Education, education, education

When Mr Blair made this his statement of intent back in 1997, he made it a personal priority for his government of the day to invest heavily in schools. Pity the money didn't get spent on communication, communication, communication as I guess he didn't reckon on how hard it would be for a young girl in her GCSE year at school to continue her education.

Vicki has been ill for 6 weeks, and after her health, my next concern is for her education. She is a Year 11 GCSE student, so this is a pretty key year. The hospital of course recognise the importance of this and have their own school within the premises. Vicki's ward has its own classroom, as the children's treatment can often leave them confined to the ward. The school hospital has been very good in providing what classes in can, when Vicki is well enough, but need guidance from her main school to indicate where she is with her studies, and where the priorities are for the coming months.

So far so good? Now here's the thing. The hospital's school have been trying to get this steer from the main school but have hit brick walls. Phone calls, e-mails and faxes have not been responded too. One of the hospital teachers took me aside to explain the difficulty.

Obviously I was keen to intervene, so called the school immediately. Several conversations took place and it would seem that there was some sort of communication break-down at the school and her form teacher was unaware of the hospital's request for assistance. My heart sank. This was very frustrating. Some 24 hours later we are some way to getting coursework sorted, and also there is the matter of a mathematics exam next Friday (Friday the 13th ominously!). Then I discovered there were 2 Biology exams the following week! (Sighs)

I had to ask what dispensations were available to Vicki as she may not be able to take these exams. The school assured me they would look into it. Oh come on guys, protocols must exist for this already? This is only the most important year of her education, so no rush!

Anyway, whilst I am happy that things are now moving, I'm not happy that I've had to spend so much of my time (which is very short in supply) chasing something that I felt should have been automatically sorted. Obviously I had higher expectation of education, education, education that Mr Blair did!