10 things I wish I'd known when I was a teenage girl at school

This article in today's telegraph was brought to my attention by a friend. This is particularly apt given my last post on exams.

The full article can be accessed by clicking on this.

With anxiety levels for UK teenage girls at an all-time high, Emma Barnett, a former stress-head, gives her younger self a good talking to.

Dear Emma,
I know you are probably too busy talking on a three-way phone call right now (to your friends you saw only two hours ago at school), to take this in. Or fearfully procrastinating for a few more minutes in front of the TV (probably watching Ally McBeal or Sex and the City), before you carry on revising. But please stop and take a minute to hear me out. 

1. Your exams do really matter. I get that. It will give you enormous self-satisfaction to do well and you should. You aren’t dumb. But, and this is a big but, no one will ever care about these results beyond the next round of exams. And guess what, once you have your first job – no one ever cares what level of university degree you achieved. They only care about the last job you had and whether you are a decent person to work with. 

2. Staying up all night to learn each subject off by heart is a great strategy for acing exams, but how about figuring out a few subjects you really enjoy and taking some more time to understand the bigger themes in those areas? For learning and forgetting everything once an exam is over, is actually a big waste of your time at school. You won’t get this space, energy or inclination back ever again. Go and seek out your favourite teachers and ask for reading recommendations or insights that aren’t on the syllabus so you can actually learn and remember something from your school education. 

3. You have a really long time to find a great guy. You don’t need a serious boyfriend right now. I promise. There is no rush. You won’t even know yourself when you do meet him – but you will know him. Instead, focus on forming and protecting really strong bonds with good girls and nice guy friends. It is harder (although not impossible) to make really good friends the older you get. Even if you leave school with just one brilliant friend, guess what – that’s worth 10 loose connections in a supposedly large, fun group. 

4. Big social groups are lots of fun but they also don’t really exist in the same intense way beyond higher education and guess what, beyond the school gates, they are a fiction. You can just be you. And by the way, everyone is just as worried as you are, about everything. You don’t need to look a certain way or think a certain way according to a group you have been labouring to please for the last decade. (Whisper it, but the relationships and the set-up in Sex and the City et al just ain’t real. For one – you will learn that your working friends will never have the time, all at the same time, to meet for a stylish lunch nearly every day of the week. Plus you don't know this now, but the cast of SATC really don't get on that well in real life). 

5. Teachers are human. As are your parents and all the other adults around you. They have experiences you can and should learn from. Do occasionally engage them as if you want something (because you do). They have knowledge and perspectives you can only dream of right now. I promise. They also mess up and make mistakes, which is forgivable too.

6. Don’t be a sheep. It’s actually very cool to have original thoughts and think of yourself beyond your current situation. Education is only one part of your life. I cannot stress how much there is more to come for you. You think you know so much now, and you do. But the learning curve is going to be steep but brilliant – as long as you are open to it and don’t expect any huge Mark-Zuckerberg- style overnight success. He is an anomaly, not the norm. It’s a long road – and the people you are on it with are always temporary, if you want them to be. 

7. You are actually really healthy and agile right now. Regardless of your body shape, age is massively on your side so please, please, please find a sport you bloody love now. Because you won’t be bothered once you properly discover going out and drinking at uni. And by the time you are trying to succeed in the workplace, you are going to need to want to exercise for the joy of it. Believe me. I say this on health grounds alone and nothing to do with your weight. I swear. 

8. Enjoy the structure school gives you now. Even if it feels stifling and you really want to move on and be an adult. Life is never so directed again. But that’s ok too. Just get a sense of yourself and what you enjoy. You will come back to these findings again and again when you are older. 

9. You will be ok. I promise. It all will be.

10. Now get some sleep. Lots of it. 

Yours truly,
Emma, the 29-year-old you, who can’t remember anything about most of the subjects she learned at school (because she was too busy worrying and revising all of the time).

Testing times

After a couple of hours in the office first thing this morning, I then travelled across town to attend a training event for school leaders on the continuing implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. The venue was at the Corn Exchange -a place I have fond memories of as a competitive badminton player.

Overall I enjoyed the day as it provided opportunity to reflect on current progress and discuss with a range of colleagues from other schools, Education Scotland and the SQA a variety of key issues.

Along with many other topics, assessment was talked about a lot as this is a particular concern to teachers, students and parents.Concern has been raised in many quarters that the assessment arrangements for National 5 are burdensome for students and overly bureaucratic from a teacher's perspective. We were reassured to find that the representatives from the SQA were keen to listen and take our views on board as final preparations are being made for this year's exams.

If at first you don't succeed...

From time to time, life as a leader can look hopeless. To help you, consider a man who lived through this: Failed in business at age 31. Defeated for the legislature at 32. Again failed in business at 34. Sweetheart died at 35. Had a nervous breakdown at 36. Defeated in election at 38. Defeated for Congress at 43. Defeated for Congress at 46. Defeated for Congress at 48. Defeated for Senate at 55. Defeated for Vice President at 56. Defeated for Senate at 58. Elected President at age 60. This
man was Abraham Lincoln.

The bravest professions

During holidays I enjoy spending an hour each morning reading through the daily newspapers. This  particular story (from The Times) looks at the results when the top military awards were mapped to occupations, showed that teachers were especially brave. Conversely, it is also argued that former soldiers make good teachers. 

 To identify the bravest professions, they recorded the pre-war jobs of hundreds of Distinguished Conduct Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Victoria Cross and Military Cross winners, and then cross-referenced the data with the total number of men employed in the same professions in the 1911 Census.

The majority of medal winners were miners or agricultural labourers but, proportionally, teachers had the highest number of medal winners.

Miriam Silverman, a senior manager with Ancestry, said that the qualities needed to survive the classroom may have prepared teachers better for the front line. “While teachers, doctors or policemen may have had skills or leadership qualities that could have prepared them better for the front line, what this data really tells us is that it was the ordinary men with everyday professions that made some of the most extraordinary heroes,” she said.

One such was Dugald Blue, who, while a classics teacher at Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow, had set up the Cadet Corps. He was killed “leading a charge beyond the first line of the German trenches, cheering forward his men, faithful unto death”.

While teachers appear to have made brave soldiers, the Government believes that soldiers could make good teachers. It has launched a Troops to Teachers course which will allow military personnel without university degrees to take a two-year fast-track course into the classroom.

Information on curriculum for excellence

The National Parent Forum has recently produced a series of very useful information leaflets for parents. Please follow this link to locate them.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/NPF/2014/02/17/e-newsletter-spring-2014/

Newsletter February 2014

During the past three weeks, prelim exams have taken place for pupils in S4, 5 and 6 and, over the past week, we have held parent consultations meetings to discuss prelim performances. Those meetings have focussed on ensuring that pupils are aware of what they now need to do to achieve their potential in the final exams and have the necessary support and resources to do so. Thank you all who have contributed to this process and we are sure crossed that our continued support and encouragement of pupils bears fruit when the results are declared in August.

Many staff, as usual, are offering extra classes at lunchtimes and after school each week. Again this year, we are offering a programme of classes during the Easter Holiday. Details of these additional classes will be shared with pupils and placed on our school website.

In response to feedback from parents over the past 12 months we are currently setting up a database of email addresses for all of our parents. We will, in the next few weeks, devise a way of ensuring that all the addresses we hold are up to date and accurate. We will continue to use texting in tandem with our website to draw your attention to and share key information. If any of your personal details, including email address or mobile number, has changed recently then please let us know either by emailing the school or sending a note in to the school office with your child.

In regard to feedback I would remind you to please complete the ‘Annual Survey of Parents and Carers’ which has a link on the front page of our website. This particular survey is being organised by Council Officers on our behalf and the deadline has been extended until Friday 28 February. Please take a few minutes to complete this anonymously: the information gathered is vital to ensuring that our school continues to grow and flourish.

As part of this newsletter we are, once again, hugely proud to highlight the many and varied achievements of our pupils. These successes are also highlighted on our school website. As parents and carers please continue to share news with us of our pupils’ successes – it is really important that these are shared with our wider community. We are a high achieving school and it is good for us all to be aware of the incredible people we have in our school community.

During the February break this year’s 90 strong delegation will, for the 12^th consecutive year, journey to South Africa. We are enormously grateful to Mr McCallum for continuing to coordinate this excursion. Thank you to everyone who has contribution gifts that will be shared with our South African friends next week.

I am delighted to report that the rebuilding of our new school continues apace. The programme is on schedule and we look forward to moving into the main teaching block in just over a year.

I take this opportunity to remind all our pupils, staff and visitors that they must keep valuables in their possession at all times. The school cannot be held responsible for the safety of personal possessions such as mobile phones, jewellery etc unless a staff member has taken possession of the item.

Although the incidences of loss or theft in the school are low my advice is not to bring valuable items to school and if you must then to keep them with you at all times. Whilst at PE, staff offer a secure box in which valuables can be safely stored.

And finally, I take this opportunity of wishing you all a most enjoyable and rejuvenating February break.

Donald J Macdonald (Headteacher)
February 2014