It's The Little Things In Life That Annoy
I don't have many complaints about Nathalie's school, apart from their complete inability to deal with the bullying issues that seem to arise (although thankfully not directed at Nathalie), but some things about them really piss me off.
The latest manifestation of this annoyance is their attitude towards the students taking part in the Ten Tors Challenge. To be on the two teams of six the students from years 11, 12 and 13 are having to take part in a series of walks between November and January. There are fifty four 'young adults', as the Headmaster likes to call them, in the competition for places and the location of the walks varies from the New Forest, the beach between Hengistbury Head and Bournemouth Pier and the Purbecks, the first two walks were nine and twelve miles respectively and this weekends is a bit longer. I think it's great for a number of reasons, the physical and mental challenges being the obvious ones plus the chance of team building except the organisers have cocked this up in my view. The students are split into two groups (boys and girls) and then further split into teams of four, no problem there except the teams are then encouraged to race against each other, not only in terms of competing teams but also as individuals within the teams - so how will that help on Dartmoor?
The second point that annoys me is the transportation arrangements. The school owns three minibuses but the parents are expected to get their children to the start of the walk. Now parents being parents don't generally mind this and will get together to make sure that there aren't fifty four cars making the thirty mile round trip this Saturday. But wouldn't it make more sense to transport them in three mini buses? More Eco-Friendly as well?
3 comments:
In my experience, it's easy for schools to draw up a policy document about bullying but enforcing it is a different matter. I think the reason my kids didn't/don't get bullied is because they had/have mates at school and are seldom on their own. Bullies seem to prey on loners who haven't got friends to defend them.
I must say I don't think the idea of competition on Dartmoor is a good idea. There are time when co-operation is far better.
I think you need to speak-up about the competing within the teams thing; not only is that against the spirit of the whole thing but it is also positively dangerous. Within any group there will always be some competition but in my experience of this sort of challenge it isn't a problem if the A1 fellrunner/orienteer/cross country runner runs ahead to get a good personal position and improve the teams position overall BUT for the whole team to do (or all but one!!) it is a nonsense and as I said a real danger.
Thanks for the replies Guys - the issue has been addressed and today, as a result of the team acting as a team, the girls came home ahead of the boys and 55 minutes ahead of schedule. The next walk is an all dayer in the Purbecks in January.
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