It always strikes me as paradoxical that people assume they are qualified to pontificate on matters relating to school administration solely on the basis that they have spent 12 or 14 years in school, while at the same time a basic understanding of how a school operates seems to have bypassed them totally.

The thinly-veiled attack on a particular school in a letter in the ‘Derry Journal’ (Friday 4 April 2008) is a case in point. It is probably fair to assume that the correspondent underwent 14 years’ schooling (and clearly not a minute of it wasted either when she judiciously uses her professional title – to add more weight to her arguments?)

As Head of Department in a local post-primary school, I, in consultation with my colleagues, set a Grade B at GCSE for entry to AS/A2 course of study.

It was our considered, informed, professional view that this was in the best interests of pupils – if a Grade B at GCSE was beyond their ability, it seemed that pursuing the subject could prove, at best unsuccessful and, at worst, demoralising for a struggling student. We added a rider to this: those pupils achieving lower than Grade B could, if they so wished, still apply to continue the subject if criteria regarding behaviour and commitment had been met during the previous five years of study.

I believe this to be common practice in many Departments in most schools (obviously, the Grade set could be A, B or C depending on a range of factors.)

But, as is often the case with matters educational, everyone is an expert.

Yours,

"Tell it like it is "

(by email)