Lessons Learned

Hey Friend,

How’s it going? Hope you’re enjoying the summer sunshine! I for one will never complain about it being too hot. I mean who wouldn’t prefer the gorgeous sun and heat to the freezing cold? Long may it last as far as I’m concerned.

So, it’s still exam season and I’m still invigilating.

And I’m still surprised with what I see and hear each time I’m there.

For one thing, I don’t understand why some people – in fact, the same people – are habitually late. Sometimes turning up a whole hour after the exam has started. Older Miss insists that if she were in charge, she’d send them home and they’d have to work it out with the exam board.

She’s tough but I don’t think she’s wrong. These are sixteen-year-olds after all. If the school continues to baby them now, how will they fair in the ‘real’ world?

Rocking up to work an hour late every day will only result in them being fired…

Anyhoo…

There was an incident a couple of weeks ago where a boy completed the wrong exam…

Yep – scandalous.

I was working in another room at the time so was only there for the fallout, but apparently, this kid had turned up late (surprise, surprise) and was given the wrong paper.

At no point did he raise his hand and say ‘This is the wrong one. I’m supposed to be doing higher/foundation’ (whichever one it was). No. He decided the best thing to do was to do the paper and then laugh about it with his friends once he left the room.

Now, I’m really interested to hear from teachers and parents alike on this because when discussing with other invigilators, one of them said if it were her son she’d be ‘down the school’ in a heads-will-roll kind of way.

My response was simply – Why?

Why would anyone blame the school in this instance when the child was laughing and bragging about it as soon as he left the exam room?

Why wouldn’t the angry talk be directed at the child who clearly knew what they were doing?

Yes, whoever gave the paper should be held accountable but, more so than the child? I don’t think so.

My children will tell you there are two things that I regularly say to them. One is a paraphrase of a bible verse: Worry about nothing; pray about everything.

The other is this: there are consequence for your actions.

So, if they’re late for school and have to stay for detention, that’s their consequence. If they haven’t done their homework or left it to the last minute, there’ll be a consequence. I will not rescue them from these moments because I have to teach them to be responsible for their actions.

The other invigilator called me ‘harsh’ but I disagree.

I would love to know your views on this – drop me a comment below and let me know what you would do.

Speak soon x