From Rosie Baker.
I SETTLED in Manchester seven years ago and am still often met with cynical prejudices and people who wonder why on earth I’d moved to such a ‘dangerous’ northern place.
While I would never belittle this area’s problems, I was recently shocked and saddened to read the headlines about behaviour in Jersey schools.
I have worked in a range of schools over the past four years, predominantly in socially deprived areas of Manchester and, although there have been difficult times, I’ve loved every minute of it and felt supported and respected by students and staff alike.
The NASUWT state that in the UK ‘standards of behaviour have increased over the last ten years, with the number of schools where behaviour is a significant concern at the lowest levels ever recorded – from 8% in 1997/8 to 2% in 2007/08’ and schools that do not improve face various actions under the government’s new Behaviour Challenge strategy.
I am not going to give you my social policy-based views on the causes behind Jersey’s problems and I am not put off from perhaps working in educational-settings in Jersey one day, rather intrigued.
However, based on my experiences I would have to say that given the choice, I’d sooner send my own children to a high school in the ‘wilds’ of Manchester than one in Jersey.
