Day 315 - Too Many Tests Make Them Ill

Thursday February 25th

I love Thursdays. Still no sign of the CRB check so it's looking like another week before I can go to More House. Instead I have been marking exams and what a shocker that is.

DVS warned me to contain my warm fuzzy feeling about how well 10.2.2 were doing. I did not heed that warning and had very high expectations for their exam this week. Oh dear. With very few exceptions, their results were shocking. They were shocking because most of them hadn't done any revision. None.

I just read an article in the Sunday Times, and I quote: 'The new children's commissioner has said school pupils should sit no more than eight GCSEs, because too many tests are making them ill. Maggie Atkinson said one of the risks to children was "the pressure that we as a society seem determined to continue to put our children under in terms of how hothoused they are at school." Limiting the exams would reduce homework and give children more "down time", she said.'

She goes on to warn that: 'many children were under such stress to achieve good exam results that they lacked a "work-life balance" and were at risk of falling ill from stress.'

Under such stress, my arse. I have never seen a group of kids look so relaxed and unconcerned with getting a U in an exam. They either think it's not important or that someone is going to fix it for them and make everything alright. In my day............