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On Mon 9 Jul at 11:37am soapbox wrote:
Anyone seen long piece in Lewes News? School's not great but a whole page of rant? Looks weird alongside other content, is he a mate of the editors?
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On Mon 9 Jul at 12:35pm Mme B wrote:
Didn't we have a lot of posts from him a year or so ago?
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On Mon 9 Jul at 12:40pm school hunter wrote:
What does it say?
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On Mon 9 Jul at 1:55pm soapbox wrote:
@Mme B : I dunno who he is but he sounds barking and makes a lot of sweeping negative statements. Like all schools Priory has its issues but just wondered how he was able to get a whole page to spout on in the normally sedate LN
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On Mon 9 Jul at 3:38pm priory parent wrote:
Just read the article....while an absolute pile of festering horse sh1t. This is one person being given a total open soap box to air their opinion of a damn good school in which my 13 year old daughter has gone from strength to strength.
SHAME ON YOU LEWES NEWS AND THE LETTER'S AUTHOR
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On Mon 9 Jul at 5:46pm brixtonbelle wrote:
yes, it's the same person who used to come on here and spout about the school. I'm not sure what he was trying to do in Lewes News, it didn't really follow one point and just slagged off the school, then retracted a bit and said parts of it were ok. He really should be campaigning/ talking to the head and governors, but I suspect they have already had enough of him trying to impose his educational views on the school. I hope Lewes news gives the school a right to reply. As a Priory parent, I know the school isn't perfect but the first port of call is the head teacher and governors with any grievance. If you want to change educational policy then you become a politician or start your own school. Maybe the writer should get involved in the proposed Sussex Free School ?
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On Mon 9 Jul at 8:43pm Observer wrote:
Please feel free to email Lewes News with your opinions: lewesnews@gmail.com
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On Mon 9 Jul at 9:04pm Dunk wrote:
As a teacher (though not at Priory) I know it is often hard for parents to accept their kids are not good enough to be in a top set. The best ones try to help their children improve rather than whining to the local press.
How the Lewes News can title it 'The voice of parents at Priory' is baffling. The whole article looks very out of place next to articles about knitting and birds near the river.
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On Mon 9 Jul at 9:07pm Jan wrote:
Check him out on the internet "********" (name removed at wife's request) a bit of a self publicists to at the least! Much like the person who runs Lewes News ( tunnel vision).
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On Tue 10 Jul at 8:14am an observer wrote:
The main problem in Priory is one of class really. It is a middle class driven community with a culture that is sometimes alienating to working class pupils. I'm not sure that they have effective - and I'm afraid economics play a part here - programmes in place to assist with behaviour management. I rather suspect that troubled children are left alienated and bored rather than having their behaviour and needs managed properly.
The brutality of our current achievement obsessed society does nothing to help the situation.
The school does do many things well especially in the world of the arts. But it does not have a cohesive pupil community; its outsiders then rebel in various forms - bullying and disruption to name a couple.
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On Tue 10 Jul at 8:50am soapbox wrote:
@an observer : Both my children went to Priory and felt very much part of a "cohesive pupil community", with friends all backgrounds. All the parents I've spoken to felt that the small amount of disruption inevitable in a large school was handled both positively and effectively. But the main issue here is why LN felt it was OK to give one clearly very biased individual a whole page, and as Dunk says, title it "the voice of parents"! Not my voice or many others!
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On Tue 10 Jul at 10:10am Grunge wrote:
I am sticking my neck out to suggest that what a school such as Priory aims to offer are not middle class values but "educated values", which are not necessarily the same thing.
Children who are not encouraged at home to sit still and listen when required, for example, will find it difficult to conform. That is not the fault of the school, but it does have to find ways to enable these students to overcome this, and the willing support of the parents is needed to achieve it.
I have in the past occasionally noticed, boys particularly, from "working class" families, being rewarded and admired (He's a real boy, isn't he!) for behaviour which was obviously going to be discouraged in school. No wonder such children are disorientated by this.
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On Tue 10 Jul at 10:12am parent wrote:
Just to take issue with what 'an observer' said: of course Priory is largely a middle-class school - it's in a largely middle class area. There is no school in the land with a truly 'cohesive pupil community' - do you think a middle class kid at an inner city school is going to feel completely integrated? A friend of mine went to Eton and said it was just as riven with cliques / gangs as the poorest school.
At Priory, what happens is that there are good and bad years: sometimes they cohere and sometimes they don't; but I think the school manages the community pretty well. At the end of the recent Y11, the whole year went up for an illicit (booze-fuelled) party on the Downs, and I thought that's a pretty good indicator for the end of school as it goes - it certainly wouldn't have happened at any Brighton school.
As to the Lewes News article, just as with the author's posts on here in the past, it sounds an awful lot like an individual who is more concerned with the sound of his own voice than anything else. Ignore him.
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On Tue 10 Jul at 10:23am Deelite wrote:
Unusually I agree with Observer. It is widely acknowledged in the local education establishment that Priory does well for those kids that are bright, and self-reliant and motivated. It does not do so well with kids that need more attention and care. These kids can become alienated and slip between the boards and Priory does not seem to pick them up. Priory does not do Special Needs well.
Upshot. If your kid is bright and wants to learn the Priory should work for him. If on the other hand he/she is less motivated or requires special attention just to keep them going (but not particularly achieving) then there are schools that might work better for them (Chailey or Peacehaven come to mind)
Unlike Observer I don't think this it has anything to do with class
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On Tue 10 Jul at 5:27pm Crikey wrote:
All I can say is I hope this idiot's kid is nearing the end of their time at the school - I feel hugely sorry for the staff and head teacher that this fool is bothering them constantly with his outrageous demands.
It's like he thinks the school is there just to serve his own purposes and that none of the other parents, staff and kids matter.
I guarantee it's the same joker who came on here a while ago with his unnecessary and unfair criticisms of the school. And when no one agreed with him he accused the forum of bullying him because he held different opinions to them!
A truly deluded individual who has spent very little time in the real world. I hope the rest of the parents with children at Priory (a) write their own comments and send them to LN and demand publication, (b) ostracize this individual for making an already-stretched school system buckle under unfair demands.
Good God.
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On Wed 11 Jul at 11:39am brixtonbelle wrote:
From personal experience and speaking to other parents, it seems Priory is able to cater well to the upper and lower sections of academic ability - ie high achievers and special needs. The kids in the middle, who trundle along getting okay grades, are often the one who are responsible for the low level disruption because they are bored and not challenged and not pushed as far as they could be. This is common in many schools and is also down to our educational system that is chronically underfunded and resourced and battered by hundreds of different policy changes and directives from LEA's every year (ask any headteacher).
I've always said that the Tories should fund state schools and run them in the same way as private schools are, to give a true 'level playing field', but of course that isn't going to happen because it would also erode the class system. Unfortunately, like private medicine not taking a and e cases, private schools will not take kids with special needs or behavioural problems, hence the state has to deal with them all. If we don't fund and resource our education system properly, this is the best we get.
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On Thu 12 Jul at 8:46am Phaedra Isabella wrote:
The most ridiculous bit was where he said that the school was better than it used to be, as demonstrated by the fact it is now oversubscribed. It was oversubscribed when I started back in 1996! Back then it was considered to be one of the best secondary schools in the area, and it seems to still be well thought of these days. All schools have problems, even private ones. I didn't really enjoy my time at Priory, but I do know that it was the best school I could have chosen at the time, and I did receive a good education from there.
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On Thu 12 Jul at 6:08pm Lewes forum reader wrote:
1. defamation; calumny: rumors full of slander.
2. a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report: a slander against his good name.
3. defamation by oral utterance rather than by writing, pictures, etc.
THERE ARE LAWS AGAINST SLANDER
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On Thu 12 Jul at 10:59pm brixtonbelle wrote:
Lewes Forum Reader, thank you for your legal definitions. And your point is ? Would you be suggesting that the poster formerly known as Emerson and now writing for the Lewes News is being libelled here ? Or are you suggesting Priory School has been libelled ?
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On Fri 13 Jul at 3:22pm EMERSON wrote:
For those parents (only two) who have criticed my article for being too negative and misleading, here is a run down of all the positive statements that it contains:
1. â?¦ I find Priory School to be a good school, much better than it used to beâ?¦
2. â?¦ the vast majority of parents are happy with every aspect of school life â?¦.
3. â?¦. most parents seem to appreciate Mr Smith's - our Headteacher - and his staff's efforts for improvement â?¦
4â?¦. we parents, as a whole, value our new role as part of the school, which
5. â?¦ the setting up of a Parents Voice Group last year has helped enhance (our new role) â?¦.
6. â?¦. children are, with few exceptions, well looked after â?¦
7. â?¦ There is also a general positive feeling about the work of Mr Smith as new Headteacher â?¦
8. â?¦ Mr Smith and the school management do listen to what parents have to sayâ?¦
9. â?¦ the school enjoys a well deserved rating from Ofsted â?¦
10. .â?¦ (the school) is held in high esteem by the community as a wholeâ?¦
11. â?¦. We aim to improve the already good record of our school and make it even better.
12. â?¦. we love Priory â?¦
The accusations made against my person are therefore unfounded, prejudiced and offensive.. I do not write for Lewes News, but I am a parent at Priory. Anyone who has a GENUINE interest in Priory School, is therefore welcome to use that page to express his views in a constructive manner.
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On Fri 13 Jul at 7:17pm brixtonbelle wrote:
Emerson, your piece in the Lewes news was negative and badly written. I suggest you ask someone literate to read it over before submitting more 'articles'.
I still don't understand what the aim of the article was, but you've managed to stir things up again, both on the forum and amongst non forum users.
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On Sat 14 Jul at 10:53am June wrote:
I would like to say I read the article
and thought it was good. What is
all this about stirring up trouble?
The only trouble stirring up is from
the usual Forum cyber bullies!
And the forum is full of them! Hats
off to Emerson! My two teenagers
like the article too! At last a voice!