Letter from Basil Jones (From This Is Wiltshire)

Letter from Basil Jones

12:54pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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LIZ Brackenbury ("How should we measure top marks?" Adver, March 17, 2010) rightly points out the enormous pressure that many of our schoolchildren are under to pass exams. The relentless demands for them to meet examination targets, with too little regard for their psychological and emotional needs, can do nothing for the well-being of those who may be disadvantaged or unacademic.

We seem to have forgotten that a classroom, particularly one with too many pupils, is an artificial environment to which many children find it extremely difficult to adapt. For five-year-olds to be subjected to the demands of a 12-year programme requiring them all to meet government-decreed "standards", is bound to result in many failures and much anguish. It is no wonder that so many become disheartened and alienated.

We frequently hear about 'failing' schools; we hear precious little about the children who are being failed. These include many who start the day without a proper breakfast, tired from having had too little sleep, unable to concentrate, irritable, confused and with no hope of improvement. School, for them, is boring and tedious. They often express their frustration in unacceptable ways - disruption in class, defiance, vandalism, bullying, truancy etc. At a very early stage in their lives they learn what it is like to be deemed a failure, and that label often sticks.

Too often they are recognised only as nuisances who interfere with the progress of their more compliant and better-adjusted classmates. Suspensions serve only to confirm their sense of rejection and isolation. For many, an ASBO is a predictable outcome; drug abuse and a criminal record a depressing reality. In four months' time, when we see TV news items showing pretty young girls jumping up and down and hugging each other with excitement when they get their brilliant A-level results, let us spare a thought for these 'failed' pupils and realise that they are the ones paying the price for the failing schools.

As Liz Brackenbury says, merging several failing schools into one academy won't solve this problem. Assessing performance by exam results won't, either. Children need to be taught where they are heard, understood and valued for who they are, not for their ability to pass exams. That is what good teaching is all about, and good teaching must be encouraged, not put into the straight-jacket of meeting government 'targets'.

BASIL JONES

SHOC (Stop Harming Our Children)

Grosvenor Road

Swindon