Bigger schools will make poor discipline worse

A lot has changed since then, with all pupils having the opportunity to attend the Grammar School Sixth Form Centre if they did reasonably well with their GCSEs. Sadly much has also declined, with the absence of discipline or respect in many homes, distant grandparents, poor parenting, absent parents due to high divorce rates/mothers working too many hours and a lack of that good Christian principle being taught, i.e. treat other people as you would like to be treated. The result being an alarming standard of behaviour in our ‘high’ schools. It really is a massive problem which teachers can rarely deal with effectively. They no longer have the tools.

No politician should have been allowed to vote on the issue of selection without first witnessing a true classroom scenario.

A teacher was struck by a pupil last term. I am told that is not the first time it has happened. It has become a common occurrence for pupils to shout and jeer at the teacher throughout the whole lesson.

One teacher said that the level of disrespect shown to teachers in Guernsey is worse than in London. I believe we need to remove pupils permanently if they are disruptive, not just send them into the corridor or special room, which seems to be a joke and other pupils shout to be sent out too.

A head teacher (speaking on Radio 4 Extra, Monday 12 August, in the morning) who has turned around performances in very poor schools in America said one of her main tools was to say, ‘If you want to leave, leave!’

Some pupils would be better learning a trade/skill where they have to arrive on time and be polite, knowing they could do adult courses later on if so inclined.

Larger schools with no feeling of belonging will only make things worse. Moving from one site to another will mean another 15 minutes to settle down in addition to travel time. Do we really think it is wise to mix our motivated pupils with the ‘I only want to “go on the social” like my dad’ type? (Yes, some do say that). No inter-school competitions will be a sad loss and the ridiculous waste of money on name changes and uniform changes is hard to believe, but the cost of transforming the existing, recently-built schools is too much of a burden on the next generation.

So, deputies, for all these reasons, please be very careful what you vote for.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD.