16 April 2009

Super School Rant

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As a former student (graduate) from one of the primitive predecessors of the so-called Super School concept, I am ready to speak out about the priorities and spending from these schools.

At A***** School, year 3-10 students share the same grounds, with no privacy from each other, the seniors (9/10’s) sharing classes with many year 8’s, who have no idea of what respect is, and then they allow students, who are failing, and teachers, who can call parents for wearing the wrong colour/material of pants, yet can’t provide support for bullied students. No advanced science classes – let alone ones that last for any more than a semester, yet there are 4 home economics, and 6 P.E. classes.

Then there is the spending. What would students do with a big-screen plasma TV the science preparation room wall when the gas taps are broken (probably by year 8s), why would smartboards be needed for Kindy classes when there is no books in the lavish, air conditioned library, for seniors. And where’s that gifted and talented program that they promised?

No wonder the parents of gifted students are sending their children to private schools, or one of the more established public schools.

I have written to Mr. Barr about selective schools, but he says it would be too hard, even though areas can probably be amalgamated and one school from each side of the city could be converted to selective. For example, Lyneham and Campbell High Schools could merge their areas, one of them only taking students who recieve higher than a certain percentage on a test. He does say that there will be more spending on gifted and talented programs, but in some of these schools, this will only amount to another Mercedes-Benz for the principal and another 5 plasma screens and coffee machines for each staff study.

Thank you for reading.

Support your child’s/childrens’ future by sending them to a decent local school, public or private.

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The numbers I’ve have read is that the school will cater for just under 10,000 when complete

Are these numbers real?
9000/13 year levels (K-12) = 692 per yr level
692/30 kids per class = 23 classes at each level

Surely that’s not right!

Granny said :

Why on earth would you buy smartboards before books and gas taps? Stupid. Quality education – not.

smartboards = towards 2020…

Why on earth would you buy smartboards before books and gas taps? Stupid. Quality education – not.

Come along to the next P&C Meeting to raise your concerns. You’ll even get to talk to the school Principal directly.

Completely untrue!!
I said that technology is unnecessary if the 7-10’s don’t even have books in the library. The room is the size of an average house in Gungahlin, yet has about one shelf for “young adult” books.

You seem to not be able to grasp that Libraries don’t fill themselves. Resources for school libraries are expensive and take time to accumulate. And before you ask how the hell do you know all this? I’m active member of a school P&C and been around the block several more times than you.

peterh said :

when the kambah school is built, there will be 6,000 kids, of all ages in one school. Love to know where the figures come from, considering that the birth rate for kambah alone is twice that for 2005.

The numbers I’ve have read is that the school will cater for just under 10,000 when complete. However most Kambah kids go to the private schools or Melrose/Wanniassa/Telopea High’s. You should the amount of school buses out of Kambah in the morning.

That’s because it has to build up resources….books don’t just ‘magically’ appear for schools.

Everyone knows I’m not a fan of the ‘SAUSAGE’ factory schools and I’ve already heard a few ‘grumblings’ from the newest one.

My favourite is about the teachers who applied for the school, knowing it was a middle school as well as a primary and high school, and then whinging because they had middle school classes. For those not in the know, middle school can be between Yr 6-8 in the ACT and the subjects covered by the same teacher can be English, SOSE, Maths and Science.

The 2020 document – the biggest fraud on the parents and students of Canberra since the removal of Watson High’s asbestos (for student safety) and then closing down the school.

Morons.

somewhere_between_bundah_and_goulburn1:15 pm 16 Apr 09

MrMagoo said :

And apparently Kindy kids don’t deserve technology only seniors. So by your logic only seniors deserve all the good things while the rest of the school can wait til they are in Year 10.

Completely untrue!!
I said that technology is unnecessary if the 7-10’s don’t even have books in the library. The room is the size of an average house in Gungahlin, yet has about one shelf for “young adult” books.

lets go back to the days of charnwood high. yr7’s to yr9’s showed us respect. in year 10, we were nasty little b*st*rds… lessons learnt from when we were in yrs 7-9, I suppose, and learned to show the year 10’s respect, or got a thumping…

skool dint scar me none.

amarooresident2 said :

peterh said :

BerraBoy68 said :

“Lyneham and Campbell High Schools could merge their areas, one of them only taking students who recieve higher than a certain percentage on a test.”

Wouldn’t this make the kids in the school that keeps the lower scoring students feel very inferior? This is fraught with danger. After all, who would want to teach there? What self-respect would the kids have? etc.

Nice way to create the next underclass.

a school for the gifted… and one for the underclass. now there is a way to look toward 2020.

when the kambah school is built, there will be 6,000 kids, of all ages in one school. Love to know where the figures come from, considering that the birth rate for kambah alone is twice that for 2005.

There were 12,000 kids born in Kambah?

no, but when you add in all the kids that have been shunted from mt neighbor to taylor and now from taylor to urambi, and all the newer kids coming in from the nearby feeders, it is going to be a cramped school. There are parents in Kambah that i know who are looking at schools that are open in other suburbs, some as far away as farrer. not a good outlook for the super school, when parents are already trying to place kids that will be in its feeder away from it.

and berraboy, there are about 5 sets of twins near your location, not including us. twins are taking over….

You pompous, self righteous, spoiled brat! Who the hell do you think you are? Life at your age owes you nothing and consider yourself lucky you live in a country where education is provided (no doubt your Voluntary Contribution never got paid).

You speak of respect, how about you show some first? Year 8s showing no respect for Year 10s, first lesson here is respect is earned not demanded. Perhaps if you and your mates treated the Year 8s a little better they may in kind return ‘your so called deserved respect’. Establishment of any new school “super” or otherwise comes with issues and teething problems. I would have thought you’d be thankful for the TV not critical. And apparently Kindy kids don’t deserve technology only seniors. So by your logic only seniors deserve all the good things while the rest of the school can wait til they are in Year 10.

I humbly suggest you get off your high horse, put your head down and learn some humility and respect.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

… unless you want the smart ones to really excel, by being in competition with smarter peers.

Oh, and I take your point about being a knob. I tend to call myself rude, arrogant and opinionated, but knob works as well… 😉

I take you point, but competition typically works well for the winner and not always the loser. As for choosing schools, we tried to be picky and listened to advice. It’s interesting to note the number of kids being taken out of a nearby Gov’t school and put into our kids school this year. I don’t want to embarrass anybody so Ii won’t name the schools involved but the entire atmosphere of the place our kids go to is fantastic and they really encourage individual attention to each student and parental participation in class.

And thanks for taking my ‘knob’ comment the way it was intended, not as an insult just an observation on your tone (sometimes..). I usually enjoy your posts.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:05 am 16 Apr 09

Oh, and it sounds like your kids are at a very good school. Believe me, they aren’t all like this!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:04 am 16 Apr 09

… unless you want the smart ones to really excel, by being in competition with smarter peers.

Oh, and I take your point about being a knob. I tend to call myself rude, arrogant and opinionated, but knob works as well… 😉

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

Wouldn’t this make the kids in the school that keeps the lower scoring students feel very inferior? This is fraught with danger. After all, who would want to teach there? What self-respect would the kids have? etc. Nice way to create the next underclass.

Oh boo freakin hoo. Welcome to life.

How about giving the smarter kids an opportunity to actually learn and excel, rather than be stuck with the mediocre norm?

Sometimes VY your arguments are sullied simply by being coming across as a knob. Good schools should help kids who exhibit above average learning skills and they do this by taking the parents aside and recommending additional programs, giving additional homework, pushgin the kids that little bit harder in class etc. It’s a novel concept called treating each kid as an individual. Luckily my kids are getting such treatment but I also know of kids in the same classes as my kids who aren’t so ‘academically inclined’ but who are still getting individual, tailored, assistance from the teacher and the school. In short each kids is being taught in accordance with their own abilities and no-one is holding anybody back. By keeping all kids together in the same school the kids get to play together and even learn about diversity and tolerance while doing so.

Permenantly segregating them along the lines of smart and stupid for the rest of their schooling isn’t the way to go.

I agree with you that young children should definately have their own spaces and not have to witness some of the grief older kids or teenagers go through – or cause themselves. The little ones should be able to stay young and innocent instead of having to watch 10th graders having a bong at the basketball courts at lunch time… Also teens should be allowed to be all emo and hormone infused without having little tackers at their disco nights of passion.

Unfortunatley it looks like McMegaSkools is the future for many students in the ACT for a while yet.

Isn’t it funny how in the ‘old days’, when our grandparents went to school, everyone was in the same classroom then, all ages together. And one 17 year old teacher fresh from a single year at Uni to control all of them. This scenario happened in the country anyway (my great-nan was a teacher). Then we moved towards seperating and supporting the different age groups. Now it’s back to stick them all together again. I’m sure in another generation they’ll be all seperated again and so on. In the future I can imagine my kids saying to their great-grandkids, “when I was young we all had all ages in one school” and the great-grand-kiddies gasping in horror.

K rant over.

amarooresident210:15 am 16 Apr 09

peterh said :

BerraBoy68 said :

“Lyneham and Campbell High Schools could merge their areas, one of them only taking students who recieve higher than a certain percentage on a test.”

Wouldn’t this make the kids in the school that keeps the lower scoring students feel very inferior? This is fraught with danger. After all, who would want to teach there? What self-respect would the kids have? etc.

Nice way to create the next underclass.

a school for the gifted… and one for the underclass. now there is a way to look toward 2020.

when the kambah school is built, there will be 6,000 kids, of all ages in one school. Love to know where the figures come from, considering that the birth rate for kambah alone is twice that for 2005.

There were 12,000 kids born in Kambah?

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy10:03 am 16 Apr 09

Wouldn’t this make the kids in the school that keeps the lower scoring students feel very inferior? This is fraught with danger. After all, who would want to teach there? What self-respect would the kids have? etc. Nice way to create the next underclass.

Oh boo freakin hoo. Welcome to life.

How about giving the smarter kids an opportunity to actually learn and excel, rather than be stuck with the mediocre norm?

peterh said :

when the kambah school is built, there will be 6,000 kids, of all ages in one school. Love to know where the figures come from, considering that the birth rate for kambah alone is twice that for 2005.

Mmmm, the birth rate in Kambah is ‘twice’ the expected figure?! Clearly the families that have twins are to blame;)

BerraBoy68 said :

“Lyneham and Campbell High Schools could merge their areas, one of them only taking students who recieve higher than a certain percentage on a test.”

Wouldn’t this make the kids in the school that keeps the lower scoring students feel very inferior? This is fraught with danger. After all, who would want to teach there? What self-respect would the kids have? etc.

Nice way to create the next underclass.

a school for the gifted… and one for the underclass. now there is a way to look toward 2020.

when the kambah school is built, there will be 6,000 kids, of all ages in one school. Love to know where the figures come from, considering that the birth rate for kambah alone is twice that for 2005.

Let’s play the ball and not the man people.

in your example all the poor kids would end up at Lyneham High giving headjobs for crack.

Man…. Now you tell me all these years I could have been paid in crack.

“Lyneham and Campbell High Schools could merge their areas, one of them only taking students who recieve higher than a certain percentage on a test.”

Wouldn’t this make the kids in the school that keeps the lower scoring students feel very inferior? This is fraught with danger. After all, who would want to teach there? What self-respect would the kids have? etc. Nice way to create the next underclass.

+1

Totally agree.

Check out the tiny little grass area the kids get at the new super school at kippax, more carpark than playground.

Stupid idea.

Get over it, no one cares that you were bullied in year 8. Also Canberra is too small for selective schools, in your example all the poor kids would end up at Lyneham High giving headjobs for crack.

grunge_hippy9:17 am 16 Apr 09

you’re an idiot. Your argument started well, but then fell flat on its face when you started talking about mercedes for principals and plasma screens. No idea.

actually, perhaps your argument DID work. You failed to say anything worthy, proving that Amaroo didnt teach you how to form a valid argument.

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