Play Dough and Superbikes!

To get anything done here, you need to know someone. That’s what they say anyway and more and more I am finding this true. I would have been in that police station for hours and be a few thousand dollars out of pocket if I didn’t know certain people. Again today, but in a more welcoming establishment, I would have been there for hours if I didn’t know certain people. I have almost set up a Guyanese bank account, which I think is an incredible achievement.

I was sat planning a lesson on coastal erosion last night and pretty stumped for ideas. I trawled youtube looking for those dramatic clips of houses falling down cliffs but could not find anything awe-inspiring. Then I hit the jackpot. Someone had made a stop-motion video of a headland eroding using play-dough. At school today I went straight to the reception class and asked for their play-dough. Form 5 loved it. I loved that kids nowadays have smart phones. Their videos were hilarious. One of them featured a seagull flying in and out of the frame with added sound-effects.

I wish I could feel so happy about the A-Levels though. I have 17 students in my class but haven’t had a full class since September. They just don’t seem to turn up. Last month there were no students at all and the excuse was that they were revising for exam-retakes. This week, the same thing is happening again- more exams. Two students showed up today and we had a chat about attendance. They were getting annoyed but not as much as me. They seem to have accepted it as the culture. It happens in all of their subjects too. This made me feel more relieved but it still didn’t solve the problem. I went to speak to the head of sixth form who said I needed to talk to them... It’s a school-wide issue though and I just don’t know what to say to persuade them.

Another attendance problem hit the school this week. This weekend is an international car and superbike championship and as I teach well-off kids, a few of them are involved. This means that they practice late into the night and have early morning weight-training sessions to get them in shape and make them late for school (and tired). I pulled out my trump card this afternoon and made phone calls home to their parents. They said in unison, “It will be sorted next week; it is just that there is a big race-meet coming up.” I sat there a bit baffled.

It is a new dilemma for me. In London, I knew that education, school and me as a teacher could be a social changer for the kids due their socio-economic backgrounds. But here I don’t feel the same pressure. These kids will do well in their exams. Their parents mostly know the importance of education and how to work the system. They will get personal tutors if they start failing. When they graduate their families will have contacts to get them into great jobs.

I don’t feel disheartened because I love teaching at this school. I just feel odd. There are so many loose ends that need tying up.