There is this unspoken assumption

[Stephen]

The biggest thing I remember about the teachers' strikes of the 80s was that I had the morning of Janurary 28th 1986 off. How do I remember this? Watching the news that morning when I should have been learning, I saw a report that the Challenger Shuttle was due to launch later, and the pad and tower were covered in icicles. Then when I went to school that afternoon, I made a light-hearted comment about it and nobody seemed to know what I was talking about - it was that much of a non-story.

Then of course Challenger was destroyed when it finally did launch, and the next day everyone was talking about it. But it's odd to think that I was the only one talking about it hours before it happened because of a teachers' strike.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Interesting, Stephen. I remember having every Wednesday afternoon off for weeks because of the teachers' strikes, as well as a few other random half-days. Unfortunately that meant we didn't finish our "O" Level courses in some subjects and no one achieved an "A" grade in either Geography or Chemistry in my school.

Anita

[Belly]

Me too, Anita. I achieved the top grade in my O'level class in Human Biology (a C) for much the same reason, pretty shocking really. As a complete aside I wish I could have taken my A'levels in 'stages' as some I know are doing now, my grades would have been so much better!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I wish I could have taken my A'levels in 'stages' as some I know are doing now, my grades would have been so much better!

Yes, even some GCSE subjects are taken in stages now. Yesterday my 13-year-old daughter sat two Maths exams which count for 30% of her GCSE, and on Friday she'll be taking papers in Physics, Chemistry and Biology which each count for 10% of the GCSE. There will be another lot of exams in June. She says she prefers to do things that way than sit the whole exam in just a few hours at the age of fifteen or sixteen.

Anita

[Belly]

Best of luck to her!

[Enikyoga]

Anita,
Your 13-year old daughter reminds me of Ruth Lawrence-Naimark who at 13 became the
youngest person to earn a first-class degree at Oxford University almost a quarter of a century
ago, that is in 1985. At the age 8, she gained an O-level in maths, though her record was beaten
by Arran Fernandez in 2001. I understand, she is currently an associate Professor of mathematics
at the Einstein institute of Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Maybe your daughter
could look to Professor Ruth Lawrence-Naimark as a model of positive inspiration as she tries to
weather GCSE. I admire your daughter as well as Ruth, both of who seem to have taken more or
less the same combination of subjects. Your daughter may be right in taking the examinations
gradually. When I took the GCSE [or its equivalence, we were not given that option). As for me,
I am like Enid Blyton-who never liked maths and the sciences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 492853.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Lawrence" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks Enikyoga, but I didn't mean to give the impression that my daughter had been singled out or anything. The whole of Set 1 in her year group at school are doing the Maths and Science papers this week. I don't think any of them are ready to be awarded a degree (!), though I do remember hearing about Ruth Lawrence back in the 1980s.

Anita

[Petermax]

Ruth Lawrence, now here's a name from the past. I remember seeing her on a chat show, possibly Wogan in the late 1980's. If I recall correctly, it was her father who dominated the interview although she did get the odd word in occasionally. Ruth went on to start a family and enjoy an outstanding academic career.

Regarding school exams, back in the early eighties it was tremendous pressure to sit in the exam hall knowing that eleven years of education would stand or fall within the next couple of hours. Constant assessment seems to be a much fairer and accurate way of doing things.

[Belly]

I think the thing is this system may be open to abuse? And also does not favour a clever a slacker .

[Anita Bensoussane]

The exam papers are marked externally, though with candidates sitting various papers over the course of a couple of years I suppose mix-ups could be more likely.

Anita

[Belly]

I am struck here by how many have tutors for their children. Not unusual for a tutor to come to help once or twice a week after school to help with any homework etc in a casual ongoing manner. Many start out with help for a specific child weak in one subject to a more general ongoing help for whichever child in the family needs it almost on a daily basis. Children call their mothers usually at lunch to discuss which homework needs to be done that particular evening etc and parental help is a given.

When I was at school I don't think my parents had much of a clue what I was doing in my bedroom! Usually reading and not doing homework .

Also one of my children is in a local school here. I was struck by the amazing progress some in the class seem to have made and how high the literacy levels are. I found that most go to after school enrichment lessons where the 3 Rs are reinforced. A different way of doing things that has pros and cons.

It seems that exams etc have changed beyond recognition since I was a school and it will be strange getting back to grips with the UK system when we go back.

[manzanita]

Hahaha Belly! Sounds like my mother and my homework! She either couldn't help or had no interest. If my homework went in on time, it was usually by sheer error than design! I admit, I was a shocking secondary school student. Not disruptive as such, but just not doing the work, forgetting books, bunking off, being late etc etc.

The funny thing is, I spent my teenage years moaning about secondary school and wanting to get out... to spend my 20s moaning about university and wanting to get in!

I sat my maths GCSE in three papers - money management, statistics and whatever else the third paper was. I admit - had it not been for the separate papers, I would not have achieved a C. As it was, I only just barely scraped that C. Thankfully, I (ab?)used my knowledge of probability and worked out that by doing the higher paper I had a greater chance of hitting a C grade, as to get it on the lower paper, I'd need 100% or so, whereas I could do much worse on a higher paper and still get the C. Had I been made to sit is all in one go, an E is probably the grade I would have got.

[auscatherine]

My dad was a high school teacher so always lots of breathing down our necks at homework time.

[Belly]

I think the best thing you can do is have faith and confidence in your children. My husband's parents have always been supportive and had absoulte faith in their children's abilities. Never doubting and being very 'can do'. All three of their children have done extremely well in their chosen fields even if not academic . I hope to try to do the same with mine .

Manzy I think your experiences are very common. Two of my brightest friends left school with about one O'level between them. They told their mothers, when they asked about homework, 'no homework set tonight Mum' and their mothers believed them. They slipped into the bottom sets where the other children were more interested in being comedians than doing any work and they followed suit.

One of them doubts her academic ability so much that she has failed every exam she has taken as an adult, including nursing exams. She had the ability to pass but believed she was incapable. Only now at the grand old age of 40 has recenlty passed an exam, after a lot of counselling etc.

[Seymour Glass]

I wonder if they change the text to the books Shakespeare wrote? I've not read any so I wouldn't know.

In the Victorian age in Britain some Shakespeare texts were edited (sometimes quite severely) due to content that certain Victorians felt was unsuitable.