Indian Summer School.

[Aeroflotgirl]

I was watching this last night. I thought it was very good. The boys from The Doon School behaved very well, they were so polite and had a good work ethic, in relation to the boys from the UK, who seemed to think they can do what they want, and disrespect their elders. They will be in for a shock, when they go into the big wide world.

What a shame, I think an example of how the current school system in this country just doesn’t work for so many kids. 6 months just wasn’t enough to help them catch up on years of neglect.

I’m wondering if the school just didn’t know how to deal with kids as academically weak as those boys. I looked at the website for the school and it’s intense, you can register your boy to sit the entrance exam aged 12 at birth. They will all be very bright. How would a kid who can’t read cope in a class aimed at bright kids?

But why are kids coming out of our schools unable to read??? It’s shocking.

The school failed these last 3 boys. To spend 6 months (practically) there and make no improvement at all in their grades is so sad. OK so the boys had problems but they were trying. How dispiriting to get home after that length of time and be exactly where they were before.

I assume the problem was they went in at such a low level compared to their peers in the school so would not have been able to keep up with them. Also they were all quite disengaged to start with so the first few weeks were probably wasted.

Hopefully, it will have given some of them the impetus to work harder next time.

Not sure what the answer is for this country though. You see on many threads about teenagers on MN that their brains aren't developed enough to understand the consequences of their actions eg in this case not studying, but in The Doon school there didn't seem to be such an issue with that.

I don't know what the answer is either . But this six-month programme was billed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the boys to turn their lives around and take advantage of a brilliant school with a great ethos. The fact that the 3 'survivors' were unable to take the opportunity shows (IMHO) that it's as much about engagement as education and the school failed to engage them.

The hike up the Himalayas came too late - maybe a more immersive experience earlier on would have helped more. I did feel the staff pandered too much to the boys' tantrums.

Can anyone work out how much the fees were at the Doon school?

Jack one mark off a C 😢
Worth a remark surely.

It's interesting how the media always concentrate on the children getting As, A*, 9s and 8s on results day.

They rarely talk about the children who get Gs and ungraded, although I assume there is reasonably high number of children, and mainly white working class boys, who do.

It was such a shame about Jack missing out by one mark

So disappointing for them. As an examiner I suspect that marking at that time of year was by lead examiners and possibly more time to be picky. Unfair but true.
But their base level was so poor.
However, the gap between leaving India and sitting the exam might have lost their momentum.
Hopefully their experience will spur them on.

So disappointing for them. As an examiner I suspect that marking at that time of year was by lead examiners and possibly more time to be picky. Unfair but true.
But their base level was so poor.
However, the gap between leaving India and sitting the exam might have lost their momentum.
Hopefully their experience will spur them on.

I’m wondering how focused the teaching was on the specific English GCSE that the boys were taking - weren’t the Indian boys taking iGCSEs? In my experience you have to teach ‘to the exam’ for weaker students, as they don’t yet have the capacity to generalise their skills to different types of questions, subject matter etc.

I didn’t see the last episode as I’m on holiday but I do have children who between them sat both GCSE’s and IGCSE’s and I did wonder from the outset how the difference in thd two would affect the outcome. I wasn’t convinced the lads could be parachuted into the IGCSE system even if they’d had a better educational foundations.

I feel sad for them because they’ll surely no be thinking they really are failures

Someone mentioned brains not being properly developed but in my experience of youngsters of the Doon School variety, as well as other cultures who have similar setups, kids are the same the world over - they can be equally worrying as the British kids are but they show it differently depending on the culture they’re brought up in. It’s very much a case of same same but different.

I was disappounted for them - especially Jack who put in the effort from the start.

Six months just wasn't enough.

I remember in one episode the tall boy who wanted to be a barber saying his college were predicting a c/b if he stayed there. I wonder if he'd have been more engaged/ready had he studied in the UK after all that?

I hope there is positive news this summer and we get to find out if they've passed.

I was also very disappointed for the boys, especially Jack. I also feel sorry for the teachers who put in so much effort.

I did wonder whether they would have done better had they been retaking GCSEs instead of doing IGCSEs. Is the curriculum very different for IGCSEs and are they harder? Perhaps as onanotherday says, the timing wasn't great either.

IGCSEs are generally considered easier; they are more traditional and rely less on coursework (or did.)

I taught a boy who passed the IGCSE with me having failed his GCSE several times.

Ethan- I'm confused. Is he transexual (biologically- he seems to have breasts and a very feminine face) or gay? If he is transexual (genetically) and wants a sex change, he would be heterosexual and in a relationship I assume with a man, not another woman.

Is he confused on his sexuality?

The school failed these last 3 boys.

I think that is unfair. You can lead a horse to water.....
The real failure was the UK ed system which has had those boys from age 4.

But, having taught off and on for 40 years I know there are sadly some students who cannot be helped. They don't have the intelligence sometimes or the emotional resilience. What those boys seemed to lack was backbone. They all gave up. Their parents - especially the fathers- didn't seem to set high expectations either.

That was such a disappointing result for the boys bearing in mind they’d been trying. Everyone saying the school system has let them down, well maybe that’s true but some people, no matter how engaged just aren’t that great at some subjects academically. I don’t think it would matter how motivated I was and which school I was at, I just don’t think I could pass GCSE maths or the sciences. I didn’t prat about at school and was a good kid, but I just could understand anything past the basic addition, subtraction, division and multiplication stage no matter how hard i tried.

I just couldn’t understand that should have said.

The school definitely didn’t know what to do with students who weren’t like theirs. When Jake was distracting Jack in his English lesson, the teacher just kept asking him to stop. No moving him away or sanctions. When Jack got his eyebrows shaved off, or when he was punched, it just seemed like there was a stern talking to and that was it.

There didn’t seem to be any sanctions for bunking off lessons either.

I think it was surprising that Jack appeared to be going to lessons, trying hard and still failed so it can’t just be put on the boys lack of engagement. They had them 24 hours a day!

I can't remember which boy it was but one of them said he really struggled to read, so I think he was set to fail anyway, surely that needed to be addressed before he was put in a GCSE class.

It was interesting when they bunked off the cameras were there but the school didn't seem to know where they were. You do have to wonder how much of this is set up for tv

I invigilate at a local school and children who struggle to read can have a reader, who struggle to write can have a scribe etc lots of things are put in place to help children with learning difficulties succeed but these boys didn’t have this support either seemingly?

I can't remember which boy it was but one of them said he really struggled to read, so I think he was set to fail anyway, surely that needed to be addressed before he was put in a GCSE class.

I invigilate at a local school and children who struggle to read can have a reader, who struggle to write can have a scribe etc lots of things are put in place to help children with learning difficulties succeed but these boys didn’t have this support either seemingly?

It’s my experience of these kind of schools that there’s very deliberately no square pegs in round holes.

Cherrypie There are very stringent rules around being given a scribe or a reader. Jack was / is dyslexic but that doesn't mean he qualifies automatically for the above help. There are strict criteria. And, it may have been too late for apply for the exam concessions by the time he was at the school. It's quite complicated.

I think it was surprising that Jack appeared to be going to lessons, trying hard and still failed so it can’t just be put on the boys lack of engagement.

Jack was dyslexic. I have taught and tutored (1:1) boys and adults like Jack. I always told parents I'd need a year (3 terms) to raise a grade from a D to a C, for anyone with moderate-severe dyslexic and there is still no guarantee. He only failed by 1 mark which is very sad. For him, it was a good achievement and there is hope I feel for the next re-take.

You do realise that the Don School is the Indian equivalent of Eton right? This is like putting cameras in Eton and being surprised that the students ate well behaved.