Guernsey Press

Schools campaigner changes group name to improve debate

ENDING a 'war of attrition' with teachers is the aim of a name change for an online school campaign protest group.

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ENDING a 'war of attrition' with teachers is the aim of a name change for an online school campaign protest group.

'Save our Secondary Schools' Facebook group has morphed to become 'Support our Secondary Schools' after a suggestion at a public meeting with Education.

It will be run by Rhian Tooley and Bridget Aegerter, who originally stepped down in November, and say altering the first word to one less confrontational would improve the tone of debate.

'If it makes us less challenging to the teaching establishment, so be it. I think what we need to get away from is the adverse criticism of the schools and particularly criticism of teaching staff. A lot of teaching staff have taken personal offence,' said Mrs Aegerter (pictured).

The group was originally set up to highlight the 'education system as a whole' and its failings.nextpage

ENDING a 'war of attrition' with teachers is the aim of a name change for an online school campaign protest group.

'Save our Secondary Schools' Facebook group has morphed to become 'Support our Secondary Schools' after a suggestion at a public meeting with Education.

It will be run by Rhian Tooley and Bridget Aegerter, who originally stepped down in November, and say altering the first word to one less confrontational would improve the tone of debate.

'If it makes us less challenging to the teaching establishment, so be it. I think what we need to get away from is the adverse criticism of the schools and particularly criticism of teaching staff. A lot of teaching staff have taken personal offence,' Mrs Aegerter said.

The group was originally set up to highlight the 'education system as a whole' and its failings.

However, the campaign quickly took on a life of its own and soon the message was becoming distorted in bitter arguments, she said.

'All I was saying was some of the schools are performing really badly. I wanted to make some noise about the fact they are failing.

'I never set out to cause a war of attrition between parents and teachers. I did not want them ripping it out of each other. We need to reconcile the gap.'

The group was set up in September in a bid to get Education to improve the schools following a fall in the percentage of pupils getting A* to C in their GCSEs this year and at its height had over 400 members.

Mrs Aegerter would now like, she said, people to switch to the new page.

There was 'no big plan' when the group was set up, she said, and it was only bringing attention to this 'detrimental' issue that was her goal.

Now, the group's focus is not just on the education system, but on trying to engage parents of all children.

'A lot of parents who have kids don't engage with their kid's education. If we can get even a tiny percentage to engage that would make a big difference.

'There are quite a few kids whose parents just don't care that much. We just need them to say, "have you done your homework?".'

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