Schooldays
The Chase High School
I wasn’t a particularly good student at school. In fact I still have my school report where one of my teachers commented: “Ian works well when he can’t avoid it” … and I still wonder why he couldn’t have stuck with the traditionally tried and tested: “Could do better”, but it was at least original and showed that I wasn’t just “one of the crowd”.
During my Primary school years (from age five to eleven for those who don’t know the English educational system) I went to the Malvern Link County Primary School which was a ten minute walk from home. It might not have been very far, but when you are that age, those ten minutes can seem like an age and I am always amazed whenever I return to see how close it really was to home. It was in my last years at that school that I found a liking and (minor) talent for Mathematics … the crucial moment was when we started algebra … x times y equals xy, a times b equals ab … hey, I could that, no problem – even if I had no real idea at that time what was actually going on, it caught my imagination and I was no longer “afraid” of “sums”.
The School Badge
At the time when I was growing up the secondary education system in England, (following the principles laid down after the Second World War and based on what we now know as the flawed researches of Sir Edward Birt), divided youngsters at the age of eleven into “Grammar School” or “Secondary Modern”. I “failed” the dreaded eleven-plus examination and ended up going to the “non-selective” Chase Secondary Modern, (which was later renamed the Chase High School – allegedly because some posh school in the North of the county didn’t want to lose it’s “High School” name – and is known as The Chase Technology College). The school is still there and going strong according to the reports I read on the internet. It is one of the largest schools in Worcestershire with 1700 pupils and a staff of 200.
I still think that failing that examination was an important turning point which helped to shape the course of the rest of my life. Indeed, if I am feeling a little mischievous, sometimes when I get asked: “Why did you end up in Kyrgyzstan?”, I answer: “because I failed the eleven plus.” Seriously though, it limited the options available to me later in life – and this is something which has always rankled and, as a result, I always try to make sure now that I leave as many options open and available for as long as possible … Another of my mottos: “don’t close doors until you have to”.
Let me explain.
The Chase was a good school, with a good catchment area and got good results. Although not an outstanding student, I was a relatively good student – and frequently came out top of the year in Maths. True to the school motto, (“First, or with the first”), we were one of the few Secondary Modern schools at that time to offer A-Levels, (needed for university entrance). But … that was mainly in the Arts and Humanities – there were no sciences offered at this level – indeed the school didn’t even offer, (and I have never studied), Chemistry. I was the third person in the school’s history to sit A-Level Maths, and the first to pass. Things were changing, however, and the following yeargroup were given the options of studying Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Although I had done O-Level Physics in my final year of compulsory education, (O-level was the equivalent of the School Leaving Certificate or Diploma), it wasn’t available to me at A-level and so my other subjects were Geography and Religious Education. If I hadn’t been able to study Maths then I would have liked to have done History – another subject I find fascinating – but for some reason I got bumped out of the class a few months before the examinations at the end of my final year of compulsory education. Although I wasn’t an outstanding student, I was, (even if I say so myself), better than mediocre, so why was I bumped off the course? I think it was just that they thought I wasn’t pulling my weight and would struggle to cope with eight examination subjects. Maybe they were right, but I decided to go back and try again the following year … and came out with a top grade – I like to think “that showed them!”
It’s a pity that Physics wasn’t available … because Maths and Physics tend to go together. There’s a strong relationship between Mechanics, a branch of Physics and Applied Mathematics. Usually the two subjects supplement and help each other. I didn’t have that option available and so Maths Teacher decided that it would be better for me to learn Statistics … and I am very grateful for that because it has turned out to be a great boon as things turned out in subsequent years. One thing it has taught me is to always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS question statistics – especially when they are thrown around with great abandon … because they always seem to raise more questions than they answer.
One of the great things about studying A-Level Maths, was that I was the only student in the class. Now, in some ways, that was great … lots of individual attention … but in other ways it was terrible … lots of pressure and no-one to share or discuss the difficult bits with. I always remembered this when I later became a teacher in my own turn and had classes of just one student.
One of the great lessons I learnt at school was not on the formal curriculum – delegation. There was no syllabus, no coursework or final examination, it was just something that was part of the ethos of the place. In a hangover from Public Schools, the teachers gave responsibility to senior students. It wasn’t just a case of being “board monitor” – although some teachers did appoint those. The school operated a Prefect system – and apparently still does. In my last year of compulsory schooling, (the Fifth year), I was made a prefect and given jobs to do including supervising younger kids during break times. The following year, what was then called the Lower Sixth, I became a House Captain, responsible for organizing events and sports teams … we never did that well, but it was good training for later life. In my final year, the Upper Sixth, I reached the pinnacle and was made Head Boy. I remember being told by one of the teachers that: “We can’t be everywhere, we can’t do everything … that’s why we have prefects.” Another useful lesson which I have carried with me throughout the rest of my life.
