We’re not the weirdos!
“This is an age of dyschronia, where everyone feels they belong in their own anomaly. They are at home in absurdity. And yet, to question this absurdity is to become absurd.” - Rob Davis, The Book of Forks.
Since lockdown ended, our schools in Doncaster and Gateshead have hosted over a thousand visitors from all over the world. All three schools are the most oversubscribed schools in the north of England. We haven’t permanently excluded a single child since our first year of opening.
We have the same problems as other schools; hiring the right staff, training staff well, developing leadership, and we don’t always get things right. Things go wrong and we own these problems and try to fix them as best we can.
We knew that when we emerged that we would be treated as outsiders, anomalies, weirdos even. How dare they allow their kids to not wear uniform! There will be total chaos! Being kind to kids? How radical! It will never work…and when there is not chaos and it does work, this threatens people’s perception of reality.
This is how weird we are…
We teach kids how to make things.
We show kids how to be kind to each other.
We give kids opportunities to change their world and make it better.
This is what I think is absurd…
Teaching kids just to be able to pass standardised tests.
Believing a school is one word and one number.
Limiting our children’s life chances at 11 and 16
We’re not the weirdos.
When I stand there alongside my son, who I am proud to say has had a decent experience at our school, and he picks up his GCSE results and stares at the numbers, and he looks at me…
…he knows what is absurd.
I asked five other kids how they did in their exams, and weirdly enough, they said exactly the same thing my boy said to me… “I’ve got what I needed, so, yeah…”
…they know what is absurd.
When the adults in power have a mind to look about them and not accept their normality as being ok, and able to question the absurdity we find ourselves in, only then will we stop living in this madness and truly be in service to our children.
Thank you to all the adults and children that have worked so hard together through this absurdity to get them what they needed in this world right now.
Hopefully in the near future, we can all work together to make this world less absurd and more real and truly educate our children.
“Just because you get used to something doesn’t make it right” - Rob Davis, The Book of Forks.