(31 Jan 2015, 9:01 am)MrFozz Is it Sunderland High you go to Dan???
I failed the Entrance Test there when I was 12 to go into Year 9 which is why I ended up back in the state I lost the little group I was with at 8/9 years old, so had to start again at 13 and that period of my life is directly responsible for the problems I now have, my nans snobbery and expectation of me, I went to Durham Choristers, completely for the wrong reasons.
For me, people took the piss out of my accent, a posh person mocking the mackem accent sounds funny and me telling people to fuck off in a put on posh voice sounded just as funny.
In time, I became liked at Durham, was always in trouble for something, but the teachers liked me, I was not evil, had a couple of fights and messed about a lot, but the effect on me was huge, from acing the entrance test to my ultimate failure with Sunderland High. In my family it is now accepted I should probably have stayed mainstream and I dont know if my mam would admit it publically, but if we could go round again, she may have stood up to her mam and said no.
I hate the fact I was given the chance, me and my nan never saw eye to eye, we actually sorted out our differences 2 days before she died.
Private Education can be beneficial, and it sounds like every penny put into you Dan has paid off, proud of you pal, not many kids get the chance you have and it seems like you had good support around you as a primary student...
1 question Dan, out of your primary school friends, did you drift away from them or did you keep relationships up, when I moved back to mainstream from private, I had no friends, the kids I knocked about with at Primary had there own group of senior school friends, and for all of year 9, I did not have a friend in the world, in year 10 I was moved tutor groups and from then until I left school I only had about 4 friends, all girls ...
I am probably starting to drift off a bit now, but Private Education did me some good, it made me eager to help people, through being teased and bullied, It helped me when I was in Care to become the person I am now, it gave me the skill to listen to people, my experience taught me not to prejudge someone because of there social background and it helped me to bring out my caring/sympathetic side, which some people here will probably agree with 
I agree with Dan, Private Education can be a benefit, and if a Young Person shows dedication/enthusiasm then by all means.
I may moan sometimes about it, but if I given the chance to go round again, I would probably do most of it all exactly the same
It is indeed, Fozz.
I have a fairly strong Mackem accent, and this caused a few issues for me in the lower years of the school too. Paired with my accent, I regularly used words specific to our dialect, and this was also a reason why I was on the receiving end of a few digs in the lower years. Those who did mock me for using words or not pronouncing words correctly soon realised that I formed a coherent argument and could use words that they hadn't even heard of before, which shut them up. I was always better at Maths than English at primary school, but I guess I ended up becoming a better English student as proving everyone wrong acted as motivation. What's more is that I was one of the very few people last year to get the highest grade for English Speaking & Listening. It used to form part of the English Language qualification but was separated last year to be graded on a scale of 1 - 5, with the latter being the best grade possible. I got a 5, which proved that you don't need to come from a family who owns businesses worth millions to speak well.
Without a private education, I'm inclined to suggest that I wouldn't have achieved as well as I did at GCSE. I came out with A*s in ICT and English Literature; As in Business Studies, English Language and Physics; Bs in Media Studies, Dual Media, Biology, Chemistry and Maths; and a C in French. Whilst the pressure from teachers can go wrong (as I said in the post above), it does work as a motivational factor too. In our Business Studies lesson yesterday, we discussed that teachers are often motivated by the reward of students doing well. Even if students don't thank a teacher on Results Day, it does provide a "warm fuzzy feeling" inside, as the teacher contributed to the success of that student. Not many students come out with 11 GCSEs and a 5/5 in English Speaking & Listening, that's for sure. Some of my friends from state schools actually gained more A*s than I did, but that's because their education was more concentrated on between six and eight subjects opposed to the eleven I did.
I drifted away from the fair majority of my friends I made in primary school. As I became more accepted at SHS, I drifted away even further. I remember attending some sort of athletics competition up at Silksworth in Year 7 or 8. The P.E teachers at my school knew I hated P.E, and seemingly used that as a punishment to make me take part in the longest run possible at the event. To prove a point to them, I stuck my earphones in and walked it all. It embarrassed them more than me. A large number of state schools were present, including Sandhill View. As I used to live in Plains Farm, and attended primary school there too, Sandhill View was the school most students were carted off to at the end of primary. They were all delighted to see me, and the feeling was mutual. They weren't quite as pleased to see the rest of the students from my school, though. I'd obviously told them how I didn't really fit in compared to primary school (when I was friends with the entire year group), and they didn't like how I was being left out. Fair to say they threw a few comments - and those at my school didn't say anything back. When I lived nearby Chester Road in 2013, I was quite close to two of the lads I used to go to primary school with. I wouldn't really chat to them for long, but we'd often see each other when they were walking to school and I was waiting for the bus to go to town. Aside from them, I only stayed in touch with about three girls who I was very close to in primary. I discovered that, over time, a lot of the friendship groups from primary were destroyed in secondary, as everyone made new friends. With year groups sizes of 200 and above, that came as no surprise really. I still talk to the three I stayed in touch with, but it's very irregularly. Other than these, though, I can walk past people from my primary school in the street and they won't recognise me. Only reason I recognise them is that they post photos on Social Media websites of themselves - something which is fairly uncommon for me to do.
Ultimately, I think I'm probably in one of best positions. One of my friends from Argyle House (another private school in Sunderland) said he likes to watch programmes such as "Benefits Street" as he can't believe people are in a position like that. He studies it as if it's like a documentary about some sort of endangered species of animal. I've seen that directly - I went into the houses of really deprived kids when I was younger. Money can buy a lot of things, but it certainly can't buy love. I'll never forget the love I observed between one of my friends from primary and his mam - they were living in poverty but they got each other through it. At my school now, the love often seems limited. The child is often like a voo-doo doll, with the parents making all of the choices for the child and the child complying. Despite all of this, I've also received a very good standard of education at a private school. Not only did I (eventually) make friends with those at my school, but I also had a few friends from primary, and new friends I made from other secondary state schools. I can't pass through Park Lane without seeing someone I know, which is why I very rarely take photos of buses there. Also poses problems, mind, as I've been asked by three different friend groups to go to T in the Park now. I can obviously only go with one!
#dansdeepdiscussions
#hashtagsonNEB
