To be surprised you mumsnetters criticised my ex’s school !!

[Jumell]

My ex went to an all boys’ comprehensive school in London. It’s been slagged off to the ground on here as being rough, not being the school of choice for MC parents, results are dire etc etc .

However he did leave the school in one piece and with 2 CSEs no less!! (OK showing his age a bit!) But the pearl clutchiness about his school on MN is immense !! 🤣 - I didn’t do CSEs btw so don’t truly know how good 2 CSEs is.
He left school in 1986 FYI - I was still a young school kid then, Dunno - was 2 CSEs good for 1986?!

FWIW the comp I went to wasn’t short for ‘comprehensive’ - more compost heap - but that’s possibly the subject of another thread. !

Thank you yes he actually sat 7 !

His was part of ‘ILEA’

Dunno is this is still a thing ..

This is the funniest thread I’ve read for a long time 😂

2 CSEs at grade 1 is a C grade equivalent in GCSE and probably a 4/5 now in the numbered version.
Anything less isn't a pass.
That was definitely not a good result.

GCSE - General Certificate of Secondary Education. O levels and CSE conflated. Not a patch on O levels - having done one and taught the other.

Why is everyone criticising this OP's DP's school? I went to a secondary modern in London. I came out with 7 O levels, 3 A levels and went to university at 18. It was a good school (for me, at least) but did not do a range of things, so I did not do maths or physics, but did do biology (mathematical science required for university). I also learned to sew and cook (of inestimable value esp as cookery included nutrition), to draw (not well) and paint (better - and I still do), as well as learn to love classical music. I did not do Latin (so not Oxbridge), and I wish I had - did some Greek at university.
Many comprehensives don't do a tithe of what I was taught where I live, I'm afraid.
I remember my primary school teacher apologising to my DM that he had not pushed to get me into the 11+ set as I only narrowly failed (both my brothers passed - but there was a higher pass mark for girls in the borough where I lived because more girls passed and there were fewer places; not excusing myself, stating a fact).

Meh, I left mine with eight GCSEs plus an AEB certificate in Life Skills and only got stabbed once (wasn't part of the AEB exam, though). Highest grades in the cohort, too.

Strangely, this seems to shock colleagues at work.

The op is the gift that keeps on giving. She'll deviate to chart songs or 56 year old men at any moment. Or findus crispy pancakes.....

🤣🤣🤣🤣 not in most people’s world. It could be argued why did he bother.

And spending £30 a month on food ,she also seems to have a fondness for sainsbury, s and Greggs .

No, it hasn't been a thing for over 30 years. ILEA stands for Inner London Education Authority. Mrs Thatcher and her cronies abolished it and transferred all the schools to the London Boroughs, which had to set up Local Education Authorities to run them. Nowadays lots of them are run by Academy Trusts, I believe. Privatisation by the back door, surely, but that's another story.

Strange topic for a thread but 2 CSEs is dire. Older friend says it was very very rare in her SE London comp for anyone to leave with so few qualifications. Anyway, schools can change a lot in 4 years, never mind almost 40.

In some ways it is indeed pretty delightful that you're bragging that your ex failed 70% of the low level, unchallenging exams he sat.

I was of the O and A level generation as was my husband. He went to a grammar school, I got a grammar school place at a GDST school (was GPDST in may day). Neither of us were high fliers, he went through the school system and then to a polytechnic (now a uni), didn't do badly at all. I was kicked out aged fourteen and went to a couple of other schools for brief periods where I did not get on at all well. Was sent to a boarding school for two years from sixteen-eighteen, from which I have never recovered :-). However I didn't do too badly later on so all's well that ends well. Younger second cousins of mine went to local comps and achieved brilliant results going on to excellent careers!

I'm now nearly 75 and am laughing at all this. I have one adult child who dropped out of sixth form and has forged a stellar career.

You never can tell.

She really is pure comedy 😂😂 what will they come up with next?

Please keep posting OP! 😁

From your OP

FWIW the comp I went to wasn’t short for ‘comprehensive’ - more compost heap - but that’s possibly the subject of another thread. !

All I can say about that - and I think I speak for most of us here - is please for the love of mercy - NO! That is not the subject of yet another thread.

This thread is an interesting commentary on the English and their relationship with education.

Some people: 2 CSEs are shockingly poor, rough schools are dreadful, title Tabitha can't fraternise with these people.

Other people: rough is normal, 2 CSEs is fine, practical skills are better and education is overrated.

What we actually need is a love of learning, for all children. Safe, encouraging education. A government and media which promotes learning and education. NOT just school rote learning but a love of life-long learning. Understanding that education should be defensive against things Ike; being ripped off, shit government, media telling you what they want you to think, a lack of critical thinking.

As far as I can tell some cultures, including the Scottish historically, have understood this. Education is the way to stop the arseholes above you holding you down. It's not clever to hate it. Engaging with it means you can rewrite it.

With 2CSE you could actually still have a life, you could buy a house you could own a car. You could potentially better yourself with evening classes you could still exist in the modern world.
If that was what you came out with now as an equivalent honestly, you might as well give up. You would literally have no chance.
You wouldn’t even be allowed to go and do an apprentice electricians plumbers or carpentry course.

Grange Hill ?

YABVU to have such a low bar for education, I really hope you want better than the equivalent of 2 CSE's for your kids.

Regardless of how shit or not 2x CSEs might be is there not a small chance that the school bears no resemblance to what it was like in 1986. Which is nearly 40 years ago. I suspect it may have a different head, different staff. 🤷‍♀️ maybe it’s got better, maybe it’s got a lot worse?

I left school with other the old O levels and CSE’s existing side by side.

Many, from my peer group, with basic CSE’s went on to have happy, successful and well paid futures.

Many, that got extra school qualifications , and further education, did not.

it depends on ambition.

I'm genuinely confused.

He says the school was violent and he only achieved 2 of the 7 qualifications that he sat (I didn't know about CSEs until this thread), and you're surprised it's getting slated on MN?? Which bit do you find surprising?

It's maybe surprising it hasn't improved in 40 years - but not so shocking as to start a thread I wouldn't have thought.

I don’t understand the point of this post?

You’re claiming surprise that people would slate a bad school. A school that fails pupils academically and also from a safety standpoint…

Are you saying parents shouldn’t favour schools where kids are taught well? Where kids won’t get beaten up or fall into a drug habit? (I presume these fall under the “rough” description)

And to top it all, you cite your ex failing at said school as the source of your surprise.

Are you also constantly surprised when people won’t eat food they don’t like?

What point were you trying to make here?

Given all this I’m not sure why you are outraged than mumsnetters don’t want to send their kids there now?

As I used to say to the kids: "Just because you thought it in your head, does not mean to say it needs to come out of your gob, darling"