At the chalkface Sixth form Sally


AREN’T YOU tired of teaching to the tests? Aren’t you sick of so many exams? Probably, but not as much as some of our pupils – not as sick as poor Sally in my 6th form, a quite brilliant English Literature student. Her finely tuned sensibilities make her an original, scintillating critic – and a lousy examinee. Why? The brute exigencies of the A level quite trash her mercurial talents. She gets nervous and wasted and sometimes implodes in exam halls. She’s over there


now, scribbling for her life. I try not to look. I’m The Invigilator. Will she get through this final paper? She’s tense. I’m tense. I disguise it. I’ve suggested ways of relaxing – milk and honey and broccoli and Zen breathing and transcendental meditation. It never worked for me. Exams made me a twitching, sleepless wreck. I did my finals on elephant tranquilisers. You try translating Anglo-Saxon verse in a thumping coma. I must have been a genius. Well, it’s much worse for


Sally and her generation, the most tested tots in the world. Too much rides on these exams. Fail them and you fail in life. They mark you for life. More pupils than ever seek out doctors and shrinks and medication – and still go bananas or get burn out. Will Sally? She looks gaunt and most shaky. Ponder this. She’s been hot-


housed by the school for seven years. She gets loads of A*s. She


could care less. The school could – it makes us look good. She’s “Oxbridge material”! She’s put on a swotting treadmill for the rubbish AS exams. She faints and falls off chair in one of them. Quick! Pick her up! She must go on! Get those A*s! She must endure an interview with a florid nutter at Cambridge, who asks her about “sexology” in Clarissa. Eh? She’s 17! An offer is made. About five A*s please – in the fever of this tropical exam hall. She scribbles maniacally. Her hair’s gone daft. She resembles Beryl The Peril. She’s


gone a whiter shade of pale. Twenty minutes left! I hope she doesn’t get


too clever. I hope she doesn’t go off about Immanuel Kant and Coleridge’s transcendentalism. The


examiners won’t get it. Just


tick the bleedin’ boxes! “Ten minutes!”


She looks like she might


faint again. Her skeletal arm waves at me.


I fear the worst. “More paper, sir!” She looks like a leper in a


blade of sunlight “Five minutes!” Quick! Quick! Knock out that


flash and clinching conclusion! “Stop! Stop writing!” I meet Sally in the foyer. She’s


still shaking. “I fucked up, sir.” Well, let’s hope not. Child abuse, isn’t it?


• Ian Whitwham is a former secondary school teacher.


News


Champions: Last year’s Arts and Minds winners included Mairead Flannery from Redhill School, pictured with schools minister Nick Gibb, and Tom from Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Coventry (above)


Arts and Minds celebrates diversity by Daniel White


Students are once again being urged to help celebrate the cultural diversity of our nation as part of the annual Arts and Minds competition. Run by the NASUWT and


supported by SecEd among oth- ers, Arts and Minds is an art and creative writing competition that challenges students from across primary, secondary and special schools to create pieces of work that celebrate cultural diversity and racial equality.


This year, the theme is asking


entrants to show what diversity, equality and identity means to them and how it is reflected in their lives, families, schools and communities. Arts and Minds is open to stu-


dents from all UK schools and entries are judged in two categories – art and creative writing. Entrants can submit poetry, short stories or pictures for the creative writing category and collages, drawings or paintings for the art category. Entries can be from individual stu- dents or groups of pupils. The competition is aimed at giv-


ing teachers a stimulating way to introduce discussions around equal- ity and diversity into the class- room and it also supports the duty on schools to promote community cohesion. Last year schools minister Nick


Gibb attended the finals ceremo- ny in central London and educa- tion secretary Michael Gove, who helped to judge the final winners, actually requested that the over- all winning entry, a piece of art- work entitled Human Diversity by Mairead Flannery, a year 10 student from Redhill School in Stourbridge,


be hung in his office. He called it an “amazing piece of art”. In the competition, schools can


win cash prizes of up to £1,000 to spend on additional educational resources and all winning pupils will receive individual prizes. The awards are supported by


SecEd, 5to7 Educator, Love Music Hate Racism, the Anne Frank Trust, Unite Against Fascism, and Think Global. The deadline for entries is July


8 and the final ceremony will take place in the autumn. Visit www.nasuwt.org.uk/artsandminds


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