been her actual exam that she'll be sitting in 6 months' time, she'd have been okay because they would have gotten around to it, but that mock grade is what will/won't get her into colleges, so the school fucked up on a major level.

I'm going to talk to the school today, to see if there is anything they can do, like put down her coursework grade instead of the exam grade so that she won't have to have that bad mark (that was their fault) sitting on her report. *sigh*

Thanks, honey! ♥

[nia_kantorka]

I'm sorry about this mess the school of your daughter made. Is there a way for all parents of this course to go to the barricades? Idk, even if it's a public school there must be some authority to watch them, right? To write them? To make that much stress that all pupils can take the test again. Even if that would mean to learn a whole lot of shit about another topic in a short time? At least everyone had the opportunity to do better. And maybe to get a reprimand and consequences for the school?

Oh man. Such things are horribly unfair. *hugs*

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

The school that Eryn goes to is an 'academy', which sounds cool but is actually a thing the government put in place for areas that were below the national average. These academies are privately run, like a business, in which the better they do in overall exams, the more money the government give them. Unfortunately this means that the only people who watch them are the governers, who are the people that own the business, so complaining to them means nothing much. The only thing we can do is complain to OFSTED (the people who make sure all schools are operating to the right standard), but they only get involved in schoolwide issues. Basically, we're fucked. I'm going to talk to them today though, and see what can be done for Eryn; maybe they'll let her use her coursework grade on her report, so she has a better chance with the colleges she wants to go to...

Thanks, darling! *hugs*

[obliviateamores.livejournal.com]

Gah... I'm so sorry about that, it must be incredibly frustrating. Most of the time I don't really think much about it, but then things like this make me think again about what a mess our education system is. Coming from my little and admittedly rather privileged bubble, it makes me feel oddly awful about myself not to have thought about it more...

Anyway, hopefully they'll teach her properly for the actual exams. If not, you probably already know this, but you can find the actual exam board specifications online, so that might help?

Many metaphorical hugs being sent your way :)

(Also, I am now having flashbacks to my own GCSE history exams. *shudders*)

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Our education system really is appalling in a lot of ways not least that these days they make grammar schools all but inaccessible to anyone who doesn't earn well over 6 figures. Sigh, it used to be so much better before bloody Thatcher came along and ruined everything.

And yes, we'll be making sure to check the exam board specs for her actual exams after this, we just didn't think it was something that we would have to watch for ourselves, you know? I mean, this what they get paid for ffs.

Thanks for the hugs! ♥

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

Do the teachers not know what the mock exams cover? It seems like it would be their responsibility to know what is on the mock exam and to make sure that is taught or covered in the coursework. Is there a chance that she can study for the mock exam and repeat it? The school seems to reflect a lot that goes on these days. Businesses are like dinosaurs, one end doesn't know what the other end is doing. Too bad the kids have to pay the price for such incompetence.

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Well, that is the general idea, yeah. They're meant to know what will be on the exam, so that the kids will have a chance to revise for them. But this teacher obviously couldn't be bothered to go looking, so she just told the kids to look over what they'd recently been covering, which wasn't on the exam at all. She can't repeat the exam, but I've spoken to the school today, and we're waiting to see if she can use her coursework mark as her mock exam's grade - she got an A* for it, and they expect her to get at least an A in her actual exam. So hopefully, her report won't be damaged too much by it. Unfortunately, it has made her a little panicky over her actual exams, worrying if it will happen again, so we've had to spend the day talking her down.

thanks, darling ♥

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

i have no words for this!
but i'm sorry your awesome kid has to go though all this
*hugs*
i usually try to see some silver linings... but this just looks like bulling to me and even if some say bulling forms character- it mostly just hurts and sucks....
*hugs again*

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's gross. really, that they feel the need to mess around with my child's entire future. It kind of makes me want to set their cars on fire, tbh.

Thanks honey! ♥