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Original poster

Indian Summer School.

150 replies

Aeroflotgirl · 30/03/2018 08:59

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.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 13/04/2018 16:24

Loves I assume that the students that you taught you had for significantly less contact time than they would have had with Jack - 6 hours of lessons before lunch plus 1-1 tutoring. They only had to pass 3 subjects!

peacheachpearplum · 13/04/2018 16:32

I do think Jack and Ethan benefited from the six months. Shame they didn't get the grades but they were very different at the end. I do think a remark for Jack would be worth it.

TeisanLap · 13/04/2018 16:45

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.

Yep. We realised. And not just because it was said repeatedly during the series.

lazymum99 · 13/04/2018 17:28

My oldest son went to a well known very high achieving public school. But there was some considerable bad behaviour in class and out. However, they were all extremely bright and barely needed teaching to get GCSEs. I cannot imagine boys like in this programme being dropped into that environment. It would be impossible for them to keep up with the speed of the teaching and the level even in year 11 was often A level standard.
These boys left Doon in the summer and took their GCSEs in october i think. Unless they kept up with their studies and had some help I don't see how it was going to work. If between summer and october they did numerous past papers etc their marks would have been better.

noblegiraffe · 13/04/2018 17:35

I don’t understand what exams they sat that have an October sitting.

ineedaholidaynow · 13/04/2018 17:48

I wondered that noble but as it is many years since I sat school exams (did O-levels) I wasn't sure whether the system had changed

lazymum99 · 13/04/2018 17:58

There only appeared to be 3 marks on the results slip. It doesn't really make sense what they took. One english paper, one maths paper and it looked like a Biology paper. A bit odd.

LovesMaltesers · 13/04/2018 18:38

Noble I think it's important to understand that for someone who is severely dyslexic , 6 months in a new school- when they were not motivated for a good part of that time- is not enough to ensure a Grade C. His starting level was - presume- very low indeed.

Yes, perhaps they had more time than some of my pupils, but don't forget that tutoring is in addition to the 5-6 hours per subject they get at school anyway.

LovesMaltesers · 13/04/2018 18:39

lazy they were re-sitting the key 3 subjects: English, maths, science.

noblegiraffe · 13/04/2018 19:04

Loves what school does 5-6 hours of English per week?
If these kids at Doon were only doing 3 subjects presumably they were having way more hours of core lessons than that?

I think that what’s interesting to me as a maths teacher is that they focused on the English, but Jack got a U in maths, even though he passed it before. What went on there??

noblegiraffe · 13/04/2018 19:06

Loves what school does 5-6 hours of English per week?
If these kids at Doon were only doing 3 subjects presumably they were having way more hours of core lessons than that?

I think that what’s interesting to me as a maths teacher is that they focused on the English, but Jack got a U in maths, even though he passed it before. What went on there??

lazymum99 · 13/04/2018 19:12

How low is 'ungraded' in percent? I presume below 20%. How on earth did Jack get this in a retake. If he'd spent 6 months only doing english, maths and science only.
If those were the only lessons they went to at Doon i'm not surprised they disengaged. Not particularly interesting doing that all day.
They must literally have started at the level of 10 year olds.

UrbiEtOrbi · 13/04/2018 19:29

Very disappointing outcomes for the boys- I can see the programme wanted to remove them from their low- achieving lifestyles/ environments but perhaps the distance from home and the cultural differences were just too much, and the students didn't thrive.

Thehamsterspajamas · 13/04/2018 19:46

How on earth did Jack get this in a retake.

Maybe, like me, he isn’t able to get beyond a certain level in some subjects? I got a C in English but it wouldn’t have mattered how many attempts I’d had at maths, I still wouldn’t have got beyond an E or a D. I think it was Jack who was born prematurely? I was also premature and have mild learning disabilities as a result. The Doon school definitely wasn’t the best environment for any of these boys imo. With the three lads who lasted the 6 months maybe it was too little too late, combined with not being motivated for years along with just not being very able academically.

noblegiraffe · 13/04/2018 19:54

But he went from passing maths to ungraded. Did the Doon School actually suck years of mathematical knowledge from his brain?

DinkyDaisy · 13/04/2018 21:38

A sad outcome.
Hope we get more positive updates on them all.
Their families looked so sad as well...
One of the Mums said 'well I got a job with no qualifications' which makes me feel that at least one will give up on exams.
Maybe functional skills level 2 an option for them? [I am a proud owner of the maths one at half a century!].

DinkyDaisy · 13/04/2018 21:39

Though a D should indicate a C possible at Gcse I would have thought.

LovesMaltesers · 14/04/2018 09:03

Loves what school does 5-6 hours of English per week?

Have you got DCs at sec school? Or do you work in a school? 5 hrs over a week would be quite normal for English. One lesson a day or 3 and a double over a week unless things have changed hugely since I retired not long ago.

The point is that passing GCSE if you are dyslexic is very hard. I tutored a student who passed the IGCSE after sitting GCSE twice. The questions vary each year and if you are dyslexic you can also be 'having a bad day' due to stress . Obviously Jack was under huge stress due to the TV involvement.

I rally don't like the suggestions here that the Doon school failed. What about 14 years in UK schools? From what I understood, jack was only diagnosed as dyslexic very late- when he was 17 (would have to check but pretty sure.) That is a disgrace and he was failed by the UK schools who should have diagnosed when he was 7 .

You only had to see him struggling to read to see how severe it was.

I worked in schools and privately for 20 years with dyslexics and years before that teaching English to non-dyslexics. Some will never ever get a grade C no matter how much input they have.

noblegiraffe · 14/04/2018 10:52

5 hrs over a week would be quite normal for English.

I don’t think so. My school has 4 for GCSE, and when the threads about timetabling come up on MN, that or less is quite usual.
But Jack is a resitter. Resit kids in sixth form get maybe 2-3 hours a week.

They had them for 24 hours a day for 6 months. I’m pretty sure that if I had those kids for that length of time I could get them to improve by at least a grade in maths. Yet these didn’t, and Jack went majorly backwards.

expatmigrant · 14/04/2018 10:53

I completely agree with you loves
I'm also a teacher and the learning difficulties of those boys were literally screaming out at you and they have been failed by their schools.
My own DS has LD and has had an ed psych report since year3. With years of learning support and being in a school with an excellent LS department, he did get his C the third time round and is going to university in September.
6 months at Doon was never going to make up for the lack support those boys have had by their schools and school system.

LittleRedTerfette · 14/04/2018 10:53

If you’ve never ever done your homework or studied for run of the mill class tests, you simply wouldn’t have the stamina for gcse revision.

This programme really underlined to me how vital it is to make sure your kids discipline themselves from the seemingly inconsequential homework of the early primary years upwards

noblegiraffe · 14/04/2018 11:00

I wish they hadn’t focused on English and actually shown some maths lessons so I could figure out what went wrong there. I suspect they were not pitched at the right level.

peacheachpearplum · 14/04/2018 11:05

I think they took IGCSE and if our local private school is to be believed it is a harder exam than GCSE. Apparently lots of schools in the private sector offer them as they are seen as a better qualification. I'm not a teacher so don't know but that is what I have heard.

noblegiraffe · 14/04/2018 11:09

I think that was considered to be true before they reformed GCSEs, I’m not so sure it’s the case now.

peacheachpearplum · 14/04/2018 11:10

noblegiraffe, maybe they haven't updated then.