specialist maths school - better at english

[mollykins]

my school has somehow been awarded the status of being a specialist maths school, yet in year 11 and i don't know about 9 and 10, we are better at english.

Evidence;

1) in maths, only the top set can do higher, everyone else does foundation.
2) even some of set two fail the foundation paper in maths and there were 4 people out of both set three classes who got a 'c' on the last maths paper.
3) in english the top two sets along with a few people in set three do the higher paper.
4) one of my friends who is in set three for english got a 'b' on her english language test
5) even some set 4 people can jsut about manage a 'c'

6) since i started the school, there hasn't been at time when there was a full team (the 5 that are needed for the 5 sets) of maths teachers, there is always at least one class, normaly set 1 or 5, who has substitue after substitute, non of our teachers have lasted more than three months.
7) Unless one of them is ill, since i've been there, there has always been 7, permanent, full-time english teachers at our school.

6 and 7 probably mean that 1-5 are true for all years.

so why on earth are we a specialist maths school and not something else, like english or the several other subjects we are better at.

[Kakurol]

Perhaps they gave that rating so that little twerps wouldn't have anything to complain about. Clearly they failed.

[factor-fiction]

You really do worry about a lot of thimgs related to education, mollykins. That's good, of course, in many ways. Too many pupils take no interest at all. It's good to qhave an enquiring mind, to question things and collect evidence and arguments for and against as you do. On the other hand many of the things you bring up on here could best be tackled locally- for example ask your teachers why the school has specialist maths status (maybe it's because they get more funding in that way) and why your art GCSE exam was conducted in the way it was; and sometimes it's not worth worrying about things you can't do anything about when you have so many important things to deal with such as your exams and the next steps in your education.
Good luck.

[mollykins]

The head of maths is on longterm sick leave so i asked a normal maths teacher and they didn't know.

ps if you're wondering how i know about '2', our results for our module test were written on posters, on the wall so you could see everyone's and my friend who was ill whose in set three asked me to find hers out and i saw that she was one of four people in set three to just scrape a 'c'.

[mollykins]

Its silly though, ofstead said that our school is outstanding, which many of my friends and i, see as being rediculous.

[factor-fiction]

...ridiculous... ofsted

[TCL-MUMPING]

You say you are "better at english (sic)", are you sure about that?

[mollykins]

I said that my year group, and probably the whole school because of the teachers, are better at English in general than maths.

stop being so pedantic.

[sara3]

Molly, I can't wait to see which career path you will follow!

[TCL-MUMPING]

You asked why the school was not a specialist English school and criticize me for being pedantic, is the correct use of grammar not a prerequisite for a school specializing in English?

[brenda]

Stay calm TCL----it is only a very boring child you are dealing with, not like an interesting mature ABer, like what we is. Whoops English.!!

[beanpole]

Mollykins

Being a specialist school in a subject doesn't imply quality in that subject Indeed just the oppposite I worked in a school that supposedly was specialised in Technology. This just after an inspection that rightly was highly critical of Technology. Specialised schools get money and the fact is that it is easier to get money to try to improve weak areasthan it is to retain existing quality in other subjects like English.

Basically specialised schools are no better (or worse) in their specialism than other schools but they have more money than they would have without a specialism.

[jackthehat]

Have you not grasped just how immature and deeply uninvolving your threads are, mollykins ?
Your rude replies to ABers older than you hardly dispel the idea that you are a just brat seeking a broader platform for your teenage angst.

[mollykins]

That makes sense Bean.

Sara, I wwant to be a marine biologist.

[northernmonkey]

Bean - What was the School called you was at?....

[TCL-MUMPING]

Come now NM, we all know it should be "What were the school called you was at?"

[northernmonkey]

lol

[klacto]

Specialisms are aimed at bringing in funding which can then be used to improve standards. It doesn`t mean the school will have great mathematicians but it ought to mean that teaching and facilities will improve

[mollykins]

ah, so similar to beans idea, i'd never thought of it that way.

But the wording of 'specialist maths and computing college' does make it sound like it is best at maths doesn't it?

By the way, we're ok at ict, everyone in the top two sets for maths in year nine (who you are also with for geography history ict and french) do an equivilent to a gcse in ict in year 9.

[jake-the-peg]

Schools apply for specialist status based on certain criteria and they basically got money for it.

That ticks along for some years and heads and politics change and it slides.

eg my kids were at a specialist technology school. The head changed to an ex-music teacher. We had to fight him to stop him closing down tripple science.

A Science specialist grammar school where I live can no longer offer ICT or Computing at A level after a falling out over internal politics.

It wasn't a bad scheme - the specialisms but it wasn't carried on after the initial push and with schools opting out of local authority control there was less ability to make them keep it up.