Parent, UK
My stories
My School Story
My school experience as a child wasn’t too bad to start with, I went to private school up until the age of 6, then for financial reasons, I was put into state school. Things were generally okay until I moved up to upper school. Three schools merged into one and it was horrific.
I had been bullied in middle school for being ‘posh’ ie: different. But at upper school the bullying really took off. My life was a misery. I was an awkward child now, very shy (due to prolonged bullying - none of which happened in private school, it was not tolerated) scared to speak out loud, in case I was mocked. Scared to draw attention to myself. Scared to exist.
I was suicidal at the age of 11. Eleven years old and I was considering ways to end my life. School was not nurturing, school was not helping me learn. It was making me survive it every day and I just couldn’t any more. No child should be considering killing themselves at 11 - or at any age! The bullying was horrific.
Ultimately it did eventually get stopped, as my mother intervened and the boys concerned were threatened by my form tutor. But the damage was done, and it took most of my adult life to heal the trauma of that school.
I will NOT put my child through that. I will NOT risk her being damaged the way I was. I will NOT trust the broken system with my precious child. School was one of the worst experiences of my life. I am what would he considered successful in my life now, but that was nothing to do with school. It was in spite of school. The state does not own my child.
I had been bullied in middle school for being ‘posh’ ie: different. But at upper school the bullying really took off. My life was a misery. I was an awkward child now, very shy (due to prolonged bullying - none of which happened in private school, it was not tolerated) scared to speak out loud, in case I was mocked. Scared to draw attention to myself. Scared to exist.
I was suicidal at the age of 11. Eleven years old and I was considering ways to end my life. School was not nurturing, school was not helping me learn. It was making me survive it every day and I just couldn’t any more. No child should be considering killing themselves at 11 - or at any age! The bullying was horrific.
Ultimately it did eventually get stopped, as my mother intervened and the boys concerned were threatened by my form tutor. But the damage was done, and it took most of my adult life to heal the trauma of that school.
I will NOT put my child through that. I will NOT risk her being damaged the way I was. I will NOT trust the broken system with my precious child. School was one of the worst experiences of my life. I am what would he considered successful in my life now, but that was nothing to do with school. It was in spite of school. The state does not own my child.
How I think schools could be better.
It needs a complete overhaul. Only when children are treated as human beings instead of commodities, does that ever stand a chance of changing.