Sometimes I Feel Old!
When I was 16 and still at school, preparing to take my 'mock' 'O' Levels, we (my year at school) were asked whether or not we wanted to carry on our education in the Sixth Form. Those that did indicate an interest in further education were transferred out of the 'normal' year in the summer term into what was effectively a inbetweener year for the last few weeks of term and then we returned in September as fully fledged sixth formers.
Ah the joys of Sixth Form, a common room, a kettle, sink and a record player - oh and being hit on by younger girls who wanted to go out with older more sophisticated boys.
Anyway, fast forward thirty three years and Nathalie now has to apply to the Sixth Form college of the school she already attends as well as applying to her second and third choice colleges in the area. Not only that but she has to select her A level choices, which are based on her predicted O Level results and suggest a career that might be appropriate given her choice of A Levels. Now if that wasn't hard enough she also had to give reasons why she thinks she might be an asset to the 'sixth form community' of the school she is at already. This is because Sixth Forms are open to anybody, as indeed they were in my day, but now people do actually move into different geographical locations for education purposes. Houses in our area are sold by Estate Agents with the tag line "In the ******* Catchment Area."
It seems to me that this is all part of a wider plan of ever diminishing returns, pushing more children into higher education with a combined promise of higher grades but not necessarily any guarantee of employment at the end of it. Again, go back to my time as a Sixth Former and everybody in my year, whether or not they stayed onto higher education, got a job or went to Uni and then got a job, how likely is that now?
Anyway Nathalie has chosen a career in the Arts, although in a couple of weeks it might change but then it might be too late. I would think having to plan your life years ahead when you are fifteen is a big ask for most teenagers and I do wonder how many will find it all too much.
2 comments:
Well she's lucky she's getting out now...soon it'll be signed sealed and delivered before secondary school: more BALLS IDEAS
Also reminds me of my halcyon school days. We were caught in some scheme whereby we couldn't do as many O levels as you liked and a sthey had done previously (brother with 11 and sister with 9) we had to do only 8 inc Eng, Maths and a language which had to be French if you only did one (German and Latin were the others in that course). Also they had a science course, so chem, physics and biology if you did it but also an arts side where you had 3 from Art, History, Geog, RE etc. but you had to do one science as well...which had to be physics.
Still with me?...well I was a whizz at chemistry but wasn't allowed to do it (hated physics and spent most of the 5th year in the corridor "Ows...OUT!", I believe I still hold the record, 4 seconds into the room before being sent out.
Well what I'm getting at is they made such a hoohah about what you could and couldn't do and I got a bum deal which was reflected in my performance...ahem I still got 7 O's but left school thoughroughly peed off. Had I followed the "career" route I was planning on doing Eng, Histroy and Politics...IMAGINE!!!...as it was I joined the Paras!
Love the "Ows out," bit.
The old language, 1 science, I Humanities (as it was called in my day) plus English and Maths is pretty much still with us. I did two languages because I was good at one! Had no choice, had to do French and German - some poor buggers had to do French, German and Spanish.
I got the same treatment as you in a way - I was told I wouldn't get a decent English grade to go to Journalist College (at Epping Forest) which had a negative impact on me, even though I ended up getting an A.
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