New Teaching Job!!

Farquar and Torquil?

Oh OK.........the ones at school with me were all......Alasdair's and Fiona's.......

As for Torquil and Murdo.....we had them as well, but they came from Stornoway and couldn't understand why the water out the taps in Edinburgh wasn't 70 proof and a single malt......

Janelle is correct though.......I get what she is saying. However there are differences between purely private schools and semi-private schools even in Scotchland. The big issue hitting the press recently has been about the charitable status of private schools,and some (but not all) may have fallen well short of the mark.

When I was at school thye majority came from wealthy families however there were some like me whose parents did not pay the full fees. At my school, sons of Church of Scotland ministers only had something like a 50% discount and the people I was friendly with at school also had huge fee reductions. Pupils whose fathers were in the armed forces, the police or the fire brigade were also entitled to big discounts.

However I get where Robbie is coming from......in a perfect world, all kids should be given the same chances in life......and the state should not be paying for private schools to exist.

Life however, is not perfect.

My wife comes from a country where there is no such thing as a state sponsored medical and health system, there is no such thing as the dole or a pension and where many people do not even exist on a day to day basis, but on a meal to meal existence.

My wife and her brothers could not even go to school in their own province as they would likely have been killed if they did, as former President Marcos and his US-CIA backers were very muchy involved in murdering and massacring those opposed to his government (as my father-in-law was).

Those of us who come from the west often take education and health for granted and think nothing of it, but there are hundrds of millions out there who do not even get the basics, and if they open their mouths in protest could be killed for doing so.

If the media reports are true, Edinburgh has more pupils (per head of population) than anywhere else in the UK

Robbie, in a perfect world, I would completely agree with you.......private education should not be necessary and indeed, it is just not right. But this is not a fair world, and I happen to have three children and I want them to get the best I can afford. My own circumstances are slightly different in that I live overseas and if I want them to get a Brit education I just have to accept that I am overseas and pay extra dollar for it.

But as fotr back home, don't blame individual parents, blame the system. I spent my primary school years at the Royal High School in Edinburgh and would no doubt have spent my whole schooling at that school if the local council hadn't taken it over and ruined it. Reportedly the oldest, continual school in the UK, they turned it into yet another brick building, comprehensive and ruined it as a centre of educational excellence.

With specific regard to this forum, I might and that when it changed hands, the local council disbanded it's cadet corps and it's pipe band !

Laugh as you will, things like that still exist in the private schools, and I think they are important to kids' all-round education just as playing in a rugby or a football team are (so OK......rugby is obviously far more important LOL)

Anyway, I've had my rant.........so I'd better hide away.

p.s.....Robbie.........the fagging thing.......I've never actually come across it !!!!

Fon, i do agree with you to a certian extent, but not fully. Your right, it's your choice where you want to send your children, but i know the reason i feel so strongly about it. You all know that i have a serious visual impairment, thats no secret to any of you. In the UK there are private schools i could have went to, but it was my choice to go to a state school. My parents could have afforded it, no question. But i think your mistrust in the state schools is severly misguided.

I am leaving school this year, with 5 highers, 3 int2s and 8 standard grades (all at credit passes). 30 people in my situation who are leaving the private schools this year are leaving with; 2 highers, 1 int2 and 6 standard grades. Surely a private education cannot be that good if i have went to a normal state run school, in with people of my own kind - less the sight deficiency, i was put in a class with "normal" kids - and yet i'm leaving with more highers than kids at a private school.

In my experience, private schools put undue pressure on a kid to do well, to get their ratings up. There is nothing wrong with state schools, i'm living proof of that. If i can do it in a state school with a severe sight problem, then anyone can. It's not the school that's the problem in 99.99% of the cases, it's the pupil.

You want to know my real gripe? it's not against private schools! It's against my local council, i had to travel 60 miles a day (round trip) to get schooled for 11 years, explain that!!!

see.. i can make sensible posts

Fair point.

I know that there was a lot of media coverage over the charitable status of some of the fee paying schools during the past year or two, and please correct me if wrong, but have some of them not been told to get their house in order, if they want to retain that status?

I have to confess, that I find it difficult t understand how some of the fee paying schools could possibly be described as a charitable cause!

There are some such as George Heriots in Edinburgh, and the schools run by the Merchant Company of Edinburgh which take in a considerable number of pupils on greatly reduced fees, based on their parents' financial means; however there are others for which this is much less the case.

If there is one thing that the private schools often do excel at, it is in the extra-curricular activities that are available, be it on the sports field, at clubs and societies or other areas such as corps of cadets.

Academic results? There are those like you who want to do well and subsequently do so, yet there are others who may not be as determined. Others, just aren't academically minded or frankly, couldn't "give a monkeys".....



Great results by the way....well done!
Have you decided which university/college you're going to go to?

many congratulations on your results Robbie, you obviously worked hard to get them, and surely that is part of the answer(as Ron also states) top your reasoning about you getting beter grades than someone ina private school.
I am sure there are those leaving Private schools who also have excellent results, just as there are those leaving State schools with C*** results?
It is down to the individual, my youngest lad was a waster at school, his teachers said that he had the abilty to go far, but he did what he had to do and no more. It was not till he left school and realised that his old moaning dad, as actually correct and he could achieve better things by working hard.
He began Evening Classes, Open university and is not doing very well thank you, had he the incloination whilst at school? who knows.

Good thread this, Dai a was like your son m8, learnt more when I left school than when I was there.
The old saying ya never miss a good thing 'till it's gone. There are guys who left with qualifications from our class ain't worked a day in their life. My feelings are that life is the greatest teacher. Seen loadsa guys wi a list as long as yer arm were useless when it came to do anything Army and civi life, the Rupert's were the worst, Sandhurst pussies.

Would just like to say well done too Dai, Robbie yer a true star m8. Hat aff da ya kido.

Dai Robb wrote:many congratulations on your results Robbie, you obviously worked hard to get them, and surely that is part of the answer(as Ron also states) top your reasoning about you getting beter grades than someone ina private school.
I am sure there are those leaving Private schools who also have excellent results, just as there are those leaving State schools with C*** results?
It is down to the individual, my youngest lad was a waster at school, his teachers said that he had the abilty to go far, but he did what he had to do and no more. It was not till he left school and realised that his old moaning dad, as actually correct and he could achieve better things by working hard.
He began Evening Classes, Open university and is not doing very well thank you, had he the incloination whilst at school? who knows.

Hope he didnt learn his spelling from you

Good thread indeed,

In NI we have the 11 plus exam, or at least for 1 more year, our education minister, one of the allegedly ex terrorists, has not yet come up with a replacement.

Over 30 years ago, I did it and passed it, and went on a scholarship to NI's equivilant of a Private School, a Grammar school.

For me, it was a waste of time, I hated the place, and in reality took the place away from someone, who may have made better use of it, In those days the 11plus was a Pass or Fail , not like today where it psycologically unsound to tell our little darlings that they have failed at anything.

Schools are what you make of them, either Grammar, comprehensive , whatever, just going to a 'posh' school wont get you a better education, hard work will.

The problem we have here now, is academic selection, no matter what people say, it is needed. I went to school with some very clever people, and many have gone onto big things. But, we now have a PC mindset were we cant tell someone they are not good enough at a particular thing.

It is pervasive crap of the highest order, We all love pipe bands, but no matter how much we like them, we cant play players who are not good enough, just this week our PM had to cut 2 players who weren't making it. One of them had the stones to stay and work on his game, do drones, and work towards 2010 etc, the other went of in a strop, blaming everyone but himself, but he was only attending 1 night a week, and has been at the band since October, and still hadn't learnt the tunes, but it wasn't his fault, Aye, right.

Thats the current attitude, We need private schools, and we need academic selection, when I was in first form, a classmate did the 'A' level chemistry exam, and got 98% , pretty good for an 11 year old, no point in putting him in a class of mongatroids, with an iq around room temperature,

Personally I reckon I would haver been better off at secondary school, were I would have been taught, rather than just being allowed to get on with it, or maybe if my Da had kicked my arse harder it would have gotten through!!

As has been mentioned on here in a few posts recently, Freedom of choice applies, however, for me in this instance, it should be governed by academic ability, not daddy's bank balance
cheers

Piping Connections wrote:

Dai Robb wrote:many congratulations on your results Robbie, you obviously worked hard to get them, and surely that is part of the answer(as Ron also states) top your reasoning about you getting beter grades than someone ina private school.
I am sure there are those leaving Private schools who also have excellent results, just as there are those leaving State schools with C*** results?
It is down to the individual, my youngest lad was a waster at school, his teachers said that he had the abilty to go far, but he did what he had to do and no more. It was not till he left school and realised that his old moaning dad, as actually correct and he could achieve better things by working hard.
He began Evening Classes, Open university and is not doing very well thank you, had he the incloination whilst at school? who knows.

Hope he didnt learn his spelling from you

Perhaps a case here of the POT calling the kettle BLACK??

Dai Robb wrote:

Piping Connections wrote:

Dai Robb wrote:many congratulations on your results Robbie, you obviously worked hard to get them, and surely that is part of the answer(as Ron also states) top your reasoning about you getting beter grades than someone ina private school.
I am sure there are those leaving Private schools who also have excellent results, just as there are those leaving State schools with C*** results?
It is down to the individual, my youngest lad was a waster at school, his teachers said that he had the abilty to go far, but he did what he had to do and no more. It was not till he left school and realised that his old moaning dad, as actually correct and he could achieve better things by working hard.
He began Evening Classes, Open university and is not doing very well thank you, had he the incloination whilst at school? who knows.

Hope he didnt learn his spelling from you

Perhaps a case here of the POT calling the kettle BLACK??

yeah but Big Yin you have had 30 more years to practice than I have

Piping Connections wrote:

shortstuff wrote:I am gonna sit on the fence about private schools........but good luck Fiona..... you will be just brilliant

yeah - have you served your sentence yet ?? wasnt it you that got caught sitting on the fence watching the 6th year rugby team ??

aw.......that will be my secret oot then!!!!!!!!!!!
canny get away wi anything................