3 Cheers for Fiona Phillips

Kudos to Fiona Phillips for ‘ranting’ about her former alma mater during a public presentation. Invited back to Millbrook Community School in Southampton the teachers were no doubt expecting the former GMTV anchorwoman to sing the praises of a school celebrating a £16 million rebranding as the Oasis Academy. Instead they got something rather different.

Accusing the school of “crushing her aspirations” and turning her into a criminal Phillips recounted physically abusing teachers, a headteacher who “commanded no respect whatsoever” and having a desire to become a doctor met with “have you considered hairdressing?” - http://tinyurl.com/8rc2sxw 

One can only imagine the cringing of adults and glee of students that took place as Phillips stood before them, successful despite the school rather than due to it. When I saw the reports I sided with the kids and my heart soared. I'm sure the press over emphasised the extent of her 'rant' but Phillips still managed to say what so many of us feel, “MY SCHOOL DAYS SUCKED!” and she was famous enough to have an audience for it.

In England there is a myth that school years are the best days of your life. I have yet to meet anyone who holds this theory true. In my own circumstances I hated my secondary school, Dagenham Priory Comprehensive, with a passion. I was from a poor background, wasn’t into sports and failed to take part in abusing weak members of staff. This pretty much alienated me from all mainstream groups in the school. I played truant regularly but when I returned would catch up on my work. I was never late for class (I would just bunk off instead) and I was never disrespectful to teachers. Most of my school reports said the said thing “could do better if attended more”.  

The nearest I got to a careers discussion was an event in the school hall where 4 or 5 like-minded students sat with a teacher and voiced our aspirations. I showed an interest in joining the army, logistics in particular as I enjoyed mathematical and analytical work. And so it was I found myself sat, with 3 other wannabe squaddies and an adult who didn’t seemed to have a clue, in a noisy hall with dozens of other kids trying to ask their clueless adults questions that would decide their career path. My lasting memory of that experience is the teacher continually going on about my weight (I have always been overweight) and how the army would not be suitable for me. No mention of how we might remedy the situation, no question of discussing fitness with the PE teacher, just the humiliation of being shot down in front of classmates.

I never did join the army and my apathy towards school grew uncurtailed. As soon as I was 16 I left Dagenham Priory without even bothering to sit my exams, a fact that irritated the head of year, who rang my mother to request payment for seven exams I had failed to attend. An explanation that I had neither asked to be entered for exams nor was aware that I had been entered did not seem to impress and it is testimony to the school’s incompetence that some months later they wrote to me to tell me my exam certificates were ready for collection!

 
Since leaving Dagenham Priory in 1984 I have been unemployed for five weeks. I have attended college and university, earned business and legal qualifications and I am the proud holder of a law degree; I have worked with car washers and CEOs; I have eaten cold chips in a car park at 2am and dined on finest cuisine in restaurants I can never afford personally. In short, I have had the best time of life. I will never be invited to speak at Dagenham Priory but be under no illusion I got my education despite my school, not thanks to it. And I’m proud to have that in common with Fiona Phillips.