| Sitting down in a library and writing down | | | | surely there is less pressure on me to perform |
| something in a southern state school sounds | | | | academically? I am not "advised" to do activities |
| pretty bland. If only I had won the lottery or had | | | | just because it looks good on my Personal |
| famous relatives or a rich dead grandmother who | | | | Statement. Though Active Listening may be |
| could have sent me to private school. Then | | | | stretching it a bit, Creative Writing certainly brings |
| perhaps my expression would have expanded | | | | out the pleasure of missing Monday lunchtime. |
| beyond terms like "something" and repeating | | | | It is activities such as these that have morphed |
| verbs such as "down" Though maybe I was | | | | R.G.S. into a school that can only be described as |
| designed to go to State School, after all what | | | | a state-come-private school. Gate-crashing |
| does "going private" actually offer? | | | | countless league tables (The Sutton Trust |
| Yes, you probably have infinite more amounts of | | | | Report), management conferences and any other |
| money, wealth and opportunities than me. Your | | | | high-art occasions they have distant relations with. |
| classmates whom most likely have titles like | | | | Yearly sporting fixtures with Wellington, Eton, |
| "Lady Vanessa Forrester-Fletchwood the 3rd" | | | | Wycombe Abbey? have proven we can mix with |
| whom demand the best. In contrast I sit next to | | | | the best. However truthfully isn't it just so we can |
| Joe Bloggs of Park Road; hiding in a class of | | | | establish good communication and marvel at their |
| anonymity amongst my fellow peers. None of us | | | | own superior facilities? Is it not just a reflection of |
| have inherited our way through life, gained | | | | what could have been for the optimistic few? |
| scholarships or have "moots" every semester. | | | | In a recent Independent article headmaster Roy |
| Instead we get a quick shout-out in assembly, an | | | | Page was only too quick to highlight our inferior |
| occasional applause but certainly no scholarships or | | | | surroundings. Most importantly his study has only |
| merits or whatever. | | | | just been decorated and has, until now, |
| Whether I actually care is another matter, but it | | | | overlooked the decaying nature of the common |
| points out that by "going private" certainly | | | | room. I guess it's aptly described as "common" |
| everything is made a meal out of. From irrelevant, | | | | not as "student recreational quarters" like what it's |
| over-sized portraits of famous owners on the | | | | probably called in private schools. |
| walls of the canteen hall to the stained single | | | | If only I had gone to a private school. I could |
| glazed windows of ours is quite a contrast. | | | | have told you the first sentence has qualities of |
| Though perhaps it's good to live around | | | | sibilance, has transitive verbs and is in the simple |
| everything that is embellished right down to the | | | | continuous. If only this article was written in anger |
| smallest but sweetest cherry. | | | | could I have been more cynical. Perhaps instead I |
| However when it comes to teaching there is no | | | | am fuelled with jealousy and that maybe, just |
| substitute for getting students, into | | | | maybe, I am still optimistic for these last terms |
| well-performing universities who are perhaps of | | | | coming! |
| "average ability". After all I go to a State School | | | | |