www.burliegh.org.uk
Christmas 2004 Edition
Welcome
Hello
again! This is the seemingly much-anticipated second issue of The
Whistle-Blower. As you can see, since it's almost Christmas, we've
gone for a festive look.
Also, in case you don't already know, due to the sheer amount of interest and support we've gotten, The Whistle-Blower is going to be published every fortnight starting next year!
In recent weeks there have been examples of members of staff being the victims of car vandalism. On member of staff had the side of his car scratched, whilst another member of staff had their car targeted by vandals. Teachers have a difficult job enough to do as it is. They are over worked, and over stressed. It wouldn’t be acceptable in any other walk of life so why should it be acceptable here.
Vandalism? CUT IT OUT!
6th
form disruption
Ok,
we accept that disruptive yrs 10 and 11 should be removed from their classes
to stop them getting on everyone else’s nerves, but why are they
then just dumped in 6th form classes to continue being disruptive somewhere
else? This just moves the problem on to 6th form students, rather than
removing it. There are plenty of spare classrooms, corridors etc. where
these idiots can be safely stored, out of everybody’s way, where
they don’t have people to annoy. College management, please take
note, it’s just annoying to have disruptive students foisted on
you when you think you’ve left them behind after GCSEs.
Computers; a constant complaint from 6th form, which must be getting annoying by now. We have very little access to school computers, we are told the library computers are there for our use, but very often they are booked out by year 10 and 11 classes, working on job/further educations packages. We are then left with the tedious task of traipsing round all the computer rooms begging IT staff for spaces. It is annoying for us and must be for them also. E140 would be ideal for 6th form to use, but I am told we need adult supervision while in their, do we not count? We do appreciate how accommodating the staff is, but it has reached a ridiculous point.
Following on from this is the constant vandalism of school toilets. We all have to use them at some point in out school life, so it is surprising why such a necessary part of school is a constant target. This has been a constant problem throughout my time here at Burleigh, and it has reached the point of locking toilets and in the case of the K block the only doors in. I fully support the action of staff as using toilets vandalised is digestion and a real problem. But not requiring the toilet is not longer a one minute task. It now takes time to walk to E block and back. The school goes out of its way to provide its students with a good environment, yet people decide to selfishly ruin it for the rest of us. The G block banisters have just been repainted, only to have names scrawled all over them. No wonder the school feels like giving up.
Human? Maybe, school students? Defiantly! The new stance taken is disturbing. NO CARD = NO COMPUTER. Can I just point out that we are only human, and we do forget even the most precious of things. There should be some leeway given to students who have forgotten their card, if genuine. Those who deliberate chose to leave it behind in the morning are well aware by now that they will not be able to use the library. Just maybe the library could see us as students and not the enemy, most of us want to work, and with school being as stressful as it is, we do forget things time to time. The point I am making here is you still have us on file so why can’t you just let us in this one time?
Vending
machines
Those “no
refunds” signs on the vending machines are incorrect, and possibly
illegal. After one machine ate my money a few months ago, I decided enough
was enough, and emailed Trading Standards. They sent back a reply stating
that not the school, but the vending machine company was responsible for
refunding my money if the machine did not dispense my snack.
Therefore I would suggest the following:
Make sure the school knows the machines keep eating cash.
You might want proof that the machine didn’t dispense a snack, so
if one of your mates has a camera phone, get them to take a picture of
the jammed snack.
Realise that you have a right to a refund, as the service you paid good
money for (snack dispensing) was not provided and this is a breach of
contact, so they have to give you a refund.
Email Trading Standards at [email protected]
Spare
some Change?
Along the same theme,
I have noticed the vending machines often do not give out small change
amounts (such as 5p) even when the machine doesn't have the "Exact
amount only" warning displayed. It is understandable that the machine
will run out of change sometimes, but when the message is not shown, you
expect your change! God knows how many 5p's I've lost when buying 45p
items with a 50p piece when no message was shown. Burleigh, take note
and fix this!
The way the staff in Senior Management are talking about ‘lack of funds’ it would seem that the school is struggling to make ends meet.
Or maybe not.
Through the last year extensive work has been carried out to put up an extremely useless fence around the grassy areas in front of E block. Now, to meet health & safety standards this fence must have had a vast amount of money spent for high quality materials and workmanship, money which the school is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE.
How much would it have cost to paint the back wall in G Block hall? How much to get someone patrolling the supposedly ‘6th Form ONLY’ corridor where year 10s and 11s promenade daily? How much for a washing line in the PE department to dry the kits with? How about staff training to deal with anti-social behaviour? The list goes on.
In total: Definitely much less costing than the vast amounts that were spent on that goddamn fence that is SUPPOSED to make the school grounds look half-respectable; and SUPPOSED to stop people walking across the grass. It accomplishes neither, and is nothing but a splinter-dispensing waste of funding.
The
Hotmail Debate
In our last issue, we commented on the
Hotmail situation. We received a lot of feedback especially on this
article, from both sides of the argument. So we thought we'd make ourselves
clear.
We are not opposed to the ban of Hotmail in itself (considering the circumstances around its ban), only the way it was handled. Granted the school wanted to block it as soon as possible, but a significant number of 6th formers don't do ICT and therefore had very little input from teachers as to how to use the EMBC accounts. Maybe if the school had put some basic information in the bulletin prior to the block, students wouldn't have been so annoyed and also been more willing to understand the reasons behind the block.
Merry
Christmas!
Well, that's it until
after the holidays, when we go fortnightly! If you have any comments on
any of the points raised in this issue, then email us: [email protected]
. Remember, if you want these things changed, we need to all get together
and show Burleigh how strongly we feel about it.
Until issue 3 and the new year, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas. Have a good time with your time off!